Creating a consistent, repeatable, scalable sales function means we need all of our salespeople to interact consistently with prospects and clients.
Problem is, unless we want to be the worst kind of micromanager, we can’t sit with each of our salespeople every time they speak with a prospect. That’s why talk tracks are a fantastic tool for accelerating our sales team and freeing up our time because we’re not being dragged into conversations that our salespeople can handle on their own.
Full funnel freedom comes from having both a common process (the “what” information we need to gather to (dis)qualify an opportunity) and a consistent system (the “how” we go about gathering the information in our process). Talk tracks align our salespeople on outcomes we want them to achieve in specific situations for example addressing buyer’s remorse after closing a sale. In fact, we could have two talk tracks one for when one of our salespeople wins business form the competition and another for when our client is using a product like ours for the first time.
Key point – talk tracks are not scripts. Scripts say to our salespeople “thou shalt speak in this manner and only this manner,” which feel like handcuffs. Talk tracks are mountaintops, each person will get there in their own way. For example, the mountaintop for addressing buyer’s remorse when we’re taking business from a competitor might sound like, “Client, look forward to working with you. In my experience Current Vendor will make promises to you to try to keep your business. It’s easier to stay with the devil you know instead of the angel you don’t. What would cause you to call me up after we wrap up today to say that you’re sticking with Current Vendor?” That’s my way of getting to that mountaintop, but each of my team members has a different way of getting there. What’s important to me is they get to the mountaintop, not necessarily in the exact way I would (which isn’t necessarily the best way <grin>).
The thought of building a whole playbook of talk tracks probably feels overwhelming. Totally fair. The places to look for “quick wins” when it comes to building talk tracks are either in data from our salespeople or in recurring themes in our coaching meetings. Using the example above if we hear from our salespeople that they are having a lot of clients backing out or putting a “pause” on their order after closing, time for a talk track! Or, if we notice in our CRM that our salespeople are having a lot of conversations, but not booking very many discovery meetings, time for a talk track!
Talk tracks are meant to be iterative, growing and changing as our salespeople take on increasingly sophisticated accounts.
By leveraging video and role-playing talk tracks with our salespeople regularly we reduce their time to self-sufficiency, which gives us more time back to focus on our vision and strategy.
Until next time… go lead.
