Language and Tone Increase Close Rates with Mor Assouline

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Welcome to the live Better Sell Better podcast with your host, Kevin Dorsey of Inside Sales Excellence, the number one Patreon group and YouTube channel for tech sellers and tech sales leaders where we dive in deep for tactical advice on how to book more meetings, close more deals faster and lead sales teams to success. But we don't stop there. We also focus on the person in salesperson. We talk about mindset goals, time management and so much more. So thank you for listening and if you're interested, head on over to patreon.com InsideSalesExcellence now with that, grab a notepad, get ready and let's dive into the good stuff. But first, a quick shout out to today's sponsor, Vidyard. If you aren't using video in your sales process, I promise you, you are leaving money on the table. I personally have been using Vidyard with my teams for years now and we use it everywhere. Top a funnel to book more meetings via email and LinkedIn. Middle of funnel to improve show rates, to demos, host demos to do proposals and follow up and close deals faster. Using video allows you to connect better with your prospects, bring your personality, energy and enthusiasm across off every single time and they have a much more impactful and memorable experience for your buyer. So again, if you're not using video, you need to be. And if you are using video, you should be using Vidyard. Check out vidyard@vidyard.com and with that, let's get back to the show.

What up everybody? Welcome to another episode of the live Better Sell Better podcast. This is your host, Kevin Dorsey, AKA kd. And today we are going to talk about the magic of the demo. Because when you look at what's happening on LinkedIn and on the space and the influencers, there's always talk about prospecting, there's always talk about discovery and qualifying. When it comes to the actual art and science of running a world class demo, there's actually not a lot of information out there and that's why I'm so pumped to have more. Aselin on the call today, the founder of From Demo to Close to talk about how to run a demo. How do you get someone interested in what you want? How do you get them to start the buying process to go to a much higher close rate? So we're going to dive into tone, we're going to dive into questions, the demo itself and show you how to close more deals more.

My man.

Welcome to the show.

Thanks Katie, I appreciate it. Loving on here. Let's go baby.

I'M ready for this. So, you know, my style is very similar to yours. No fluff, no backstories, no. How did you get into sales? Let's talk about the demo, right? Because this is where we work so hard to get someone to it and then all of a sudden it just turns into a feature dump backstories, logos. So let's start with what the things you've seen that people do wrong in the demos. What are some of the most common errors you're seeing? And then we'll start getting into what to do about it.

Yeah, I always default to the immediate answer of lack of discovery or very shallow discovery. So they'll ask maybe a question like, what's the reason that you're. And I always bring this example because that's the question you should be asking on every demo. But what's the reason you've scheduled the demo? Let's assume for a minute it was an inbound lead, because it depends if it's coming from outbound or inbound. But let's assume it's inbound motion and they scheduled a demo. So Pro AE asked the prospect, what's the reason that you scheduled a demo? Prospect says, yeah, we're looking to improve our current system. We want to look for a more robust system. And AE goes on to the next question, and that's called shallow discovery. What does that even mean, robust system and easy to use system? Dig. And they don't dig enough. And I don't know if they don't dig enough because they feel like they're imposing or two, they feel like that's enough of information. A lot of times they feel like they are imposing. They feel like they are interrogating. Because I asked them, how come you didn't dig enough? And they're like, yeah, I don't want to bother them with more questions. And so I think that's one of the reasons.

Okay, so let's keep going down that path there. Right. So then how can an AE or SDR maybe, if they were the ones running the disco call, how can they set the stage to be able to ask more of these questions and to be able to dig a little bit deeper without it feeling like an interrogation?

Yeah. So I think sort of like what we're doing, right, we're just having conversation, and then I gave you an answer, and then you're like, all right, let's dig into that a little bit. You're doing discovery on me right now. And I. The mistake that AES make is like they'll ask A question, they'll get the answer, and then they'll move on straight to the next question. They don't. Don't even, like, acknowledge what they just heard. So a trick to do this is sort of like, acknowledge what you heard from the prospect. So if the prospect said, yeah, we're looking to. The reason why I booked a demo is because we're looking to get. Have a more robust system. So, like, how to dig there? Be, like. When you say more robust system, how do you mean? So repeat back what the prospect said and then just follow it up with a question.

Yeah, I like that. One of the things that we worked on a lot with our closers was like, acknowledge and ask more.

Right?

Like, oh, robust. I like that. Tell me a little bit more. What does that mean? Like, go. Go deeper in that. I haven't heard that before. And just letting them go a little bit more in discovery.

Yeah. One thing I noticed that, and I have, like, I'm 50, 50 on this, whether I like it or I don't like it. But when the demo, like I say demo, because I think every demo should have a discovery. But the AE will say something like, all right, I have. They'll set the agenda for the call. They'll set the stage for the call. And then they'll say something like, all right, I have some questions I want to ask you. I don't know if I like it or I don't like it. Because the moment you say that, it then becomes an interrogation versus, like, small talk. Small talk. And be like, by the way, what's the. Like, just throw in, like, a by the way. Like, I. By the way, I noticed that blank. How did you, you know, hear about us? And then they give you, like, naturally transition into the conversation with your questions. Don't even tell me you're about to ask questions. Just naturally do it. That if you notice people that are really good networkers, they don't go to a networking event or meet a student, like, all right, I have questions to ask you. They just sort of strike a conversation. Like, I remember I went to an event once, and the person. So I'm Jewish, and it was like a holiday. And so the person that was leading the services was singing a tune of the prayer, but it was a tune that not many people knew about. And afterwards, I didn't know this person. I came up to him, I was like, by the way, was that tune this particular singer? He's like, yeah, like, oh, I love that singer. Did you hear? And I just went straight into the discovery side. And we stayed in touch, connected on Instagram. We became good friends. So just naturally going into it and stop thinking about it as, like, I need to ask these questions, just have conversation. Yeah.

Because I do like it in Discovery as long as it's done for the right reasons. Right. Because I do think it's important to set the stage a little bit of, like, what's about to happen, but it's connecting the dots on why they benefit from you asking the questions. Right. So it's not just, I have a couple of questions to ask you. Would that be okay? It's like, hey, I have a few questions to ask you to make sure we're not covering things that don't matter, to make sure we're not wasting your time or that we're not going down a path that isn't relevant. Would that be okay? And now you have permission to ask those questions. Right. So they don't. Because also, too, in disco, like, I might be sitting there like, I just want to know price. I just want no price. I just want to know price. Whereas if I've given permission. All right, well, yeah, go ahead and ask a few questions now. I can. And you can guide it along the way there.

Yeah, that's the other 50, 50% side of me where I like, I'm like, I'm okay with setting up the stage by saying I have questions if it's relevant, like you just said. Yeah. So I'm always down the middle with that. But yeah, I mean, the trick is like, to remove the interrogation side of it is just instead of jumping to the next question after you've got your answer, like, it's very. It's sort of like a selfish thing, like, you got what you wanted, now you're getting. You keep taking and taking and taking and so providing some sort of feedback to that prospect after you get the answer and then moving on to your next question.

I like that. And I think. And that's where, you know. So a lot of reps miss in discovery, for sure. They just completely miss it. But also, too, the next thing I see a lot, and I'd love your feedback on, is even if they did good discovery, they don't use it. It's like they asked the questions and then it gets into the demo and then nothing. So, like, how should they be using the information they learned in discovery in the demo?

Yeah. So, yeah, I've seen that happen a lot where I've told an ae, ask about who else they're evaluating as far as competitor Wise and then justify your question to let them know that. This way you can compare and contrast for them. But they never did on the demo. And then I called them out. They. I'm like, you're a liar. Then you. You should lie to them. But going back to your question. So there are three questions I think are extremely important to find out before you even get started with a demo. It's the why, it's the goals and it's the timeline. So the why would be like, hey, Kevin, I saw that you schedule a demo. Curious. What's the reason you decide to schedule a demo? I'm looking for your. Usually when I ask the what's the reason? Question, I'm getting a pain point, slash challenge response. Yeah, we don't. We're using this. We don't like it. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, whatever. Let's assume now I get the answer to the why question. The next question after I find out the challenges, your. Your expectations, your goals. So, hey, Kevin, if you were to choose whether it's us, whether it's Patient Pop, whether it's another competitor, what would success look like to you in the first 90 days? That usually gets me to get the prospect to talk about their goals and their aspirations and what they want, not necessarily what they need or what they want to solve, but which what they want. And then, so now I have challenges and I have their. And I have their go goals. The next question I need to find out is the timeline question. Like, are they looking to accomplish this next year, next six months? What is it? So I'll say something like, hey, Kevin, so it sounds like what you're trying to do is you're currently losing money using XYZ software and you're spending about four hours a month. And what you'd like to get to is only work an hour a month and be able to work on blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, Right? And you'll say, yes. Okay, so when would you like to accomplish that by? And then that usually gives me the timeline question where it's like, well, you need this yesterday or we need this next quarter or we need this next month. Next month as in the 31st or as in the 15th. And then I'll feel more comfortable going into the demo. Obviously there are a lot more questions, but when I go into the demo and before I talk about a feature, I won't just present the feature as like, all right, let me show you this feature. I'll weave all leverage what I've learned from disco to present the feature so I'll say something like, Kevin, you mentioned earlier that one of the things that you're spending a lot of time with every month is manually typing in the hours for everybody on the CRM. So one thing that I think will help you save about 2 hours a month is the ability to do XYZ. Then I'll start talking about the feature. So the time in which you should use disco throughout the demo is before you present a feature, call out what you've heard from them and then bring up the actual feature.

Yes, and I think that's so important. I want to get super tactical here real quick because one, I want people that are listening right now. I want you to go back and listen. How he can't even help but do clarifying questions even while he's role playing. Did you all catch that? He says, oh, like next month. Oh, by next month do you mean, like, it's just so immediate for you.

Right?

Like the clarifying questions, which I love. Now, how do you remember to do this? Or how do you remember to bring these things back up? Because I think people miss on this often. It's like, hey, you asked the question, how are you remembering to connect the dots? Or how are you bringing that back up into the demo?

Yeah, so I mean, this isn't a hack because the real way to remember anything is pre and post demo repetition. So, like, how do you. Like I used to play basketball in high school on varsity. Like, how would I remember to do a certain move? I wouldn't remember to do it on the spot. I'd remember it by watching gameplay footage or going back to the. So the only way to remember is to practice after the call and then before the call. So role playing before the call, after call. If you do this enough time, you're. We're. We're practicing is just like waking up and brushing your teeth. It's just sort of a routine. It, you'll naturally just remember. Um, I mean, one of the things went like, if you were to join. Even if I were to join a company now and do demos, I'd probably tank. I wouldn't do the demos the way I'm preaching it, because there's a learning curve. So the way I would remember things to remind myself, like, oh, make sure to ask this. I was taking a little sticky note. And then just like very small, like, like big letters, but like very few letters, put it on my computer screen and hopefully I'll remember to look at it. But otherwise there is no hack to remember it, in my opinion. I think the way to do it is just practice enough times where it becomes second nature.

Yeah, no, for sure. And I think. And that's the confidence to do it. I will give a little hack here. And salespeople aren't going to like this hack, but it actually works. Take notes, y'. All, take notes, but keep them in front of them. And what I teach my team is called the T method. Right. So you draw like a T on a piece of paper. On the left side, you're writing down what they said. On the right side, you're tracking how often you can bring it back up. Right? So someone says that, like, yeah, like, dude, we're wasting two hours. You write down wasting two hours, and then you keep track. How many times can you bring back up wasting two hours on that demo? But we trust our memories in sales too much. Yeah, right. Because let's be honest, salespeople, when we're asking these questions, are we always listening or are we, like, asking the questions, but we're thinking about what we're going to ask next? So take notes on these calls, too.

Yeah. You know something? When I used to interview AES, one of the criteria for them to even be considered for the role is how fast they type. So I would do a typing test. And the reason why it was so important, because I want them to be able to listen and type at the same time and not look at the keyboard. It's so, like, when I'm listening to a call, I will write down not only, like, what you say, but how you say it. So, like, Kevin sounded frustrated, whatever it is, Right? Like when he said this. So typing fast is really important. Going to your point. Yeah, I guess that is a hack to keep the notes. So I'll usually have, like, obviously have two screens, and on one screen, I have my CRM open with the note section opened up. And I have. If you're using a HubSpot, let's say HubSpot has a feature called snippets where you can save. You can say, like, hashtag D is like a keyword, key keyword that you can save. And you click hashtag D, it'll populate all your questions that you've. That you've created before. And so that's an easy way to not have to type up all the questions in advance and then always have that notepad open. I think where AES freak out or they like what you said, they forget is they feel they don't have control. They don't feel comfortable, like, with silence, like they're, like, just jumping onto next thing. So, like, I've been on a call where I had. I wanted to, like, ask the prospect something. And because I was, like, confident on the call, like, kevin, I wanted to ask you something. What was it? Like, I'll feel comfortable in that moment, and I'll look up the question, like, ah, there it is. That's what I wanted to ask you. Then I'll ask that question.

It's so crucial there. And, like, again, these are tactics, y', all, that I want you to listen. Not just what he's saying, but also what he has. He has his questions ready. He has them in front of him. Right. This isn't like a. Oh, you get no bonus points for not using your script or checklist on a call. You get no bonus points for that. No one's like, oh, great job. You didn't have your questions in front of. You have them ready, y'.

All.

And you can hear it in his voice. You can say, okay, great. You know what? I think we have what we have here. Let me double. Oh, I totally forgot to ask you, like, when are you hoping to get this done?

Yeah.

And so one of the things, though, that I want us pivot to now that I hope people are listening to is our tone. Right?

So even being able to ask, like.

Oh, wait, I totally forgot. More like, what are we doing here? The tone lets you get away with that a little bit. And right before we hit record, you already talked about tone, which I think is so important. Let's bring this up now, like, the tone through discovery and demo. What are some of the things that you teach or coach people on around tone?

Yeah. So tone, like, one thing I say about tone is, like, what is it? So if you were to type up an email, let's say, and you wanted to, like, emphasize certain words, like free or, like, only, what would you do? You would bold the word only. You would underline free. Like, you would create contrast in the email and the words. And so tone of voice is. Tonality is the exact same thing, except you're not writing, you're talking. And so tonality provides contrast in what you're saying. And so there, like, the framework for tone of voice. It's tone of. It's the tone of voice, which is what I call, like, voice sentiment, which is, like, your emphasis. So, like you said, I. Oh, I forgot to ask you that. Role play. Well, I forgot to ask you that. That sentiment was like, oh, shit, I forgot. Like, hold on. It was a certain feeling that I Felt pace of speech. That's how fast or slow you're saying the words. So you could say something like an example. If you're able to migrate someone's data in just 10 minutes, you can see the word in just 10 minutes, either really fast to show that it's quick or really slow. So, hey, Kevin, if you sign up with patient pop today, we'd be able to migrate your data in just 10 minutes. I slowed down the words in just 10 minutes. Then the last part of the framework is fluctuation of voice. So that's your high or low pitch. So, like, the perfect. I do this every time. We'll do a little experiment. I do this in my workshop. I want you to say the word like tiny. Just, like, say it.

Tiny.

Okay, Now I want you to say it again, but before you say it, I want you to, like, envision in your head what tiny actually looks like. Like, visualize it and then say it again.

Tiny.

All right, so if you were to close your eyes and listen to that, your. You said it the first time. Tiny. The second time, you said it was tiny. And, like, when I do this in the workshop, I have everyone. They go like, this. Tiny. And everybody's like, eyes squint, their fingers go do the same thing. Huge. Huge. And then now visualize it.

Huge.

Eyebrows go up. Eyes widen up. And so these are three things that you can play with when you're talking about tone of voice. The easiest way to do it is just to get animated. Use your hands. That's why keeping video on is so important.

I didn't realize that sales. There are still sales reps not having their video on.

Funny story, I didn't keep it on for years. I was like, no, it's stupid. People are gonna judge me. I look too young. They're not gonna like how I look, whatever it is. So I made assumptions. And then I saw the data out there. I'm like, you know what? Let me just test it out. And it's. Yeah. I'll never go back to not having video.

Yeah.

Like, again, hack, y'.

All, turn your video on. Dress up. Turn your video on. All you need is a white wall behind you. Like, if you have to reorg the room to make sure you have a What? Like, but be on video. Because, again, tone, right? Like, we forget about this. Tone is everything digitally because you don't get body language as much. If you can give some body language, they can see your hands, your eyes, that you're smiling, all of that. It really carries weight right now. Let's go one step lower. Here then too is like, are there places where you're using tone intentionally? Right. So there. Are there places where you're like, I slow down here on purpose. Or when I'm talking about pricing, I use a certain tone. Or when I'm talking about features, like, where do you apply the tone?

Yeah. So for me at least, tone comes off very naturally. I think it comes out very naturally for you. When you were like, oh, yeah, I almost forgot, like, you role played that that was a very natural thing that you did. Even what I just said, that was a very natural thing that I did. I said, that's a very natural thing that I did. So I don't think about it really. But you see that word? I said the word but and I emphasized but. Yeah, it's sort of second nature. Yeah. So it's hard for me to answer that one. But if you're, I guess, like a hack for someone that it doesn't come off naturally, then if there are punchlines in what you want to say. So maybe it's a feature that has a punchline. If it's. Let's just say you're able to migrate data in just 10 minutes and that's like a punchline for you, then that's where you should emphasize. So if I were an AE listening to this episode or a sales manager, VP of sales, make a list of your punchlines for your features. Make a list of your punchline for your customer. Whatever it is that you want to drive home that is really important that makes you different as a software. And then that's where you should emphasize it. I like that.

Okay, perfect. And so now let's then transition into the actual running of a demo. And you touched on a little bit towards the beginning. I want to really dive into this now. So I've done good discovery, I've taken notes, I've practiced enough so my tone can be natural in the right moment.