Hey, 👋 Scott from The Sales Mastermind here.

Today’s edition only takes 4 minutes.

Welcome.

This is the first email on your journey to Close an unexpected deal in 21 days or less. (Unexpected means it wasn’t in your pipeline before this program.)

How this program works:

• For each of the following three weeks, you’ll receive three modules via email
• Each module will contain an explainer video, written content, and Make It Real sections with exercises to complete
• Then, each week, there will be a live Q&A where we’ll come together and support you on the journey

Today, we’re starting with Fundamentals to lay the foundations for your Compelling Offer. Next week, we’ll focus on generating opportunities to sell to. And in the third week, the focus is on closing a deal (or more).

Module One

Sales are a lagging indicator. Before you make a sale, a buyer has to decide to buy.

Agenda:

• What are you selling
• Three Whys (to come when we launch in November)
• Sunday Night Test (to come when we launch in November)

What are you selling:

Buyers want an outcome, usually a pain solved. However, sellers typically provide a product, service, or combination of the two.

Let’s use the example of a small business deciding between Google Workspace and Microsoft 365.

Almost every modern business has one or the other for email, document creation, spreadsheets, and much more. They’re similar platforms with similar offerings.

And almost no buyer is thinking, “I want Google because I believe their source code is elegantly written.” Nor “I want Microsoft because the code has better spacing.”

Even though both Google and Microsoft are structurally selling access to a bunch of code presented in an interface, the buyer is buying something completely different.

Ultimately, B2B buyers are buying one of three things:

• Money
• Time
• Protection

When buying Money, a buyer wants more revenue or reduced costs.

If you can link your product to Money, do it. Money is the simplest for everyone to understand; it’s measurable, and in B2B sales, almost everything else is a proxy for Money.

When buying Time, a buyer wants more output from the same number of employees or the same output from fewer employees.

Salaries and wages are usually the most significant business cost; therefore, Time is a super effective proxy for money.

When buying Protection, a buyer is seeking to mitigate negative consequences in the future. Protection breaks down into reputation, insurance, and grudge purchases.

Reputation is when a business invests in awards, badges, or other third-party endorsements. For example, purchasing a table at a local award dinner to guarantee an award.

Insurance involves paying a small amount of money so that if a catastrophic event occurs, the business is protected.

Grudge includes every required, but not necessarily desired, purchase. Often, legally or regulatorily mandated. For example, every company must pay an auditor to conduct a mandated financial audit each year.

Make it Real

Now you understand the concept, take a moment to list all your product/services features and benefits and map these to either:

• Money
• Time, or
• Protection

Some examples:

• Google Workspace’s Meet application is Money because it helps your salespeople communicate with prospects and clients.
• The Appointment Scheduling resource included in Google Calendar is Time because it saves unnecessary emails when booking a meeting time.
• Lastly, Gmail’s spam filters are Protection because they help keep your team from clicking on fraudulent email links.

Exercise

Take a blank sheet of paper, or a blank document, and brainstorm 15-20 features and benefits of your product.

Then link each one to either Money, Time, or Reputation.

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Ready for more when we launch? Click here and add your email address.
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Until next week,
Scott Cowley

PS: Want the first three modules of 21 Days FREE when we launch on November 3rd? Click here.