Rew Dickinson

B2B Sales Trainer & Top Voice on LinkedIn. 🤫 But this is where I post the real truth about B2B sales.

[Rew Dickinson @rewdickinson]

Infants are the best salespeople.

They just look at you and smile.

You're sold.
But not because they're selling.
Because they're interested in YOU.

[Rew Dickinson @rewdickinson]

Hire for soft skills. Train sales skills.

You can have great soft skills and suck at sales.

In fact, you most certainly will, until you learn sales.

[Rew Dickinson @rewdickinson]

Never rush a sales meeting.

If there is value, there is always another meeting.

[Rew Dickinson @rewdickinson]

Someone asked me when my book is coming out.

I’m writing the book after I’ve done the thing.

Not before.

[Rew Dickinson @rewdickinson]

Customer Success is therapy.

[Rew Dickinson @rewdickinson]

One of the most valuable beliefs for Sales Engineers:

"I don't work FOR my Sales Reps, I work WITH my Sales Reps."

[Rew Dickinson @rewdickinson]

The best SEs could be sales reps, but don’t want to.

[Rew Dickinson @rewdickinson]

Thinking you work for your sales rep is what’s keeping you from getting the respect you deserve.

[Rew Dickinson @rewdickinson]

Am I crazy?

Healthcare organizations spend $3500 per person per year on professional development just to make sure that their people stay up to date.

And yet there are software companies who don’t spend a single dollar on professional development for their Solutions Consultants.

Not one dollar.

[Rew Dickinson @rewdickinson]

A leader of a 3,400 person sales team told me that her team has never had storytelling training. "Let me guess, your demos involve a lot of demoing features and functions?"

Her: [shakes head] "Yes."

I see this problem all the time with the sales and presales teams I train:

1. They know their product super well

2. They even know the VALUE of their product super well

3. But they don't know how to COMMUNICATE the value of the product in a way that helps the customer communicate it internally.

There are 10,000 ways to communicate value, but the simplest and most effective way is through story.

If you have not invested in a storytelling framework for your B2B sales team, you haven't taught them how to sell.

It's like giving someone all of the ingredients for baking a cake and forgetting to give them the recipe.

[Rew Dickinson @rewdickinson]

There are 3 types of deals in B2B software:
1- Inbound with RFP
2- Inbound without RFP
3- Outbound

If you're getting primarily inbound with RFP then your customer has a plan and they're in control. You just need a better story than your competition.

If it's inbound without an RFP, or outbound, it's unlikely your customer has a plan or has even done this before. You can't just have a better story. You need to be a Leader.

[Rew Dickinson @rewdickinson]

B2B software sales is simple. But massively hard. This is "all" you need to close a B2B software deal:

1. Business Objective
2. Problem
3. Solution
4. Outcome (that far exceeds the costs)
5. Proof
6. And then you have to get someONE to make a decision

Your job is to help your buyer figure out all those things and then get that someONE to make a decision.

[Rew Dickinson @rewdickinson]

Sales is all storytelling:

1) You tell a story to earn credibility and show why you should be in the room with the prospect

2) You tell stories of problems other customers are having that get the prospect to say that they have those same problems

3) You ask good questions because you've EARNED the right to do discovery

4) You repeat what they said back to them so they know you understand them

5) You ask them if they’d like to hear about how you've solved the same problem for other customers

6) You tell them a customer story.

Storytelling for the win.

[Rew Dickinson @rewdickinson]

How is every business always experiencing “unusually high call volumes?”

If they’re unusually high, maybe it’s time to invest in customer service.

[Rew Dickinson @rewdickinson]

I was recently talking to a healthcare executive about what it’s like serving clients and was shocked to hear how similar it is sales.

He told me, “Over the years I’ve realized that it just boils down to one thing. Meet people where they are.”

He went on…

“For example, if a patient (or a friend or family member) comes to me and is in a bad spot in their life, and I try to cheer them up and get them to focus on the positives, they don’t feel heard. Because mentally they’re not in a good spot.”

He continued…

“Even if I know how to solve their problem, I can’t start solving it right away because they’re not ready. Instead, I need to go in and listen and ask questions and say things like, ‘that sounds like a lot of pain’, or ‘that’s unfortunate that you’ve been dealing with this, how long has this been going on for?’”

He told me that only once you meet the person where they are and they feel that you understand them, are they ready to listen to what you have to say.

In other words, they’re NOT looking for a solution.

As he was telling me thing it reminded me of all the times that I messed this up in my sales career.

A lot of us salespeople mess it up because we’re problem solvers by nature. This is even more true for Solutions Consultants. We want to solve the problem, but we forget that sometimes the client isn’t ready to solve it.

So we must listen first, and solve later.

In the words of my healthcare friend…

Meet them where they are.

[Rew Dickinson @rewdickinson]

Most analytical people are more focused on what won’t work than what will.

The question isn’t, “is this perfect?”

The question is, “does this move us forward?”

Progress over perfection.

[Rew Dickinson @rewdickinson]

Skilled salespeople aren’t cheap.

Cheap salespeople aren’t skilled.

[Rew Dickinson @rewdickinson]

SEs know how to educate, not sell.

[Rew Dickinson @rewdickinson]

If your demos are too long, ask yourself:

“What questions do I have to ask to get my demo down to 15 minutes?”

Then ask those questions.

Every buyer will thank you.

[Rew Dickinson @rewdickinson]

Sales Engineers don’t work FOR their sales reps. They work WITH their sales reps.

If you’re an SE ask yourself:

1. How many years have you been at your company? How about your sales rep?

If you’ve been there for longer than your sales rep, you’re doing them a disservice by only doing things their way. Speak up.

2. How many closed deals have you worked on? How many closed deals have they worked on?

You have the benefit of seeing what has worked for MANY sales reps. Share that. Speak up.

3. Does your sales rep pay your salary?

Hopefully they’re helping you earn commissions, but remember that your sales reps will come and go. Your company pays your salary.

It can be easy for SEs to take a client service mindset to sales and do what they’re told. But any good sales rep who is going to last wants a partner, not a secretary.

Alpha Presales: Your SEs don’t need soft skills. They need sales skills (Discovery, Storytelling, Leadership).