Selling the Sage Way

When and how you demonstrate your solution is, highly likely, the most important event in your sales campaign and most impactful in terms of winning or losing the deal.  Take the time to learn the Selling the Sage Way best practices in this area.

Congrats, your buyer has indicated their desire to purchase your solution.  However, you still need to negotiate the final contract to get the deal over the line.  Listen to this Selling the Sage Way episode to define your negotiation vision, skills, and tactics to craft a win-win deal.

Now that you have a Sage-qualified deal in your pipeline worthy of pursuit, how do you advance it to a "yes" or "no" decision in a mutually agreed-upon timeframe?

Learn when and how to talk money with your buyers.  This conversation is critical to your durable success as a seller and must be mastered.

Your elevator pitch is designed to gain the buyer's trust and belief that your solution has enough potential to justify the resources to take a deeper look.  Scoping the opportunity properly allows you to forecast the size of the opportunity accurately and sets the table for the next step in the process, the Investment step.

Master "nextgen" qualification and discovery skills that "pre-close" or "qualify out" early in the deal cycle.

To "Sell the Sage Way" is to reject the role of a desperate vendor and embrace the role of a trusted advisor. It requires the wisdom to know when to walk away and the courage to change the rules of the game to serve the customer’s ultimate truth.

Building bridges between your internal leadership and the buyer’s key stakeholders creates a level of trust that a slide deck simply can't achieve. When you align roles, you de-risk the decision for the buyer.

When selling is practiced with wisdom, integrity, and a relentless focus on customer outcomes, it becomes one of the most powerful forces for progress in modern society.

Modern buyers have difficult challenges when making "buy" or "no buy" decisions today.  As a professional seller, it's imperative to understand these challenges, have empathy, and tailor your selling efforts accordingly.  Grab a coffee and dig into the podcast to learn how a Sage seller collaborates with today's modern buyer.

Good news!  Procurement would not be getting involved if the business stakeholders have not decided they want your solution.  Now, let's learn some best practices that help you get the deal over the line without overcompromising.  

Learn the mindset and skillset to transform objections from a negative to an opportunity to build trust and win lifelong customers.

For sales leadership, especially first-line leadership, who are looking to scale performance, it's imperative to coach the person vs. only coaching the deal. This will improve your ability to deliver consistent results and also develop the team's skills to execute deals at the higest level.

Are you ready to "sweat in the gym" and invest in your craft, professional sales?

Learn the necessary mindset, strategy, and skills required to sell a premium priced solution.

Did you know up to 60% of all SaaS/AI deals end up in the "closed/no decision" bucket?  This episode focuses on how to ensure your customers make a buy/no buy decision and not push the deal indefinitely.  

Learn how to drive better outcomes for every meeting, which drive trust, transparency, and move you closer to a strategic relationship.

Discover how human EQ can both surpass and leverage AI-driven IQ in building trust and fostering strategic relationships.

Selling complex B2B technology solutions to the largest and most complex companies in the world takes a different mindset and selling motion.  Listen to the podcast to uncover three must-haves for selling success in this segment.

The mindset, meaning, and mastery of selling skills to overcome pricing and money objections.

Professional salespeople understand the power of compounding of truth, time, relationships, and expertise to elevate their business.

Learn why and how to elevate relationships with customers from just another "transactional vendor" to a "strategic partner".

The same attributes that Tiger Woods leveraged to win his 15th major and 4th Masters are no different from those of the highest performing SaaS sales people in the industry.  Tune in to find out how grit, intelligence, and experience delivers success in golf and sales.

Learn how to develop credibility with your target buying audience quickly and effectively even though you have never had their job.  

To transform into "Trusted Advisors" with our customers we must be both "trustworthy" and "competent", but which is more important?  Listen to this episode to find out.

Adopting a consistent selling process across the organization certainly drives better performance.  However, in this episode I discuss which methodologies are best as well as custom suits, taco bell, and golf.

To be a pro's pro when it comes to professional selling, mastering "objection handling" is a critical skill that can define your success or failure on your journey to becoming a "trusted advisor".  

Learn how three (3) key sales KPI's can dramatically impact your selling performance and compound your ROI.

There is no better way to grow your bookings, earnings, and career than mastering the skill of negotiation.  Learn unique insights about the Negotiation step in the Sage Customer Centric Selling Framework.

Learn how to effectively navigate the buyer's journey in the decision process.  Understand the when, who, and what is involved to get the buyer from where they are today, to a decision date, that is mutually agreed upon by both parties.

Why is discussing money with customers so uncomfortable and anxiety producing?  Listen to this episode to understand how to not blow up your deals when talking money and maximize your close rates and average selling prices.

Now that you understand your customer's challenges, the economic impact and priority of solving the challenges you are ready to embark on the "Solution" step in the Sage Customer Centric Selling Framework.  

In this episode you will learn next level qualification and discovery skills, which is the heart and soul of selling.  Sellers who master opportunity qualification are the one's consistently crushing their numbers because they only work on deals that are worthy of their time, increasing their chances for success significantly.  

Learn why and how to create a "Mutual Understanding" agreement with your customer on the front end of every meeting.  This will decrease resistance during the meeting, allow for deep discovery, and make sure both parties reach an outcome for the meeting.  This is a critical foundational element of any strong selling methodology.

Learn a bit of software industry history and how the Customer Success function came to be.  Also learn what the CS rep is really selling.  It may surprise you.

In this episode you learn how to deal with a "blind rfp", which has been written by the incumbent vendor, and still find a way to win the business.

Learn how and why PPS (premature presentation syndrome) kills more deals and success than anything in sales.  In addition, learn how "timing" of when to present is everything.

"Price is Never the Real Issue" is a core fundamental selling belief we must have if we want to transform into professional sellers and trusted advisors for our clients.  Listen and learn how to overcome this standard "pricing objection".

Reinforcement is important to maximize the ROI of sales training.  Learn four (4) specific ways you can reinforce the training post engagement to institutionalize the Sage customer centric selling framework.

A fun little story about the inspiration of the company name and logo.  It's not what you think.

Learn the challenges of the modern day SaaS seller or sales organization.  Buyers are more sophisticated than ever, there is "Hyper-Competition" amongst vendors competing for wallet share, and sales talent (AE's, SE's, Mgt) is super scarce.  

Mutual Outcome Plans (MOP's) can help you enhance your qualification skills and selling process.  Learn how to leverage MOP's to drive higher quality opportunities for you and your company.

The best sales people realize their time is critically important.  They want to make sure they are working on the "right" deals that are going to yield the greatest return on their investment.  Getting to "no" quickly is a skill required in order to get to "yes".  Listen to this short episode to understand what I mean.

My students greatly benefit from my training.  However, there is a small minority that have the desire to best at the top of the leader board consistently.  They treat their sales profession as a craft and are always working on it.  Listen to this episode to find out what they are doing that sets them apart and allows them to make seven figure commissions.

"If you cannot be with the one you love, love the one you are with" (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young).  Not only is this a great song but an awesome selling tactic.  Listen to this short snackable podcast to learn why and how to leverage.

The best negotiators are first and foremost the best sellers.  I share some lessons learned, strategy and tactics that come from closing thousands of transactions and negotiating billions of dollars in software licensing.

The best sales people, especially early in the sales cycle, do the least amount of speaking but have the greatest amount of impact, per word, when they do.  This episode focuses on the skill of "active listening" and why it's important that your customer makes the first presentation during the selling cycle.

This episode briefly describes the four components (vision, guiding principles, dynamic methodology, conversational selling intelligence) that make up the Sage Customer Centric Selling Framework and why they are critical to institutionalize across your selling organization.

Your vision of becoming your customer's "Trusted Advisor" must be anchored in certain beliefs or principles that guide your actions as a seller.  This podcast describes the importance of having those beliefs and how they become your sherpa on the journey to trusted advisorship.