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Ian Altman: Ian, welcome to the
Same Side Selling podcast. I am

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your host. Ian Altman, so this
is the time of year where we

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spend a lot of time with channel
sales organizations, and I'm

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often honored to come and speak
to organizations where they

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bring together everyone in the
organization. They bring in

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their manufacturers, reps or
independent third parties. They

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bring in their business
development people, their

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regional managers, their product
people, all together to get

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excited, and they're gonna talk
about their new product

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offerings to get people really
excited and pumped up about this

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new stuff they're coming out
with that's going to potentially

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change their industry. Well,
maybe not, but that's the story

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that we tell everybody is, wow.
This is going to be pivotal.

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It's going to change everything
as you know it, each team member

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that you have, of course, wants
you to dedicate an hour. The

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product managers want to come
in. They want to spend an hour

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talking about the new features,
the new capabilities, on why

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everyone's world is going to
change because of this

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capability. It's usually
something that's a very small

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feature change, but we believe
that it has changed the world.

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Are you asking the right
question, though, are your top

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performing reps, whether they be
independent manufacturers reps,

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or whether they be your sales
reps? Are they the ones who have

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the most extensive product
knowledge, or the top

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performers, the ones who know
best how to solve client

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problems, how to uncover
opportunities, how to ask the

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right questions to get your
clients to say, Wow, I need this

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better than the alternative
product that's out in the

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marketplace. And what we find is
that the top performers tend to

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have the greatest sell sales
skills. They tend to ask the

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best questions. They tend to
have the greatest curiosity to

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uncover opportunities, rather
than necessarily just having a

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ton of new product knowledge. So
if you want to introduce new

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products, and you have new
products to introduce, here's

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what I would suggest you do
instead, instead of spending

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time talking about the features
and benefits and capabilities of

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this new product. Instead, have
your product managers talk

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about, why did you introduce
this product to begin with? What

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was the demand in the
marketplace? What problem is it

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designed to solve, and what
questions should you be asking

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as a rep to uncover the need for
that product out in the

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marketplace. So if you have a
feature that, let's say, has to

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do with HVAC equipment and how
you hang metal, or whatever it

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is, how you hang wires, then you
better talk about, here's what

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it does for installers that
actually makes their life better

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and reduces risk. You can't just
say, well, here's something that

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improves sheet metal or here's a
new thing we want you to buy.

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You have to explain to the
customer what they would be

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looking for. Say if you've been
frustrated with XYZ, ABC in the

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past, here's a way to solve that
we found in our tests and our

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studies. It reduces labor by 15%
and reduces rework. Well, that's

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a reason to buy it, not just the
capability in itself. You also

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want to solicit info in advance
from your attendees that says,

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Where are deals getting stuck?
Where are we having problems out

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there in the marketplace? What
can the company do to reduce

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friction and make it easier to
do business with us compared to

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other brands? Because now we're
getting insight from them that

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says, Wow, these guys actually
care about what it's like to do

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business with them. That's
great. Now I understand where

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the real value is. You also want
to think through what can some

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of those responses be? Someone
might say, well, your stuff is

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more expensive. If we get that
in advance, we can say some

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people have said it's more
expensive. Here are three case

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studies of why, even though it's
a little bit more expensive,

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people get a better result from
this. How are your results

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different? And now people go,
Oh, that's a good point. Yeah. I

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guess it does make sense that it
is more expensive because we get

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a better outcome. If you want to
get top results for your team,

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take a look at these Same Side,
Selling Academy. Just visit same

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side, selling.com to learn more.
Create different role play

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scenarios with the attendees, so
you can model great

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conversations and outreach
techniques that drive results

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for everybody. So you can say,
look, here are ways to start the

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conversation about this new
offering. Here are ways to get

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people to consider switching
from what they've used in the

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past to our solution. And then
finally, ensure that the

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attendees leave the event with
actionable plans to reinforce

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the concepts, and then set up a
mechanism to reward ongoing

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engagement, so you can create
video based ongoing education.

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Hey, we're gonna pull everyone
together in a zoom session. And

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we're going to discuss this,
whether it's zoom teams, Google,

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meet, I don't care, just some
way for people to maintain

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connectivity with each other and
practice these skills. So

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instead of showing up and
saying, Here are new products,

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here are new capabilities, here
are the features and benefits,

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instead remember, start with,
here's this new product. Here's

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the demand in the marketplace
that prompted us to create this.

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Here are the questions to ask to
determine if your customers

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might need this. Here's a way to
start that conversation. Then we

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want to understand where they're
getting stuck today so we can

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accommodate that and where we
have friction in our process

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that makes it harder or easier
to do business with us, so

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they're more inclined to do
business with us than others.

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Then we want to role play these
different scenarios. Give them

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tools to maintain connectivity
with us going forward and

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continue their education. See we
can share all the information

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about product features and
capabilities via video we just

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send out, but these types of
interactions, practicing real

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life sales, sales scenarios,
those are things that work best

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when everyone's in a room
together, working on it, and

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that's where we'll invest our
time. And the people who do this

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are driving dramatically better
results than the people who

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aren't. These are all concepts
that we have the benefit of

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experiencing every month in the
Same Side Selling Academy, in

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our Coaches Corner, where people
are raising different topics,

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role playing them, and getting
real live feedback that improve

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their outcomes. So if there are
topics you'd like me to cover,

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just drop me a note to Ian at
Ian altman.com We'll see you on

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the next episode of the Same
Side Selling podcast. So long

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you