Beyond Features: Selling the Vision of Tomorrow

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Advanced Selling Podcast - "Beyond Features: Selling the Vision of Tomorrow"

Episode Information:

• Title: Beyond Features: Selling the Vision of Tomorrow
• Hosts: Bill Caskey and Bryan Neale
• Release Date: January 23, 2025

Introduction:

In the latest episode of The Advanced Selling Podcast, seasoned B2B sales trainers Bill Caskey and Bryan Neale delve into the nuanced art of selling beyond mere product features. Titled "Beyond Features: Selling the Vision of Tomorrow," this episode focuses on equipping sales professionals with the skills needed to craft and convey a compelling future vision that resonates deeply with clients. The hosts emphasize the importance of shifting from traditional sales tactics to a more visionary approach that underscores transformative outcomes.

Key Topic: Making the Future Real

Bill Caskey kicks off the episode by challenging the conventional metrics of sales success. He questions the overemphasis on asking the right questions, pitching effectively, and closing deals efficiently. Instead, he introduces a pivotal skill for modern sales professionals: making the future real.

[00:02] Bill Caskey: "I think professional selling today, especially if you're in a complex sale, there's ongoing back and forth. There's several of them, there's several of you from your company. I've come up with these 10 critical sales skills and I want to share with you one today."

Caskey argues that in complex sales environments, where transactions are not one-off but involve multiple interactions and stakeholders, visualizing and articulating a vivid future becomes indispensable. This skill transcends mere strategy; it's about facilitating clients to see a tangible, transformed state resulting from their partnership with your solution.

Example and Application:

To illustrate this concept, Caskey shares a compelling coaching example:

[05:30] Bill Caskey: "He said, every one of my people believe that their number one mission is to bring forth the best from their salespeople or sales agents. It's to bring forth the best. Right now, none of them think that way."

In this scenario, a company grappling with inadequate sales processes and leadership challenges engaged Caskey's leadership program. Through guided envisioning, the leadership team articulated a clear, aspirational future where sales leaders prioritize the development and excellence of their teams. This shift not only transformed the leadership mindset but also had tangible business impacts:

1. Increased Revenue: A focus on cultivating top-tier sales talent naturally led to higher sales performance.
2. Attracting Quality Talent: By fostering a culture dedicated to excellence, the company began attracting more skilled and motivated sales professionals, countering previous recruitment challenges.

Caskey emphasizes that this approach is not about superficial metrics like KPI improvements but about embedding a fundamental cultural shift that drives long-term success.

Insights and Takeaways:

1. Visionary Selling Adds Value:

   • By helping clients envision a transformative future, sales professionals can differentiate themselves beyond just product features.
   • This method fosters deeper client engagement and trust, as it aligns solutions with the client's strategic aspirations.

2. Asking Provocative Questions:

   • Caskey encourages salespeople to ask questions that clients haven't been prompted to consider before.
   • These questions help clients articulate their desired future, thereby clarifying their needs and the potential impact of the solution.

3. Documentation and Collaboration:

   • Recording the client's vision allows for the creation of tailored solutions that directly address their envisioned outcomes.
   • This collaborative approach ensures that the solution is not only aligned with but actively shapes the client's future goals.

4. Long-Term Relationship Building:

   • Focusing on the client's future fosters long-term relationships, as sales professionals become integral partners in the client's ongoing success journey.

Notable Quotes:

• [02:15] Bill Caskey: "The more real and vivid the future is, the better you can make that."
• [04:50] Bill Caskey: "If you can help them, man, you bring so much value that way."
• [06:10] Bill Caskey: "How much value are you bringing them by asking them questions they've not been asked before?"

Conclusion:

Bill Caskey wraps up the episode by reiterating the importance of expanding one's sales mindset to include visionary elements. By making the future real, sales professionals can elevate their practice from transactional exchanges to transformative partnerships.

[10:00] Bill Caskey: "I'm just trying to get you to expand your thinking a little bit. We'll talk about another skill next week."

He also hints at forthcoming resources, including a potential course for sales leaders and his new book, 12 Bold Moves, which promises to guide sales professionals through essential strategies for career advancement.

Final Thoughts:

"Beyond Features: Selling the Vision of Tomorrow" underscores a pivotal shift in sales strategy—from focusing solely on product features to crafting and selling a compelling vision of what the future could hold for clients. By mastering the skill of making the future real, sales professionals can not only enhance their effectiveness but also foster enduring, value-driven relationships with their clients.

For those eager to delve deeper into these strategies, staying tuned for upcoming episodes and exploring Bill Caskey's resources is highly recommended.

Transcript

[A]

Hey, welcome back to the solo episode. Bill Caskey here, part of the Brian Neal Bill Caskey Advanced Selling podcast team. As you know by now, every week we each reduce, reduce, release a solo episode that is shorter and to the point, at least I hope mine are. So I hope these are serving you. Let us know if they aren't or if they are. You can go to the LinkedIn group page and you can connect with me there or you can connect with me directly at [e-mail] so I was thinking the other day about the critical skills of the future. What, what does the salesperson of the future look like? And I think we have dropped into this old thinking about sales skills being do I ask the right questions, do I pitch correctly, do I close correctly? All those things. And I think professional selling today, especially if you're in a complex sale where it's, you're not in a one call close kind of thing, there's, there's ongoing back and forth. There's several of them, there's several of you from your company. I've come up with these 10 critical sales skills and I want to share with you one today. And then we'll, as we go, we might take a stab at others. I'm going to be creating a little course for VPs of sales and maybe even a, a free three part video series. I'll let you know if I do that. And this is probably more for sales leaders, sales managers, but here we go. Number. It's, it's skill number two. And it's something that we're usually not very good at. And I think the better we are at it, the more likely you are to reap the rewards and benefits of having this skill. It's the skill of making the future real. Now some of these you're going to say, well, that's not really a skill, that's just more of an attitude or a strategy. Okay, you can call it a strategy and call it a skill, but I think at some point you're going to be in the sales process with somebody and maybe it's even a negotiation process. Maybe you're buying or selling companies and you want to make the future real. Why do you want to do that? Because the more real and vivid the future is, and by future I mean them getting their problem solved by you and what it does, how it transforms their world or their business or their results or their bank account, the more real you can make that, the better. Here's an example I was coaching. Here's an example, I had a call here late last year with a company that's got 100 salespeople and 12, 11 or 12 leaders, so about eight, eight or nine per person. And we got talking about what does the future look like. So you've got some. They have a lot of problems. They have a lot of people that aren't doing their job. And there's no systematic approach to sales or to leadership. And so we were talking about that and I said, well, what's the future? What's the future? Let's paint a picture of this year or two down the road. And we do this, and it seems like we're really working toward an end. And you get done well, we get down with a program in a couple years and you call me and say, bill, my people are totally different now. They are totally different. They show up differently, they sound, they act, they coach differently. And this is a leadership program, remember? And I said, what, what, what have they done? He said, I'll tell you exactly. He said, every one of my people believe that their number one mission is to bring forth the best from their sales people or sales agents. It's to bring forth the best. Right now, none of them think that way. If we can get all of them to think 30% that way or 50%, it's going to change our entire business. We're going to be able, number one, we're going to generate more revenue. Number two, we're going to attract a better type of salesperson to the company. They're having trouble attracting people because all of the good people in their business and their industry go to these larger companies. They're a little bit smaller company. And so they're really focused on how can we build a culture here that attracts great people? Well, that's an ideal, very real future. He was able to decodify that and tell me and explicitly say, this is where I want to go. It wasn't about, I want them to have a stat sheet. I want them to keep KPIs to be better. All that stuff falls underneath this. But I would urge you, as you think about this for you and your business, are you asking the question, what does the future look like if this gets implemented and implemented in a great manner? Are you helping the customer envision the vivid future? Are you making the future real? If you struggle with that, you're not going to be able to ask them the question, but they will struggle to visualize that a lot of times. And if you can help them, man, you bring so much value that way. Again, whether they choose you or not, you're going to bring enormous value by having that conversation and write it down and feed it back to them and say, look, I'm going to create my solution based on this answer that you give me. They've never been asked that before. How much value are you bringing them by asking them questions they've not been asked before? That are important questions. So I hope, as usual, that serves you today. I'm just trying to get you to expand your thinking a little bit. We'll talk about another skill next week. Maybe. If you'd like to get a copy of my new book, 12 Bold Moves, where I take you through the exact moves you need to make as a Sales Professional VP of Sales, go to 12 Bold Moves.com.