ZVRK

Enterprise Account Executive

I have an issue with advice and tips from SalesTech/MarTech "experts"

To expand on the title - my LinkedIn feed is flooded with sales leaders, VPs of sales, in all these SalesTech and MarTech companies, posting day in day out all these "10 questions you need to ask if you want to close faster" type of posts.

Doesn't matter if the advice is sound, it just seems to me that it`s a lot different to be selling to sales/marketing people than to any other buyer on the planet (be it HR, IT, Finance ...)

That`s why i tend to not take seriously any advice on how to sell, from anyone who`s only selling and has only sold to, guessed it, sales people :) It`s like selling to your own kind in a way..

Correct me if I`m wrong here savages, would love to get your take on this.

🧠 Advice

✍️ Sales advice

19 comments

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nomdeguerre

Executive

Account executive

I agree with you. Plus most of those post are not wrong but so generic that it’s not helpful. Like ask good questions or make sure you understand the customer’s pain points. I’m like wow I would never have thought of that.

But what truly make those posts useless is that those people have sold anything in the last 2-3 decades.

ZVRK

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

Yup, when I have the time, I check out some of their profiles, for a lot of them, the last time they sold was at xerox early 90s...

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

Sales Rep

If its there name with an LLC and its only been active for a year, just list it as spam

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

There's just too much of it, it's almost all the same, and it becomes noise after a while.
And then watch it when they start to be "provocative" and start with subjects like "you're doing it wrong".
I don't scroll the LI feed much at all anymore.

RandyLahey

Politicker

Account Executive

It’s such garbage it may be worse than Facebook these days…

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

The copy pasta on both is awful, but at least on FB I can choose to catch up on what’s happening with actual friends.

HVACexpert

Politicker

sales engineer

Selling to sales or marketing might be different (could be harder I wonder? Since they would know the “tricks of the trade” so to speak). But a customer is a customer regardless. They all have pain points, needs, and things that they value. Your job is to find those pain points and needs and offer up a solution that solves their problem. In the end if you provide good pre and post sales customer support, then the outcome will be the same, no matter what title the customer holds.

ZVRK

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

Agree, a customer is a customer, but my point is you`re selling to someone who is in turn trying to sell to someone else. So, it just must be so different than selling software to HR (in my case). And what I`m saying is all I read are posts from people selling to sales and marketing people, which is logical since LinkedIn is full of sales and marketing people... I think all the rest of us, not selling to sales, are figuring things out depending on our own industries and can`t really apply much of that stuff anyways..

HVACexpert

Politicker

sales engineer

Agreed! each customer will be different from the next regarding what is important to them for their business and industry. What I was trying to say though is I don’t think the process differs much in trying to find out what each customer needs? I work in sales and I would want the same thing my customers would want; someone who listens, Asks questions, etc. Just my opinion.

ZVRK

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

Yeah, I’m like that too…also, what I’ve noticed from when being pitched from zoominfo and gong to name a few, is how quick i get impatient with sales reps dodging questions, using cheap tactics etc.. im guessing other buyers feel the same about that kind od stuff..

punishedlad

Tycoon

Business Development Team Lead

It's usually just recycled bullshit. I don't even bother with LinkedIn at this point. Maybe I'll log back in once I'm on the job hunt again, but unless my company wants me to post to promote something I'm not going to touch it.
Their news section is nothing but narrative and does nothing but try to generate clicks on the latest bait topics. The content posted by others (even colleagues) is usually hollow with the exception of a few trusted posters.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Recycled bullshit to look relevant without actually saying anything.

nomdeguerre

Executive

Account executive

LOL 😂

RandyLahey

Politicker

Account Executive

Typically, this is done to farm content/clicks to sometime of subscription service, "sales academy" or other. It's very thinly veiled.

ZVRK

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

Exactly, the agenda is so obvious..

Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

Just like with anything else - read it, use what works, throw away the rest. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

this is why having a sales methodology is so important.

not just having a bunch of random questions to ask.

i was SOOO focused on what specific questions to ask when i first started in sales. I thought that if i asked the right questions i would win more deals.

and its not that simple.

you need to understand what you are trying to do/ uncover and let that guid what questions to ask.

Justatitle

Big Shot

Account Executive

I think that all advice should be taken with context. Someone selling to Marketing or sales is likely to have a very different experience than selling to IT or Finance. The thing is that you need to come up with your way of approaching conversations and making it so that your buyers feel like they are talking to someone with experience and not someone who fell into the role by accident.

TheEnglishMajor

Opinionated

Account Executive

You're totally right -- I sell to sales and know many people in the same situation, and in that case it can be helpful advice and also great to build brands, but definitely does not translate well all the time with other personas and industries

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ZVRK

I have an issue with advice and tips from SalesTech/MarTech "experts"

19 comments

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