Teamwork is crucial in sales because prospective buyers have already organized themselves into teams. “Dealstorming," a term coined by former CSO of Yahoo Tim Sanders, describes a scalable, repeatable process that brings key players together around the table to solve a sales challenge. To beat a network, says Sanders, it takes a network.
Like all complex challenges, dealstorming is best approached as a series of smaller steps. In this masterclass, Sanders breaks it down into seven, beginning with accurately identifying sales challenges worthy of a dealstorm in the first place.
What You'll Learn
Core skills and steps in sales
How to handle sales failure
How to create a successful sales team
- Former CSO at Yahoo and New York Times Bestselling Author
Dealstorming is a term coined by Tim Sanders, the former CSO of Yahoo, to describe a scalable, repeatable process that brings key players together around the table to solve a sales challenge. Teamwork is crucial in sales because prospective buyers have already organized themselves into teams. You need a network to beat a network, says Sanders.Dealstorming: To organize and lead a cross-functional team to work together to solve a significant sales challenge through highly structured meetings and project workDrivers of Difficultymore decision-makers, influencers and sign-offs involved in the processmore complicated, technology-laced productsbuyers organized into cross-disciplinary teams to beat sellersprospects empowered by search technology to do their own researchMaking the ShiftAs an individual, you must team up because you’ve been teamed up on.Sales teams must put substantial effort toward “unteaching” self-empowered prospects.The crux of modern sales is rapid problem solving.
Failure is an inevitable part of the sales process, says Tim Sanders. The average corporate success rate for complex sales projects is 20%. At Yahoo, Sanders’ dealstorming success rate was an impressive 70%, which still means that roughly a third of the deals fell through.How your team prepares for and handles failure is a crucial determinant of its long-term success. As failure’s a given, you need to approach it as a learning opportunity. According to Sanders, there are two key aspects to learning from failure:Managing ChangeYour number one job in sales is to convince people to change the way they do business. Find mobilizers when you encounter resistance to change. Mobilizers are people who can teach others and cause internal change.Key QuestionsWhat can we do moving forward to cause change in an organization?How are we convincing people to change the way they do business?Managing ExpectationsGet to the bottom of what’s standing between your company and a signed contract.Use sa...
“Dealstorming,” as former Yahoo CSO Tim Sanders defines it, is “organiz[ing] and lead[ing] a cross-functional team to work together to solve a significant sales challenge through highly structured meetings and project work.”Like all complex challenges, dealstorming is best approached as a series of smaller steps. Sanders breaks it down into seven, beginning with accurately identifying sales challenges worthy of a dealstorm in the first place. In this lesson, he shares the first four steps:1. Qualify - Strive for scalability.The ProcessTake the value of the opportunity.Multiply it by the complexity of the situation.Measure each factor on a scale of 1-10.Then calculate the cumulative score on a scale from 1-100.2. Organize - Create a list of potential team members that have a stake in the outcome.The stakes have knowledge of the product, the problem space, and the nature of the outcome. Be sure to involve them early in the processDon’t just invite people to meetings; ask them to ...
It’s important, says Tim Sanders, to stick with the dealstorming process from beginning to end. If you take it seriously, each step will give you valuable insights into the nature of the deal and the possible solutions. In this lesson, he outlines steps 5 through 7: Execute, Analyze, and Report.5. Execute - Carry out the next best play faster than expected. This avoids delays and demoralization in your team. Use prototyping to create concrete examples and avoid ambiguity. Execute without excuse.Verify assumptionsFind resourcesPrototypeImplementThe Whisper TestFind an inside champion at the prospect organization and have them privately critique your prototype. (Tools: FaceTime, Snapchat)Use insights gained from the whisper test to improve your prototype.6. Analyze: Ask yourselfDid the next best play work?Did the next best play move us backward?Was there valuable advice that wasn’t heeded?Is there some other problem?Should we give up on this opportunity?7. Report - Provide contribut...
Former Yahoo CEO Tim Sanders likens complex sales processes to videogames like Halo or World of Warcraft, in which your goal is to pass progressively more difficult levels and reach the top before your lives run out.He breaks the process down into four levels:Contact: connect with key decision-makers in the potential client company.Conceive: realize the perfect recipe for success in winning the deal.Convince: convince all the stakeholders that yours is the right solution to their need.Contract: train the legal team to think creatively even after the deal is made, to keep it sustainable for both sides.Each level poses its own challenges. Mastery of these skill requires strategic networking through layers of informers, influencers, and decision makers while relying on one’s deep company and product knowledge-(rather than charisma and facts).