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Enhancing Sales with Tech & Authenticity w/Christopher Bell
16 Plays3 days ago
In this episode, Brian Dietmeyer talks to Christopher Bell, an account executive at Seamless AI, about the evolving landscape of enterprise sales and the increasing importance of creativity and personal touch in sales strategies. They explore how the sales cycle has extended due to well-informed and competitive buyers, the challenges of prospecting in a data-saturated market, and the crucial role of authenticity and human connection in closing deals. This insightful discussion is a must-listen for sales professionals navigating the complex dynamics of modern B2B sales.
Timestamps:
- 00:02 Introduction to Christopher Bell and the topic of today's podcast.
- 00:47 Christopher Bell shares his excitement about the discussion.
- 02:11 Discussion on changes in the sales environment over the past five years.
- 03:10 Insights on buyer preparedness and competition in the market.
- 04:35 Christopher emphasizes the enduring value of cold calling.
- 05:27 Creativity in sales approaches to stand out in a crowded market.
- 07:15 The importance of personal connection and humor in sales relationships.
- 09:16 Feedback on being a relatable and trustworthy salesperson.
- 10:00 Exploring the role of empathy in sales.
- 11:13 Adjusting sales strategies in response to real-life crises like hurricanes.
- 12:04 The challenge of internal complexities in sales processes.
- 14:06 The need for directness and efficiency in sales communications.
- 22:33 Discussing the overwhelming number of tools in sales tech stacks.
- 25:40 Simplifying sales processes to focus on essential activities.
Recommended
Transcript
Intro
Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:00:05
Brian
Welcome to another edition of closed mode, the enterprise sales show. I'm Brian deep Meyer, CEO of closed strong, the home of precision guided selling. And today I'm excited to be talking to Christopher Bell, who's an account executive at seamless AI. And if you're not familiar with seamless AI, I would be shocked if you're in sales and you're not.
00:00:24
Brian
but they've got the most accurate data on over 1.3 billion business contacts and 121 million companies. in ah ah In addition, I love people with interesting background because mine's a little bit weird.
Background of Chris Bell and 'Grubs with Chubs'
00:00:36
Brian
Chris also, from time to time, runs a podcast called Grubs with Chubs, which is food-related. and He's also been a machinist, which which I love that background too. Welcome to the show, Chris.
00:00:49
Chris Bell
yeah Thank you so much, Brian. I'm really excited to to have this conversation with you and see where it goes. So yeah, but let's go.
00:00:57
Brian
Yeah. Well, it, yeah it, it starts with the last crubs with chubs that I saw on YouTube was with a heavy metal band, right? Talking food with a heavy metal band.
00:01:08
Brian
I think it was wings out wings, which was pretty cool.
00:01:10
Chris Bell
yeah Yeah. Yeah. If anyone's familiar with the with the show Hot Ones on YouTube, it's become pretty popular over the years. That was like our our tribute episode to that show.
00:01:21
Brian
Nice.
00:01:21
Chris Bell
So we we were eating some of the hottest wings in the world and it was it was and it was quite the experience.
00:01:30
Brian
i love
00:01:30
Chris Bell
A lot of things that people probably don't want to see.
00:01:34
Brian
I was serious though, I think for for those of us who have diverse backgrounds, it adds a certain you know texture to kind of who we are and how how
Frontline Sales Experiences vs. Executive Features
00:01:43
Brian
we approach selling. so you know this This is a segment I referred to, I call it B2B street fighting and it's really Speaking with frontline warriors like myself and you about about selling a lot of the podcasts we do are with CROs and you know and and revenue enablement leads and so Yeah, this is the one where I want a chance for leaders to listen. I think we've spoken to about five Five a ease now and it'll be a channel for leaders to come and say hey what the heck's happening in the front line? So Chris to that end
00:02:15
Brian
what What changes have you seen you know on the buy side or just generally in selling over the last five years? What comes to mind as is the biggest shift? yeah or Or maybe you're saying, nah, it's the same as it was five years ago.
Challenges in Modern Sales
00:02:28
Chris Bell
Yeah, I think the biggest thing is just the fact that, one, there's a lot more competition out there, and people are very aware of that nowadays.
00:02:37
Brian
Yeah.
00:02:38
Chris Bell
You hear you know people, especially when I'm taking meetings, hey, we're also having talks with you know X, Y, and Z competitors, you're and you're fighting with you know trying to close with three other people, people are very aware of the bite or Buyers are very aware of the of the process now.
00:02:58
Chris Bell
they're They're more intelligent, not to say that they weren't before, but they're just more aware of what is going on within the market.
00:02:58
Brian
Yeah.
00:03:05
Brian
Yeah, we'll say that they have access to more data.
00:03:08
Chris Bell
Yeah, yeah. People are just a lot more prepared they're coming into a meeting and understanding of what this is and what else is out there.
00:03:11
Brian
Yeah.
00:03:19
Chris Bell
So I think you're just dealing with a lot more competition these days and people are making
00:03:21
Brian
Yeah.
00:03:25
Chris Bell
educated decisions and usually that takes a little bit longer. So, know, it it certainly is extending the sales cycle for a lot of people and, you know, most of us are pretty highly transactional when it comes to sales.
00:03:41
Chris Bell
So, you know, that can be a challenge when you're talking to someone over a couple months instead of, you know, hey just a few weeks or a few days even.
00:03:44
Brian
Yeah.
00:03:50
Brian
Yeah, that's pretty consistent. I'm hearing that everywhere, you know, and the the other thing that I'm hearing is that, you know, the, the general number that's thrown out there in the marketplace is we used to have six X pipe and we're at two X. Now, do you see your personal pipe as, as different than it was several years ago?
00:04:07
Chris Bell
Yeah, i think it's I think prospecting in general has become harder over the past couple of years. you know Google has not made it easy on anyone with their e with their emails.
00:04:18
Chris Bell
you know Some people consider that good, but for people who are heavy prospecting, it's certainly a challenge.
00:04:20
Brian
Yeah.
00:04:25
Chris Bell
You have to work a lot harder you know for an email to stand out to someone.
00:04:30
Brian
Yeah.
Cold Calling vs. Digital Outreach Methods
00:04:31
Chris Bell
In my personal opinion, cold calling will always be the way to go. You know, you get a direct conversation with someone instead of, know, an inbox that's probably full of 20 other pitches for that day. But I think it's just, and people are, you know, there's so much going on on LinkedIn. It's so noisy. You know, so there's just so much of it going on now that you just, you have to find a way to break through the noise. And that's, that's very difficult.
00:05:00
Brian
Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's interesting cause that, that leads right into something that just occurred to me. I wanted to ask you about, and it has to do with creativity. I feel like in, in several, like in my regular business conversations, I close strong and, and several podcasts on closed mode that I'm i'm hearing a lot about, about creativity. I just did a podcast yesterday with.
00:05:22
Brian
With and Andy Paul, who is a podcaster. He's got like, fifty so was it was like podcasters talking to each other. But he he made this point about creativity.
00:05:29
Chris Bell
Yeah.
00:05:31
Brian
He's like, as sort of a solution to the problem you just talked about. And, and I felt like some of the things that he brought up, whether it's, you know, sending a physical something to someone and then making the call.
00:05:45
Brian
And I'm wondering how he, and in that in one sense, I said to him like, we're going back to like old school. Like we used to do that kind of stuff.
00:05:51
Chris Bell
yeah
00:05:51
Brian
and And his, his point was it's neither old school nor new school. It's just what works. And, and I thought that was a great point. And I'm wondering, yeah, how do you feel about that whole creativity thing in terms of, Hey, we,
Creativity and Personalization in Sales
00:06:03
Brian
we got a shift.
00:06:04
Brian
The market's not what it was.
00:06:07
Chris Bell
Yeah, absolutely. I think, know, the more personal you can get with someone, the better. And whether that is, you know, from the prospecting end of trying to personalize an email, you know, being prepared for the cold call before you go into it, you know, maybe sending a video.
00:06:13
Brian
yeah super Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah
00:06:26
Chris Bell
I think people want to see the human more than ever because there is so much automation it comes to outreach and selling that I think people need a breath of fresh air when it comes to someone.
00:06:37
Brian
yeah
00:06:43
Chris Bell
That's something that I've really been trying to get better at. It's just showing my personality through a sales cycle with someone. I think it just, you know if you can get to a point with you know a prospect or client to where you can joke around and laugh and cut up on each other's football teams or you know whatever it is.
00:07:08
Chris Bell
like You're in a good spot.
00:07:09
Brian
Yeah.
00:07:09
Chris Bell
And whether that you know whether you get a yes or a no from that, you know it's just easier as far as the communication goes. So I think creativity you know certainly plays a big role in and selling today.
00:07:17
Brian
see
00:07:24
Chris Bell
I have one you know person that I'm talking to, you know, that is a potential buyer for us at seamless and they're evaluating some other tools and, uh, she's a Ravens fan.
00:07:36
Chris Bell
So we've been going back and I'm Pittsburgh guy, so I'm a Steelers fan.
00:07:37
Brian
Yeah.
00:07:39
Chris Bell
So me and her, like she, she hasn't closed or anything like that, but me and her have just been talking crap on each other through text messages about our football team.
00:07:48
Brian
Yeah, yeah, it's it's it's funny too because you keep, well you and you and I didn't rehearse this and you keep going to places.
00:07:49
Chris Bell
You know, so things like that.
00:07:56
Brian
That's my next question, which is cool because i I love following, finding patterns and trends. It's one thing to talk to a lot of people and you know, boom, the data points are all over the place. But yeah, you you just, you, we move from creativity to kind of the human touch.
00:08:10
Brian
And I'm hearing an awful lot more of that, the human touch and authenticity. In fact, a couple of folks have said to me, that you know people who are in and and sales or revenue lead positions that they know when they're being sequenced you know by by by some tool. And and and so yeah, there's I feel like there is this trend two to bring it back ah ah to authenticity, to bring it back to human, to bring it back to creativity. And and like I said, you you were leading into those things and they were my next question. So I'm beginning to see a super strong pattern right now.
00:08:45
Chris Bell
Yeah, and and it and sometimes it doesn't always work. You're not going to win every single deal from that, but if you can just have good conversations that are productive and also fun and make people the you know leave feeling like, hey, even if this isn't the right solution for me, I had a great time talking with this person.
00:08:57
Brian
Yeah.
00:09:07
Brian
Yeah.
00:09:08
Chris Bell
you know i had ah I had a deal Probably about a month ago where they didn't choose us and they went with one of our competitors but one of the pieces of feedback I got from them was you were the best salesperson and and not as far as like and they didn't mean that as far as like You know, oh, I'm the best at being a
00:09:21
Brian
Yeah.
Consultative Approach and Building Trust
00:09:28
Chris Bell
salesperson but they just they felt the most comfortable with me and that's just that's what I've been trying to
00:09:28
Brian
Right.
00:09:35
Chris Bell
come off as is someone that is trustworthy, someone that you can talk to about anything within this process. I just made a post about it on LinkedIn the other day. I want to be a consultant more than anything, not someone just trying to close a deal.
00:09:46
Brian
Yeah.
00:09:50
Chris Bell
Because at the end of the day, if you don't care about someone and their business, what are we even doing here?
00:09:55
Brian
you You just, so I need to tell you to get the hell out of my brain, because you just did it again. I was scribbling a note. I i and interviewed Kaylee, who's a a revenue enablement lead. and And she does this thing called empathy mapping, which we won't get into, but it's all about kind of the stuff you were just talking about. Do you care enough? Do you have empathy for this human? And the point she was making, because she brings a lot of science to this.
00:10:20
Brian
That when you do that with someone legit, right? When you legit have empathy, you legit care and you're trying to problem-solve and consult versus sell. that, that, that empathy allows the other human to be more vulnerable. And when they're vulnerable, they're going to share more data. They're going to be more open. And, and she really brought.
00:10:41
Brian
Like you and I kind of know this in our gut, which is what we're talking, and she brought some signs to it to say no, but it starts with really, really giving a damn, right? Like you can't phone this in.
00:10:52
Chris Bell
yeah Yeah, that's that's that's interesting. i I'd love to hear more about that. You'll have to send me a link later, but yeah, that that is certainly interesting.
00:10:58
Brian
Yeah, I will.
00:11:02
Chris Bell
I mean i know for me and and a lot of people, the past month has been difficult with anyone who's been in Florida. you know With more of the hurricanes, there's been so many people that I've been talking to where the timeline has to change.
00:11:11
Brian
Yes.
Empathy in Sales Amidst Real-life Challenges
00:11:19
Chris Bell
Because they're dealing with real life situations and you have to have empathy towards those people and what they're going through that Right now their business and their data and whatever else, you know You're talking about is not the most important thing me closing a deal before the end of the month when a massive hurricane hits is not is not a big priority compared to what they're dealing with you know, and
00:11:19
Brian
yes
00:11:42
Brian
So so her Hurricane Shmarikane is not the right strategy in that situation.
00:11:48
Chris Bell
thank Yeah, you know, and if someone's willing to work through it, like, hey, great, you know, they, they still have their priorities.
00:11:50
Brian
Yeah.
00:11:52
Brian
Yeah.
00:11:54
Chris Bell
But if you, if you're talking to someone and like, and they just give you any sense of, Hey, something's going on in my life outside of this, regardless if it's a hurricane or a family issue, whatever, you know, you have to give them that time in order to process that before that you can talk about business.
00:11:54
Brian
yeah
00:12:08
Brian
Yeah, I. Yep. I agree. And like I guess that I'm hearing, and it's it's refreshing hearing so much of this lately after, you know, sequencing and tech's going to do it all.
00:12:19
Brian
And it's like, again, it's, it is kind of coming full circle.
Importance of Direct Communication in Sales
00:12:23
Brian
So I want to do this exercise with you that I call more of less of same of, and it's not really, you know, Chris with seamless AI, but more in general account executives, what do we need more of less of same of, you know, it could be from enablement.
00:12:33
Chris Bell
we
00:12:36
Brian
and any anywhere, but let's let's start with with more of. What do you think AEs need more of in general to to do their job, especially given some of the shifts you've talked about?
00:12:50
Chris Bell
Yeah, I think The biggest thing for me is I just need more directness in every way possible
00:12:57
Brian
Okay. All right.
00:12:59
Chris Bell
know, whether that is from a prospect, a client, you know, someone giving me feedback, you know, or, uh, a leader, you know, reviewing my, you know, my calls or my emails.
00:13:11
Brian
Yeah.
00:13:13
Chris Bell
think just in general, more directness is all in that, maybe that's a personal preference. I know some people, you know, they, it's different. but for me, I just want to be more direct with people.
00:13:25
Chris Bell
in every way possible. you know This world that has gone to this place where you know you hear it in relationships, but it's also so much in business of ghosting.
00:13:26
Brian
Yeah.
00:13:36
Brian
Yeah. Yeah.
00:13:37
Brian
yeah
00:13:37
Chris Bell
And it's like, man, I waste so much time following up with people, whether it's emails, calls, text, messing them on LinkedIn in every way that I can possibly communicate to literally get nothing back.
00:13:50
Brian
Yeah. Yeah.
00:13:52
Chris Bell
and It would only take that person three seconds to respond to me and say no. So I think.
00:13:57
Brian
Well, yeah. Sorry, Chris. what What strikes me when you're saying that is is the underlying issue there is time. We don't have time. We don't have time to mess around, you know, whether it's in internal stuff or it's with customers.
00:14:07
Chris Bell
Yeah.
00:14:09
Brian
And and and by the way, back to the the creativity thing and and people ghosting, I have become enough interested in this that I did go to GPT the other day and asked it, what's a creative way to get to someone who's ghosting me?
00:14:22
Brian
And and it does a pretty nice job of of throwing some ideas out there. So for for you and anyone else listening, I would suggest doing that.
Balancing Data Use in Sales
00:14:30
Brian
So how about how about how about same of what' what what's working today? Don't mess with this. This is really helpful.
00:14:30
Chris Bell
Yeah.
00:14:37
Chris Bell
Yeah, same of, I think it is kind of the data movement. There is so much data out there, but there there can be too much. if we if I think it can get to a point where it's just ridiculous.
00:14:56
Chris Bell
So I think we're at a good spot where with data in general. And I think some people just get a little nuts with data.
00:15:05
Brian
yeah
00:15:05
Chris Bell
And I know that's like the world I'm in as far as what Seamless does and like our contact information and all that kind of stuff.
00:15:07
Brian
yes
00:15:13
Chris Bell
I know it's probably weird for me to say that, but I think there's going to come to a point where it's just going to be like overload. I know that we, you know, before this role as a sales manager, when I was you know, working with our SDR team, trying to look at all the data points that we have available to us can sometimes get mind-numbing.
00:15:32
Brian
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:15:34
Chris Bell
And and at one point and then at some point, I'm just like, I spent an hour looking at this data, and I don't even know what I really took away from it.
00:15:43
Brian
Yeah Yeah
00:15:44
Chris Bell
I think sometimes less is more with data, but I think we're in a good spot, but I think it's gonna get ridiculous, because it's already, You know, I think we're at a good spot, but yeah, I think if we could keep it where it's at, we might be we might be good.
00:15:59
Brian
And when I'm, I'm, I'm dying to have you sort of bucket ties, this general idea of data, like give me a couple buckets or general categories of data that that are helpful at the same of like, you know, and I need more data from here and more data on this. Uh, yeah. How would you, how would you react to that?
00:16:18
Chris Bell
Yeah, i think I think a lot of it has to do with the just production of a rep, whether it's an SDR, an AE. Hey, here's how many meetings you had. Here's your close rate. Here's how many meetings you need to get to hit your numbers. Like those simple points are very easy to coach on or an SDR. Here's how many calls you made. Here's how many bookings you had. Here's where you need to be in order to get to the numbers where you want to go.
00:16:51
Chris Bell
you know It's simple points of data like that that can make a big difference and you don't have to dive into a ton of different metrics to figure out those type of things.
00:17:02
Brian
Yeah.
00:17:03
Chris Bell
So I think for me, it's just those basic points where it's just like, high level, here's the issues.
Overcoming Data Overload and Internal Hurdles
00:17:09
Brian
yeah
00:17:10
Chris Bell
you know I remember someone pitching me
00:17:14
Chris Bell
it was some sort of software on objection handling and all this stuff. And it, and it would literally track your, your meetings or your calls. And it would give like percentages on, you know, your talk tracks and all this stuff on all, you know, all the, all like a million data points on everything that you do within a call.
00:17:34
Chris Bell
And like, to me, I was like, that's just overwhelming.
00:17:36
Brian
Right. Right.
00:17:38
Brian
Yeah. I was, I was talking to a head of product of a tech company the other day who made an interesting point that he said, we we used to aggregate data that was aggregatable.
00:17:38
Chris Bell
Yeah.
00:17:49
Brian
If that's the right, and and that was, that was action steps. That was things that were happening. And he said, now with the advent of AI. we can aggregate qualitative data. And so that's kind of what I'm hearing. It's like, okay, maybe we over aggregated the qualitative data, but you know, in the past, you know, it was, ah ah it was all like steps and how many calls are made and that kind of thing where now we can actually look at quality. But I'm hearing you say we can take that too far. How, how about like ah but less of, less of, what do you think you and and again, other folks in your role need less of?
00:18:23
Brian
And you you hit, you hit on some of the data, like data can go too far.
00:18:26
Chris Bell
Yeah.
00:18:26
Brian
So we we kind of we moved into that a little.
00:18:27
Chris Bell
Yeah.
00:18:30
Chris Bell
Right. Yeah, less of...
00:18:33
Chris Bell
That's a tough one. I'm struggling with that one. Less of...
00:18:38
Brian
that that's And so let me let me lead the witness a little bit. What what i've heard from what I've heard from some of your peers, and and if you don't feel this, push push back on me.
00:18:42
Chris Bell
Yeah, please.
00:18:48
Brian
But I'm starting to get this trend, again, from talking to to frontline warriors about um complexity. You're killing me. you're You're making it hard to get a deal done.
00:18:57
Brian
There's there's too much internally. And and that that might be a little strong. like Maybe it's seamless. It's not that bad. But again, it's not even seamless. It's just, in general, as you chat with your peers, the Is it harder to get stuff done internally, more hoops to jump through, or maybe the same as it's been in the past?
00:19:17
Chris Bell
Yeah, I don't think we have that issue at Seamless.
00:19:18
Brian
Good.
00:19:20
Chris Bell
we Our leaders are very transparent with us. We get training almost daily with our directors, with our CRO.
00:19:27
Brian
Yeah.
00:19:31
Chris Bell
That's one of the things that we've actually been... Maybe it was, because that's one of the things that we've actually been focusing on the past couple months, is we wanna make this easy for you.
00:19:35
Brian
Yeah.
00:19:43
Brian
Yeah.
00:19:43
Chris Bell
so maybe it was an issue and and maybe i'm I'm too new to the role to kind of realize, but maybe it was an issue because that is a, that has been a heavy focus for us the past couple months of months.
00:19:49
Brian
Yeah.
00:19:55
Brian
Yeah. So maybe yeah maybe, yeah, maybe you guys got after it because it's sort of like, and there is a customer impact.
00:19:55
Chris Bell
So we want to make it.
00:20:00
Chris Bell
Yeah.
00:20:02
Brian
make Make it easier for me to sell internally and then I can then make it easier for the buyer to buy. It's it's interesting, Chris, that that years ago, Harvard Business Review, they they studied, the topic was negotiation and they studied like 50 some companies.
00:20:09
Chris Bell
Yeah.
00:20:18
Brian
And this shocked me and my previous company was strict negotiation consulting. That's all we did. And this, this article surprised me.
00:20:24
Chris Bell
Yeah.
00:20:26
Brian
They said the number one problem facing, like if I were to ask you, you know, it's what What do you think negotiation problems are for most enterprise sales teams? It's customer and it's price pressure. They came back and said the number one issue closely followed by customers was internal negotiation, getting deals done, getting product solution configurations approved, getting deals approved.
00:20:47
Brian
and yeah it's it's it's not an so it's set Separate of seamless. It's just that was a shock to me that that that was they're like fixed fixed that like that's much harder it's much harder internally than it is externally and so that was that was the number one issue across 50 plus companies which kind of Blew blew my mind away.
00:21:08
Brian
I didn't expect it Yeah,
00:21:10
Chris Bell
Yeah, that that makes sense. and Now that I'm kind of thinking through that, I hear that from a lot of people that I talk to um with when having a meeting with a new client.
00:21:17
Brian
yeah
00:21:22
Chris Bell
They have so much going on internally that it's hard to get a discussion going with with a decision maker about something new.
00:21:24
Brian
Yeah.
00:21:32
Brian
yeah
00:21:33
Chris Bell
and there's you know and as I'm kind of thinking through this, maybe maybe it's less of all these tools that we have at our disposal.
00:21:41
Brian
yeah
00:21:43
Chris Bell
Because there's so many, when I hear, when I talk to someone and they tell me they have, you know, I say, hey, so what's your tech stack or whatever, and I get a list of like eight different things, I'm like, oh how are you even navigating that?
00:21:53
Brian
Yeah.
00:21:57
Chris Bell
Like, you really need a couple things, you know, for to really do your job.
00:21:57
Brian
yeah
00:22:03
Chris Bell
You know, I hear a lot about that from people on on LinkedIn that sometimes the tools that we have, it's just, it gets overwhelming.
00:22:10
Brian
yeah
00:22:14
Brian
Well, it's, it's, it's interesting.
00:22:15
Chris Bell
You really only need a few.
00:22:16
Brian
Yeah. Well, it's true. And and I remember my first couple CRO interviews on the podcast, I was blown away by the amount of tech at their disposal and in one sense, good because it, you know, enhancing their ability to forecast, but then, and the yeah, the other part, I had the same reaction as you where it's like, man, this feels overwhelming to, to, to be a CRO today.
00:22:39
Brian
I mean, I read a study that the average sales rep has got 10 tools. And, and so it's like, yeah.
00:22:44
Chris Bell
Yeah.
00:22:44
Brian
And, and so it's, it's, yeah, what, what are the ones that make a difference? Uh, one of the other sales enablement leads I interviewed, uh, Alyssa Plekovic talked to me about, you know, we've we've overcomplicated selling, you know, and, and one of, in my, in my past company, uh, and I quote this a lot, one of my partners, Hugh McDonald, but our win-loss analysis practice and And Hugh, I envision him, mid-60s, gray hair, west West Point grad, engineer, former VPS sales from Control Data, like buttoned up, and kind of dude.
00:23:17
Chris Bell
Yeah.
00:23:18
Brian
And he was like, you know what? After 12 years analyzing $20 billion dollars of key losses, and key wins and losses for our customers, I can pretty much tell you why winners win and not why losers lose.
00:23:30
Brian
And then he went on to something else and I was like, no, no, no, no, no, back up. like For for for guys like christen brian that sell for living i'm like that's kind of an important first of all it's a really good book title and it's kind of an important thing for us to know and i said why do winners win and he said winners when when we show customers how we meet their needs at higher confidence and lower risk than the alternative and and yeah i don't know about you chris but like when i think about the complexity issue we're talking about and the tools and the data that comes. Like that's that to me resonated to say that is it that's probably.
00:24:04
Brian
why I buy something. And and if you can if you can help manage that journey for people, if you don't know the two or three reasons why you, here's your goals, here's how I made them at higher confidence and lower risk, the next way is the alternative. youre You're not only, your win rate's not only going to suffer, but you're going to get beat up on commercial terms all day long because your value isn't present. So and anyway, sorry. it just It struck me as we talk about complexity. That to me is is the core of selling.
00:24:32
Chris Bell
Yeah, and and it's I'll hear this from people when you know i'm you know we're talking about implementing seamless with with their company.
00:24:39
Brian
Yeah.
00:24:41
Chris Bell
And they'll be like, well, I don't know if I can make a decision because I don't know how we're going to use this. And in my head, I'm like, well, all you need is the data. And then you make calls and you send emails.
00:24:52
Chris Bell
You don't need all these 20 other tools to you know create this huge tech stack to use it. like do you need it like for for us it's Do you need an email and a cell phone number?
00:25:03
Chris Bell
like like At the simplest terms, that's like what it comes down to for us.
00:25:05
Brian
Yes. Yeah. yeah
00:25:08
Chris Bell
And then I have someone that's telling me, well, I need to set up all these tools to use. this and I'm like, no, you don't. like You just need the phone number and pick up your phone and call.
00:25:17
Brian
Right.
00:25:19
Brian
Yeah.
00:25:19
Chris Bell
Send the email.
00:25:20
Chris Bell
like That's literally it. you just You don't need anything else.
00:25:24
Brian
Well, you, you kind of made this point earlier about, about buyers. you know, kind of being having access to a lot of data now, but then there's the overwhelming part of that, that it's like, yeah. And in their mind, it's like, yeah, but I've been told I need these eight other tools.
00:25:38
Brian
Like, and it's like, Oh hell no, you don't. You you need to make a phone call.
00:25:41
Brian
You need to send an email. That's going to help you sell better. Yeah.
00:25:41
Chris Bell
yeah
00:25:45
Chris Bell
Yeah, you know and especially like I work with, you know, I work with a lot of smaller businesses. And that and I think, and to your point, yeah, I think because there is, hey, this roadmap of you need this, this and this and this to be successful.
00:26:00
Chris Bell
And it's like, no, all you need is sales to start.
00:26:03
Brian
Great.
00:26:03
Chris Bell
That's literally it. You need, to you need your, you need your, your, your product in your services, you need your yourself and you need people to sell to.
00:26:09
Brian
Great.
00:26:13
Chris Bell
Everything else can come after. you know If you want to set up all this automation, like you got to be successful first to do that.
00:26:20
Brian
Yeah.
00:26:20
Chris Bell
What's the point of doing all this automation? you know Whether it's a dialer or you know a sequencer, you know a CRM, a sales engagement tool, like all the like all that stuff, it's like, just get sales first.
00:26:36
Chris Bell
then then build on that, you know, I think they go handin hand in hand.
00:26:38
Brian
yeah yeah and
00:26:42
Brian
Well, this, this has been so helpful. I'm just sitting here thinking back on, on our conversation and the, you know, the, the less is more thing.
Streamlining Sales Processes for Productivity
00:26:50
Brian
And, you know, it's funny. It, it reminds me of a conversation I have with Jim Dickey, who's one of our board members and an analyst in the space. And he was talking about investors and he's like, investors want Yeah, their money in a, in a startup to go to people who make bullets yeah, and people who yeah shoot bullets. You know, and it's kind of what, what you were saying, you know, who's building the product and who's going to go sell it.
00:27:11
Brian
And that that's my take, my takeaway from, from yeah this conversation.
00:27:12
Chris Bell
Yeah.
00:27:16
Brian
I have several, but the biggest one is that like we we need to sort of do the right things that matter and, and maybe step away from some of the nonsense. And yeah, I hear that loud and clear and you've been, yeah, you're especially selling on a daily basis, taking time to have a pre-call with me and then do this today for, for our listeners.
00:27:36
Brian
I will thank you on behalf of all of them for your investment. You've been very generous with with your time.
00:27:43
Chris Bell
Oh, you're welcome. it was It's such a pleasure. know ah ah You guys came to me and I was blown away by that. So I really appreciate that. It it means a lot. yeah Hopefully that means I'm doing something right.
00:27:55
Brian
Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate it. And now we stare uncomfortably until Marie shows up.