"That's the right question."

The Importance of Questions: Understanding the modern buyer

In the adaptation of Isaac Asimov's "I, Robot," Detective Spooner, played by Will Smith, gets left a clue (breadcrumbs of a trail, so to speak) by Dr Lanning, who appears to have taken his own life. The breadcrumbs are in the form of a device that projects a hologram of Lanning that Detective Spooner struggles to engage with. "My responses are limited. You must ask the right questions." After a brief exchange Spooner asks, “why would you kill yourself?” Dr. Lanning’s hologram responds “That, detective, is the right question.” This scene underscores a universal truth: the value of asking precise, thoughtful questions. In sales, as in life, posing the right questions is not a mere tactic but a reflection of thoughtfulness and intention. It's a way to demonstrate one's understanding and to navigate conversations towards meaningful outcomes. It’s also a way to be more memorable and build preference.

The Role of Questions in Sales: 

Questions are the gateway to understanding a buyer's needs, challenges, and aspirations. But they're more than this. They allow salespeople to build rapport, demonstrate empathy & trustworthiness. But the impact of a question goes beyond the surface-level exchange of information. They should tap into the buyer's emotional and psychological landscape, revealing the underlying factors that drive their decision-making process. It’s these “underlying factors” that remain the most powerful.

Uncovering Buyer Motivations: All buyer's motivations are unique, influenced by a blend of personal and professional goals, emotional triggers, and perceived opportunities. By asking targeted and thoughtful questions, salespeople can peel back the layers of a buyer's motivations, gaining insights that can shape their sales approach and tailor their solutions to meet the buyer's needs.

Strategic Questioning Techniques: 

To effectively uncover buyer motivations, everybody knows salespeople can employ strategic questioning techniques (like good old SPIN.) This includes open-ended questions that encourage detailed responses, probing questions that delve deeper into specific areas, and reflective questions that help buyers articulate their thoughts and feelings. The goal is to create a dialogue that is natural and engaging, rather than an interrogation. And it’s a two-way street. The responses can tell a seller whether to stay in a deal or politely vacate the premises. That’s called qualification.

The Impact of Understanding Buyer Motivations: 

When salespeople have a better understanding of their buyer's motivations, they can assess their fit (or otherwise), align their sales pitch more effectively, address objections proactively, and build a stronger case for their solution. They can also assess the likelihood of the prospect of doing anything at all. This not only promotes the odds of a successful sales pursuit, but also fosters a sense of trust and loyalty, paving the way for long-term relationships.

What’s the Shadow Savvy on all this?  

In the intricate dance of sales, the questions a salesperson asks can make all the difference. By mastering the psychology of questions and delving into buyer motivations, sales professionals can unlock new levels of success. It's not just about selling a product or service; it's about connecting with the buyer on a deeper level and providing solutions that truly resonate.

Being good at it is demanding, and who has the time to ponder these questions? Within reason, you can’t overlay a templated set of questions on every prospect, that’s the antithesis of customer centricity and empathy. By the same token you can't spend hours or days aching over “just the right” questions. A well-considered, AI-powered sales tool reflects this level of appreciation. Such tools shouldn’t just throw answers at you when you’re looking for insights and advice. And by the same token YOU must take the time to craft the contextually relevant questions that helps the AI return the most insightful responses. Be prepared to have a conversation with such an AI sales sidekick or mentor! In order to get help figuring out the most meaningful questions to ask your prospect, YOU you must ask the AI sales mentor the right questions as well. Like Dr Lanning says “Now that, detective is the right question.”   

Taming the GPT Frontier: "Navigating the AI Wild West with Wit and Wisdom"

The AI GPT market is dynamic and rapidly evolving. It often gets likened to the “wild west” due to its rapid growth, innovation, and lack of clear regulation in the field. Much like the untamed frontiers of the Wild West, the AI landscape is characterized by a sense of lawlessness, with new technologies emerging at a breakneck pace, and established rules and standards struggling to keep up. Carpet baggers, new religions, the good, the bad & the ugly. It’s exciting, but uncertain. Searching for gold and adventure, people are venturing into uncharted territory.

With this amount of noise and chaos, it’s hard to make sense of things. While GPTs can transform the way we interact with data and information, it is difficult to find the right area to explore given your specific needs. These choices won’t become much clearer anytime soon, so we say “take the plunge” – so let’s explain why.

GPTs are deep learning models that learn from vast data across domains like language and images. They can generate new data and perform tasks like text generation, image captioning, and speech recognition with high accuracy. GPTs can profoundly enhance the capabilities and productivity of those working with data and information, and as such cannot be ignored and adoption needs to be  explored with some urgency.

Chat GPT is a good place to start, but it’s not a good place to end. Some companies are actively encouraging their teams to “have at it” with chat GPT, adopting a kind of “let’s see where we go” attitude. Others turn a blind eye to it (with the same intent BTW) and some actively discourage it.

In using Chat GPT sales teams, for example, should realize some timesaving and improvement in effectiveness. Once you’ve seen that, it’s time to get serious. Using ChatGPT anymore than a “suck it and see” approach will put you behind the curve longer term. In order to understand why this is, don't just rely on us...this is what Chat GPT had to say about itself when we asked that question...

1.      Lack of Domain-Specific Knowledge: ChatGPT does not have the depth of domain-specific knowledge and expertise that a specialized sales GPT would have. This impacts the quality and relevance of the responses in a sales context.

2.      Limited Customization: ChatGPT is not designed to be customized to the specific needs, processes, and the language of a particular sales team. A specialized GPT, on the other hand, can be fine-tuned to align with the unique requirements of a sales organization.

3.      Data Privacy and Security: Using ChatGPT for sales tasks might raise concerns about data privacy and security, as sensitive customer information could be exposed. A specialized GPT can be designed with robust security measures to protect sensitive data.

4.      Integration Challenges: ChatGPT may not integrate seamlessly with existing sales tools and CRM systems, which can limit its effectiveness in streamlining sales processes. A specialized GPT can be built to integrate smoothly with the sales team's tech stack.

5.      Contextual Understanding: ChatGPT will struggle to understand the context of complex sales scenarios or customer interactions. A specialized GPT is better equipped to handle the contextual nuances of sales-related conversations.

6.      Continuous Learning: While ChatGPT can learn from a wide range of sources, it may not be optimized for continuous learning from sales-specific interactions. A specialized GPT can be designed to learn and adapt from sales interactions, improving its responses over time.

So what’s the Shadow “savvy” on all this?

ChatGPT and specialized GPTs have different strengths and weaknesses when it comes to sales use. ChatGPT can offer “some” timesaving and effectiveness benefits, but as it freely admits itself, it lacks domain-specific knowledge, offers limited customization, has data privacy and security issues, integration challenges, contextual understanding problems, and continuous learning limitations. It’s not a bad place to start, but like we said, it's a bad place to finish (you know, like peaking in high school!).

A specialized GPT overcomes these drawbacks. Yes, It will require some more time and resources to set up and maintain, and so as not to disappoint with no promotional thoughts – that’s where we come in!

First Call Fiasco - First Impressions, Lasting Rejections.

Despite all the "science" that's gone into sales & marketing over the last 20 years, we're still grappling with an old challenge - the consistently low conversion rates from 'lead' to 'opportunity' to 'close.' But here's the kicker: the root of the problem lies right at the outset—the first call. Many sellers brush off this initial interaction as a mere icebreaker. In reality, the first call presents the golden opportunity to qualify, establish trust, and ignite preference. It's no time to 'clown around.'

By the numbers

According to the Bridge Grp the average conversion from Marketing Lead to Opportunity is one in eight. Add into this that the “generally accepted’ conversion of Opportunity to Close is between one in three and one in six. If we take the middle ground (one in four and a half). That means you need 36 Marketing Leads for every deal – and that means you need to have 36 “first calls” for each closed deal. At those conversion rates – that’s just too many. You have to change the odds.

The Criticality of First Impressions in Sales

The adage "You never get a second chance to make a first impression" is particularly poignant here. Psychological research underscores the rapidity and permanence of first impressions. Within moments of an encounter, humans form lasting judgments, influenced by a myriad of cues. In B2B sales, this initial judgment can significantly sway the prospect's perception.

The Reality of First Calls in B2B Sales

Many sellers mistakenly perceive the first call informally—an opportunity to introduce themselves and their offerings without delving into substantive discussions. This is a mistake. The truth is, first calls are more than just pleasantries; they're the first step in a complex dance of building rapport, establishing credibility, and aligning offerings with the prospect's needs.

The Role of Preparation in Elevating First Calls

At the heart of many unsuccessful first calls is a glaring issue: poor (or mediocre) preparation. This lack of readiness manifests in various detrimental ways:

• Lack of Prospect Research: A seller unfamiliar with the prospect's business, industry challenges, and specific needs can hardly tailor their pitch effectively, let alone demonstrate genuine understanding and empathy.

• Inadequate Solution Knowledge: Without a thorough grasp of their own offerings, sellers struggle to articulate the value proposition convincingly, and even worse fail to connect Business Problem/Opportunity => Your Solution = > Outcome.

• Unprepared for Objections: Sellers not ready to address common objections fail to instill confidence, crucial in building trust. The better opportunity here is to surface the “gnarly” issues. They’ll only come back to haunt you later anyway, and as Rick Page famously said, “if you’re going to lose…lose early.” For instance, if you’re “never the cheapest game in town” set the expectations up front (as well as setting some competitive traps.) You can then focus the conversation from that point on around “value,” as well as qualifying hard. Assuming you get to a serious pricing conversation, this will avoid any "surprises."

• Personalization Deficit: In today's market, a generic pitch is a missed pitch. Prospects expect personalized engagement that resonates with their unique challenges and goals. Sellers have to make two or three connections from the industry/prospect needs or wants.
  

Strategies for Successful First Calls

Transforming the first call from a procedural step to seizing a strategic advantage involves preparation. And then more preparation and then some more!

• Do your Research: Prior to the call, invest time in understanding the prospect's business landscape, pain points, and aspirations. This knowledge not only informs a more relevant discussion but also demonstrates respect for the prospect's time and challenges.

• Solution Mastery: Solution knowledge enables sellers to confidently navigate the conversation, aligning features and benefits with the prospect's specific needs.

• Synthesize the Two: Understand and explain the connection. This might involve taking some leaps – you can’t know everything about where the stakeholders are coming from until you engage with them. But with good prep you can eliminate most of the guesswork…most of it.

• Anticipating Objections: Prepare for potential objections by understanding common concerns within the prospect's industry. And hit the “awkward” stuff up front. Sounds revolutionary, I know, but be honest.

• Technical Preparedness: Ensure all technical aspects of the call, from software to hardware, are tested and functioning. A smooth experience reflects that you give a damn.
  

Implementing the Plan

Sounds easy – right? The problem? Lack of knowledge & lack of time. You don’t know what you don’t know and have less time to figure it out. Cognitive overload is imminent…Condition Red! Just dust off the old, vanilla first call “playbook,” that’ll work - right?... Probably not.

Conclusion

This is all about achieving what’s fashionably known as situational fluency and then moving on from fluency to dominance. It’s about inspiring confidence in your team and yourselves. If you don’t feel ready and well prepared, you’ve already lost. Who did that used to be …until a few years ago the Chicago Cubs? Or as Sun Tzu said, "all battles are won, before they are fought.”

Well, I suppose we can help you with that. See how.