Strikingly Different Selling Strategies with Jennifer Colosimo, #202

Subscribe to Modern Selling on the app of your choice!

As modern sellers have adapted to this new virtual selling environment, getting in front of and staying in front of buyers has become harder to do. From email sequences to LinkedIn messages, to video sales techniques – there’s no shortage of ways to reach the modern buyer. However, the traditional ‘spray and pray’ sales methods of the past have to be rapidly replaced with more strategic, more personalized, and more unique ways to break through the crowded B2B sales space.

And, exactly how sales organizations and sales teams can truly differentiate themselves to get a “hello” and to close a sale is what my guest, Jennifer Colosimo, knows inside and out.

Jennifer Colosimo is the President of FranklinCovey’s enterprise division, where she is accountable for generating profitable growth globally by building leaders, teams, and cultures that get results in 160+ countries.

With a storied sales career, Jennifer served previously as FranklinCovey’s Senior Vice President of Sales & Operations in the United States, Canada, and Australia. She has also led IT, learning and development, and corporate social responsibility teams while working for Accenture, DaVita, and several private equity-backed organizations. Her sales training and innovative strategies have been featured on a number of stages worldwide and reached over 50,000 people across 45 states and 12 countries. It is her recent book, Strikingly Different Selling, that she co-authored that is set to change the way we look at and approach modern selling. This book, through six years of focused research involving more than 2,800 sales professionals from 135 countries reveals the 6 vital skills that separate top sales performers from the herd. 

Download our full conversation to get a front-row seat to Jennifer’s insights to learn what skills and techniques are really moving the sales needle.

What are sales reps missing during prospecting?

Having been in sales now for over 20+ years, I know firsthand that prospecting is often the most time-consuming and challenging part of the B2B sales cycle. I was curious to get Jennifer’s take on what she believes is missing and why prospecting seems to be yielding such low results.

Here’s Jennifer’s take, “I’ve done a lot of research around what’s really working with sales. What I’ve found so often is that there is a major disconnect. The salesperson generally leaves the conversation believing that things went well. However, on the other hand, the buyer feels that they didn’t get what they needed or wanted out of the conversation. Buyers want to buy based on differentiation.”

This is exactly what we teach, here at Vengreso. Selling is the art of helping. And, if your sales teams are not clearly communicating what problems they solve for prospects, then they could be leaving lots of lost deals on the table.

Listen in to the 10-minute mark to hear the ‘interesting’ research Jennifer uncovered that points to some specific strategies sales teams should be using to differentiate their services with the very first outreach message.

How can sales reps win in an online selling environment?

In early 2020, we saw a radical shift in not just sales, but in how we all did business. As the world’s largest digital sales training company, we were able to quickly pivot our processes to favor the new virtual environment. But, for many sales organizations that relied heavily on building in-person relationships with their B2B buyers, this seemingly dramatic shift has left many sales teams reeling.

Strikingly Different Selling details six vital skills that today’s sellers must master, so I wanted to get Jennifer’s ideas around how sales teams can better connect with prospects across a digital screen.

She shares, “A lot of the same rules of selling still apply, in this new virtual space. You still need to connect with people, but rather than getting a business card at a tradeshow, you need to pay attention to your social media profiles. Sellers must consider how and where they show up online and what prospects will see when they research them and their companies. In the same way, you want to catch someone’s attention in person, sellers have to think about how to do this online.”

Listen in to the conversation to hear what strategies Jennifer sees are working right now to build relationships with B2B prospects. 

What are must-dos during a sales call? 

We teach the PVC methodology for prospecting that leads with the importance to personalize every touchpoint you have with a prospect. From the initial outreach conversation to the sales call and any subsequent follow-ups, you want to show your prospect that you understand what they need and want. 

I know Jennifer has done extensive research in this space and she teaches her teams and clients the most successful strategies that work to get buyers to lean in.

The three-part sales call framework she shares is quite simple – yet very profound. She calls it the “Why-What-Why” approach. And, when done right this approach not only helps to shape the conversation around the prospect, (making the discussion highly relevant to them), but it also enables you – as the sales rep – to convey your genuine interest in helping your prospect solve their problem.

Here’s how it works:

According to Jennifer, sales call should be entirely focused on answering these three questions for the prospect:

1. Why are we different? Or, why do we have a differentiator? 
2. What are we going to do to solve your problem? 
3. Why does this matter to you? 

This is just the tip of the sales iceberg, be sure to download and listen to our entire conversation to learn more about the six vital skills every salesperson must master to win the new digital selling game.