Acceleral

We know what it is about new parents that they feel the need to thrust their precious bundle of joy in your face for your mandatory “Ahh, isn’t she – or he – so cute.”  Pride makes them do it, and generally we oblige because it’s polite and because that positive feedback has to carry them for a couple of decades of child rearing.  But what about software vendors?  If you feel compelled to show your software then it’s highly likely you have the “Show Up and Throw Up” syndrome...and you need to stop it!

While it is human nature to seek recognition for your accomplishments, one of the cardinal sins of selling software applications is the assumption that the prospect needs to see it.  And they need to see it now.  And they need to see all of it.

This overwhelming need to demonstrate is not just a sure sign of an immature sales approach, it is also sales suicide.

Why?

Because it undermines your sales teams most powerful weapon...getting prospects to talk about themselves.

Think about this for a minute.  If you are gunning for a demonstration from the get-go, ask yourself why?  My view is that the rush to show something off masks a sales person who is afraid to qualify.  The best sales people get their prospects to qualify for them.  They reflect and direct, asking open questions – leading in the right direction of course – that essentially walk the customer through the problem/benefit/outcome curve for their product. And that’s because the prospect knows their own business.  They know that a small increase in productivity around task X will unlock a larger increase in sales of product Y.  The reflective questions will unearth this, but in a way where it seems that the prospect has identified the problem and identified the solution.  That you happen to be sitting there with the answer to implementing that solution is a happy coincidence, of course.  Not!!

OK, this sounds very Sales School 101 – and it is!  But it’s also rare, particularly within the mid-tier software space.  The issue is that this type of reflective prospecting requires a number of attributes:

Patience:  You cannot rush the conversation, the prospect has to get their on their own.  Just telling the answer – “Our software increases productivity around task X so you’ll see an increase in product Y” – is presumptive (what if you’re wrong?), prescriptive (you might be missing an even bigger result from task Z) and patronising (I know your business better than you do).

Rapport:  It requires a degree of affinity to successfully direct this type of questioning and sad to say, sales people are rarely a trusted advisor such that they have this rapport.  Acting like a typical sales person, which involves holding your cards very close to your chest in case you give away an advantage, only reinforces to the prospect that you are intrinsically untrustworthy.  My advice, do some negotiation training to learn how to disclose your needs in a constructive way.  You’ll be amazed at how much more fun it is to work on solving your customers problems together instead of treating them like an advisory looking to bilk you at every opportunity.

Saying No:  This is a classic.  The sales team wants the business so much that they twist, bend and eventually break their own product just to fit the customer need.  Simple rule, if you need to bend and break your own product to win the business then you are chasing the wrong business.  It’s better for all concerned – and you’ll build that rapport...and trust – if you can recognise and respond with a ‘No’ when required.  So you lose the deal?  So what?  Really, so what?  Unless you can guarantee that bending and breaking will result in a clutch of new customers, don’t even try to sell this orphan.

So why do sales teams engage in Show Up and Throw Up?

In two words, Domain Knowledge.

Consider the sales team so supremely confident in their industry knowledge that they know their software just has to match what the prospect needs.  In this case they’ll engage in a cursory investigation – sometimes done over the phone and often (and this is even worse) based on some kind of tick list of “needs” that are really thinly disguised product features – and then jump right in.  The demonstration will be detailed, deep…and destructively dreary.

Now consider the sale team without confidence in their industry knowledge.  This sales team can’t direct and reflect because they don’t really understand industry issues, so show up and throw up becomes a defensive move.  The thinking is that if you paint with a broad enough brush, you’ll cover everything, eventually.

The good news is that identifying the Show Up and Throw Up Syndrome is easy.  And while it’s not as easy to move your sales team from their comfort zone, the benefit of doing so will be definitely in your bottom line.