Jeff Koser is the CEO of Zebrafi and has more than 30 years of experience in leadership roles in sales, operations, and marketing. He is also the award-winning co-author of Selling to Zebras.
In this episode of The Salesman Podcast, Jeff explains how to uncover your ideal buyers and where to find them in the market.
Featured on this episode:
Resources:
- Jeff on Linkedin
- Book: Selling to Zebras: How to Close 90% of the Business You Pursue Faster, More Easily, and More Profitably
- Zebrafi.com
- Zebrafi Salesbot
Transcript
Will Barron:
Coming up on today’s episode of The Salesman Podcast.
Jeff Koser:
You make that shift, I think, first by realising that that’s what prospects want to talk about. They don’t care about your product, they care about themselves and they have to, it’s their job.
Why Salespeople Would Want to Identify and Replicate Their Best Customers · [00:55]
Will Barron:
Hello sales nation. My name is Will Barron, I’m the host of The Salesman Podcast, world’s most downloaded B2B sales show. On today’s episode, we have the legend, that is Jeff Koser, he is the CEO of Zebrafi, a leading guided selling platform. And on this episode, we’re getting into how you can replicate your best customers, why you want to do this, and how to go about doing this as well. Everything that we talk about is available in the show notes of this episode over at salesman.org. And with that said, let’s jump right into it. On today’s episode, we’re going to get into replicating our best customers. But this seems like a basic, simple question, Jeff, but let me start off with this. Why do we want to replicate our best customers? And then we can get into defining best and what that actually means.
Jeff Koser:
So the reason we do is because they are the ones that need us the most. We get the most value from our solution. They look like, they behave like, they have the same pain, they have the same critical business issues, and they would enjoy the same positive opportunities from whatever solution we sell that we would create for our best customers. And that marriage creates better opportunity for you and for them.
Will Barron:
I love this right off the bat. And I don’t know if I’ve ever thought about this, if I’m being honest with you, Jeff. But rather than we want to replicate our best customers because that’s where the money is and that’s where we can drive the most revenue, it’s a mindset shift of, we can deliver the most value to them. Which makes the sales process easier, more comfortable, scales quicker, deals get done quicker, which makes it a better job to be in if we can get more of the right people.
Jeff Koser:
All those positive things happen, no question.
How to Identify the Buyers You Can Add the Most Value to and Replicate Your Best Customers · [01:40]
Will Barron:
How do we then start to define, because I’m changing my questions here that I’d planned for you, Jeff, just to frame them up in this context, how do we then find… Oh no, let’s start off. How do we then define who are the people that we can add the most value to?
Jeff Koser:
So we actually have a process for doing that. And there’s free materials on our website, one of them is called, how do you build your zebra? And a zebra is just what we call a perfect prospect, and we break it into seven attributes. But the interesting thing about that, and I won’t go into those because they can go look that up, but the interesting thing about that, Will, is that even though we’ve written a book about it, and our publisher said something interesting. They said, “You guys are different. You’re different than most companies because you even put your secret sauce in here. Why is that?” And I said, “Well, here’s the curious thing, companies still struggle with doing it even after we put the secret sauce in the book and even in e-books that we put out on our website.” And what I’ve come to learn is because they think their product is the solution. And even when they build their zebra, it’s still all about the product, and that’s the mistake that they make.
Shifting from a Product-focused Salesperson to a Salesperson Focused on Solving Problems and Providing Value · [03:37]
Will Barron:
What does that mean then to change from being a company focused on product to a company or sales person focused on solving a problem and adding value to a zebra? You’ve confused me here, Jeff, I don’t know whether I call it a zebra or a zebra, but I think now you’ve said that a few times, it’s instilled zebra into my brain.
Jeff Koser:
Well, both work, depends on what continent you’re on as to whether or not it’s a zebra or zebra.
Will Barron:
So how do we then make that shift from, I sell this product that does X, Y, Z to I can best serve these individuals because this is the value that I can provide?
“They don’t care about your product, they care about themselves. And they have to it’s their job. That’s why there’s such a fundamental difference between the buying journey that a prospect wants to go down versus a sales cycle that most salespeople try to conduct. And by shifting to pain, business issues, and value, you’re actually making more of the shift to the buyer’s journey that they want to participate in.” – Jeff Koser · [04:28]
Jeff Koser:
You make that shift, I think, first by realising that that’s what prospects want to talk about. They don’t care about your product, they care about themselves. And they have to it’s their job. That’s, why there’s such a fundamental difference between the buying journey that a prospect wants to go down versus a sales cycle that most salespeople try to conduct. And by shifting to pain, business issues, and value, you’re actually making more of the shift to the buyer’s journey that they want to participate in.
How to Uncover What Buyers Actually Want and Provide the Most Value · [05:09]
Will Barron:
And how then, Jeff, do we uncover what the buyers actually want? Because it’s one thing for us to guess at it and it’s one thing for even a marketing team to come up with a bunch of new slogans or content to see who clicks on it and where the traffic goes and if it leads to sales. But for an individual salesperson, how do we test or uncover these things?
“Power is the person who can buy from you even if they don’t have a budget for it, as long as you present a business case that makes sense to them.” – Jeff Koser · [06:05]
Jeff Koser:
Well, the interesting thing about it is that you ask your best customers, it’s such a simple thing, it’s such a simple thing to say. But you actually investigate why they bought and you don’t turn it into the typical commercial that case studies are or the typical reference that case studies are. You actually want to understand at the level we call it power. And the reason we call it that is because power, we give it a simple definition, we say power is the person who can buy from you even if they don’t have a budget for it, as long as you present a business case that makes sense to them.
“What you want to do within your customer base is you want to find out who was the person that, at an executive level, approved the purchase. And it’s probably not the day-to-day user of your solution, it’s probably a person that’s one level, maybe two levels above that.” – Jeff Koser · [06:15]
Jeff Koser:
So what you want to do within your customer base is you want to find out who was the person that at an executive level approved the purchase. And it’s probably not the day-to-day user of your solution, it’s probably a person that’s one level, maybe two levels above that. And what pain did that address for them or what critical business issue did it solve or what opportunity did they create that was compelling enough that they approved it? Then you want to ask, what was that pain, CBI, or opportunity? Ideally, before you’re done, you also want to quantify it. So if it was solved, and assuming they’re still a customer, you did solve it, what measurable value was actually created? And then you’ve got the makings of understanding who buys from you, why they buy from you, why they continue to buy from you.
Will Barron:
So my background, Jeff, is selling surgical camera systems, medical equipment to surgeons, procurement teams, and-
Jeff Koser:
I remember. That’s right, remember.
Questions to Ask When Trying to Uncover Customer Pain Points · [07:55]
Will Barron:
For sure, for sure. So in that world, it would probably, well, it would be a, the deal size we were doing, it’d be a CFO who would sign it off. But they would be getting push and the actual decision on what products and all that kind of stuff would be made on a surgical level because clearly a CFO is just trying to keep the surgeons happy. And we’ve got a bit of a weird system in here in the UK with NHS being government run. So it’d be definitely in a private hospital I’m sure, the numbers would probably matter more in a private hospital. But with that said, what questions should I be asking a surgeon say? Because I had one in Bradford was one of my biggest customers. Bradford Hospital is around the corner from us in Leeds where I live.
Will Barron:
I couldn’t imagine myself going to the surgeon and saying, “Hey, Mr. blah, blah, what pain did we solve for you with this new HD camera system?” He’d look at me like I was a bit of an idiot because the conversation I’d be having would be around the theatre, they’d probably be at the patient’s on the table, and be mid procedure as I ask that question. So what questions could we ask to uncover that kind of information without asking what is a sales business question of, what pain are you in? That doesn’t translate then to a surgeon or perhaps people of that kind of nature.
“You present proof, you present that as research and say, “Look, I know you have this.” So really the issue is, is it a priority to solve it? Do you care to solve it? Is it painful enough that if I could show you a solution and I could quantify the value of solving it, that you’d listen?” – Jeff Koser · [09:25]
Jeff Koser:
It doesn’t translate to anybody, it’s not just you. It doesn’t translate to power. What power expects is that you know the pain that he or she already has, that you’ve done your homework and what you’re presenting is evidence which is your research that you know they have similar business issues to your best customers, where you’ve solved those before. And you present that proof, you present that as research and say, “Look, I know you have this.” So really the issue is, is it a priority to solve it? Do you care to solve it? Is it painful enough that if I could show you a solution and I could quantify the value of solving it, that you’d listen?
Will Barron:
It seems like-
Jeff Koser:
So that-
Should B2B Sales in 2020 Be About Justifying Buyer Pain Points and Using Business Cases to Solve Higher-level Problems? · [09:40]
Will Barron:
Sorry, Jeff, to interrupt there. And it seems like, Jeff, this is a lot of hard work and it would be easier just to spam out 1,000 emails to the marketplace and hope that someone responds to them. Is this what sales in 2020, as we recalled this right now, is this what sales, B2B sales, should be, this process of justifying and building business cases and solving these higher-level problems?
“Most of us are now selling via webinars of some type. So we’re using Skype or Zoom or Microsoft Teams or the older WebEx solution. And to sell in that environment, you have to be better than you were before because you don’t get to read the room and you don’t even get to, in some cases, if they don’t turn on their camera, you don’t even know if they’re listening.” – Jeff Koser · [10:19]
Jeff Koser:
It not only should be, but I think it’s the only salespeople that are going to be successful. And that’s actually proving more and more true with the current world situation. To sell, most of us are now selling via webinars of some type. So we’re using Skype like you and I are here today or Zoom or Microsoft Teams or the older WebEx solution. And to sell in that environment, you have to be better than you were before because you don’t get to read the room and you don’t even get to, in some cases, if they don’t turn on their camera, you don’t even know if they’re listening.
Jeff Koser:
They might be doing email or put you on mute and having a separate sidebar conversation. So you’ve got to be better than you were before. If your approach is to send out email that is un-targeted… Even good email because of account-based marketing and just marketing automation in general, even good messaging isn’t getting opened today. Because we’re all busy, our day has changed, and literally we’re closer to home, and most cases in our home. So what stands between us and making it the dinner on time is probably that email from somebody you’ve never even met.
Targeted Cold Emails: The Best Way to Communicate to a Potential Customer · [11:35]
Will Barron:
So what should then the outreach look like? Should it be that we’ve done all this research based on our current good customers and we send over the initial outreach email as a PDF document that outlines pains, issues, the monetary association with all of this, how we can solve the problem, and essentially what would be in a sales pitch? Should that be our first outreach or is there number of layers that we need to put in place to make this happen?
“Timing is half of life. The best emails don’t get opened unless that topic that they read in the subject line is top of mind at that moment.” – Jeff Koser · [13:07]
Jeff Koser:
Well, the best way to communicate with prospects today is to give them something that is targeted. So you do go after the specific groups of companies that you believe have the problem you solve. And to create a message that looks as one-on-one as possible. That’s what account based marketing’s goal is, is to make those in an automated fashion look like they were specific for that prospect. And then give them something that interests them, that they can opt in, they can raise their hand, they can request something of value. And the best thing to offer them a value is something that really does benefit them but doesn’t even directly benefit you. So if you can figure that out, that’s the best way to communicate and then to continue to communicate in that way. Because timing is half of life. The best emails don’t get opened unless that topic that they read in the subject line is top of mind at that moment.
Example of Questions That Would Enable Potential Customers to Opt in and Continue a Sales Conversation? · [13:20]
Will Barron:
What would be an example of something that would enable a potential customer to opt in and continue the conversation? What would that look like?
“If you’re not at power, if you’re not talking about the pain that they say they want to solve, and if you don’t have a business case that aligns with that decision, you can’t predict that deal will close because all three of those things have to be in place in most cases for that deal to close.” – Jeff Koser · [13:50]
Jeff Koser:
So from our perspective, a question we ask is, how many deals dropped out of the forecast at the end of the quarter, this quarter? Because that’s just classic. If you’re not at power, if you’re not talking about the pain that they say they want to solve, and if you don’t have a business case that aligns with that decision, you can’t predict that deal will close because all three of those things have to be in place in most cases for that deal to close.
Email Reply Rates for When Salespeople do Everything Right · [14:13]
Will Barron:
And you don’t need to dive into numbers here of your team specifically or anything like that, Jeff. But what would be, with a targeted email, let’s use email, with targeted email, to the right accounts, with the right message, knowing that, as you alluded to there, it’s not the right time for everyone, people have different priorities. Who knows the house might be just burnt down the person you reached out to. So not going to reply immediately because they’re sprinting off back home to throw buckets of water over it, whatever it is. What would be acceptable or what would be email reply rate where someone is opting in to carry on the conversation, what would that reply rate number be if we’ve done everything right?
Jeff Koser:
So I’ve seen as high as 15% open rate, Will, which is unheard of in today’s world. Most are less than 1% today. And that’s because they’re un-targeted, they are just spamming to use your words. They haven’t spent the time to create a list it’s truly targeted or verticalized. You might have multiple targets, they might be categorised in verticals or horizontal solution sets where you’re going after multiple verticals but they have the same business problem. If you do that and then your offering is as well targeted, it does provide them something of value. And that doesn’t mean just one email, that means every email provides some little new wrinkle to providing them some value that does not benefit you. Again, that’s ideal.
Will Barron:
Is it fair to say then that we should have this blanket rule where you shouldn’t reach out or attempt to speak to someone or cold call them, leave a voicemail unless you’ve got something useful to share, is that fair enough to say?
Jeff Koser:
Wouldn’t it be a better world if that was the way we did it?
Will Barron:
Well, if we can get marketers to do the same, then my inbox would be a lot more manageable than what it is right now.
“If your lead generation messaging doesn’t match the conversations that your sales teams are having with those prospects, you are going to diminish your return greatly right there.” – Jeff Koser · [16:28]
Jeff Koser:
I believe we have to have marketing doing the same because we have to have sales aligned with marketing. And that’s pretty rare, but we’re all about that. If your lead generation messaging doesn’t match the conversations that your sales teams are having with those prospects, you are going to diminish your return greatly right there.
Creating a Defined Structure and Having Flexibility in B2B Sales Conversations · [17:03]
Will Barron:
So Jeff, we’ve got initial outreach email that is sharing a value, it’s to the right person, it’s hopefully at the right time, but clearly we’re not totally able to control it. Maybe marketing can add a little bit to the momentum before we get involved in the buying process rather than the selling process. What does it look like from the initial conversation onward when we’re selling to customers that are the best we can get them to clones of other customers? Should we be in that scenario very regimented in, we give this presentation at this point and we do this, this, and this or doing larger B2B sales, larger deal size B2B sales? Should we be flexible and reactive, which is traditionally what I feel like what happens in the sales process?
Jeff Koser:
So if you take out the reactive word, it’s a combination of both. So I wouldn’t want to be reactive because I wouldn’t want to be led by the nose by the prospect because they don’t respect you if you are. But I do believe that B2B sales not only can be guided, but should be guided. That’s actually what our solution is, our solution is B2B guided selling, that’s actually what we do. But major account sales, as you know are never linear, they never follow, it’s never followed as written. So that you have to be… It still takes coaching, it still takes training, it’s still takes sales verve, if you will. So you still have to have good salespeople to do guided selling. But if you give them the right tools, you can improve every one of your sellers from the bottom rung, the middle tier, to the top tier.
How to Gain More Buyer Respect by Offering Value · [18:50]
Will Barron:
Cool. Again, to the tools and a second, you said something that’s really interesting there, Jeff. And just we’ll go on a slight tangent for a second, and that was the word respect. I’ll give you a quick anecdote or story here from my side. So I’ve not done any prospecting to get new sponsors on the podcast for two years, just because you get so many inbound leads that I’ve not had to do any. But I thought I’ve not done any a couple of years, I will do some outreach and test everything that we teach and see how it goes. And the results have been really good.
Will Barron:
But what I have found is there’s a far higher level of respect in the replies, and I don’t care about the buyer respecting me, I’m not seeking their, however you describe it, I’m not trying to get them to love me necessarily. It’s great if it happens, but I’m getting a lot more emails now, two years on prior to last time I did this that say, “Hey, I’m really glad that you reached out to us.” Or, “Hey, Will, we listened to the show and this is a good fit for our audience.” And the conversations are, “Thank you for contacting us and giving us this opportunity.” Rather than, “Sure, I’ll jump on the phone with you if you want to pester me about some podcast sponsorship. Maybe we’ll think about it next quarter.” And that’s how it’s been in the past. This should have been running for about five years now.
Will Barron:
So there’s a change in the level of respect, and it’s just the audience is that big now that most companies in the industry want to be involved with the brand and that side of things. So I’m not trying to blow my own trumpet here. I think we’ve done a fantastic job though, Jeff, if I do say so myself. But with all that said, how do we, I guess there’s two ways of doing this, how do we stop ourselves being disrespected by us doing stupid things? And then on the flip side of that, how do we gain more respect from the buyer by doing things better?
Jeff Koser:
So I can answer that question by going back to what you were just describing you’re experiencing. So you’re experiencing the position that you’re in and the success you’re having. I like what Zig Ziglar said many, many years ago, “If you give people enough of what they want and need, you will get all of what you need.” I think your show does that, Will. Because I think that’s what’s in inside of you, and I enjoy your show because of that. And it’s a feeling, it’s about a true inquisitiveness, but also trying to… You like to understand things, and I think people… Well, you get the idea.
Will Barron:
Sure.
Jeff Koser:
So to answer your question, the way that you get the respect, I believe, is that… So what is a buyer’s journey? I’ll tell you our definition of a buyer’s journey. So they want to know that you understand their business. And if you understand their business, that’s the first step to respect. Second, they want to know, before meeting with you, that your solution addresses that pain, those critical business issues, and or will create that great business opportunity for them that we’ve been talking about on this show, so that’s two. The third thing, they want to know what proof you have that you solve that pain. So where have you done it? What CBIs have you addressed and who have you addressed them for? And they want to know that those companies are similar to them because that’s what helps create the belief that they could actually succeed.
Jeff Koser:
The fourth thing is once your solution has been selected, so you can’t start right in and wrong. So once your solution is selected, procurement wants to know that a business case is available that presents information in a way that allows them to evaluate the decision to actually fund that purchase of your solution versus other similar or even different uses of those same dollars. And then there’s one last step on the buyer’s journey. The final step is they want to achieve the business case and prove to their own organisation that the promises that they made regarding this decision have actually been achieved. That’s how you close that loop. And then it becomes a self-fulfilling loop. I think that’s why you no longer have to do prospecting and people are finding you. Is because for your business, you found a way to close that loop.
Proving Your Sales Credentials By Sending Qualified Prospects a Document Containing All the Brands You’ve Successfully Worked with · [23:35]
Will Barron:
You laid out like that, Jeff, something that I do include or I am including in the prospecting that we’re doing at the moment, is a document basically that we take two minutes to rebuild for each person that I’m reaching out to or each organisation that I’m reaching out to on the account-based model, obviously reaching out to individuals, multiple individuals are in these big accounts. And that is I have a media kit for everyone, and then now the media kit for the account itself. And I list brands that we’ve worked with that are similar to the company that I’m prospecting into. Every time we work with someone and it goes really well, I always really pester these individuals for a quote or some testimonial. So I’ll then include, for example, if I’m selling into a CRM company, we’ve worked with HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, I’ll include quotes from those organisations in that document as well.
Will Barron:
And it takes genuinely two minutes once you’ve got all of this information together. But I’m finding that the response to that document being sent is that it gets clicked and opened a bunch of times, it’s clearly getting spread around within the accounts. But also I’m getting 100% meetings off the back of it, even if it’s a phone call to say, “It’s not right for us right now, contact us in 2021 or whenever it is budgets are set.” Fine, not a big deal. But sending that one document which inadvertently covers a lot of what we’ve just discussed so far in the show, Jeff, that is getting more meetings booked than pretty much anything that I’ve ever experimented with in the past.
Jeff Koser:
You just described all the things that creates value for somebody and they can tell it was specific for them. And then out of respect, even if the timing isn’t right, they’re coming back to you and they’re telling you basically you’ve earned that response, you earned them, in their mind, letting you know timing just isn’t right. And that’s a great response from a prospect.
Will Barron:
I feel like two things I’m taking away from this is respect and then earning it as well. Which I’m going to use the silly analogy or the silly story again, but you don’t earn anything by spamming 1,000 emails and putting them in a drip campaign that hounds them for a phone call for three or four weeks and then you start cold calling them. I know when people tried to do that to me, I like to try and coach people the best I can, but sometimes it’s just obnoxious and it turns me off and I don’t want anything to do with you. And I feel like now more than ever before, this is important for salespeople because your LinkedIn profile is online. It’s your personal reputation that is getting wrapped up in a lot of this, isn’t it?
Jeff Koser:
It certainly is.
Jeff Talks About the Tools Salespeople Can Use to Create an Ideal Buyer’s Journey when Targeting a Wider Market · [26:16]
Will Barron:
So with that, Jeff, for context, I’m doing all this, we have a list of 50 potential organisations. And they’re all massive companies, they’ve got enough money to throw at our silly podcast and not even notice it. What happens if you’re doing or you want to achieve what I’m doing with a much wider market? And you’re a full-time professional B2B salesperson, how do we get some help via software tools? How can we have some of this programmed into our day so that we’re not waking up running around like a headless chicken every morning, trying to asses out where we started and where we finished?
“We believe that you can provide today, because of the tools that are available, it’s AI and machine learning, that you can actually create a buyer’s journey scenario for your sellers to execute.” – Jeff Koser · [26:54]
Jeff Koser:
Well, we believe that you can provide today, because of the tools that are available, it’s AI and machine learning, that you can actually create a buyer’s journey scenario for your sellers to execute. And we’ve done that, we’ve dedicated ourselves to that now for quite some time. And live in a software platform that you’re communicating with a prospect in a way that they want to buy from you. So it helps sellers make that shift because it is a shift, there is there’s change and there’s change management in this because there’s so few salespeople out there that know how to sell this way, Will, that you have to give them the tools to do it, you have to give them the repetition to do it, and that in software can do that.
Jeff Dissects a Typical Day for a Salesperson Using the Zebrafi.com Sales Platform · [27:53]
Will Barron:
And what does that look like? I want you to plug the product the best that you can without being too over the top, Jeff. But what does a day look like for someone using your software platform over zebrafi.com? What does it look like when you log in and you want to get rocking and rolling with all this?
Jeff Koser:
Well, so the first thing we do is help. And we’re going to offer this to your listeners for free to test this out. And they can have it for free as long as they want, in fact, which is a unique test. So we say only target prospects that are similar to your best customers. And it’s hard to figure out who those are, so we’ve actually done that for them. If they enter, we have a sales bot, we call it the Zebrafi sales bot, if they enter in a website from a company that they know is one of their best customers, they don’t even have to know why, we’ll find more that look and feel and buy very similarly to that best customer. So that’s step one, and a lot of things happen behind the scenes, but it’s not necessarily a very pretty presentation of that piece of the software, but it creates a great result, and that’s free.
“In a buyer’s journey, they (prospects) want to opt-in or opt-out of that buying cycle based on what they learn about you.” – Jeff Koser · [29:40]
Jeff Koser:
But the rest of our platform, it’s almost like you’re doing a demo. So if you have… Let’s say you’re a software company and you do a demo of your software. Well, you do a demo inside of our software too because what you do, there’s a section where you say, let’s figure out if we’re the right fit. I think we are because I did my homework, I did my research, this is what I learned about you. But let’s score this together, let’s see if you should spend any more time with me. And prospects like that because in a buyer’s journey they want to opt in or opt out of that buying cycle based on what they learn about you. So that’s the first thing you do, is you establish, okay we agree we’re in the right place. Not only do I solve whatever it is you’re looking for, but the timing is right.
Will Barron:
Got it.
Jeff Koser:
The next thing is you pre-prepare a business case. So it’s a guesstimate, a hypothesis, if you will, of what value your solution could create, what problems would it solve because you did your research. And you have an estimate of what value it could possibly create. And that estimate is directionally right. And the reason it’s directionally right is because you have customers right there, right at your disposal that you can pop open that you’ve done it for and that are very similar to that person that you’re speaking and conversing with. So you can say, this is approximately how much value I can create for you, this is where I’ve done it before, this is what these customers said we did. And the next step, if you’re interested, would actually be to work with people you trust to verify that we can really do this for you.
Jeff Explains How Salespeople Can Practically Design Solutions Using the Zebrafi Sales Platform · [30:55]
Will Barron:
What does that look like? How do we achieve that step on its own, Jeff?
Jeff Koser:
So such a good question to ask, Will. People will think we practised this.
Will Barron:
No, not at all. I’m intrigued, I’m genuinely intrigued. There’s probably five episodes to go out here. Well, the book is probably the answer, but there’s multiple things to got out here. But how do you then tie in this other source?
Jeff Koser:
Here’s how you do it, so if they say, “Yeah, this is interesting.” They’ll usually say, “I’m not sure I really buy this business case yet, but it’s interesting.” The way you figure out whether or not you can do it for them and gap it, what you really have to do… So almost every business problem that they might have, they probably have solved somewhat before. Maybe they have a process or maybe they have some other solution in place, they buy from somebody already, or they have some other whatever it is.
Jeff Koser:
So what you have to do is you… What you do is you design a question that says, okay, the best practise solution of this problem includes this. So how close from zero to 100, are you able to say that you do these things? And you then make the statement. And they say, “Well, we do this piece of it, but we don’t do that at all.” So maybe they say, “We’re 25%.” So you actually enter that in the software and what it does then, it takes your claim about solving that problem down by 25% automatically.
Will Barron:
Got it.
Jeff Koser:
And it says, here’s the remaining value that you’re still leaving on the table. And it’s very smooth and easy and anybody can do it, a very inexperienced salesperson can do this. And now what you’ve got left on that particular business pain is how much value you uniquely can create for that prospect.
How Zebrafi.com Helps Salespeople Identify Potential Problems the Prospect Might be Experiencing · [32:55]
Will Barron:
And I guess this then is bullet points for meetings, conversations, refining a business case. It’s laying it all out for you, right?
Jeff Koser:
It’s all laid out for you. And then with a click of a button, you can literally produce a proposal that addresses that pain and has the complete solution that’s necessary so that you can look that prospect back in the eye and say, “Not only is this possible because I did it with these companies that are just like you, but I’ve also assessed your people, I’ve assessed how much you solve this problem already today, and I put in here the training, I did the coaching, maybe the change management that’s necessary.” So I can say, “We’re going to achieve this business case together. And, by the way, I have a process to make sure you do because after I’m done selling it to you, that’s how we turn it over to our client success team. And we continue to measure, are you getting what you expected? Because we know you can make another decision tomorrow. So it’s in our best interest to make sure you succeed, and we do.”
Data on the Effectiveness of the Zebrafi Platform · [34:03]
Will Barron:
Love it. Jeff, I don’t want to put you on the spot here, but just cause we’ve covered the product, is there any data or figures or numbers on reduced time from prospect to customer or percentage chance of winning the business? Is there any data that backs, not necessarily the product, but the methodology?
Jeff Koser:
We measure five things, but I’ll just give you three easy ones to remember.
Will Barron:
Sure.
Jeff Koser:
Pipeline close rate goes up a minimum of 102%. Average deal size goes up a minimum of 13%, and we have clients that did over 800%, but nobody would believe that. And length of the sales cycle is shortened by at least 21% because when they do this and they follow… If they do this for three years, that’s the minimum results you’ll get because that’s the least we’ve ever produced over a three-year period.
Better Tools in the Hands of the Best Salespeople · [35:06]
Will Barron:
The reason I asked that is that a lot, not a lot, some people will be listening to this and going, “Oh, I can blag this on a phone call, I can do this off the top of my head.” But I feel like maybe the first time you went through this process, maybe it takes longer. But once you’ve got all these pieces of the puzzle in place, I know from selling the ad space on the podcast, that no brands that you previously worked with, clearly, it’s going to be more difficult to sell someone than when you’ve got a bunch of happy brands and numbers and metrics that we all have now that proves the legitimacy of being in front of salesnation, this audience.
Will Barron:
But I feel like there’ll be a few people, I want to ask you these numbers because I feel there’s a few people who go, “I’m just a natural sales person. I can blag all this, I can do it on the phone call.” But why make things difficult for yourself? I feel like that’s the conclusion I’m getting from all of this. A little bit of work up front makes all of this most successful at the backend seemingly.
Jeff Koser:
And you’re right, the best salespeople can do that. And you did it and you’re doing it today as well. And they figure it out through trial and error. But it does put better tools in the hands of the best salespeople, but it also gives virtually everybody else that wants to dedicate themselves to it, the ability to sell like that best salesperson.
Parting Thoughts · [36:50]
Will Barron:
Got it. That makes total sense. Well, with that, Jeff, you’ve won the award for best shirt on The Salesman Podcast. For everyone who’s-
Jeff Koser:
You like that branding?
Will Barron:
Yeah. For everyone who’s listening to this episode, you have to check it out on YouTube to see what we’re discussing here. But then-
Jeff Koser:
You do. And [crosstalk 00:36:48].
Will Barron:
And the mask as well. With that, Jeff, tell us where we can find out more about selling to zebras/zebras. I’m still not sure which one I would have used if you hadn’t have inception to me with zebras at the beginning of the show. Tell us where we can find out more about you and everything that you’re doing, mate.
Jeff Koser:
So we still have a website called sellingtozebras.com. But our company name is Zebrafi. So if they go to Zebrafi, that zebrafi.com, they’ll find out who we are, what we’re about, and they’ll get many questions answered. But if they want and are interested in the sales bot, if they just go to zebrafi.com/salesbot, there’ll be able to see the information on the free trial and sign up and try for free a way to fill your pipeline with prospects that look just like your best customers.
Will Barron:
Perfect. Well, I’ll link to all of that in the show notes for this episode over at salesman.org as well. And with that, Jeff, I want to thank you for your time, obviously the research that has gone into all of this, I appreciate it. You’re making selling more effective for everyone involved. And with that, I want to thank you for joining us again on The Salesman Podcast.
Jeff Koser:
Always a pleasure, Will.
