I feel Zoom makes it harder to build that 1:1 personal connection where you understand your champion’s true priorities and ambitions that really help drive strong partnerships.
Has anyone found some good strategies to adjust their approach to champion building remotely?
Hello Jack!
Funny you ask this question. I was just talking to a friend of mine this weekend about this topic.
As a relationship sales professional, I try to spend the upfront time looking to build rapport, so you will see most of my stuff focus on rapport building.
Here are a few ideas I have and strategies I use today…
1. Virtual Background or not
First thing I look for is if my identified champion is using a virtual background or not. If they are, I quickly scan the background to see if there is anything I can relate to or ask a question about (ie LAX helmet, a book on the shelf, musical instrument, golf, sports pictures, etc). As i get them talking about their hobby, I will often open up every meeting talking about a experience related to that hobby (ie if they are a golfer, I might say, “Hey Jack, How was our weekend? Mine was great, I had an opportunity to go to the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.” or “just read a fantastic book I thought you might enjoy”
One Exec in particular, I learned he is an “office golfer” and a big “cyclist”. During the conversation I learned he was participating a big bike ride (personal follow up opportunity).
2. Meeting structure:
I structure my virtual meeting so that I we have small talk/rapport building conversations up front, but the business side if very condensed and to the point.
Depending on the length of the meeting, I might spend 10-15 mins just talking about non-work related stuff, then the balance on one objective I am trying to achieve. Depending on where you are in the sales cycle, you will need to find answers to the following in order to know if you are actually building a champion or working with a coach.
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What is their personal win for giving you the business?
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Do they have access to power (ie EB)?
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Do they have political clout?
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Are they selling on your behalf?
If you follow this definition, there are many things you can do to have a productive conversation and build a champion.
3. Thought provoking content
Send thought provoking content, not just marketing stuff. Often i will send some stuff that might be a stretch for the company to achieve, but it moves the finish line out a bit and will keep the exec/champion engaged to want to learn or do more. I would send things like, “Just talked to a customer who is having this issue and thought of you. Are you experiencing the same thing?” or " I am read a WSJ article featuring your CFO [use their name] and he/she talked about… Does this fall under you?"
4. Value
Ultimately, you will need to bring value to the the Champion. i think too many sales professionals depend too much on ROI studies rather than leveraging a Business Value Assessment to identify areas of improvement and raising that to your champion. I read an article that most SW vendors will say they can provide a 300% ROI. Some execs will say that is table stakes…so what.
If you come to them and say, “Through our assessment, we identified 3 key low hanging fruit areas where we believe we can make a significant impact to your [insert corp metric] (ie increase revenue by 30% YoY, increase profitability, etc) and we believe we can get you up and running by X time and will show improvements by Y time. On average our customers see Z benefits after the first N days of utilizing our solution.”
Remember you will need your Champion to sign off and believe the story.
Hope this helps!
Greg
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I found this incredibly helpful, @greg.nishihir. Thank you for sharing such a thoughtful, in-depth reply.
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Some great stuff here, and I think your third point is really strong and creates deeper sense of investment in a partnership.
Thanks
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Awesome! Happy to hear i can add some value! Good Luck!
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Greg, thanks for sharing. Really appreciated the breakdown of your thoughts
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Get off Zoom and get on the phone. Call people and engage them - not just in formal, scheduled zoom meetings, but in one-off interactions where you may have a question or want to ask for their advice. The conversation will naturally spill into other areas and over time you’ll have developed more of a natural relationship. Obviously they need to be interested in what you are doing and have a predisposition to your solution, but in addition to developing the personal 1-to-1 connection you’ll also create an environment in which they feel comfortable asking questions that they may not have done so in a formal zoom call, and by addressing them and giving them the space to explore your solution with you, a champion can gradually and organically be formed.
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Very helpful idea here. Thanks for sharing Andrew!
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On top of all the great advice above from Greg and Andrew, lets not forget to get out of the office or remote environment and meet your buyers at their place of business. Much has changed but people still buy from people and nothing beats that face to face interaction.
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Could not agree more, @kevin.a.fischer.
Felt like travel and meet/greet budgets were often reallocated during Covid (and rightfully so) but I think advocating for that again is a great use of money and your time.
Thanks for calling that out. We really need to bring back the humanity to the process, and that’s a big part of it.
I think it is really important to get your prospects talking about what’s important to them (personally and professionally) and what’s important to their company (their desired business outcomes). That provides you with insight to them and their business. It helps you to connect at the personal and business levels. It level sets so you know who you are selling to and what’s important to them and their company. It gets you off the solution selling path and transactional approach and into a personal and strategic conversation and relationship.
I also look for ways to loosen people up. Initial meetings should be short and sweet, grounding the relationship in common goals. Getting to know each other. It’s like a date. Once grounded and you are familiar with them and they with you, a true relationship and bond and trust and authority can follow. I think too many people speed through the formative stage. The art of small talk has been lost on the younger generation. This isn’t speed dating, If you expect others to become your champion, you have to invest in them and bring value with every email or call or meeting.
As a part-time comedy magician, I also keep props and tricks handy and work things into the conversation at key points to make folks laugh. I want our calls to be memorable and something they look forward to. That’s how you build a relationship. That’s when they cross the line to becoming friends because they enjoy speaking with you – you coach them and they learn from you. You make them better, stronger, more confident.
Let your guard down. Be human. With new prospects and customers, I always ask them to grab a pencil and write down my personal phone number. And then I ask for theirs. Encourage them to engage that way when they need to chat about something. And be responsive.
I look for common interests or experiences. I have kids, they have kids. I have hobbies, they have hobbies. Get them to connect at the personal level. How would you try to get someone you were interested in dating to like you and engage with you? You have to make them want to spend time with you. You have to give them something back, too, like respect, confidence, empathy, etc.
Sales is a seduction.
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I agree with everyone’s ideas and points of view above! From my perspective, we often times underestimate the role of “chemistry” in the sales / buying process. People want to do business with (and work alongside) those that they enjoy being around and find value in. Most people want to have genuine, insightful, trustworthy people around them and taking time to establish these tenets in the relationship – personally and professionally – can be crucial, both with the person in front of you and with referrals / word of mouth they may provide. In the current environment of social media, it is fairly easy to do some research on people that you want to cultivate a relationship with to assess their area of education, mutual friends, hobbies, school affiliations and other interests that can help you navigate a path to those genuine connections. There’s an infinite number of approaches, but many people want to know you / your team before they will trust you with their business.
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@brandon.meek You bring up a point I think about a lot, and it has to do with the role of relationship.
Some sellers stress the importance of “every call or touch point must have value.” I’m all for that. But sometimes the value of a conversation is building rapport. Like you said, you need to be someone people want to be around with.
Wondering if you have advice on how you work in that personal touch in general. Is there a certain amount of “shooting the shit” you try and carve out on each call, or do you email people in between calls and touch on causal stuff outside of the deal and professional relationship?
I know there’s no formula, but always looking for insights into how much to lean into the casual vs. professional. Do you know what I mean?
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do you ask them for their number in the first conversation? (assuming there’s a next step agreed upon)
Something to think about, typically meetings do not start on time. I also heard some companies have a “start 5 mins late” practice. So often customers will log into a Zoom on time leaving roughly 5 mins of dead time. I have used that time to “shoot the shit”.
If I have a scheduled 1-1 meeting, I often spend the first 5-10 mins of the meeting talking about stuff not work related.
To your point this is super important, and I think customers are looking for such an interaction. I am only basing this on the fact that execs I meet tend to lean into the conversation and have found the remaining time is more productive and results in next steps that actually happen.
food for thought.
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Thrilled to say this thread has resulted in a great piece of content entitled “4 Strategies for Building a Champion in a Remote World” by @greg.nishihira
Take a look here: 4 Strategies for Building a Champion in a Remote World - Strategic Sales Network
Thanks so much for everyone who engaged along the way!
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Some additional thoughts … be sincere. I have seen so many poor salespeople who are bad at small talk when trying to warm up the prospect. How’s the weather? Any vacation plans? Just real bullshitty types of questions that lead nowhere, reveal nothing about your prospect, and then the follow-up is also poor. It’s like the salespeople were not listening to what the prospect said, and just start talking about their weather or vacation plans. Building a relationship to build a champion requires great listening skills and note taking (either mentally or with pencil). Have follow-up questions just as you do in business discovery. Be sincere. Reference what they tell you to pivot into what’s important to them. Also, if your company sends gifts, do so to show your sincere appreciation and include a personal note. Better yet use personal handwritten notes to show you took the time to connect personally. A lot of this from Dale Carnegie He says write a note every day to a customer expressing your sincere appreciation.
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Great advice on the BS factor. One thing I’m always conscious of is trying to avoid the cliche conversation-starters. Those tend to be utterly forgettable.
All about trying to get the customer to talk about themselves so I can learn about them. That way there can be opps for surprise and delight gifts that stand out.
Beyond obviously teeing them up with lines like “Tell me a little bit about yourself,” how do you tend to naturally get them to disclose those things? Any tips are appreciated, @steven.schneiderman. Learning a lot from you.
@steven.schneiderman I could not agree with you more!!! Simple conversation with a customer/prospect is a dying art!
Regarding hand written notes, prior to COVID I sent out handwritten notes frequently (Bonus if you send one on their birthday). Post COVID, it has been tricky since most people are still working remotely. Curious if you are seeing the same thing, or are you just sending it to the Corp office and hope they forward it on to the contact?
@tim.hartwell regarding your question on how to get people to open up and not ask the lame questions…
To be honest, I don’t have a play or plan, I let it come natural. Sometimes they give you an opening to jump into and sometimes you need to create your own.
I guess one way to work on this skill and answer the question, how to you engage with someone you don’t know in a bar or restaurant, or event? It really isn’t that much different, IMO, from a prospect.
part of the trick is asking the questions to get them to open up, but the real magic happens when you use the right tone.
I have heard reps ask the same question, one was more “mechanical” the other was more “natural and sincere”.