1. PLANNING and HAVING CUSTOMER
CONVERSATIONS
March 7th, 2012
Andrew Rudin,
Managing Principal, Outside Technologies, Inc.
Certified Social Media Strategist
www.outsidetechnologies.com
703.371.1242 (mobile)
arudin@outsidetechnologies.com
www.xeeme.com/andyrudin

2. Who is our facilitator,
and why is he here?
Andy Rudin
• 20 + years B2B sales experience in
commercial, government, non-profit
• Focus on sales strategy & execution
• Work with technology companies
• MS in management information technology
from University of Virginia
• Certified Social Media Strategist (2010)

3. Key Problems to Solve
How to discover information that matters, and
how to use it to produce outcomes that are
valuable for you and for your customer.

4. What this workshop is—and isn’t
Is:
• an interactive forum to share ideas and best
practices to help advance your business goals
• A set of frameworks you don’t have to
memorize, and that you can use repeatedly in
a wide range of situations
Isn’t:
• a tutorial that’s designed to turn everyone
into sales pros
• A set of recommendations that will
undermine what you already do well
• Proprietary shelf-ware

5. Customers

6. + Engagement

7. Today’s Roadmap

8. Part 1
• The differences between known’s, unknown’s, and assumptions—and why
each is important
• Risk Management 101, and why it matters for your sales activities and to
your company
• Risks and opportunities: the key categories of facts and information that
every salesperson must uncover during the sales process
• The Porter’s Five Forces Model and how to use it for sales discovery
• Your intent, and how to establish a “foundation of trust”
• Conversation points that resonate, differentiate, and substantiate
• Lead qualification, part A, to find the best prospects for sales engagement
• Call readiness checklist

9. Part 2
• How to assess risk appetite both for you and your prospective customers
• Lead qualification, Part B
• How to define problems through questioning and discovery
• How to expose capability gaps in your prospect’s business operations
• The best questions to ask in specific selling situations, and how to develop
your own favorites
• How to embed questions into effective conversations
• Best practices for asking questions during sales conversations
• Five to do’s before ending the call
• Asking for commitment—belief, care, and act
• Common selling myths, debunked

10. Part 3
•Nurturing interest and conversations after the call
•Providing value and eliminating friction: integrating the buying and
selling process
•Reciprocal expectations for following through on commitments
•Ensuring ongoing interest and interaction

11. Part 1

12. Hi Vikram:
I am the new Vice President of Global Business Development at AccuStart
Engineers, and my company has initiated a project to explore additional sales
opportunities offshore.
We are considering some emerging markets, and after reviewing your
website, we think it would be beneficial to set up a meeting to learn more.
We plan to expand our international presence as early as next quarter, and we
will be refining our search over the next few weeks. AccuStart Engineers will
conduct a thorough evaluation based on a set of criteria we have formulated.
Can you provide us with details about your programs and about doing business
in Saudi Arabia? Also, if you have some references we can contact, that would
be most helpful.
Best,
Ken Thomas,
VP Global Business Development, AccuStart Engineers

13. 1-minute Exercise:
Write down the first three questions
that come to mind.
Note: there are no “right” or “wrong”
questions.

14. Knowns
Unknowns
Assumptions

15. 5-minute Exercise:
When you begin your first sales
conversation,
Which assumptions do you have?
What’s typically known?
What’s typically unknown?

16. Risk Management 101
• Eliminate
• Reduce
• Share
• Transfer
• Accept
Likelihood
Impact

17. Opportunities and Risks
for salespeople
Trust and Rapport
• Build rapport
• Build trust
• Be credible
• Listen and understand
• Be transparent (open)
Accessibility
• Build community (reach)
• Be approachable (findable)
• Connect with individuals (engagement)
Value
• Be valuable
• Advocate, persuade, and enable others to do so
• Be current (information flow)
• Be clear
• Be different
• Appeal to ego and emotion

18. Categories of Questions to ask
1. Qualification
2. Situation (consequence/impact)
3. Networking
4. Attitude/sentiment
5. Validation
6. Vision

19. What Keeps Prospects up at Night?
Source: Strategy and the Internet - Porter

20. 10-minute Exercise:
1. divide into two groups
2. pick a single account or company that everyone
knows
3. Figure out where the power is in the value chain.
4. Figure out which forces are exerting pressure on that
power (reinforcing or threatening).
5. Figure out which forces are influencing the
competitive landscape (substitute products, competitive
barriers-to-entry)

21. Foundation of trust
--begins before the first conversation
•Intent
• Transparency
• Shared values, objectives and goals
• Empathy
• Meaningful questions
• Reflective, insightful dialog
• Be personal, plainspoken, positive, plausible
• Worldview

22. Conversation Points
Conversation point Example
Resonate “Companies that don’t find customers outside
the United States will face constrained growth
in our domestic markets.”
Differentiate “We are the only trade organization that
focuses on the largest and fastest growing
market in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia.”
Substantiate “One of our clients, (name of company in
similar market), gained a contract worth ($X)
directly through participation in our trade
mission last year.”

23. Conversation points
Resonate Differentiate Substantiate Outcome
Resonate X X “Lots of
people are
calling us
about this.”
Resonate Differentiate X “There’s too
much risk!”
Resonate X Substantiate “Send me your
brochure
and/or pricing,
and we’ll get
back to you.”
X Differentiate Substantiate “Great , but
that’s not us.”
X X Substantiate Not really
listening

24. Qualification
“4 Green Lights”
Question 1: Can my company as Producer and my target company as Consumer
generate mutually beneficial value?
Question 2: Am I going to waste my time?
Solution fit: Does my prospect seek an outcome that can be enabled with my
product or service?
Access: Can I get access to the people who can enable me to achieve the outcome
I want?
Financial resources: Does my prospect have the resources (money/time/people)
to purchase and implement my solution?
Expected timeframe: Does my prospect plan to purchase my product or service in
a timeframe that is within my operating horizon?

25. Phone Call Readiness checklist
1. Name. Have the person’s name and company name—and correct
pronunciations—written down in front of you
2. Facts. For the individual you are planning to speak with, know at
least three facts each about his or her industry, company, and
them personally
3. Visualization. Visualize who you’re calling, where they are, what’s
on their calendar, what matters they might be dealing with right
now . . .
4. Hypothesis. about at least one of their strategic concerns that you
can help them solve—based on the facts in #2 above.
5. Conversation points. What you must convey to
resonate, differentiate, substantiate
6. Outcome. What do you want from the call, including immediate
next step?
7. “Plan B.” What to do if the conversation doesn’t proceed along
the “happy path.”
8. Key facts. What must be discovered? Know what you need to
know.

26. Break!

27. Part 2
• How to assess risk appetite both for you and your prospective customers
• Lead qualification, part B
• How to define problems through questioning and discovery
• How to expose capability gaps in your prospect’s business operations
• The best questions to ask in specific selling situations, and how to develop
your own favorites
• How to embed questions into effective conversations
• Best practices for asking questions during sales conversations
• Five to do’s before ending the call
• Asking for commitment—belief, care, and act
• Common selling myths, debunked

28. Risk Appetite
• CFO decision
• What do I get? When do I
get it? How certain are the
answers to those questions?
• Nobody wants risk, but it’s
a business fact of life
• Risk for taking projects, and
for not taking them
• Use risk for competitive
advantage
• What typifies the industry?

29. Lead qualification—Part B
Second-level qualification risks (in plain
English, “What caused my last opportunity to
tank?”)
• Implementation resources, operational
capability, bias, certifications, size, sector, known sales activities in the
Middle East.
Resources requested—Trade off question
Resources given—time and access
Red Flags—withheld information, etc.
Organizational will
Change-induced—new points of
contact, event “triggers”

30. How to define problems
People need water.
Is access to water a human right?
Is it exploitative for companies to
profit from people who require basic
necessities, such as water, to live?
How do we get water to people who
need it?

31. How to Discover Capability Gaps
As Is
To Be
gap
Projects, Prioritized
Projects 1.
2.

32. 10 Good Strategic questions
1. What are the major forces driving changes in your business?
2. What are the key capabilities and resources required to execute strategy
and achieve your goals?
3. In order to execute your business strategy, what are the key things you
must do well?
4. What proprietary advantages must your company create for your
strategy to be successful?
5. What are the most valuable outcomes your organization enables for your
customers?
6. What conditions have the most disruptive impact on your business
now, and will have in the future?
7. What are the greatest opportunities for your company to change the
basis of competition in your industry?
8. How might these impact barriers to entry? Switching costs? Relationships
in your value chain? Product differentiation?
9. How sustainable is your market position and the business model needed
to achieve and support that position?
10. What are your options for growing your business in the future?

33. How to embed questions into
conversations
Trust your instincts!
“Telling is not selling,” but neither is interrogation.
Some useful habits:
• Restate answers as you heard them
• Ask for help in clarifying and validating
• “Triangulate” the problem
• Connect answers or desired outcomes/results with something
that you do or provide, but make sure you’re on the target
• When applicable, always mention a related customer
challenge, and the role you played in solving it

34. Best practices for asking questions
1. Bring great curiosity to your
conversations
2. Don’t assume you know the answers
before you ask your question
3. Endeavor to see the world through your
customer’s eyes
4. Listen for unexpected answers
5. Have the agility to pursue a different
pathway
6. Dig beyond the “most plausible” answer.

35. 5 to-do’s before ending the call
1. Look at the person’s name on your
screen or notepad, and use it.
2. Thank them for their time, and remind
them how helpful you found the
information that they shared.
3. Summarize the key points you heard.
4. Remind them of what you’re going to do,
AND what you’re expecting, and WHEN.
Note: this is not one-sided.
5. Confirm the next step, including WHEN.

36. Commitment has more than one step
Believe 
Care 
Act

37. Common Selling Myths--debunked
• It’s important to know everything you can about your
prospect.
• It’s always best to start a sales conversation by uncovering
the customer’s pain.
• Following “trigger events” will help you know the best
time to contact a prospect.
• Prospects are busy these days, and they don’t have time to
talk to salespeople.
• CXO’s don’t want to talk to salespeople, they want to talk
to other CXO’s.
• Customers have all the information power anyway.
* But each of these has a shred of truth . . .

38. Break!

39. Part 3
•Nurturing interest and conversations after the
call
•Providing value and eliminating friction:
integrating the buying and selling process
•Reciprocal expectations for following through on
commitments
•Ensuring ongoing interest and interaction

40. Nurturing Interest and
conversations after the call
Rule #1: You are not ‘just following up’!
Rule #2: You are valuable, and you must live up to it!
Rule #3: Be confident. If you have provided a
requested resource, you have earned the conversation.
1. Review your conversation notes, and match to company
and competitor news and announcements. This reminds
your prospect that you are tracking developments.
2. Follow social media, including Facebook and Twitter for
fast-breaking information.
3. Set up Alerts and RSS feeds, and monitor them regularly.
4. Ask and tell.

41. Providing value and eliminating friction
1. Think about how your prospect buys. Which “networks” do they use?
What information is most valuable? Which steps do they go through?
Which outcomes (results) are they seeking?
2. Match the resources and steps item-for-item
3. Consider eliminating any resources and steps that are not useful to your
prospects.
4. Learn from past activities and experiment frequently.

42. Reciprocal expectations . . .
Or, ask not just ‘what can I do for my prospect?’
ask ‘what can my prospect do for me?’
1. You offer value, including
time, expertise, and resources.
2. When your intent is positive, and you
demonstrate your integrity, it is fair to
expect the same.
3. If you don’t receive it, you must always
ask whether you should continue the
business development effort.

43. Create ongoing interest and
interaction
1. Develop and/or find outstanding content, and not
just about your product.
2. Create a blog to share the content
3. Use social media, but focus on where your
prospects are, and how they use information
4. Examine hashtags and integrate the terms in your
online content
5. Keep everything online current!
6. Assign someone to do this.
7. Measure your activities to learn what’s getting
used. (assumption: used = valuable)
8. Parse!
9. Personalize!
10. Use references (quantifiable benefit / time).

44. Time for questions . . .
Andrew (Andy) Rudin
703.371.1242
arudin@outsidetechnologies.com