Grow Your Business with Integrity
Ian Altman, a CEO for over two decades and author of Same Side Selling, sees a big issue with common sales metaphors that relate selling to sports or battles. This is because in these types of scenarios, one person wins and another loses. In this interview and in the book, Ian focuses on the buyer’s perspective as well as the seller’s point of view and how they can work together and not against one another.
This Sales Expert Interview covers:
Topics in Same Side Selling
- The adversarial traps that pit buyer and seller against each other and how to get them on the same side
- The puzzle metaphor
The dreaded price conversation
- A selling process seems to go pretty smoothly until the topic of price comes up. Ian talks about how to set yourself up for success early on.
Sales personas
- Are you an order taker or a subject matter expert?
The decision-making process
- Ian talks about the research he conducted with over 10,000 CEOs and executives on how they make and approve decisions.
- There are a few ways they make decisions that aren’t very obvious to salespeople.
The same side pitch
- Instead of asking so many “what keeps you up at night” questions, talk about problems other clients of yours have had that your prospects might have too.
The client vision pyramid
- Ian talks about a model that can be used to help prospects see the value in what you offer.
Integrity
- Your solution will not always be the right fit for everyone. Ask the right questions and think about the far-reaching impacts of trying to sell to everyone.
The same side quadrants
- Ian created a tool he put in Same Side Selling that salespeople can use while in meetings to determine whether they were successful or not.
Our Host
John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.
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