188: Mike Hook

The traditional sales demo model sucks. There, I said it. Here's a normal demo flow I've seen hundreds of times: salesperson kicks off the call with an upfront contract (do we still have 30 minutes?), they proudly display a slide with logos of all of their customers and then take a hard left turn into whatever software they're showcasing. After 16-minutes of feature-dumping, the salesperson lifts his head and asks if the prospect has any questions. After hearing a mutter, the rep continues his pre-planned pitch. He brings enthusiasm and makes sure to use the words "integration", "synergy" or "API" no less than 7 times. As they reach the end of their time together, the prospect says "This was good. I'll run it by my boss and circle back with you." The sales rep then prances around his (home) office, patting himself on the back and calling his boss to let her know that they've "got a live one" and should be committing this deal for the month. Three months later, the sales rep still hasn't heard from the prospect. "Must have been a re-org internally", he thinks as he marks another deal as Closed/Lost in Salesforce. Maybe this scenario sounds familiar. Enter Mike Hook. Mike is the VP Sales at ChildcareCRM, a master of the sales demo, and one of the most likable people I've met. Mike joins the podcast today to teach us how to personalize our demos for our buyers. In this episode, Mike and I discuss: How we both started our career at Cutco Why Mike has always chosen to be the hardest worker in the room How to navigate internal politics to rise through the ranks Finally, I have two quick asks for you folks: First, go follow Mike Hook on LinkedIn. Second, show some love for Millennial Sales. Please subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube and leave a comment or review wherever you listen. It helps me to spread my reach and get more great guests on the podcast. I’d love to connect with you on social media on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. All other content is also hosted on MillennialMomentum.net. Let’s get after it this week.