0:01 Welcome to Module 5, Customer Intention, Customer Action and Mutual Outcomes, so there is the overview for Module 5, Understanding Customer Intention.
0:14 Understanding Customer Action and Mutually Beneficial Outcomes. We’re going to break down each one of these so there’s no confusion. This is actually going to help you with your forecasting.
0:29 So intention? What is that? Well, first it’s an idea that your customer plans to carry out. It’s just an idea.
0:37 It’s a deliberate cognitive occurrence. It’s, it’s all mental right? It’s mental intent. They intention is a it’s based on a goal they have, right?
0:47 It’s based on an aim or an objective. It’s based on a purpose, right? They, they, this is what drives the intent initially.
1:00 Intention is something that they mean they have intent triggers, right? Uhm, what are customers researching? What are they, what are some of the indirect behaviors that could correlate to an action?
1:30 Uhm, so we try to get ahead of that in our prospecting. We try in business development, but sometimes it’s not, it’s not super accurate.
1:39 It doesn’t align with the, with the actual customer action, right? Customer actions vary based on their intention, so, but not all actions are created the same.
1:49 We need to gain clarity on intent and avoid assumptions and wasted effort. So, we don’t want to spend a whole lot of time enlisting resources within our company until the intent is clear and the actions are indicative.
2:05 Of a next step, right? A next, real step. So, customers do research. Well, here’s some customer actions. They’ll do research, right?
2:16 But that doesn’t mean they’re intended on acting, right? It’s, it is an action, but it doesn’t mean they’re, they intend on taking the next step is what I should have said.
2:25 Uhm, they read white papers and they read articles, but it doesn’t mean that they’re ready to take the next step with you or engage with you right now.
2:34 They may be just, you know, adding. To their knowledge bank, they could be doing a lot of different things with your information or your IP that doesn’t mean they’re ready to meet with you or do anything that’s going to benefit your organization.
2:49 So just be mindful. These are these are triggers. They’re intent triggers. They’re not always super conclusive. Okay. They may even request a demo.
2:59 I’ve seen customers that request demos and they enjoy it. They like knowing what’s cutting edge, what’s, what’s innovative, what various products can do.
3:08 And then there’s various reasons for it, right? So you need to understand before you do a demo, what’s the purpose?
3:16 What’s the customer, what is the customer looking for? So this happens. This is why you need to always be qualifying your customers, right?
3:23 Because there’s a lot of what we call tire kickers. Right? Just kind of test in the waters, but they have no, no real intention of moving forward or doing business with you, umm, in the near future, maybe not even ever.
3:38 So just be, just be mindful. Umm, they may accept a meeting. They’re meeting with you, right? I’ve had, I’ve had customers or, or customers of the reps that I’ve coached and mentored and led.
3:49 They even take a meeting, right? They take time out of their day to meet with you, but it’s like a date, right?
3:58 Cause you get the first date, doesn’t mean you’re going to get the second date, doesn’t mean you’re going to get to the next stage, whatever your, your goal is and your, umm, your, your social, umm, your social activities or whatever.
4:11 So meet an exception, just take it for what it is, right? There’s emotional excitement. A lot of times we see that with customers or prospects early on, there’s, there’s an emotion, they have something they want to achieve, something they want to accomplish, they’re super pumped about it, they’re excited
4:26 , it’s fresh, it’s new, it’s a new idea, and so they’re excited but don’t allow their excitement to get you to a place where you’re overzealous and you’re overly optimistic.
4:42 Right? Again, let, let, let data. Guide you through your, through your sales process. Right? Uhm, customer outcomes. When we start talking about customer outcomes, guess what?
4:55 The customer always, always wants an outcome that benefits them. Right? But also, so does sales rep. Right? Get it? We all want this.
5:02 An outcome that benefits us. Humans are inherently selfish, so there’s always that trade-off. Right? The what’s in it for me, what’s in it for you, what’s in it for them?
5:11 Like, it’s, you’ve heard the WIFM acronym. Right? What’s in it for me? So, you, you wanna understand that? But you also wanna make sure that it is mutually beneficial.
5:24 Okay? Nobody wins in sales unless the outcome is mutually beneficial. Sales in itself is a- constant negotiation. It’s not just after you’ve given the proposal or sent the contract over and you’re talking price, blah, blah, blah.
5:42 That’s not, that’s what we believe negotiation is but negotiation happens throughout the entire exchange. And so it’s just as important to not only qualify a prospect but it’s also important to disqualify them.
5:57 And sometimes the best outcome for us is to walk away. I’ve walked away from a ton of deals. It was gonna create, it was gonna like, the effort was so much more than the reward.
6:14 Right? We were gonna have to jump through so many hoops and list so many different resources. And it was our cost of customer acquisition.
6:22 It was which is too high and so you have to start thinking like a business owner. Start thinking like a consultant.
6:30 Start taking some ownership in the sales process and stop looking at it as just a transaction to get to a commission.
6:37 It’s, it, that is part of it, right? But it’s bigger than that and that’s going to make you much better at sales and negotiation and being a consultant as you progress in your career.
6:52 Think of this as your own business. And you’ll make better decisions, umm, in that regard. Qualifying customer intent, action and capacity to deliver a mutually beneficial outcome should be done again at every stage of interaction through a comprehensive discovery needs analysis.
7:13 So if you guys don’t have a standard discovery framework, you need to work on that, right? Uhm, it’s gonna help safeguard you and reduce the risk to your revenue org, right?
7:25 To your sales org. Uhm, it’s not just about the questions you ask, but you have to effectively interpret the response from that customer or that prospect, right?
7:37 Because that customer will give you a green light or a red light or a green. And you have to pay attention to them all, right?
7:48 Because sometimes you’re going to have to make the call to back away. You’re going to have to make that call to say, hey, Mr.
7:55 And Mrs. Customer, I think we both have the right intentions. I just don’t think this is the right fit, right?
8:03 It may not be the right fit from a budgetary standpoint. It may not be the right fit from a timing perspective.
8:08 It may not be the right fit from a resource perspective. There may just be misalignment. And when there is misalignment.
8:16 It’s not going to be a win-win for everybody. The goal in effective sales, especially when you get into the mid-market enterprise space, you want it to be win-win for everybody.
8:27 Right? Nobody gets into this to lose. Uhm, but again, you just have to remember the, uhm, the inherent behaviors of humans.
8:37 I mean, again, we’re selfish. We want things our way. And so, you gotta have enough discipline to figure out how to meet in the middle.
8:45 That is the end of Module 5.