Salman Mohiuddin

Enterprise Account Executive, Marketing Cloud (Financial Services)

Salman Sales Academy

Helping AEs, SDRs + Sales teams find and close more deals. 🚀 Boosting income and revenue. 

17 years of tech Sales experience, all as an individual contributor. I've been in your shoes as an SDR, Commercial, and Enterprise AE at companies like Salesforce, IBM and Asana. In the trenches. Exceeding targets. Even in economic downturns.

Documenting all of my learnings, I've built out a Sales playbook. Now I want to give back to YOU.

I teach individual contributors + Sales teams on how to sell better, exceed targets, boost income / revenue, and accelerate growth. All with actionable Sales content and insights that you and your team can start using right away. Seeing immediate results.

Founder

Asana

Clients: The big banks and insurers in Canada

Strategic Enterprise Sales

Salesforce

Hearsay Systems

• Help lead Canadian sales by working with the largest banks and insurance companies on their digital journey to drive better client engagement
• Clients: The big banks in Canada
• Develop relationships with Finserv executives in Marketing, Digital, Sales, Distribution & Compliance 
• Help enable advisors and financial sales professionals with a digital platform - including Social, Websites, and Texting apps - to better connect with today's digital customer
• Responsible for the entire sales process, including: strategic prospecting, discovery, uncovering critical business issues, solution, negotiation and signature

Help the largest banks and insurance companies in Canada modernize their field organizations with a complete digital platform to attract more clients, retain customers and grow business with today's digital customer.

Director of Strategic Accounts

• Lead and coach a team of 6 Hunter AE’s across the Northeast on how to strategically prospect & close new logos

Sr. Account Executive (New Business Lead)

• Develop relationships with C-level and VP-level executives, showing them the TCO, ROI and overall value of moving to the cloud
• Leverage the latest cloud technologies to help companies transform the way they engage with their customers, employees and partner ecosystems to ultimately drive growth

Sr. Account Executive - New Business

Part of the IBM software portfolio responsible for $4B of IBM's revenue

- Uncover key business & IT challenges through F2F discussion with C-level and IT executives 
- Identify which areas of the business are driving up costs & complexity and help eliminate them in order to accelerate growth and simplify their business
- Provide Application Infrastructure, Integration, Mobile, Cloud and Business Process Management software solutions to accounts in Ontario, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan

Software Sales Executive

Synerion

- Empowering companies with leading edge workforce management solutions, resulting in immensely reducing costs across the enterprise
- Help customers in the manufacturing and distribution industries

Account Manager

- Empower companies with software integration solutions to organizations in the southeast United States
- Identify needs, challenges and complexities through discussion with C-level executives
- Uncovered areas of the business where costs could be eliminated through consultative discussion

WebSphere Software Sales Specialist

- cold calling, emailing IT and LoB executives 
- uncovering strategic priorities and challenges

Sales Development Representative

York University

Canada’s third largest university (60k students)

- Responsible for raising funds for York University bursaries, scholarships and ongoing projects 
- Made dozens of calls each day managing a customer base of hundreds of York alumni across Canada
- Provided extensive information to customers regarding university projects, ongoing developments, architectural and technological advancements and future plans
- Became a top performer by exceeding weekly quotas of $500 raised

Sales Representative

AT&T

A $118B telecommunications company specializing in local, long distance and internet access

- Sold various AT&T long distance plans to U.S. residents 
- Developed and executed sales methods and training materials with peers, which resulted in standardization of sales procedures
- Recognized as top sales person on a weekly basis averaging 1.0 SPH (sales per hour) on a 0.5 SPH quota

Outbound Sales Representative

Helping sales pros + teams build healthy pipeline to close more deals faster | Sales Coach + Trainer @ SSA | 17 years as a quota carrier | ex-Salesforce, Asana and IBM | Interview Ace

Family comes first.

17 years of tech sales experience as an AE at Salesforce, IBM and Asana all as an individual contributor. There’s more 👉

Started as an SDR in 2006, moved to AE in 2007.

Never looked back since.

Currently at Asana as a Strategic Enterprise AE.

Working with the top banks and insurers.

Love helping AEs & SDRs close more deals and build their brand.

Love coaching AEs & SDRs on prospecting, deal strategy, and interviews.

DM me for:

- 1:1 Sales coaching / mentoring 
- 1:1 Sales interview consults to help you land an offer
- Sales coaching for your company
- Speaking engagements or sessions for your company
- Podcast guest 

✅ Currently at Asana; our mission is to help humanity thrive by enabling the world's teams to work together effortlessly

✅ 7 years at Salesforce - Commercial AE -> Strategic Enterprise AE for the top banks and insurers in Canada

✅ 6 years at IBM - SDR -> Commercial Account Executive -> Field Account Executive 

✅ 1 year at Salesforce leading, coaching, and mentoring a team of 6 Hunter AE's on how to strategically prospect and close new logos

✅ Leverage my Sales playbook that I use all the way from prospecting to close and everything in between

✅ It's resulted in overachievement throughout my career

✅ Widely recognized as a master prospector & hunter

✅ Sales Interview Ace - the interview playbook I've built has resulted in an 80% success rate in interviews

✅ Experienced in consultative selling to C-level, Line of Business, Digital and IT executives

✅ Possess an Honors B.A., Economics

[Sales COACHING]

➡️ Prospecting - 3-step prospecting technique that gets you meetings with executives

➡️ Discovery - A framework that leads with a Point of View, aligns to a C-level priority, a consultative approach which uncovers everything you need to best qualify your deal 

➡️ Deal Strategy - Leverage my playbook to help progress deals, get deals unstuck and increase your probability of closure

➡️ Interviews - I've refined a playbook that I've used for the last 11 years that's resulted in an 80% success rate 

➡️ [interviews, mock cold calls and discovery, territory plans (that will wow a hiring manager), presentations, etc...]

➡️ Coaching on situations where you may feel stressed in Sales, on a PIP, advice on how to deal with pressure, etc...

DM me. Happy to help.

Opinion: every AE should be sending this note before and after group demos

Because if not, you’re missing out.


BEFORE DEMO

You sent out a meeting invite for a demo.

You see a folks accept the meeting invite - names you don’t recognize.

You can sit by idly

or you can send them a note before the meeting.

It could sound something like this: 

“Hi Linda - see that you’ll be on our demo next Thursday.

Appreciate you taking the time out of your day.

To ensure we make the most out of your valuable time,

would you mind sharing the 2 biggest problems you’re personally trying to solve for as it relates to X?”


POST DEMO

Send each of the attendees a personal note.

Some may not have been vocal on the demo

or hesitant to speak up

or they jumped on the demo with your prior knowledge 

Send them a note after the demo.

It could sound something like this:

“Hey Linda - appreciate you taking the time to sit on the demo earlier today.

Is there anything you were personally hoping or expecting to see that we did not show?

I understand problems X and Y are important to the business to solve.

But I’d be remiss if there were any use cases important to you that we may have missed.

Let me know if that’s the case and I could take the time to show you on a brief call.”


It’s one of the easiest ways to multithread post-demo.

…………………………………………

Keep the lines of communication open pre and post demo.

It’s a multithread opp served to you on a silver platter.

Don’t let these windows of opportunity slide.

If you’re an AE or AM taking on new accounts please don’t send intro emails that sound like this:

“This is Trevor, the new AE aligned to your account. I see you’re one of the key admins and power users of our platform.

I’d like to schedule some time with you to learn how you’re using the tool. How’s some time next week?”

😐

You know what your customer’s thinking?

‘Ugh. This is our third AE in the last 2 years. Now we need to re-explain how we’re using their product… again’ 

Stop kicking the relationship off on the wrong foot.

And start kicking it off with a good customer experience + transition.

…………………………………………..

Here’s a recommendation 👇

Do the following before your initial reach out:


- calls with last AE, CSM, SE, SDR, PS, renewals, partner
- teams in org using tool + teams that've shown interest
- use cases they're using the tool for today
- problems they have tackled by using it
- business outcomes, result + metrics
- good and bad customer support tix
- listen to previous call recordings
- level of expertise in tool
- usage / adoption
- feature requests
- whitespace

Put yourself in their shoes. Come prepared. 

Build a foundation of trust and credibility.

…………………………………………........

Your intro email could sound like this:

“Hi Linda and team - I’ve heard wonderful things from Ashley and am excited to work with you this year.

I’ve had a full debrief with our internal teams and am up to speed on how you’re using the platform today.

We appreciate your ongoing partnership.

How about a virtual lunch next week for a meet and greet? I’ll shoot over a few Doordash gift cards.

Below are few open slots. Let me know what works and we can get it on the books. Thanks!”

............................................................

Kick off your customer relationships on the right foot.

The month of fasting - Ramadan - has completed. Eid Mubarak to those celebrating! 🎉

I hope you and yours a joyous Eid ul-Fitr.

For those not celebrating I wish you and yours a wonderful week and weekend ahead 😀



P.S. although this is a day to celebrate

my heart is with (especially today) the strong, resilient and patient people of Palestine

If your sales team is using BANT as first call qualification, I have a suggestion.


STOP.

Here’s why 👇 

B: Budget

If there’s a big enough problem people with influence or power care about solving.

If said problem is putting an executive level priority at risk.

They’ll find the money.

Budgets are created.

They don’t magically appear when you call.


A: Authority

There typically isn’t one person that makes the decision.

And you certainly don’t want to ask:

“Who is the decision maker?” 😐 

Instead, try uncovering

- who else cares about solving the problem
- an exec who might driving the initiative
- why it’s a priority

That could sound something like:

“Who else has a vested interest in solving this problem at your org?”

“We typically find when folks are trying to solve a big problem like this, its driven by someone at the exec level.

In addition to yourself, is there an exec on your side who cares about solving this problem?”

“Is this something that comes up often in internal exec meetings? If so, why is it top of mind?”


N: Need 

Yup, there isn’t a solution without a problem.

Enough said.


T: Timeframe 

unless there’s an active evaluation or initiative

I don’t see a need to directly ask about a timeframe.

The timeframe question comes across a bit too salesy.

Plus, the majority of deals don’t have a true compelling event. 

(and no, a renewal date is not a compelling event)

Well then how do you uncover a “timeframe”?

Well the best way is the find a problem that’s blocking and exec level priority

If you can’t do that on the first call (which may be the case)

uncover the impact of doing nothing.

Here’s a question to ask on a first call instead:

“What happens if you don’t solve this in 6 months?”

……………………………..

Don’t use BANT just to tick off the boxes.

Your prospect will see right through it.

Can’t remember the last time I asked about budget on a discovery call.


I’d rather spend time uncovering:

- a big enough problem in the business
- how they’re tackling the problem today
- what they’ve tried in past to address problem
- a problem key stakeholders care about solving
- an executive who cares about solving the problem 
- what happens if they don’t solve it in 6 months
- a problem that’s putting an exec level priority at risk
- KPIs + metrics key stakeholders are accountable for
- how said KPIs + metrics are being affected by the problem
- using this to build the foundation for a business case 
- truly understand their eval + buying process and who’s involved 
- if a business case is required and folks who need to approve it
- what their process looks like for on-boarding new tech / vendors 


I could go on and on 


The fact is 👇

if you uncover this

they’ll find the money.

………………………………………….

Budgets are created.

Don’t walk away from a deal early just because they don’t have budget set aside.

Because if you do, you could be leaving money on the table.

In all my years as an AE, I was rarely at the top of the pipe-gen dash.


That’s because I tend to disqualify opps early in the cycle.

Something that took me quite a bit of time to learn and do well.

Had spent time on deals I thought were real, earlier in my career

but turned out to be fluff.

- inflating my pipeline
- same deals showing up qtr after qtr
- no real progression and no reason to change

………………………………………

But in time, I flipped the script:

If I can’t answer these 5 questions early in the cycle with confidence

I’m getting it out of my pipeline👇 


1. What’s the business problem they’re trying to solve for?

- manual processes + lack of visibility 😐

- on-premise + cloud apps aren’t connected ✅
- dev teams have to manually code to meet bus req’s ✅

> If the problems sound the same across your all deals, you don’t truly understand the problem


2. How are they getting the job done today?

- team spends a lot of time + resources on manual work 😐

- use excel, ETL tools, manual coding and file transfer ✅
- simple integrations take several weeks or even months ✅

>They’re getting the job done today w/o your product, understand how


3. Someone with power or influence cares about solving it?

- working with IT manager to schedule demo 😐

- working with IT Dir; VP of IT + Head of Prod ✅
- call scheduled to discuss further ✅ 

> Identify and align to power, early
> Multithread with purpose


4. What’s the impact of said problem on them and the business?

- reducing productivity + driving up cost 😐

- spring product launch may be delayed ✅  
- need to have data integrated quickly to avoid rev loss ✅ 

> Uncover the impact on the business (be specific, not vague)
> What happens if they don’t solve in 3 months?


5. Is there a meaningful next step on the calendar?

- follow up call setup for 1.30 😐

- demo scheduled with Sr tech leadership + Business ✅ 
- pre-demo call with champion on 1.24 ✅ 

> there’s a difference between a next step and a meaningful next step

………………………………….

Your pipeline is precious. Protect it.

Wrapped up a pretty solid demo when the Director jumped in “thanks, we’ll discuss internally and get back to you.” 


Sent a recap email with next steps and asking for feedback.

Followed up again. Then again.

Never heard from them.

Same deal showed up week after week on forecast calls.

Same old story: “had a great demo a few weeks back. No response, following up again.”

> That’s how most of my deals turned out earlier in my career following demos 👆

and it was completely my fault. 

………………………………………

Here are three simple tweaks in the final 8-min of demos that completely turned things around:


1. Did I miss anything

Once you’ve completed the demo, ask:

“Is there anything you did not see today that you were hoping or expecting to see?”

The fact is you’ll have folks who won’t open up, especially on group demos.

The last thing you want is one of their use cases or problems to go unanswered.


2. Recommended next steps: visual timeline slide

Never end a meeting without recommending next steps.

Instead of talking through it, walk them through a visual timeline slide

“Could I provide a recommendation on next steps?”

Then pull up a visual timeline slide outlining what’s next.

Get them to share their feedback and if it aligns with their buying process.

and adjust as needed.


3. Executive alignment 

Make the ask, assuming you’ve uncovered power in your discovery.

You've provided a considerable amount of value in the demo. It's about a give / get. 

It's your time to ask for something,

It could sound something like this:

"Linda, in the spirit of our potential partnership I'd like to ask for time between my VP and your SVP.

The purpose of this meeting is twofold:

a) ensure there's executive alignment and engagement between senior folks on both sides

b) you have everything you need to make the best decision for your business

Having access to an exec on our side will give you that ability.

Is that an unfair ask?"

Note: this may be a bit tricky in larger group demos.

You might want to make this ask in your debrief call with your champion post demo.

……………………………………..

Take control of your deals.

P.S. don't forget to 🔒 in that meaningful next step in their calendar before you end the call 😀

I hit 204% of my Q1 number.

It included 16 deals for premium one-on-one coaching packages.

As a first time entrepreneur

I had set a realistic quota (and expectation) for myself prior to the start of fiscal.

Did not want to set myself up for failure.

………………………………………

The primary driver for the early success is effective discovery and disqualification.


I run each disco Iike I have through my career as an IC 👇


1. Homework before speaking to them

- something about a recent post
- industries they’ve worked in the past
- a story about the city they’re based out of

Show them you know them


2. Set a brief objective + agenda and ask a question 

“What inspired you to reach out?”

If it’s an inbound, let’s get to the why.

If it’s an outbound, share typical problems you hear from folks in role

and see if it resonates.


3. Don’t mention product or service

- uncover the key problems they might be facing
- areas in sales process they’re looking to level up in
- get to the root of the problem they are facing 
- impact to role and metrics they’re measured on


4. Give them an out

explain that “I’m not a fit for everyone”

and if they believe the value isn’t there,

we can shake hands and walk away as friends 


5. Uncover their true “why” and personal motivation

Build trust by asking relevant and engaging questions and then ask:

“If you don’t mind me asking why is this personally important to you?”

“Where do you want to be in 2 years?”


6. Get THEM to convince me (disqualify)

“Seems like you have enablement resources like Highspot and a manager who you can turn to for help.

So what’s stopping you from continuing to leverage those resources vs looking at an external resource?”

Which uncovers the clear reason why

or helps me disqualify and protect my time.


6. Permission before talking about services 

Once I uncover the key problems, impact, kpi + metrics and clear why… I ask,

“Could I provide a recommendation on how I could potentially help?”


7. Lock in the next step before we hang up

“I’d be a terrible Salesperson if I didn’t do this

rather than go back and forth via email, mind if we pull up our calendars quickly and lock in time for our next call?”

🔒 in the next step before ending every meeting. 

Avoid chasing… start progressing 

……………………………………………

Discovery will make (or break) your deal.

Lead it with purpose and intention.

When I began posting on LinkedIn about 2.5 years ago I had one simple goal in mind:


Share actionable Sales content AEs + SDRs could start using in their role right away

and see immediate results.

At the time I was in my 15th year in technology Sales as an individual contributor

an Enterprise AE at Asana when I began writing on this platform.

was an absolute no name in a sea of Sales content creators. 

Took time.

Slowly salespeople began absorbing the content 

week by week. month by month. 

Began seeing some traction.

Months passed

and people began asking for my time (which I’m extremely grateful for)

So I took some time out of each day to chat with folks who were looking for guidance in their sales role

As time passed, it became overwhelming

spoke to mentors and other creators - they said the best way to protect your time is to put a price on it.

So I made the decision to protect my time.

after sharing thoughts with my leadership team at Asana whom I respected and whom supported me

I began sales coaching on the side, after working hours. Ensuring it did not impact my day-to-day as a full time AE

Truly enjoyed it.

I’d documented my learnings throughout my years as an SDR, commercial and Ent AE 

and shared all my experiences with folks. All the content and insights.

Did the side hustle for one year, all while maintaining my AE role at Asana

Exceeding quota both years in an economic downturn and finishing as the top AE on my team

But it ultimately came to a point where I had to make a decision👇

3 things were taking up my time

- family 
- full-time AE role
- side hustle sales coaching 

I could only pick 2 out of 3

and I couldn’t give up on my family 😀

So I decided to step away from AE role 

Step away from corporate tech sales after 17 years in your shoes as an IC

and Salman Sales Academy was officially born

……………………………………..

I’ve been a full time Sales coach + trainer for the past 8 months 

all while still

- prospecting 
- running discovery calls
- demos of my community + courses
- running cycles + closing deals each month

and loving every moment of it.

Thought I’d share a bit of my journey with you.

……………………………….

P.S. I thought there was pressure as an AE. No doubt there is.

But there’s even more pressure I’ve found walking away from my base and OTE

going out on my own. Supporting my family on a single income.

But what gave me confidence is the people here who’ve supported me and engage

Thank you to everyone who has followed my journey from the start and who joined along the way 

who continue to engage and support my content

Because the bottom line is… none of this happens without YOU.

3 words every salesperson should stop using (it’s hurting your internal and external brand)


HOPE

You’re on your weekly team forecast call,

“I’m hoping the deal will come in by the end of the week” 😐

“Hope” doesn’t exist in sales.

Leaders cringe when they hear this.

Instead, you could say something like this:

“We have a call with legal on Wednesday to finalize X term in the contract.

Once that’s done, I’m confident we’ll have a signed OF by end of this week.”


DISCOUNT

You should not be negotiating on price until:

- you’re vendor of choice 
- procurement is involved 
- ensure there’s a “give” and “get”
- aligned on value and business case
- clearly understand the approval process and steps 

If you’ve aligned on these points and are negotiating on price,

Use a term like: “incentive” or “pricing incentive”

“discount” sounds a little too car salesy

and offering it up too soon means you’ve devalued your solution.


BUZZWORDS + BUZZPROBLEMS

- digital transformation
- single source of truth 
- 360-degree view
- optimize

- manual processes 
- lack of visibility 
- data silos

😐

If I asked 10 execs what digital transformation means to them, I’d get 10 different answers.

It’s a buzzword. 

Lack of visibility. Manual processes. Buzzproblems.

They are lazy ways to describe problems.

It tells me you don’t clearly understand the problem you actually solve for.

We find teams have a lack of visibility 😐

Customer data is scattered across a dozen different apps and teams have to spend a ton of time cobbling it up 🙂 

Get specific with problems. Put yourself in the prospects shoes.

………………………………………

The words you use have an impact on your day to day.

Tread carefully 😀

Best email on a Friday: “Salman, please send us over a pricing proposal for review.” 😀

Pretty good way to finish up the work week.

I put aside what I was doing, popped up the quoting tool 

and sent that bad boy out.

Then waited

and waited.

Followed up. 

Followed up again.

*crickets*

Closed lost


👆 How a lot of my deals ended up when prospects asked me for pricing

I let my excitement get the best of me

and it did much more harm than good.

……………………………….

Instead of sending out pricing with zero context

I should’ve understood the why behind the ask.

Something you can’t do over email.

Something that I didn’t do earlier in my career,  

but when I did start doing it, it protected my pipeline.

Because pricing discussions are NOT for the inbox. 

They should be done live, in real-time.

> So instead of firing off an email with pricing

pick up the phone first

“Hey Linda, got your email.

I can send over a pricing proposal based on our conversation the other day.

I have a quick ask if you don’t mind.

Usually when pricing is sent over, questions come up

rather than go back and forth via email taking up your valuable time,

could we set aside 15-min to review the pricing live?

That way I can share context and tackle any questions or concerns you might have.”


(if you can’t get them live, then the second option would be to send a text or email with a similar message)

.........................................

Take the time to understand the why behind the ask (any ask for that matter)

Get down to business live and direct.

You’ll uncover more and it’ll help you navigate your deal much better.

Saving you time and some potential heartache.

Took me 5+ years to start doing this in discovery. The results were pretty staggering.


> disqualify to qualify


Early as an AE, I suffered from 'happy ears'.

Any problem a prospect mentioned sounded like an opportunity to me.

I'd eagerly dive into product, pushing deals into the pipeline without delay.

But soon, I noticed the same deals lingering month after month

quarter after quarter.

Same deal, same story on forecast calls.

Ultimately had to change my approach.

I started asking the tough questions upfront

to truly understand if I had a real deal.

……………………………………

Those questions sound something like 👇

> “What’s happening in the business now that’s causing you to tackle this problem?”

> “Who else has a vested interested in solving this problem at your org?”

> “We typically find when folks are trying to solve a big problem like this, it’s driven by someone at the exec level.

In addition to yourself, is there an exec on your side who cares about solving this problem?”

> “Is this something that comes up often in your internal or exec level meetings?

If so, why is it top of mind?”

> “What happens if you don’t solve this in the next 3 months?”


This isn’t an exhaustive list.

But you’ve got to uncover if it’s a legit problem 

or if they’re in ‘educational’ mode. 

Filter out those opps sooner, rather than later. 

Protect your pipe.

I used to waste my time talking to mid-level managers who had no power or influence. 


The conversation led to a dead-end.

They had some pain and challenges, sure.

But not enough juice to get things moving the way I’d hoped.

So I threw in the towel and moved on to the next account.


Slowly realized, I was missing something big.

These so called ICs and low level managers were on the frontlines.

They knew the lay of the land.

They had valuable intel.

I just wasn’t using it correctly.

So that’s when the script totally flipped.

………………………………..

Don’t underestimate of the value of IC + mid-level managers.

- take the time to speak them
- grasp an understanding of their day-to-day problems
- tools they’re using and how they’re getting the job done

Then reach out to a VP with power, with a meaningful and relevant message.

It could sound something like this:

“Hi Linda - been talking to Tiffany and Devon on your dev team. 

They’re spending an average of 15 hours / week on manual data extracts from Salesforce.

It can be a pretty tedious and time consuming process

leading to increased storage costs and high risk for data loss.

Not sure if you’ve considered automating by a ‘set it and forget it’ model.

[customer name] saw a boost in productivity and reduced their total storage space by 40% in 2 weeks using [insert your company].

Worth a chat?”

……………………….................

Just because someone doesn’t have power, doesn’t mean it’s not a good use of your time.

Do your homework.

Share a relevant message and PoV.

You’ll see results.

What is the importance of ICs in an organization?

How can mid-level managers be valuable in an organization?

How can manual data extracts be automated?

When your prospect asks for a demo, stop playing games and show them.


Your prospects are somewhere in their buying journey 

and you’ll have to meet them where they’re at.

Now I’m all for proper discovery before a demo, don’t get me wrong. 

Huge advocate for it. 

Because bad discovery will botch your deal.

But in a *few cases* it won’t work the way you want it to

and you have to meet your customers where they’re at 

and do some proactive demo + discovery.

…………………………………….

Here’s a scenario where this could play out early in a discovery 

and how to pivot on the fly and in the flow of the conversation 👇


Linda: “Can we just get to the demo?”

You: “Can definitely get into a demo, Linda.

Sounds like you know exactly what you’re looking for.

Is that a fair assumption or am I off base?”

Linda: “Yes, we do know.”

You: “Got it. While I pull up the demo here, could you spend a minute or two walking me through what you’re looking for

and/or what business problem you’re trying to solve for?

That way I can demo what's relevant, given your time is valuable.”

Then you’ll have to get into a discovery + demo.


Is it an ideal scenario?

No

Will you have to pivot in a few cases cases and do a demo + discovery to meet your buyer where they’re at?

Yes.

……………………………….

- do not get caught off guard when asked
- be clear and confident in your response
- know the problem and use case
- show the demo + discovery

Imagine spotting that perfect ring at a jewelry store. You ask for the price - expect a response, right?


Well so do your prospects.

But we’re often taught to hold back until we’ve covered our ground or shown value.

“I won’t be able to give you a number right now.

We have to show you the platform, followed by a scoping call with our services team. 

Once that’s complete we can send over the pricing.”

😐

Your prospect becomes frustrated. 

They’re thinking:

‘I have to go through all these steps just to get a price?’

Deals end up getting stalled or they look closer at your competition.

………………………………….

Avoiding the pricing conversation early in your cycle will do more harm than good.

Be clear, concise and confident with your response.

That could sound something like this:

Prospect: “How much is this going to cost us?”

SDR or AE: “Linda, cost is based on the number connections and throughput.

Once we get a more accurate number on both I can give you a better idea on the cost. We can flesh that out on our next call.

But in the spirit of transparency, I can share a range of what you'd be looking at based on what we know now.

About 70-110k.”

…………………………………………

Build trust and be transparent with your prospects early in the cycle.

Taplio

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