Guy made a funny comment between sessions. Guys law: to calculate valuation of a prefunding company, for each full time engineer add one million, for each MBA you subtract 250 thousand. :-)

Rain Making

  • Let a hundred flowers blossom. Where are things growing? They might not be the places you expect, and be receptive to that. Get version 1 out and pay attention.

  • Find your fulcrums, its all about leverage. Get taken in (who does your customer already have a relationship with? who should be your new best friends?), get referred in (current customers, board of directors/advisors), endorsements (who is your “American Dental Association”), who besides you has a vested interest in your success?, always be on the lookout for out-of-the-box fulcrums.

  • go after agnostics, not atheists. You want an agnostoc who knows they have a problem. An additive sale is a magnitude easier than a displacement sale. Bill Joos law: it’s not enough to build a better mousetrap, you have to find people passionate about killing mice.

  • Who are the influencers? Stop, look, and listen.

  • Make the first steps easy. Test drive or free trial (puppy dog), don’t underestimate switching costs, get a small piece before the whole pie, if the roles were reversed what would you want?

  • Use the right lead generation techniques. Small scale seminars (create a gathering at your podium, of attend someone elses), get published (find a publication or write a whitepaper), proactive networking (the exact opposite of cold calling, give and take,whats in it for your network), participate in industry events (both yours and your custoners)

  • Question everything. Hearing is not listening. Become an active and intelligent listener. Listen with a pen. Develop a healthy curiosity. Listen to what is not said. They’ll tell you what it takes to close the deal if you ask the right questions.

  • There are huge benefits to benefits. Features suck, benefits rock. When you make statements make sure you provide a framework for understanding that statement. Make sure that your customer isn’t saying “so what”. When talking about features make sure you explain the benefit. (Feature, benefit, reaction)

  • Objections. Learn to love objections. Objections are the path to solving pain. Usually the wrong objection answered, peel the objection onion. The real objection is normally 2 or 3 layers down. Verify and clarify. Take objections and make them objectives. Use references (“feel, felt, found”).

  • Selling is a process, not an event. It is an attitude, all sales all the time.