How to educate confident morons?

Hey all!


I'm newish to SAAS, selling an AdTech platform. Two ways to sell, the Software or a managed service.


The product is a great buy, but it can still be a little tough because adtech competition is fierce, and a lot of people live in the stone age. My discovery approach is always very chill and conversational, my manager says I have a doctor voice lol. I ask questions to get the client talking and tailor my pitch to their needs (our tech can be simple or insanely complicated depending on the use case), but these two recent calls kind of rattled me.


EX: They'd interrupt me mid question and ask something super broad and random. I'd respond by acknowledging their question, and asking for some info needed to answer, and they'd shrug and say "I dunno" then ask some other unrelated question. The two meetings were eerily similar and completely derailed our conversation, leaving me feeling like I did a terrible job at controlling the conversation. I got an "I dunno" when I asked about goals, metrics, timelines, their experiences, and ended up not even able to BAMFAM as they asked me to "just email them some examples." Examples of what??


Other jobs I'd just move on to the next task at hand, but because I have to source my own meetings they're not as frequent as I'd like and I'd like to maximize my effectiveness. Any tips on getting people to come out of their shell, or how to establish their needs/pain when the client is being obtuse?


It's like going on a date with a hottie, but finding out the conversation would be better with a brick wall.


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4
antiASKHOLE
Tycoon
6
Bravado's Resident Asshole
Have you tried pop up books? my 2 year old absolutely loves them and he learns a lot.
jefe
Arsonist
3
๐Ÿ
I second this
GALACTIC
Politicker
0
Account Executive
....genius.... LOL
SADNESSLieutenant
Politicker
4
Officer of โ™ฅ๏ธ
Challenge them.

Oh you don't know? Well that's exactly why I'm calling, when people in ur space dont even know the answers we help provide clarity by doing xyz. now what would it mean to you if you could boom, boom, boom.

Or say, wouldn't you like to know?

Or are you intent on keeping it that way or are you open to doing things a better way?

You are in advertising to X,Y,Z right? Well we did A,B,C with x company by doing Y when they launched a new campaign. What would it mean for you and your company if you could do the same or even better this month?

Illuminate the problem.

Right now you're doing x,y, and z prospect. Your getting whatever results. But if you were doing a,b,c you would see a 10x whatever it is they care about. Don't screw yourself, try something new.

People aren't as ignorant or dumb as they are misguided. It's our job to guide them.
jefe
Arsonist
0
๐Ÿ
I prefer pop-up books but this might work..
GALACTIC
Politicker
0
Account Executive
This is sounds almost exactly like my word tracks, I was trying to find any tidbit of information to expand the conversation, but kept hitting the wall. They'd "just say send me an example," but wouldn't give me x y z info.

Sounds like they're just window shopping, no real pain or need.
SADNESSLieutenant
Politicker
2
Officer of โ™ฅ๏ธ
Sometimes it's better to dump the hottie all together.
Pachacuti
Politicker
0
They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy
It seems to me your arenโ€™t putting yourself in your clients shoes. You live and breath your solution every day. They donโ€™t. Thatโ€™s important to understand. You have thought through things they havenโ€™t and look at their situation from a different POV.

You need to empathize with them more.
12
Members only

You talk to a friend after a while and they ask you to stop sounding like a salesperson.

Question
34
What do you do?
22% End friendship
38% Start evaluating life choices
40% Ask other savages what they'd do
58 people voted
71
Members only

I had a manager once tell me "You'll need to lose those morals if you want to be successful in sales"

Discussion
81