I have a burn book.
2
00:00:01,861 --> 00:00:14,198
Like in Mean Girls, I have a burn book of sales managers, either my own or my friends, my
peers, who have just swept in and gone, Bethany said you could only get this?
3
00:00:14,198 --> 00:00:17,199
no, no, no, I can give you this.
4
00:00:18,400 --> 00:00:19,881
Boo, terrible.
5
00:00:19,881 --> 00:00:23,453
You are bad sales leader if you do that.
6
00:00:23,453 --> 00:00:27,384
that is, oh, bad salespeople, bad.
7
00:00:28,205 --> 00:00:30,926
Because it just, hurts everybody.
8
00:00:32,185 --> 00:00:35,208
looks like an idiot because they couldn't get the right price.
9
00:00:35,208 --> 00:00:44,967
The client thinks, okay, this company doesn't know what I'm doing and they've given me a
rep that's an idiot that has no power or authority to do anything.
10
00:00:45,028 --> 00:00:51,706
And the manager shot themselves in their foot because guess who's going to have to
negotiate every deal moving forward for that customer.
11
00:00:51,706 --> 00:00:57,008
And if you are enabling that as a sales executive, you're a bad sales executive.
12
00:00:57,511 --> 00:00:58,984
Burn book goes all the way up.
13
00:00:58,984 --> 00:00:59,834
Don't worry.
14
00:01:11,967 --> 00:01:20,610
Hello and welcome to Haverin About, our brand new podcast where we mix stories, strategy
and a bit of Scottish-style blethering I'm Stuart Miller.
15
00:01:20,610 --> 00:01:25,009
and I am Bethany Miller-Urroz, his daughter and co-host.
16
00:01:25,009 --> 00:01:30,171
So, Dad, what has been occupying your brain this week?
17
00:01:30,171 --> 00:01:35,304
Well, aside from work, planning for this podcast, et cetera, house insurance.
18
00:01:36,225 --> 00:01:50,308
The audience may not know, but we had a big storm here in Southeast Minnesota at the end
of July, and it blew over a hundred-year-old oak in our side yard.
19
00:01:50,308 --> 00:01:55,096
Unfortunately, it did hit the house, and it's kind of wiped out the roof.
20
00:01:55,096 --> 00:02:00,176
of our kind of garden room extension that we have off our living area.
21
00:02:00,696 --> 00:02:12,967
And side swiped the kind of block end of our house and like, you know, punched through the
chimney stack and destroyed a bunch of the siding And so I have been that happened in the
22
00:02:12,967 --> 00:02:13,798
end of July.
23
00:02:13,798 --> 00:02:16,598
We're recording this towards the end of September.
24
00:02:16,598 --> 00:02:22,257
So you can see it's been a few months and we've been going backwards and forwards with the
insurance company and.
25
00:02:22,257 --> 00:02:28,488
It's reach and with contractors to just like try and get what we need done to the house.
26
00:02:28,488 --> 00:02:40,850
And we have a good insurance policy, but if you've ever made an insurance claim on your
property, one of the things you'll realize very quickly is it's business.
27
00:02:40,850 --> 00:02:48,061
The insurance company on one side has the objective of giving you enough money.
28
00:02:48,061 --> 00:02:49,092
but not too much.
29
00:02:49,092 --> 00:02:59,152
And you have the objective on your side of, I want my house made good, under the standard
I insured it for, which in our place is replacement value, which is they're supposed to
30
00:02:59,152 --> 00:03:07,720
make it good as new, not just, okay, well, your house is 20 years old and the siding was
20 years old and the roof is 10 years old.
31
00:03:07,720 --> 00:03:10,132
So therefore we're only going to pay you X.
32
00:03:12,014 --> 00:03:15,948
So, you know, from that perspective, we're going backwards and forwards and
33
00:03:15,948 --> 00:03:21,742
They've come back and said they only want to patch some stuff and we've said no, and
you're to have to replace it all.
34
00:03:21,742 --> 00:03:34,816
So I've been, I've been off doing research on the, that particular brand of siding and the
particular roof shingles and working out the kind of rationale as to, well, why would we
35
00:03:34,816 --> 00:03:36,017
have to replace it all?
36
00:03:36,017 --> 00:03:38,058
And it's like, it's great.
37
00:03:38,058 --> 00:03:40,570
So what I found out about the siding is well,
38
00:03:40,570 --> 00:03:51,632
Yes, it's still available and in that color, but no longer in the long Lengths that you
would use, you know, which is like 14 foot and longer.
39
00:03:51,632 --> 00:04:00,432
They only do them in shorter lengths which means that this big solid side of our house is
going to be made up of a patchwork of the shorter lengths.
40
00:04:00,432 --> 00:04:05,963
So I've said it's discontinued because they've discontinued the lengths that are being
replaced.
41
00:04:05,963 --> 00:04:08,094
And so therefore it all needs to be replaced.
42
00:04:08,094 --> 00:04:09,986
you know, with an appropriate product.
43
00:04:09,986 --> 00:04:11,427
And then the same with the roof shingle.
44
00:04:11,427 --> 00:04:21,950
What I found out from the company that manufactures the shingles that are on there is that
they are certified as a system.
45
00:04:21,950 --> 00:04:31,186
And so therefore, for your warranty on the roof, if part of it was older, like installed,
and then they replaced another part of it, it's no longer a system.
46
00:04:31,186 --> 00:04:33,698
because they're obviously different ages and so on and so forth.
47
00:04:33,698 --> 00:04:36,279
So therefore the warranty is degraded.
48
00:04:36,279 --> 00:04:46,487
So I've been working out all my arguments as to why they have to replace the entire roof,
because they've effectively, it's not being made as new.
49
00:04:46,487 --> 00:04:49,188
So that has been my week.
50
00:04:49,188 --> 00:04:57,294
is just like never ending research and coming up with logical arguments as to why it has
to be one thing rather than
51
00:04:57,374 --> 00:05:06,226
Ultimately, it's down to the classic thing of insurance company only wants to give you so
much money and you want more to be able to get to where you feel that you should be.
52
00:05:06,226 --> 00:05:13,937
When as you and Mom have been telling me about this, it's just like the negotiations that
we do in sales.
53
00:05:13,937 --> 00:05:20,032
Because I saw the insurance company sent a report and said, well, this is what's wrong.
54
00:05:20,032 --> 00:05:24,904
And then the contractor or the doctor came in and said, well, yeah, but this is what needs
to be fixed.
55
00:05:24,904 --> 00:05:28,236
And then they came back and said, well, we'll do that, but not this.
56
00:05:28,236 --> 00:05:34,040
And the two of you, you and your contractor, you and your doctor and the insurance
company,
57
00:05:34,040 --> 00:05:37,096
you're just redlining this document back and forth.
58
00:05:37,096 --> 00:05:45,091
And so eventually, I you're going to land on something and you will no longer have a hole
in the side of your house anymore at some point, maybe.
59
00:05:45,575 --> 00:05:56,233
Well, and obviously that's our objective is to get the solution that we believe that we
need to be able to sort of continue living happily in this house, cetera.
60
00:05:56,233 --> 00:05:58,294
And I think that it's kind of interesting.
61
00:05:58,294 --> 00:06:05,289
We've reached an inflection point where we've had to bring, we've had to initiate
something called the appraisal clause.
62
00:06:05,289 --> 00:06:05,870
Google it.
63
00:06:05,870 --> 00:06:07,782
You'll work out what that is.
64
00:06:07,782 --> 00:06:13,248
And basically it's bringing in some experts to say, well, yeah, what is the
65
00:06:13,248 --> 00:06:19,701
What is going on in terms of the value of the house if you do this or don't do this, et
cetera.
66
00:06:19,701 --> 00:06:23,803
And so that process is about to go on now horribly, horribly.
67
00:06:23,803 --> 00:06:34,857
If they don't agree, because basically the insurance company gets an appraisal and we get
an appraisal and they're supposed to resolve it through kind of like a negotiation
68
00:06:34,857 --> 00:06:35,608
process.
69
00:06:35,608 --> 00:06:36,999
If they don't reach
70
00:06:36,999 --> 00:06:46,802
a successful conclusion, then the horrible part beyond that gets a little bit more legal
and it has to go to an arbitrator who basically will sit in judgment and go, I agree with
71
00:06:46,802 --> 00:06:50,063
that guy or I don't agree with him on this and et cetera, et cetera.
72
00:06:50,063 --> 00:06:55,066
And they will basically make a ruling as to what the claim should actually be.
73
00:06:55,066 --> 00:07:02,590
But we're pretty convinced, myself and our contractor, pretty convinced that the insurance
company has low balled us.
74
00:07:02,590 --> 00:07:11,300
in terms of, you know, they've given the minimum they really need to, and that actually,
you know, through this appraisal process, we'll get up there.
75
00:07:11,300 --> 00:07:22,103
And so it's that classic thing of starting in different places and trying to come to the
middle at a point whereby, as one of my old bosses used to say quite often is, nobody's
76
00:07:22,103 --> 00:07:22,665
happy.
77
00:07:22,665 --> 00:07:24,162
Nobody's happier than everyone.
78
00:07:24,162 --> 00:07:28,491
is you're trying to make everybody happy and that's unusually almost impossible.
79
00:07:28,491 --> 00:07:32,029
But now we're trying to get to at least nobody's happy.
80
00:07:32,029 --> 00:07:33,934
It can be satisfied but not happy.
81
00:07:33,934 --> 00:07:38,779
So you've been dealing with all these contracts and red lines and experts and pushback.
82
00:07:38,779 --> 00:07:48,699
Obviously those are skills that you have learned over your career and it's nice to know
that you can apply it to not only selling healthcare technology but also with home
83
00:07:48,699 --> 00:07:49,602
insurance.
84
00:07:49,602 --> 00:07:55,556
And it is a flawless transition into this week's episode which is all about negotiation.
85
00:08:07,983 --> 00:08:10,385
Yeah, negotiations.
86
00:08:10,385 --> 00:08:15,697
negotiations are everywhere when it comes to dealing with health care information
technology.
87
00:08:15,697 --> 00:08:18,208
Clearly, the contracting cycle is one part of it.
88
00:08:18,208 --> 00:08:31,436
But it can also be about negotiating an implementation plan, negotiating some variation to
support that if you have a situation, you suddenly need extra support or more accelerated
89
00:08:31,436 --> 00:08:32,037
support.
90
00:08:32,037 --> 00:08:33,228
How can that happen?
91
00:08:33,228 --> 00:08:35,550
So those negotiations happen everywhere.
92
00:08:35,550 --> 00:08:42,807
But I think what we're going to do, and they also apply to kind of like partner
relationships as well.
93
00:08:42,807 --> 00:08:53,574
If you're in a commercial setting and you have partners, you're often in a situation
whereby you're negotiating what the rules of your alliance are gonna be.
94
00:08:53,574 --> 00:09:01,025
Or if you think about it from a personal perspective, when you join or sometimes even when
you leave a company,
95
00:09:01,025 --> 00:09:14,017
you get involved in negotiations and it's how you apply to those But I think today we're
going to concentrate on the real aspect of, you well, how do you handle negotiations as a
96
00:09:14,017 --> 00:09:17,341
vendor with a hospital or health system and vice versa?
97
00:09:17,341 --> 00:09:18,782
How is a health system?
98
00:09:18,782 --> 00:09:21,755
Do you handle your side of those negotiations?
99
00:09:21,755 --> 00:09:26,489
Which, you know, I maybe tell a little anecdote about when I left.
100
00:09:26,489 --> 00:09:35,919
the provider side as a hospital manager over to the dark side, working on the vendor side.
101
00:09:35,919 --> 00:09:47,911
The procurement manager of the hospital system I was in, I'd become quite good friends
with, and he actually gave me a gift of a book, which was the uh Miller-Heinman strategic
102
00:09:47,911 --> 00:09:48,271
selling.
103
00:09:48,271 --> 00:09:50,925
And he said, take this, you're going to need it.
104
00:09:50,925 --> 00:09:59,555
So there was a guy who was heading up procurement inside a hospital who basically was
trying to understand the playbook of the vendors.
105
00:09:59,555 --> 00:10:04,920
And so that was a very important lesson right early in my career, you know, in my early
thirties.
106
00:10:04,920 --> 00:10:06,161
went, boy, right.
107
00:10:06,161 --> 00:10:06,983
OK.
108
00:10:06,983 --> 00:10:07,995
He was a smart man.
109
00:10:07,995 --> 00:10:08,225
Yeah.
110
00:10:08,225 --> 00:10:08,766
Buckle in.
111
00:10:08,766 --> 00:10:09,908
You got to learn this stuff.
112
00:10:09,908 --> 00:10:10,459
All right.
113
00:10:10,459 --> 00:10:12,390
So let's dive straight into it.
114
00:10:12,390 --> 00:10:21,584
One thing that I think you and I both love is, you know, when you, when you've gone
through all the selling cycle and you're getting to this negotiation stage, what are the
115
00:10:21,584 --> 00:10:24,707
terms that you are actually negotiating?
116
00:10:24,707 --> 00:10:31,744
How do you break down that 60 plus page contract, which may be your own company's contract
as well as any.
117
00:10:31,744 --> 00:10:39,773
subcontractors that you're using, any hosting or anything else, how do you break those
things down into the actual negotiables?
118
00:10:39,773 --> 00:10:46,509
Yeah, so I think it's really interesting when you actually get involved with a hospital
health system.
119
00:10:46,509 --> 00:10:54,556
Sometimes they'll have, if they're big enough, they have internal counsel, you know,
either a procurement specialist who is quasi-legal, maybe even a paralegal.
120
00:10:54,556 --> 00:11:00,931
Some health organizations have lawyers themselves on that, that will assist with the
procurement.
121
00:11:00,931 --> 00:11:05,075
All health systems typically have some kind of legal counsel in-house.
122
00:11:05,075 --> 00:11:11,615
but they may be focused on different aspects of legal risk and not necessarily always
procurement.
123
00:11:11,615 --> 00:11:21,757
But either way, you will have somebody who is going through and trying to be nitty gritty
about every line in your 60 to 100 page contract.
124
00:11:21,757 --> 00:11:33,179
And so the challenge is, yeah, that can be tiresome and tedious to go through, but the
real meat typically comes down to anything from five to 20 key items.
125
00:11:33,179 --> 00:11:41,356
that are real deal breakers potentially in terms of between you and the party on the other
side.
126
00:11:41,356 --> 00:11:53,962
And so looking at that and breaking it down into a term sheet, which is I separate those
out from the huge tens of thousands of words in this big contract and break it down into
127
00:11:53,962 --> 00:11:57,444
here's the critical things that actually really matter to both of us.
128
00:11:57,444 --> 00:12:00,126
And quite often it's, yeah,
129
00:12:00,126 --> 00:12:00,686
prop.
130
00:12:00,686 --> 00:12:02,055
So if you're on YouTube,
131
00:12:02,055 --> 00:12:02,695
love the prop.
132
00:12:02,695 --> 00:12:03,325
You get the prop.
133
00:12:03,325 --> 00:12:04,247
I'll carry on talking.
134
00:12:04,247 --> 00:12:10,382
But really taking those key items, breaking them down, and making it very explicit.
135
00:12:10,382 --> 00:12:14,545
What is it that we are likely to sit and have a debate about?
136
00:12:14,545 --> 00:12:16,445
And how can we position against that?
137
00:12:16,445 --> 00:12:18,187
Because that does two things.
138
00:12:18,187 --> 00:12:20,639
One, it provides some focus through all this.
139
00:12:20,639 --> 00:12:28,506
mist of war that is the kind of like legal rattling the saber that goes on on the rest of
the contractual document.
140
00:12:28,506 --> 00:12:37,973
But it also allows you to start plotting a strategy as to how are we going to try and
position each of these things?
141
00:12:37,973 --> 00:12:39,074
Where are we?
142
00:12:39,074 --> 00:12:42,396
Have we got some flexibility to have some debate and give some things?
143
00:12:42,396 --> 00:12:46,679
But it also allows you to kind of weigh up that as you go through that term sheet,
144
00:12:46,679 --> 00:12:55,749
It allows you to weigh up what is the relative importance from one party to the other of
each of these items that are in the term sheet.
145
00:12:55,749 --> 00:12:58,102
So I think term sheets are really, really useful.
146
00:12:58,102 --> 00:13:05,119
And aside from anything, it's great when you can go check mark against one of them and go,
all right, we've reached agreement on that one.
147
00:13:05,119 --> 00:13:07,271
What are we boiled down to now?
148
00:13:07,352 --> 00:13:08,162
Yeah.
149
00:13:08,206 --> 00:13:13,600
my prop, for those of you listening on podcast services and watching on YouTube, is an
index card.
150
00:13:13,600 --> 00:13:14,861
Mine aren't as fancy.
151
00:13:14,861 --> 00:13:20,325
So this is one of my favorite tips from Mike Fiorito who dad and I both worked with.
152
00:13:20,325 --> 00:13:22,117
Incredible salesperson.
153
00:13:22,117 --> 00:13:27,553
And what was great about him is yes, he could do all the sales negotiation stuff.
154
00:13:27,553 --> 00:13:31,285
but he broke it down and he always had these index cards and they always had his name on
them.
155
00:13:31,285 --> 00:13:33,537
were very bougie index cards.
156
00:13:33,537 --> 00:13:39,311
And he would literally just write down column by column what they wanted, what we wanted.
157
00:13:39,311 --> 00:13:42,735
And he would sit and be like, okay, where do we need to be here?
158
00:13:42,735 --> 00:13:51,470
And then, you know, there's been times when, and I'm sure, you know, as you're prepping
with your sales manager or your finance team or your legal team, and it's like, oh, they
159
00:13:51,470 --> 00:13:52,832
really want, you know,
160
00:13:52,832 --> 00:14:04,066
three year term and we really want to push them to five and you spend like hours figuring
out how you go from three to five and then you get into the conversation you say five and
161
00:14:04,066 --> 00:14:06,032
the client just goes yeah okay that's fine.
162
00:14:06,032 --> 00:14:17,425
You're like wait I just prepped all of my all of my rationale and my reasons why and you
just agreed to it but you've got to prep for all of those things you have to know and this
163
00:14:17,425 --> 00:14:19,267
is where if you I think
164
00:14:19,267 --> 00:14:29,978
where you're really lucky is if you're in like a 200 to 500 person company, because any
bigger and your legal teams are like, you're not gonna get your general counsel, they're
165
00:14:29,978 --> 00:14:30,638
too far away.
166
00:14:30,638 --> 00:14:34,920
And if you're a small team, you are also stretched that you just, you don't know what's
going.
167
00:14:34,920 --> 00:14:43,031
But when you're in a couple hundred person company, you do have access to your legal team
and your security team, your compliance team.
168
00:14:43,031 --> 00:14:50,724
If they are good and they are smart and you have a great sales enablement team, which
we've been blessed to work with many great sales enablement teams in our careers, they
169
00:14:50,724 --> 00:15:00,126
will explain to you the contracts and they will explain why we want certain things and why
we don't want certain things and where we have flexibility and where we don't.
170
00:15:00,126 --> 00:15:08,994
And if you are a salesperson and you don't understand those things in your contract, you
have to go to your manager or your legal and an answer, whatever bit.
171
00:15:08,994 --> 00:15:12,088
you don't understand and figure out why they care about it.
172
00:15:12,088 --> 00:15:20,864
Because there's probably a reason, there's hopefully a reason, but you have to understand
kind of their rationale behind what they're sticking on for some of these things.
173
00:15:20,864 --> 00:15:21,354
Yeah.
174
00:15:21,354 --> 00:15:30,461
And sometimes the other thing to watch for in your career is sometimes that will change
even within the same company, within the same product.
175
00:15:30,461 --> 00:15:35,525
You will find that last quarter the company wanted this and that was important to them.
176
00:15:35,525 --> 00:15:44,951
And this quarter they now have shifted their position as to what's a drop dead uh item.
177
00:15:44,951 --> 00:15:49,165
And that can often be informed by things that you don't have visibility into.
178
00:15:49,165 --> 00:15:58,755
Like quite often I remember if there had been a financial audit inside the company, you
know, I've worked for a lot of publicly traded companies, if there'd been a financial
179
00:15:58,755 --> 00:16:09,327
audit and the auditors come in and go, well, I know that that was how you were treating
revenue recognition, big words, but now we need you to...
180
00:16:09,327 --> 00:16:10,668
treat it this way.
181
00:16:10,668 --> 00:16:21,827
Suddenly, that can shift in a second, your whole negotiation position from one quarter to
the next quarter, because now they're basically the auditors are saying if you don't
182
00:16:21,827 --> 00:16:25,880
change the way you handle this, then we're going to move that forward.
183
00:16:25,880 --> 00:16:32,105
We're going to treat that revenue in a different way that may impact what the CFO is able
to project forward.
184
00:16:32,105 --> 00:16:35,889
So it can be things that seem very Byzantine.
185
00:16:35,889 --> 00:16:39,132
and unrelated to you trying to get a deal with the customer.
186
00:16:39,132 --> 00:16:41,093
You need to be able to adapt to that.
187
00:16:41,093 --> 00:16:43,894
And you need to stay on top of those things as well.
188
00:16:43,894 --> 00:16:48,768
Keep your finger on the pulse, your ear to the grip, whatever analogy you want.
189
00:16:48,768 --> 00:16:52,381
You need to stay tuned into are things shifting?
190
00:16:52,381 --> 00:17:01,140
And as Bethany said, I have worked with some amazing sort of like deal advisors internally
who were basically
191
00:17:01,140 --> 00:17:01,800
in charge of that.
192
00:17:01,800 --> 00:17:12,246
And usually it was somebody in finance who was staying on top of those things and then
would be directing what was happening with effectively deal telegraphing.
193
00:17:12,246 --> 00:17:13,628
How can we shape things now?
194
00:17:13,628 --> 00:17:23,094
there's been some, that's a person to, if you're going to be responsible for negotiating,
that's a person to develop a very warm relationship with.
195
00:17:23,094 --> 00:17:24,956
Buy them chocolates, buy them flowers.
196
00:17:24,956 --> 00:17:38,700
whatever it might be, depending on their interest, because they become really important to
keeping you in the right guidelines for being able to successfully negotiate.
197
00:17:38,700 --> 00:17:49,442
that's another kind of experiential tip that you should try and get early on in your
career is make sure you understand who those people are so that you can have that rapport.
198
00:17:49,442 --> 00:18:04,733
When I think anyone that sold healthcare technology software in the, I'm going to say like
2017 to 2022, when everything was shifting from term license to subscription, where guess
199
00:18:04,733 --> 00:18:05,253
what?
200
00:18:05,253 --> 00:18:09,904
If you can secure a nice five, seven year term, life is great.
201
00:18:09,904 --> 00:18:17,955
To subscription where, you know, I worked for a company where they shifted from, yes, we
want three year, five year, and we will comp you
202
00:18:17,955 --> 00:18:21,754
on your three-year fine, the more years the better, you will get more money.
203
00:18:21,754 --> 00:18:27,552
And then literally overnight it was, don't care about term, we just want one year
subscription.
204
00:18:27,552 --> 00:18:29,812
Subscription, that's all we care about.
205
00:18:29,812 --> 00:18:30,770
It was like, really?
206
00:18:30,770 --> 00:18:36,310
and suddenly it didn't matter if you had a five-year SAS ACV agreement.
207
00:18:36,310 --> 00:18:40,315
That suddenly didn't mean anything from a revenue perspective.
208
00:18:40,315 --> 00:18:40,896
Yeah.
209
00:18:40,896 --> 00:18:41,315
Yeah.
210
00:18:41,315 --> 00:18:41,876
exactly.
211
00:18:41,876 --> 00:18:45,011
It's good times.
212
00:18:45,011 --> 00:18:47,245
It's good times when the industry shifts like that.
213
00:18:47,245 --> 00:18:49,838
know, it left a lot of scars on me at the time.
214
00:18:49,838 --> 00:19:00,078
I think the other thing, you know, to just go around, you know, as well as knowing your
own company stakeholders and what matters to them is understanding who you're selling to,
215
00:19:00,078 --> 00:19:02,510
their internal stakeholders and process.
216
00:19:02,510 --> 00:19:05,002
And that's been a, you you mentioned the alignment.
217
00:19:05,002 --> 00:19:07,144
That's been a thing in sales for forever, right?
218
00:19:07,144 --> 00:19:13,750
You got to know who signs the deal, but that has shifted again tremendously over the last
few years.
219
00:19:13,750 --> 00:19:14,862
And you would think
220
00:19:14,862 --> 00:19:24,213
You you and I have both done campouts for a wet signature and you just sit in the lobby,
sit in the Panera and the Starbucks and you wait for your wet signature.
221
00:19:24,213 --> 00:19:28,586
Now it's mostly electronic, but that's not necessarily easier.
222
00:19:42,151 --> 00:19:55,958
No, because a lot organizations have invested in procurement automation systems, either as
part of their ERP in an extension or a specialist products to be able to do it.
223
00:19:55,958 --> 00:20:07,865
One of the things that does is it takes it from, like you were saying in the old days, CIO
would get the final copy of the contract from you and either would walk you in
224
00:20:08,483 --> 00:20:17,189
to the CEO to sign it, or they would walk in, get it signed and come back in and go, there
you go, congratulations, and off they would go.
225
00:20:17,189 --> 00:20:20,130
So it was a very linear transaction.
226
00:20:20,130 --> 00:20:22,433
You understood it very cleanly.
227
00:20:22,433 --> 00:20:34,794
The challenges now, and this kind of reflects back on the Knights who say no that we
discussed last time that is in the Substack article, is now in that procurement,
228
00:20:34,794 --> 00:20:44,532
uh approval system for a contract, you might find there are 15 steps and seven people who
are involved in the 15 steps, but then going backwards and forwards.
229
00:20:44,532 --> 00:20:54,852
And I first came across that in a deal I was trying to get done with Orlando Health,
whereby we were sat with their paralegal person.
230
00:20:54,852 --> 00:20:57,785
And she was trying to explain to us
231
00:20:57,785 --> 00:20:59,756
why this was going to take three days.
232
00:20:59,756 --> 00:21:01,807
And I was like, well, OK.
233
00:21:01,807 --> 00:21:06,499
And she explained who each of the parties were in their chain, their workflow chain.
234
00:21:06,499 --> 00:21:10,173
And then she explained how two of them were out on PTO.
235
00:21:10,173 --> 00:21:14,594
People at executive level in hospitals and health systems get a lot of time away.
236
00:21:14,789 --> 00:21:20,930
Either for personal family PTO or they go on conferences or they get they're just out of
the office.
237
00:21:20,971 --> 00:21:22,973
And so therefore, they
238
00:21:22,973 --> 00:21:30,853
Those two individuals had a policy of they wouldn't sign anything that wasn't on a locked
down computer at their desk.
239
00:21:30,853 --> 00:21:34,416
And so therefore they had to be in the office to push that button.
240
00:21:34,416 --> 00:21:36,828
They wouldn't do it on their laptop.
241
00:21:36,828 --> 00:21:38,651
They wouldn't do it on their phone.
242
00:21:38,651 --> 00:21:48,290
was literally their policy was, and it was individual policy, that unless they were there
at their desk to press that button for their approval of that step,
243
00:21:48,290 --> 00:21:49,101
then it didn't get done.
244
00:21:49,101 --> 00:21:51,543
And that's why she had to explain to me.
245
00:21:51,543 --> 00:21:56,947
And unfortunately, it was quarter end and they weren't going to be back till two days
after.
246
00:21:56,947 --> 00:22:02,443
And of course, you know, I got I got a less than friendly call from our CEO.
247
00:22:02,443 --> 00:22:03,957
What do mean they're not going to sign today?
248
00:22:03,957 --> 00:22:06,810
So those kind of steps.
249
00:22:06,810 --> 00:22:14,327
So that's why it's very, very important to try and diagnose not only who those people are,
you know, the Knights who say no.
250
00:22:14,327 --> 00:22:16,909
but also how are they going to execute?
251
00:22:16,909 --> 00:22:19,850
It's one of the things I ask my salespeople all the time.
252
00:22:19,850 --> 00:22:25,321
Do you know exactly, one, do you know what software system they're using to sign and
approve this?
253
00:22:25,321 --> 00:22:26,349
How are they gonna do it?
254
00:22:26,349 --> 00:22:27,412
How are they gonna execute?
255
00:22:27,412 --> 00:22:28,582
Who's on PTO?
256
00:22:28,582 --> 00:22:29,723
Who's out in the office?
257
00:22:29,723 --> 00:22:30,865
What are the backups?
258
00:22:30,865 --> 00:22:41,130
And have that conversation with your executive sponsor, whoever it might be, to try and
get that inside track as to what that process is because,
259
00:22:41,130 --> 00:22:44,933
you will be gotcha'd in ways that you can't even imagine.
260
00:22:44,933 --> 00:22:52,190
And it's very, very important for your own sanity, as well as to give accurate reporting
back to your leadership as to where that goes.
261
00:22:52,190 --> 00:22:59,515
And so that's that, that I think is an important part of, yes, the technology has made
that nominally easier.
262
00:22:59,515 --> 00:23:02,187
It's also made it more complicated.
263
00:23:02,187 --> 00:23:05,369
that then typically complication normally means not easy.
264
00:23:05,369 --> 00:23:06,159
So
265
00:23:07,411 --> 00:23:18,962
When I've managed people, managed a sales team, I've not believed a close date unless I
have seen an email where they've said, okay, just to confirm what we said on the phone or
266
00:23:18,962 --> 00:23:21,334
here's the notes from the meeting that we discussed this.
267
00:23:21,334 --> 00:23:28,109
And it says in there, we'll sign by X, by Y on this date and by this process.
268
00:23:28,109 --> 00:23:33,242
And they will go to this person and then this person on our side Unless I see that written
down.
269
00:23:35,461 --> 00:23:41,501
I believe that you're trying for that date, but I don't believe that they, the client has
necessarily agreed to that signed date.
270
00:23:41,501 --> 00:23:43,243
Two very different things.
271
00:23:43,912 --> 00:23:54,330
Well, and just as you're saying that, and I'm thinking about the Knights you say no, um
there's one I forgot to mention last week that is appropriate to negotiations, which is
272
00:23:54,330 --> 00:24:08,008
the whole idea, and we came across this several times in my career, whereby an external
procurement consultant is brought in who typically is wheeled in as a negotiator to review
273
00:24:08,008 --> 00:24:08,909
your contract.
274
00:24:08,909 --> 00:24:18,540
And sometimes that can be just pragmatic of, like I was explaining earlier on, they don't
have any inside counsel who are doing this, so they bring in a lawyer or something.
275
00:24:18,540 --> 00:24:26,779
The other one to be careful and watch for is a procurement consultant.
276
00:24:26,779 --> 00:24:33,298
Typically, that is somebody who all they do every day is negotiate vendor contracts.
277
00:24:33,298 --> 00:24:45,987
And so therefore they are trained, experienced and have a lot of history of sitting down
opposite vendors and they are typically paid a bonus if they're not on a flat rate on the
278
00:24:45,987 --> 00:24:48,669
basis of, how much can you get this price down?
279
00:24:48,669 --> 00:24:57,165
So if there's a starting place and then they come in anyway, they can structure their
consulting gigs the way they want to, but typically they will come in.
280
00:24:57,165 --> 00:24:59,557
uh One apocryphal story.
281
00:24:59,557 --> 00:25:14,565
which was the mid Atlantic when I worked there for a company a number of years ago, there
was a very well known by name consultant who basically got involved in every single deal
282
00:25:14,565 --> 00:25:19,759
we did from Maine down to Virginia, up and down the I-95 corridor.
283
00:25:20,110 --> 00:25:25,383
So wherever we were shortlisted and were a vendor of choice, up he popped.
284
00:25:25,383 --> 00:25:28,685
And basically, think he was following us around.
285
00:25:28,685 --> 00:25:33,789
And then he would go to the CFO of that institution and go, I know how to get these guys.
286
00:25:33,789 --> 00:25:37,771
If you just hire me and here's my fee, et cetera.
287
00:25:37,771 --> 00:25:45,524
So anyway, we got to the point whereby our CFO at the time is a gentleman called Bob
Coletti.
288
00:25:45,720 --> 00:25:59,121
Bob basically, uh the way to try and shorten your negotiations was if you said, yeah,
so-and-so is involved in this one, you just get, insert a stripe of expletives.
289
00:25:59,121 --> 00:26:01,304
And then he'd go, yeah, sure, fine, whatever.
290
00:26:01,304 --> 00:26:04,386
Just, know, okay, I don't even defend that.
291
00:26:04,386 --> 00:26:07,090
Just fold on those, but do it gracefully.
292
00:26:07,090 --> 00:26:08,511
So that was it.
293
00:26:08,511 --> 00:26:10,833
So I think that's another player.
294
00:26:10,833 --> 00:26:22,451
that as you're negotiating, just watch out for suddenly a consultant, external consultant
being introduced who is not outside council, but is actually a procurement consultant.
295
00:26:22,451 --> 00:26:23,853
uh
296
00:26:24,031 --> 00:26:24,482
Yeah,
297
00:26:24,439 --> 00:26:26,100
I have a burn book.
298
00:26:26,390 --> 00:26:38,727
Like in Mean Girls, I have a burn book of sales managers, either my own or my friends, my
peers, who have just swept in and gone, Bethany said you could only get this?
299
00:26:38,727 --> 00:26:41,728
no, no, no, I can give you this.
300
00:26:42,929 --> 00:26:44,410
Boo, terrible.
301
00:26:44,410 --> 00:26:47,982
You are bad sales leader if you do that.
302
00:26:47,982 --> 00:26:51,913
that is, oh, bad salespeople, bad.
303
00:26:52,734 --> 00:26:55,455
Because it just, hurts everybody.
304
00:26:56,714 --> 00:26:59,737
looks like an idiot because they couldn't get the right price.
305
00:26:59,737 --> 00:27:09,496
The client thinks, okay, this company doesn't know what I'm doing and they've given me a
rep that's an idiot that has no power or authority to do anything.
306
00:27:09,557 --> 00:27:16,235
And the manager shot themselves in their foot because guess who's going to have to
negotiate every deal moving forward for that customer.
307
00:27:16,235 --> 00:27:21,537
And if you are enabling that as a sales executive, you're a bad sales executive.
308
00:27:22,040 --> 00:27:23,513
Burn book goes all the way up.
309
00:27:23,513 --> 00:27:24,705
Don't worry.
310
00:27:25,203 --> 00:27:33,948
What's worse is when you're a sales manager and you try to be good and ethical and
strategic and planned about this.
311
00:27:33,948 --> 00:27:44,394
believe me, there are times when you might say, listen, you as the rep, your relationship
that you've built and established with these guys is so important.
312
00:27:44,394 --> 00:27:47,295
I don't want you to be the bad guy.
313
00:27:47,755 --> 00:27:52,879
So let me play the bad guy, particularly if it's something whereby you're drawing a hard
line.
314
00:27:52,879 --> 00:27:54,199
Absolutely not.
315
00:27:54,759 --> 00:28:02,205
um And so that's one that I think if it's negotiated and it's clear and transparent
between you, then that's fine.
316
00:28:02,205 --> 00:28:04,806
Because then it's part of your playbook.
317
00:28:04,806 --> 00:28:08,749
It's part of how you're gonna sort of conduct the relationship with the client.
318
00:28:08,749 --> 00:28:10,311
The one that I hate the most.
319
00:28:10,311 --> 00:28:18,937
And I've probably got a couple of CEOs, maybe not in the burn book, but whereby I'm like,
okay, I'm never getting them involved in a negotiation ever again.
320
00:28:18,937 --> 00:28:20,033
Is where...
321
00:28:20,033 --> 00:28:29,336
you bring the CEO into kind of like do the kind of warm, you know, kiss the baby meeting
with the C-suite on their side and things.
322
00:28:29,336 --> 00:28:35,537
And then suddenly they are giving stuff away that you fought really hard to defend.
323
00:28:35,892 --> 00:28:38,893
And I've had that happen to me a couple of times in life.
324
00:28:38,893 --> 00:28:44,554
And I would say that particularly for smaller organizations, be very clear about that.
325
00:28:44,554 --> 00:28:47,789
If you're going to undermine the guys that you've got,
326
00:28:47,789 --> 00:28:59,028
doing that because this is your, I mean, the company is literally your baby that you're
trying to grow and accelerate, but still try and be ethical in the way that you deal with
327
00:28:59,028 --> 00:29:01,660
that and be professional about how you do it.
328
00:29:01,660 --> 00:29:11,350
And the greatest, the greatest I have ever seen a CEO be is he turns around to that
C-suite and goes, you know, I really want to thank you for your business.
329
00:29:11,350 --> 00:29:13,041
I think you're awesome.
330
00:29:13,461 --> 00:29:14,452
This is my guy.
331
00:29:14,452 --> 00:29:15,923
This is my gal.
332
00:29:15,955 --> 00:29:18,657
I really trust them, they're gonna look after you.
333
00:29:18,657 --> 00:29:22,379
So make sure that is how a CEO should behave.
334
00:29:22,379 --> 00:29:26,781
Even if internally they're screaming going, my God, I wanna close this deal.
335
00:29:26,781 --> 00:29:40,168
So I think that it's about trying to have that restraint and not be the person who,
because what'll happen is that customer will remember, ah, okay, I need to go all the way
336
00:29:40,168 --> 00:29:46,161
to, insert name of CEO, to be able to get the best deal or to get the attention.
337
00:29:46,343 --> 00:29:59,584
And if they give out their cell phone number or they give them a private email address or
something, and to establish this warm rapport, believe me, that customer will never lose
338
00:29:59,584 --> 00:30:01,636
that and never forget it.
339
00:30:01,636 --> 00:30:05,359
And they will go, okay, I now have a hot wire.
340
00:30:05,359 --> 00:30:13,506
It can seem very enabling and empowering to do that, but just be very, very careful about
what you wish upon yourself.
341
00:30:13,644 --> 00:30:14,624
Absolutely.
342
00:30:14,624 --> 00:30:23,884
No, I think if you're a rep, you just have to be aware of, you know, if you are the
quarterback for the account as the account manager, or if this is a new logo account and
343
00:30:23,884 --> 00:30:31,204
you're out there being the hunter and you are at the head of the pack, you just have to be
aware of who you're bringing in.
344
00:30:31,924 --> 00:30:34,104
And, you know, like I love a prep call.
345
00:30:34,104 --> 00:30:35,164
I love a prep call.
346
00:30:35,164 --> 00:30:41,100
It kills me when the chain of command in sales do not turn up for the prep call.
347
00:30:41,100 --> 00:30:44,262
because they're like, I know how sell, I've been selling for 30 years.
348
00:30:45,083 --> 00:30:49,446
But you have to enable the rep because otherwise why is the rep there?
349
00:30:49,446 --> 00:30:56,850
If you are the leader and you can close every deal yourself, why are you paying someone
six figures?
350
00:30:56,850 --> 00:31:00,704
I bring up that comment about early stage companies.
351
00:31:00,704 --> 00:31:07,751
Because in very early stage, like startups, it usually is the CEO who is out pitching and
trying to close deals.
352
00:31:07,751 --> 00:31:22,451
And as you scale and start to have a sales force, can feel very dangerous to let go of
that and to feel like you can trust your sales team to close the deals.
353
00:31:22,451 --> 00:31:27,915
And sometimes you can't, sometimes you find that you haven't hired the talent that you
thought you were getting.
354
00:31:27,915 --> 00:31:30,096
So that becomes really important.
355
00:31:30,096 --> 00:31:39,961
We can do an whole podcast about the kind of, okay, well, you know, who are you hiring and
for what type of capabilities and competencies.
356
00:31:39,961 --> 00:31:42,963
uh But let's save that for another time.
357
00:31:42,963 --> 00:31:50,577
But I think it becomes very important that as you scale, you can no longer be the closer
as the CEO.
358
00:31:50,577 --> 00:32:01,602
You've got to look at being able to enable your sales team to take that over and to be in
that position whereby they're closing the deal, they're negotiating the last items on that
359
00:32:01,602 --> 00:32:02,573
term sheet.
360
00:32:02,901 --> 00:32:12,866
Well and I think that kind of goes back to what we were talking about at the beginning of
what's best in a deal for a customer, is not necessarily what's best for the rep and it's
361
00:32:12,866 --> 00:32:15,326
not necessarily best for the company.
362
00:32:15,407 --> 00:32:15,727
Right.
363
00:32:15,727 --> 00:32:19,648
There are certain times when one of those three will, will win.
364
00:32:19,648 --> 00:32:22,840
There's always someone who's getting a better deal, right.
365
00:32:22,840 --> 00:32:23,431
In a deal.
366
00:32:23,431 --> 00:32:25,793
And it could be any of those three.
367
00:32:25,793 --> 00:32:26,153
Right.
368
00:32:26,153 --> 00:32:29,714
And it's, you know, especially I think for the company.
369
00:32:30,406 --> 00:32:35,550
That goes back to what I saying about, you know, it used to be a three year term, now it's
a one year term that we want.
370
00:32:35,811 --> 00:32:40,484
Well, okay, that's great for the company, but it's impacting my commission.
371
00:32:40,690 --> 00:32:40,982
Yep.
372
00:32:40,982 --> 00:32:42,278
So, let's take a look at
373
00:32:42,278 --> 00:32:55,578
had deal structures change in the middle of a commission year, that's always a really,
really gnarly one for people in a sales role, is that you start the year, you get your
374
00:32:55,578 --> 00:33:00,278
ICP, your comp plan, and you look at it and you go, oh, okay, I've got a fair chance.
375
00:33:00,278 --> 00:33:02,638
I've got this amount of pipeline whatever.
376
00:33:02,638 --> 00:33:04,758
Yeah, okay, can see how I can do that.
377
00:33:04,758 --> 00:33:08,978
I need five deals of this size, three deals of that size.
378
00:33:09,981 --> 00:33:11,922
Yeah, that'll get me to these triggers.
379
00:33:11,922 --> 00:33:20,028
So, you know, if you've been in sales for a long time, you that's first thing you do, you
know, all the verbiage about, you know, the companies have rights to do other things.
380
00:33:21,469 --> 00:33:26,592
another thought, we need a podcast on compensation plans and how to adjust to them.
381
00:33:26,592 --> 00:33:29,594
And I think we both know a really good friend for that.
382
00:33:29,594 --> 00:33:30,374
Yeah.
383
00:33:30,374 --> 00:33:35,563
I think he literally wrote a book about comp plans We'll get him on the score.
384
00:33:35,563 --> 00:33:35,793
go.
385
00:33:35,793 --> 00:33:38,084
We'll get Chris on the line.
386
00:33:38,084 --> 00:33:42,686
Anyway, so I think that it's very important to you to look at that.
387
00:33:42,686 --> 00:33:47,789
But also, misaligned incentives becomes very, important.
388
00:33:47,789 --> 00:33:56,882
I'm sure Chris would cover this, is when you're creating a comp plan, it needs to be
aligned with the company's objectives.
389
00:33:57,266 --> 00:34:00,977
which need to be aligned with the executive's comp plan.
390
00:34:01,098 --> 00:34:13,074
Because I think the other thing that can happen is if the executives have a set of
incentives either related to the growth of company or some metric that is out there or
391
00:34:13,074 --> 00:34:24,189
suite of metrics, and that doesn't map onto the way you have structured compensation for
your sales organization, you're going to get misaligned incentives.
392
00:34:24,189 --> 00:34:24,983
Because
393
00:34:24,983 --> 00:34:31,189
the salespeople are going to be out there trying to structure deals that are this shape,
let's say rectangular.
394
00:34:31,189 --> 00:34:36,473
And meanwhile, the executives are sat there going, no, everything needs to be an octagon.
395
00:34:37,034 --> 00:34:46,843
And that's when things get really, complicated on the vendor side of things to try and be
able to negotiate that through.
396
00:34:46,843 --> 00:34:51,626
But I think that one of the other things is that that
397
00:34:51,768 --> 00:35:05,272
kind of applies a little bit similarly in terms of on the client side as well, whereby
sometimes, yeah, you'll have somebody who is there and they're driving for, want the best
398
00:35:05,272 --> 00:35:11,414
technical solution, but somebody else will be driving and saying, I want to spend the
minimum amount of money.
399
00:35:11,634 --> 00:35:20,488
And that money can then break down to a fight between, I want to minimize OPEX versus I
don't want to spend any capital.
400
00:35:20,488 --> 00:35:32,908
And that might seem perverse in these days of SaaS, but it still applies that sometimes
you can have pocketed or bracketed budgets that are being addressed for a given solution.
401
00:35:32,908 --> 00:35:35,288
And you need to understand how those work.
402
00:35:35,288 --> 00:35:45,848
But sometimes people are looking for some other value out of the relationship and the
partnership that sets you apart from either your competitors or strengthens the
403
00:35:45,848 --> 00:35:46,768
relationship.
404
00:35:46,768 --> 00:35:48,288
So I don't know.
405
00:35:48,288 --> 00:35:48,978
mean, do you want to?
406
00:35:48,978 --> 00:35:57,589
You want to explore that for a few minutes in terms of how you can sometimes negotiate in
a deal things that aren't just about the money or the SLA's.
407
00:36:18,479 --> 00:36:19,490
Yeah, absolutely.
408
00:36:19,490 --> 00:36:31,783
think especially in, in my, when I've worn the hat of kind of more of an account manager,
a strategic account manager, if you've got some big name brand, lovely clients that you
409
00:36:31,783 --> 00:36:45,654
would love to shout from the rooftop, contractually negotiating use of logo, use of name,
contractually obligating them to webinars and white papers and case studies.
410
00:36:45,748 --> 00:36:47,819
That is huge, huge.
411
00:36:47,819 --> 00:36:53,163
Because you can then go to all of the ones that are similar to them and say, well, look,
they use us.
412
00:36:53,223 --> 00:36:54,444
Can you hear all of this?
413
00:36:54,444 --> 00:36:55,764
great stuff.
414
00:36:56,024 --> 00:36:56,645
And you know what?
415
00:36:56,645 --> 00:37:03,369
I will always give a little bit in a deal dollar wise if I'm getting something like that
in return.
416
00:37:03,369 --> 00:37:09,594
And I think most companies would agree with that, depending on your, again, on your
company, where you're going.
417
00:37:09,594 --> 00:37:14,297
If you just need cash in the door because you're just trying to make payroll, very
different story.
418
00:37:14,297 --> 00:37:19,702
Or you've got a mature product and it's a bit churn, churn, churn, just keep building the
volume.
419
00:37:20,383 --> 00:37:23,856
But that's not typically true with a lot of technology solutions.
420
00:37:23,856 --> 00:37:33,668
Typically you are trying to establish more market acceleration on the new logo side.
421
00:37:33,668 --> 00:37:34,450
Yeah.
422
00:37:34,450 --> 00:37:38,439
What other creative things have you negotiated into contracts?
423
00:37:39,987 --> 00:37:44,652
we have had, attendance at user conferences.
424
00:37:44,652 --> 00:37:57,667
You know, sometimes because of the operating budget, people have a challenge being able to
fund, being able to attend user conferences or conferences in general.
425
00:37:57,688 --> 00:38:02,429
And sometimes we would be able to add seats.
426
00:38:02,725 --> 00:38:10,109
to that are basically free of charge as far as the registration is concerned, you still
have travel and hotels and so on and so forth.
427
00:38:10,109 --> 00:38:12,191
But you would actually facilitate that.
428
00:38:12,191 --> 00:38:26,721
But the other thing that we did with a couple of organizations in my time was because they
were acting as reference customers, we actually helped them build out a reference suite,
429
00:38:26,721 --> 00:38:29,318
literally a space that
430
00:38:29,318 --> 00:38:32,752
allowed them to be able to host their guests there.
431
00:38:32,752 --> 00:38:40,099
sometimes that's funding certain technology in that space, like your projection technology
or audio technology.
432
00:38:40,099 --> 00:38:47,636
Sometimes it was in relationship to just literally furnishing and rebuilding it to make it
acceptable.
433
00:38:47,636 --> 00:38:54,743
Now you take a dead space in an organization's buildings and turn it into something that's
actually usable.
434
00:38:54,743 --> 00:39:03,066
And the advantage for that organization is they then get to use it for other things, not
just for when they're hosting one of your potential customers.
435
00:39:03,066 --> 00:39:04,568
So I think that's another one.
436
00:39:04,568 --> 00:39:07,604
um We've also, yep.
437
00:39:07,604 --> 00:39:16,624
was gonna say, I think it goes back to, yes, you as sales, your job is to get dollars in
the door, but it is important to be cross-functional.
438
00:39:16,624 --> 00:39:24,784
Go and talk to your customer success team, your reference team, your support team, other
teams that exist in your company, even R &D.
439
00:39:24,784 --> 00:39:26,444
Do you need beta testers?
440
00:39:26,444 --> 00:39:29,804
Do you need clients who are going to agree to be early adopters?
441
00:39:29,804 --> 00:39:34,004
Go talk to the R &D and your engineering teams and figure that stuff out.
442
00:39:34,004 --> 00:39:35,264
Especially if you're a sales leader.
443
00:39:35,264 --> 00:39:42,044
If you're a salesperson, can go make friends, but a sales leader can make friends with
those other departments.
444
00:39:42,144 --> 00:39:52,784
And if the reference team are drowning and their performance is being impacted because
they don't have good references, you can make their lives a lot better by negotiating some
445
00:39:52,784 --> 00:39:54,144
of those things for them.
446
00:39:54,144 --> 00:40:00,864
So I'm a big, big proponent of making friends with the teams outside of just sales.
447
00:40:00,864 --> 00:40:02,104
Like, yes, bring the dollars in.
448
00:40:02,104 --> 00:40:03,416
That is your job.
449
00:40:04,062 --> 00:40:09,403
but how can you best help the company and your peers because what goes around comes
around.
450
00:40:09,403 --> 00:40:12,088
It's going to help you at some point down the line.
451
00:40:12,539 --> 00:40:23,853
The other thing that I think, and this may apply to a lot of early stage companies as
well, is that if you're looking to try and get somebody as a reference, you need to be
452
00:40:23,853 --> 00:40:38,119
able to prove value for future business, know, basically case studies of what the outcomes
and the value delivered and derived by your solution have been.
453
00:40:38,119 --> 00:40:41,932
I can tell you that customer organizations are terrible at doing that.
454
00:40:41,932 --> 00:40:47,497
They go into procurements with all the best intentions of the world of, here's the reasons
we're doing this.
455
00:40:47,497 --> 00:40:56,545
And yes, of course, we're going to be able to prove that we've achieved value X or outcome
Y, et cetera.
456
00:40:56,926 --> 00:40:58,827
Sometimes they need some help.
457
00:40:58,848 --> 00:41:00,980
They need some help to be able to drive that forward.
458
00:41:00,980 --> 00:41:05,083
So I've been in deals whereby we have actually
459
00:41:05,498 --> 00:41:19,112
effectively allowed them to have a discount, but the quid pro quo wasn't dollars, the quid
pro quo was you will allow us to help you measure this analytically by benchmarking,
460
00:41:19,112 --> 00:41:25,995
working out what the before and the after is of us implementing this technology and then
writing it up.
461
00:41:25,995 --> 00:41:34,145
And then you will agree that if we've agreed that this is what the outcome is to letting
us publish that and maybe we publish it jointly.
462
00:41:34,145 --> 00:41:43,949
And I've gone so far as whereby we've actually had people publish in academic journals
what the impact and outcomes of some of those things were.
463
00:41:44,189 --> 00:41:56,212
That is golden from a reference ability perspective because suddenly it's a lot more
credible than just your marketing flyer saying, well, generically, the value and benefits
464
00:41:56,212 --> 00:42:02,598
can be derived of this or giving them an ROI calculator, which, you know, a lot of
customers
465
00:42:02,598 --> 00:42:11,318
will go, oh, okay, that's interesting, but I don't believe it and I'm gonna discount it to
75 % in terms of the values that come out of it, blah, blah, blah, blah, They've all got a
466
00:42:11,318 --> 00:42:16,118
rationale as to why they are not gonna believe that story out of the gate.
467
00:42:16,118 --> 00:42:26,038
But if you've actually got a reference customer who has documented their process of how
they prove their value, that is golden.
468
00:42:26,038 --> 00:42:29,118
So sometimes negotiating that,
469
00:42:29,292 --> 00:42:35,828
in response for a better deal or a better relationship or priority support or whatever
else it might be.
470
00:42:35,828 --> 00:42:44,094
That's incredibly valuable if you're at the early stage of a product and you're trying to
get it established in the market.
471
00:42:44,627 --> 00:42:45,807
Absolutely.
472
00:42:46,807 --> 00:42:53,447
So to summarize, think I'm going to give my number one tip that I've learned in my career.
473
00:42:53,447 --> 00:43:01,227
And this was something I learned back in the day in my very, very first healthcare
technology job.
474
00:43:02,307 --> 00:43:07,987
my manager at the time, Amanda Mitchell, who is a wonderful, very, very smart person.
475
00:43:08,847 --> 00:43:09,347
She sat us down.
476
00:43:09,347 --> 00:43:10,787
We were, we were customer advocates.
477
00:43:10,787 --> 00:43:13,382
So we were going to hospitals who were very
478
00:43:13,382 --> 00:43:15,544
pissed off with us and trying to fix them, right?
479
00:43:15,544 --> 00:43:20,005
Me and an engineer would go in and be like, hi, we're here to fix your stuff.
480
00:43:20,485 --> 00:43:26,768
And I ended up marrying mine, you know, don't marry your sales engineer.
481
00:43:26,768 --> 00:43:39,832
unless it works out, but anyway, regardless, the number one thing that she taught was when
you're in these presentations at the end of your site visit, you're going to be in a room
482
00:43:39,832 --> 00:43:40,684
with C-suite.
483
00:43:40,684 --> 00:43:49,773
And sometimes you're going to have to tell them, you never invested in training, you never
invested in this, and you did a really crappy job and now you have crappy results because
484
00:43:49,773 --> 00:43:50,314
of it.
485
00:43:50,314 --> 00:43:52,555
And people don't like being told off.
486
00:43:52,936 --> 00:43:59,101
But if you keep talking and talking and talking and talking, they're never going to be
able to respond.
487
00:43:59,182 --> 00:44:05,688
And if you ask a question, and I think we're all guilty of this sometimes if we know it's
an awkward question.
488
00:44:05,890 --> 00:44:13,917
We ask the question and then we ask it in another way and then a slightly different way
and then we say, well, maybe you think this and we just blah, blah, blah.
489
00:44:13,917 --> 00:44:16,180
Yeah, yeah.
490
00:44:16,180 --> 00:44:21,519
It sounds like, you know what Bethany, it sounds like somebody should write a book about
that.
491
00:44:21,519 --> 00:44:26,815
Maybe if they were to call it Agile Client Engagement, I think that would be an awesome
idea.
492
00:44:26,815 --> 00:44:27,757
that'd be a great book.
493
00:44:27,757 --> 00:44:37,185
But just being comfortable enough in negotiations to put something out there, especially
if it's in personal Zoom or Teams or whatever, and just shut up.
494
00:44:37,606 --> 00:44:40,449
Just shut up and let them talk, let them respond.
495
00:44:40,449 --> 00:44:43,962
I've seen so many salespeople and I've been guilty of it myself.
496
00:44:43,962 --> 00:44:45,533
I've seen you do it too.
497
00:44:45,533 --> 00:44:46,595
You just talk and talk.
498
00:44:46,595 --> 00:44:49,477
You talk so much that you start a podcast with your dad.
499
00:44:49,477 --> 00:44:50,927
It's great time.
500
00:44:50,927 --> 00:44:54,342
But I really do think one of the best tips is just shut up.
501
00:44:54,342 --> 00:44:56,929
Shut up and let the customer respond.
502
00:44:58,271 --> 00:45:11,708
And I do think it's something that's quite powerful to just, you know, particularly if
you're at a very challenging part, to your point, it can sometimes feel very compelling
503
00:45:11,708 --> 00:45:23,965
that if the customer is, you know, either grimacing on the other side or worse, and
there's like showing signs of distress on their side, that you just
504
00:45:23,965 --> 00:45:27,078
fill the void with repeating.
505
00:45:27,078 --> 00:45:29,819
Usually it's repeating the point over and over again.
506
00:45:29,819 --> 00:45:31,680
Customer heard you the first time.
507
00:45:31,701 --> 00:45:33,262
They still don't like it.
508
00:45:33,262 --> 00:45:39,266
So therefore the answer is, pause, hiatus, let them speak.
509
00:45:39,266 --> 00:45:43,008
Because they haven't responded to it other than through their body language.
510
00:45:43,008 --> 00:45:48,243
And so you need to have the courage to stop banging the nail into the wood.
511
00:45:48,243 --> 00:45:51,695
Because if you keep doing it, you're going to damage the wood.
512
00:45:51,695 --> 00:45:51,975
i.e.
513
00:45:51,975 --> 00:45:53,215
the relationship.
514
00:45:53,215 --> 00:45:57,277
So therefore, sometimes just sitting back and letting the customer.
515
00:45:57,277 --> 00:46:03,720
It also applies at the beginning, whereby how do you find out what the customer really
wants?
516
00:46:04,700 --> 00:46:11,183
Sometimes it's you present, this is here, this is the deal, this is the rationale.
517
00:46:11,183 --> 00:46:12,905
This is where we are.
518
00:46:12,905 --> 00:46:16,536
Then you shut up and let the customer react to that.
519
00:46:16,678 --> 00:46:24,203
and let them come out because oftentimes you may have assumed that one of their really
important things is this.
520
00:46:24,203 --> 00:46:27,625
And then they come and they blurt out that.
521
00:46:27,885 --> 00:46:31,557
And you go, oh, OK, I would never have thought to ask that.
522
00:46:31,557 --> 00:46:33,409
now I understand, et cetera.
523
00:46:33,409 --> 00:46:37,081
So you and Amanda are 100 % correct.
524
00:46:37,081 --> 00:46:42,564
Sometimes silence is an incredibly powerful tool in negotiation.
525
00:46:44,458 --> 00:46:45,305
agree.
526
00:46:47,037 --> 00:46:48,680
meaningful silence here.
527
00:46:48,680 --> 00:46:57,796
Dad, what is one of your tips or things that you should always remember when you're in a
negotiation phase?
528
00:46:58,704 --> 00:47:04,227
Normally, you're into, if you're around that negotiation stage with the customer, they
actually want you.
529
00:47:04,227 --> 00:47:05,858
They want your solution.
530
00:47:05,858 --> 00:47:15,283
Occasionally, you'll find yourself in dual negotiations with another vendor who's at the
table and it can get tricky because you start second guessing everything that you're
531
00:47:15,283 --> 00:47:16,285
about, et cetera.
532
00:47:16,285 --> 00:47:22,189
But, you know, I've always had a kind of attitude of, my mom used to say this as I was
growing up.
533
00:47:22,189 --> 00:47:25,165
And so here's your bit of Scottish wisdom for the day.
534
00:47:25,165 --> 00:47:28,737
What's for you will no go by you.
535
00:47:28,798 --> 00:47:31,700
In other words, if it's meant to happen, it'll happen.
536
00:47:31,700 --> 00:47:37,775
And so once you're in that negotiation phase, even if it's dual negotiations, they've
probably already made up their mind.
537
00:47:37,775 --> 00:47:39,096
They're not really baking you off.
538
00:47:39,096 --> 00:47:43,169
They're just trying to keep the guy they really want on the hook.
539
00:47:43,230 --> 00:47:49,536
And they're trying to apply pressure by having this impression that they're still
seriously considering.
540
00:47:49,536 --> 00:47:53,719
In 90 % of the cases, if there's dual negotiations, that's the truth.
541
00:47:54,067 --> 00:47:59,120
that even though they're negotiating with you, it's either you or the other guy and
they've already decided.
542
00:47:59,120 --> 00:48:03,854
you know, just enter into it in the best spirit and go on from there.
543
00:48:03,854 --> 00:48:08,919
So I think that that's one of the things that I think just in terms of being sane.
544
00:48:08,919 --> 00:48:18,722
But if it's down to you, you're vendor of choice and they're negotiating, don't try and,
what was that other?
545
00:48:18,722 --> 00:48:21,485
phrase that I learned when I came to the States.
546
00:48:21,485 --> 00:48:25,668
Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered.
547
00:48:25,668 --> 00:48:34,497
In other words, it's okay to want to get what you want out of a deal commercially, but you
push too far, deal is going to die.
548
00:48:34,497 --> 00:48:37,479
And so that is really what that analogy is saying.
549
00:48:37,479 --> 00:48:45,945
If you've never heard it before, it's probably because it's been expunged from a polite
society, but it was a very powerful.
550
00:48:46,071 --> 00:48:49,530
metaphor that I learned when I first moved here to the States.
551
00:48:49,530 --> 00:48:50,261
Yeah.
552
00:48:50,261 --> 00:49:00,107
Well, I think it goes back to in all things, you know, there's a million techniques,
there's a million programs, there's a million different worksheets that you can fill out
553
00:49:00,107 --> 00:49:02,449
to negotiate something.
554
00:49:02,549 --> 00:49:05,952
But at the end of the day, it is your reputation.
555
00:49:05,952 --> 00:49:07,413
It is your career.
556
00:49:07,413 --> 00:49:10,645
It's your company's career, company's reputation as well, right?
557
00:49:10,645 --> 00:49:15,508
You don't want to, you don't want people to go, my gosh, that company hires complete
jerks.
558
00:49:15,508 --> 00:49:18,280
I never want to do business with them again.
559
00:49:18,906 --> 00:49:21,537
But it's your reputation as a person.
560
00:49:21,537 --> 00:49:24,558
And so sometimes you have to walk away.
561
00:49:24,558 --> 00:49:31,181
Sometimes you do have to burn a little bit of a bridge, but you have to be very careful
when it comes to burning bridges.
562
00:49:31,241 --> 00:49:39,185
But at the end of the day, you have to be able to go to bed that night and put your head
on the pillow and say, okay, I was fair.
563
00:49:39,185 --> 00:49:42,946
I negotiated smartly, hard, whatever, but I can sleep.
564
00:49:42,946 --> 00:49:47,068
I don't have any guilt because I negotiated in a...
565
00:49:48,267 --> 00:49:49,268
mean way.
566
00:49:49,268 --> 00:49:50,999
the end of the day, we're in healthcare, right?
567
00:49:50,999 --> 00:50:02,645
We are all, I hope, working with the mission of making healthcare better, making patients
better, making clinicians' lives better so that they can save lives.
568
00:50:03,226 --> 00:50:05,587
This isn't silly stuff that we're selling.
569
00:50:05,587 --> 00:50:08,209
This is life-changing stuff.
570
00:50:08,209 --> 00:50:15,853
Even if it's a piece of software in supply chain management and it feels very kind of
middleware, day-to-day,
571
00:50:15,853 --> 00:50:18,636
You are a cog in the healthcare machine.
572
00:50:19,979 --> 00:50:32,855
So as long as you can go to sleep after you've negotiated and be at peace with how you
have conducted business today, this week, this month, this year, you're on the right path.
573
00:50:33,188 --> 00:50:34,544
Absolutely.
574
00:50:34,544 --> 00:50:35,841
Absolutely.
575
00:50:37,377 --> 00:50:41,417
Alright, well I think that might be about enough today.
576
00:50:41,417 --> 00:50:50,327
What I'll do now is I'll negotiate with our listeners and say if you liked this episode,
please like, share a comment, subscribe.
577
00:50:50,327 --> 00:50:54,270
We are on Spotify, on Apple Podcasts, on YouTube.
578
00:50:54,270 --> 00:50:57,813
Wherever you need to find us, you can find us.
579
00:50:57,871 --> 00:50:58,132
Yep.
580
00:50:58,132 --> 00:51:01,939
And you can find this on Substack too, where I host my writing.
581
00:51:01,939 --> 00:51:04,735
And that's Haverin.substack.com.
582
00:51:04,735 --> 00:51:05,955
Absolutely.
583
00:51:06,295 --> 00:51:19,835
Now, next week's episode is an episode that is dear to our hearts, literally, when it
comes to Dad, because we are going to be talking about National Lung Transplant Day, which
584
00:51:19,835 --> 00:51:21,463
is on October 9th.
585
00:51:21,843 --> 00:51:23,734
Yep, we are.
586
00:51:23,754 --> 00:51:30,038
So to get everybody up to speed, I received a double lung transplant in the spring of
2023.
587
00:51:30,038 --> 00:51:34,221
The hilarious part of that is I actually had the surgery on April 1st.
588
00:51:34,221 --> 00:51:36,883
So I get to remember April Fool's Day forever now.
589
00:51:36,883 --> 00:51:38,465
And it's completely changed my life.
590
00:51:38,465 --> 00:51:40,486
I got very sick very quickly.
591
00:51:40,486 --> 00:51:42,447
I mean that actually was a blessing.
592
00:51:42,447 --> 00:51:44,991
And we'll tell a little bit about that in the next episode.
593
00:51:44,991 --> 00:51:45,891
But.
594
00:51:46,157 --> 00:51:59,384
I am incredibly robust I am incredibly alive and I'm very grateful not only to have
received the care and attention of Vanderbilt University Medical Center, who cared for me
595
00:51:59,384 --> 00:52:09,260
during that, but also to my donor, who obviously passed to be able to give me the gift
that he decided he wanted to leave.
596
00:52:09,300 --> 00:52:14,939
And to his family in terms of what they sacrificed to be able
597
00:52:14,939 --> 00:52:16,433
to allow someone else to live.
598
00:52:16,433 --> 00:52:19,821
So we're going to talk a little bit about that.
599
00:52:19,821 --> 00:52:25,013
So I've got a much more personal story that we're going to be covering in the next
episode.
600
00:52:25,176 --> 00:52:25,796
Absolutely.
601
00:52:25,796 --> 00:52:30,887
We're going to talk a little bit about dad's story, the lessons we've learned in the whole
process.
602
00:52:30,887 --> 00:52:41,383
I mean, the insight that you get into healthcare when you are a patient or the family
member of a patient going through something this complex is, it just gives you a whole
603
00:52:41,383 --> 00:52:45,375
brand new appreciation of the industry that we are lucky enough to work in.
604
00:52:45,375 --> 00:52:48,966
And we are going to strongly encourage everyone.
605
00:52:49,114 --> 00:52:52,326
If you are not already, please sign up to be an organ donor.
606
00:52:52,326 --> 00:52:57,190
We'll share all the right links in the next episodes uh description and everything.
607
00:52:57,190 --> 00:53:05,025
But we, to echo dad's sentiments, we are so thankful for his donor's family and the
beautiful gift that he gave us.
608
00:53:05,025 --> 00:53:06,556
Cause dad is still here.
609
00:53:06,556 --> 00:53:10,964
We would not have a podcast without the double lung transplant two years ago.
610
00:53:10,964 --> 00:53:12,440
Who would have thought that?
611
00:53:13,256 --> 00:53:21,084
you would be able to not hear me breathing as I speak to you here, maintaining my nice
resonant voice.
612
00:53:21,185 --> 00:53:26,220
So we hope you'll join us, but until then, keep Haverin!