Tom Slocum moved from aggressive selling to a help-first approach in technical sales. He uses a four-step framework: Connect, Give, Ask, Release, delivering value through video and educational content for 3-4 touches before asking for a meeting. He landed a six-figure deal by offering genuine assistance instead of pushing.
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Elise, great question. Can you share examples of how you've stopped selling and started helping? It's been my whole journey. I used to be the spray and pray sales guy. I will vouch for it. I will say that I have grown and I have developed, and I used to just be the gung-ho, crank it out, call everybody, you know, not be personal and just sell, right? And then about, you know, 5 years ago, I kind of started understanding the concept of building real relationships and going out to market with a help mentality of just, here, I'm here to help you. So I had that with a client back at my last company of 2 years, a woman who kept pushing me off. I was selling to her a little bit hard, kind of being aggressive in a campaign with quite a few emails, and she kind of, you know, told me off in an email. I picked up the phone right away, left her a quick voicemail, and she called me back. And we got to talking about, you know, why my outreach was the way it was. I said, hey, can you just provide me some feedback, right? I don't want to bother you anymore, but I understand that this process didn't work really well. You know, what do you have for me? And she was open to give me some feedback. And, uh, I reached back, you know, telling her I was here to help. This is why I was reaching out. Again, I had my research. I knew why I was actually reaching out so I could kind of pushed back on her a little bit, and I showed her a customer success story of somebody just like her that was really pushing back on me, didn't want to work with me. And within, you know, a couple weeks, we made an appointment, they got our product, um, and what that outcome looked like. And so I just came with a help mentality, um, let her know that there was nothing here but just honestly trying to make her a hero in her own journey. And it led to a 6-figure deal, um, for a major logo. With the company, it was the first big deal. Took a little bit of friction to get to, but once I just kind of let my guard down of stop pushing her and just let her know, hey, this is why I was reaching out, be human to human and just pick up that phone to have that convo, we were able to find that win there and it led to a 6-figure deal for the company. So that's just one example of knowing when to quit on somebody and kind of reach out. And, you know, be a little bit more human in why you're reaching out there. Best ways reps can sell via helping when it's a highly technical sale? Great question. Technical sale is a little bit different and how you can help in that is by giving them— so I used to work in technical SEO, schema, AMP, all of that, right, where it was a very high technical sale that I had to connect with somebody who actually understood some of that stuff in the background, kinda hard to get the role identified, the ICP. But when you sell that way, you can actually, I used video. So I would show them through helping on video prospecting. So I would dive into Vineyard, Loom, Drift, do a quick video of screen sharing with their LinkedIn, starting there, and then walking them through how I can help them in the technical side. Because trying to convey it over words in an email or a phone call, Could be a little tougher, but if you could visually show them and give them a quick tip. So I'd reach out to them, show them their schema test, show them like 2 hacks that they could do today that would improve some of the errors they were having, and then, you know, try to lead with, hey, you know, would you be able to talk a little bit more about this and I could show you an entire overhaul to fixing your SEO? But it was a way to help them. I would share them a quick tidbit on where they were broken. Give them a quick couple tips and then try to bait into, you know, getting more out of them and see if it was of interest to them. So when you're coming from a technical sale, you can do it by helping them either understand the industry, maybe they're broken, you can send them an educational PDF and say, here's 5 common words in the technical sale that most people don't know, you know, and how you could improve these things today. So you could build layers of education with them and help them and let them become domain experts Um, or show them, you know, hidden little gems that you've discovered that they most might not know about. I hope that helps. Um, on average, how many free pieces of content do you share before closing? That was asked by Albin. Um, I will usually— so the way that I'll build a sequence is connect, give, ask, release. In my sequences. So the very first chunk of my sequencing is about connecting, getting to know them, going on their social, right, making some type of connection there. And then I go into giving, which is around 3 to 4 pieces of content. I'll do that through LinkedIn by sharing them maybe a post, because again, I'm in their circle, I'm following their, their group of people. So I might share with them a quick poll or a LinkedIn piece of content that might make sense for them. Again, I'll drop a PDF to them, but be very specific on why I'm giving them the PDF. Hey, check this out, Tom, here's a quick PDF. Don't worry about the big part of it, just check out page 2. You'll see in paragraph 2, I think there's some real meat and potatoes for you to look at. I'll reach back out to you and see what your thoughts are, and I'll drive that. But I try to give a few different things for them because again, it's like an ATM. You cannot withdraw if there's no money in there, right? So I try to deposit and deposit a few times and then come in with the ask. And most of my first emails are, what are your thoughts on this? Is this of a priority for you? I'm not even asking for a meeting in those first 3 to 4 touches. It's more about giving and just kind of understanding where they are based on the research I've done. And then I'll come in with that ask around 5 or 6 touch. So video or slideshow education or overview, then layer into more or into discovery. Yep. Yeah, Norm. Yep. So I would do, you know, a slideshow education piece, a video, and then layer, you know, more into that discovery, right? Get them baited into wanting to know more, educating them in some type of overview to where they can, you know, understand that high technical sale. Trying to convey that in an email and a phone call can be kind of tough. People don't have 15 minutes to sit with you just to understand your space or get you caught up on what you're trying to sell to them. So that's where you could do it in these micro pieces of information and giving over a course of time to kind of get them up, up to speed to where you are. And then along that way, probably create problems for them. It's like product-led growth, right? You're giving them pieces of content that lets them feel what you can do for them. You're educating them, you're helping them, and then you're, you know, obviously trying to get more from them. So when you do that through overlaid video or slideshow and kind of walk them through it, And a quick video, you know, it'll help them get up to speed, and then you can go in for your ask. Yes, 4-step. Yep. So I would connect, drop a couple pieces of information, and then go in for your ask, and then probably go in there with a video, right? And say, hey, might have dropped the ball on what I've been asking. I just wanted to show you a quick video on why I'm reaching out, why it even makes sense for us to talk. Here I can see, you know, in this high technical sale, right, here's some triggers that I've noticed. This is why I'm reaching out to you. Also, it could be I've been speaking with others just like you in the last like 4 weeks and it's kind of become a hot topic. So I just wanted to show you your current situation that I can see here or what you're probably seeing and then guide them through that and then show them like a tip or 2 that's not gonna cost you anything if you give it to them that they can, you know, get a quick win with you. And then they're like, oh man, thanks so much, Norm. That was an incredible video. I made those adjustments you said and it actually worked. Yeah, I have 30 minutes next week if you'd love to talk about this more, right? And now you build on that and now you've kind of done a product-led growth with giving, educating, and then coming in for your ask.
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