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Open Ended Questions For Sales That Get You Outstanding Results - YouTube
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- Whether you're talking to investors
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or you're trying to recruit someone
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or you're doing customer development
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or you're actually talking to a prospect
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to sell them something a software,
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piece of software, for example
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ultimately you're in a sales conversation.
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And there's this one thing
that you absolutely need to do
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to make your sales
conversations successful.
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To be able to recruit that
person, land that investment,
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close that deal,
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you need to be able to
ask open-ended questions.
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And I didn't completely understand this
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when I first started getting
into sales and marketing
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but once I started to crack the code
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on open-ended questions,
everything changed.
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So, in this episode I'm
gonna walk you through
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the three principles that
you absolutely need to know.
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Three examples of open-ended
questions that you can ask
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to completely transform
your sales process.
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Intro (upbeat music)
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what's up everybody, welcome
to unstoppable I'm TK
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and on this channel, I
help SaaS founders like you
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grow your SaaS businesses faster
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with an unstoppable strategy.
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If you are new to this channel, welcome
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be sure to hit the subscribe
button and that bell icon
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where you'll get notified
every single time
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I drop an episode like
this with the TK energy.
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Now, if you're already part of my SaaS
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go-to-market coaching program,
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if you're part of this community
already, we'll come back
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it's really awesome to see you over here.
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I remember when I got into sales
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the reason I got into sales...
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I'm an engineer at heart
but I started a company,
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a company called ToutApp,
it was a SaaS business
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and that's when I realized look,
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if you're gonna get good at
being a founder and a CEO
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you need to get good at selling.
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And so I started to embrace selling.
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And one of the biggest
things I realized being
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the engineer that I am
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I started to see patterns
in everyday conversations.
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It turned out that no matter
what I was doing as CEO
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it was kind of a sales conversation.
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If I was trying to
recruit that VP of sales
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or recruit that next hire,
it was a sales conversation.
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I was selling them on the company.
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If I was talking to investors
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and going through my pitch deck
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and running through those meetings
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it was essentially a sales
conversation sell them
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a piece of the company.
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If I was actually talking to customers
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it was obviously a sales conversation.
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And the biggest aha moment
that I had was sales
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which I had a distaste for
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because I didn't fully
understand it and I came from
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a very logical side of being an engineer.
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Sales is not about being pushy.
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It's not about being tricky
or forcing someone to buy.
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Sales is...
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in fact there's very little
convincing that happens in sales
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sales when done right
in its truest art form
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is finding out how to serve your clients.
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To actually help them
come to a realization
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that will help them.
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That's what the best sales people do.
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And the way they do it
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is they actually ask open-ended questions.
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It's not about going through
these magical set of words
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that I'm gonna say to you
that's gonna make you realize,
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Oh my God, I need this piece of software
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it's about you answering certain questions
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that helps you realize,
I need the software
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and that's the power of
open-ended questions.
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So, I'm gonna walk you through three
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of my most favorite open-ended questions
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that I've used in sales conversations
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for actually selling software,
I've used in recruiting,
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I've used in investing, all of these.
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It works really well, I'm
gonna walk you through
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my three favorite ones.
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To fix how to dig into these principles
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go ahead and smash that like button
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for the YouTube algorithm
we'll really like so
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when you do that
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and let's go into principle number one,
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open-ended question number one.
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Open-ended question number one is
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what does success look
like 12 months from now?
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Here's the thing.
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We talk about this in
the channel all the time.
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If you're gonna be solving a problem
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it better be important and urgent.
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If it's not an important
and urgent problem
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then it just won't matter.
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You won't be able to sell enough.
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You won't be able to get traction.
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You won't be able to grow exponentially
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because it just will be too
hard to convince people to buy.
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Now, if you are solving an
important or urgent problem
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chances are that important
and urgent problem needs
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to be solved in order for people
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to actually achieve their goals.
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That's how something becomes
important and urgent.
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Now, you can approach
sales in one or two ways.
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I can go in and say,
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Hey, listen this is a very
important problem that you have.
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You should think about this.
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You could do that, it may work.
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Another way to do it is ask them,
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Hey what are your big goals?
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What does success look
like 12 months from now?
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Because what it'll help
you do, is get the client
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or get the person you're selling to,
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to start to think about,
what does success look like?
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Where do I need to be?
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What does great look like in
terms of my business or my role
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or my department, whatever
I'm selling into essentially.
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And the power in open-ended
questions is that
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it gets the other person to open up
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because you're not trying
to sell them on something
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you're not it's just a simple question.
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like, Hey, what does success look like?
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And they will give you
a view into their world.
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That's the power of an
any open-ended question.
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The particular power about
this open-ended question
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it gets him to think about
what does success look like.
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Which then leads up to
the following question is
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what's holding you back?
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When you actually ask these,
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this is why these two
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are my most favorite
open-ended questions to ask
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in any sales conversation
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is because it gets you to think about,
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what do I want?
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And what's holding you back?
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And between these two lies
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the important and urgent problems.
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And I know for a fact
that if I'm talking to say
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a VP of sales, because I'm selling to them
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I know that pipeline is
gonna be a big thing.
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So, when I get them to think about
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what does success look
like 12 months from now?
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Most of them were like, well,
we have hit new revenue growth
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and we've grown it by 300%, for example.
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And then I can ask,
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well, what's holding you back?
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and automatically he's gonna
start thinking about pipeline
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because he's like, well I
need to have enough pipeline.
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I need to have three X
coverage on the pipeline
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so that I can stand the
chance at hitting my number.
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And by now what will have happened is
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without me selling him on something,
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without me trying to agitate some problem
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I'm already getting him to think about
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what are his most important
and urgent problems
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just by asking these open-ended questions.
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This is the power of asking
open-ended questions.
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Instead of you just telling the person
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what they should be thinking about
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you get them to realize
what's top of mind for them,
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what's important urgent for them.
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And that way, when you do start
to get into the selling mode
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where you're like,
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Hey we think we can help you
solve some of these problems.
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Here's what we do.
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Let's talk about a demo.
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Everything starts to shift.
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They're starting to open up a lot more.
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Now, I wanna go into my
third open-ended question
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but before I do that, let me
just pause here for a second.
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If you're starting to see the power
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in these open-ended questions
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particularly two of my favorite ones,
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if you're starting to
see the power in these
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can I just get a yes
in the comments below,
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YouTube algorithm really
likes it when you do that,
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also smash that like button
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the YouTube algorithm really
likes it when you do that.
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I also really like it when you do that.
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So, go and smash that like
button and give me a yes
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in the comments below.
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If you do have questions about
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these two open-ended questions
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put it in the comments below as well
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I answer every single
comment that you guys post
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they're actually really awesome.
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It's awesome to hear from you guys.
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Also, if you are thinking
about your sales process,
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your sales methodology,
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if you think about growing
your SaaS business,
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be sure to check out
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my five point SaaS growth strategy guide.
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It's completely free, I'll
tell you more about it
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at the end of this video,
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let's go to open-ended
question number three.
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Open-ended question number three.
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After you've done the,
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what does success look like?
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What's holding you back
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and you're starting to
have this conversation
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and back and forth you
wanna actually start
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to go a little bit deeper.
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So, my third open-ended question,
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that I coach all the
go-to-market program members
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to actually ask
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is how are you thinking about blank?
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And blank is essentially this macro trend
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that you are tied to.
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Macro trends are super important in sales.
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Macro trends are these external things
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that are happening in this person's world.
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Your ICP's world, the
person you're selling to.
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And that macro trend
necessitates your software
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the software that you're selling.
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So, one of my favorite examples is GDPR.
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GDPR is a privacy law that's been passed
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in the European Union and other regions,
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other parts of the world a
little by little starting
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to adopt GDPR like regulations.
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And it requires that companies
are actually compliant
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to those privacy laws.
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And so, I actually advise a
company called Data Grail.
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I'm also an investor with them
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and it's also a longtime
friend that runs it
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they create privacy compliance software.
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So, when they go to companies
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they will end up asking about
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how were you thinking about GDPR?
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For them GDPR and that privacy regulation
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is a macro trend.
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Every software company,
when you're thinking about
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the messaging, the strategic
narrative, the positioning
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all those pieces that go
into go to market strategy
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you're starting to think
about what the macro trend is.
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And when you have a really
compelling macro trend,
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customers pay attention to you more.
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They're more likely to
actually take action.
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So, in the world of open-ended questions
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and sales conversations
once you start to ask
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what does success look like?
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Then you started to say,
what's holding you back
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inevitably, if you are
fishing in the right place
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this problems gonna
start to come up because
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you should be solving a top
three important urgent problem
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for this person.
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Otherwise, maybe you're
talking to the wrong person
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you should be thinking about your ICP.
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And so, when you start to
think about that, undoubtedly
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you will start to get into zooming in
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and end to that problem.
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And what you wanna say is not,
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Hey, we think about GDPR all day long,
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here's how we think you should solve
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and here's why you should care about it.
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You should just go with an
open ended question first.
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How are you thinking about blank?
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and blank being the macro trend
that you are talking about?
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I'll give you another example of this.
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I know that roughly 8% of SaaS businesses
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make it past three years, despite funding.
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So, which means that
majority of them fail.
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92% of them fail within
three years despite funding.
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So, that's a macro trend in our space.
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So, when I talk to founders,
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I say, Hey look, 8% will succeed.
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What are they doing differently?
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One of the big things
they do differently is
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they think about go-to-market.
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That's why I have my
go-to-market coaching program.
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So, I asked them, how are you
thinking about that trend?
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How are we thinking about
getting distribution around?
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Because that's the biggest
thing that kills startups.
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That's a macro trend.
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And I don't just say that,
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I say, Hey, how are you
thinking about blank?
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How are you thinking about go-to-market?
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How do you think about distribution?
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How are you thinking
about the biggest killer
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of self SaaS startups?
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And that is an open-ended question
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that gets people talking about,
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here's how what we thinking about it.
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Here's what's wrong.
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And here's what we need help with.
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And all of a sudden, you're
not pushing something
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on to them these open-ended
questions start to create
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a discussion and surface the issues
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and you can have a real conversation like,
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here's how we think about it.
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And all of a sudden you're not selling
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even though you're selling
like a master salesperson
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but it doesn't feel like it that way
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and that's how the best
salespeople operate.
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So, that's the three open-ended questions
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that I love the most but I
do have a bonus one for you.
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But let's recap.
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Number one, what does success
look like 12 months from now?
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Number two, what's holding you back
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from reaching that success?
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And number three, how are
you thinking about blank?
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the macro trend space.
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All three of these are
great open-ended questions.
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I do have a bonus one for you.
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It's not quite a question
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but it's the absence of a question.
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My other favorite tool in sales
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in addition to open ended
questions is the mute button.
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A lot of times when we think that
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we're in the sales position,
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whether you're a founder doing sales
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or you're actually a salesperson
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we just feel like we need to be talking
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and that's far from the truth.
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Selling is actually talking the least
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and letting the other
person spill the beans
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and really talk about what's
going on in their world
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and what their problems are.
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And then that way you
can cater your solution
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to their most important problems.
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So, the most powerful tool you have
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after asking each of
these open-ended questions
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is to hit the mute button.
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Seriously, ask the question
and then hit the mute button
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and just let them talk and
be comfortable with silence.
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This is true just as much
in customer conversations,
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it's true in recruiting conversations,
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it's definitely true in
investor conversations.
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Be comfortable with silence,
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be comfortable with
hitting the mute button
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or the metaphorical mute button
if you're meeting in person.
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Be comfortable with
that because as soon as
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you just stay quiet the
other person will talk more
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and more and more and more and more
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and it'll give you more information
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and more cannon fodder
to understand their world
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and better position yourself
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and your solution to the
problems they're having.
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So, use the mute button,
that's my bonus tip for you.
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So, that's all I have for you today.
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Those are the open-ended questions
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and the mute button that
will truly help you transform
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your sales process.
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Now, if you're building
out your sales strategy
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and you are building
out the growth strategy
[744]
for your SaaS business, you'll
probably be thinking about
[747]
you go-to-market strategy.
[748]
You're probably be thinking
about your pricing strategy.
[749]
You're probably be thinking
about your positioning,
[752]
your value prop,
[753]
you'll probably be thinking
about your sales methodology.
[756]
Now, I have a ton of videos
around all these key pieces
[758]
but I've codify it into
this one five point
[761]
SaaS growth strategy guide.
[763]
Inside of it I help you
craft a one-page strategy
[766]
and I link to a bunch of
resources I have in my channel
[768]
my best performing videos
all from that one guide.
[771]
It's completely free so you
should definitely grab a copy
[774]
if you're building and
scaling a SaaS business,
[776]
and you wanna think through
all these key strategic pieces
[778]
the right way.
[779]
How do you do it?
[780]
Just go to getunstoppable.com/strategy,
[783]
getunstoppable.com/strategy.
[785]
It's blue free you can get
access to it right away,
[787]
inside of it, I'll give you
all the resources you need
[790]
to craft your one-page strategy
to drive growth faster.
[793]
Also, if you got value from
this video, please smash
[795]
that like button for the YouTube algorithm
[798]
just means the world to us
when you give it as well,
[800]
comment below with any questions you have,
[802]
if you have a fellow founder,
[803]
that would get value from this,
[805]
a fellow team member that
would get value from this,
[806]
please share this video with them
[807]
it mean the world to us,
[808]
we put a lot of love into these videos.
[810]
And lastly remember everyone
needs a strategy for their life
[813]
and their business
[814]
when you are with us, yours
is gonna be unstoppable.
[817]
I'm TK, and I'll see you the next episode.
[820]
(upbeat music)
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