Most of us have some element of a proof of concept or proof of value, some people like to call it,

or a demo or a road test, but something that kind of comes after that initial presentation.

And if done well, it can be insanely powerful. If it's done poorly, it can go awry and we can mess up the deal or

slow it down in some cases or ruin it in others. And in today's interview, we're going to be

talking about these issues. So this interview is a little bit different. It's not so much about

how one great salesperson is great and became great. It's not so much about how one great salesperson is great and became

great. It's more about this one element of a sales process. And what we should do is really look at

our sales process and how do we stay engaged? How do we get them to want to talk with us, need something from us,

so that that interaction and exploration into their organization can become part of the sales process.

Remember, we may know how to sell. They do not know how to buy. And some people

fight me on this. Some people say, well, we just got to match their buying process. Well, that would

be great if they had a buying process. Nobody gets taught that. Procurement knows how to buy something once they're told,

once they get a purchase request, you know, that they'll do what their thing, but they're not

doing it for the best of the company. They're doing it for the audit. That's their test. All they

want to do is get best value in the auditor's eyes, in the view

of their superiors, and how they will be represented. And guess who they hate talking to?

Salespeople, because procurement thinks they know it all because they're procurement.

And everything looks the same to them. And if you deal with just procurement, your commodity.

So you just either become the lowest price product or you find a better customer. So let's get

into the interview. I'll sum it up at the end,

and I'll critique something I saw on LinkedIn, and I think really proven my point that hubris

and confirmation bias are the biggest killers of our deal, more than price, more than our time,

...