For Episode 73, we are joined by Peter Solway of FSS or Founder Sales Solution, which helps Founders Scale Up B2B Sales - Sales, Team & Health. Peter started the business inspired by his own background, realising that many salespeople have sales skills but need more entrepreneurial skills. So he built his business to bridge the gap.
Let’s talk about how we will try to remove the stigma around “sales” and “to sell” in the sense that we will aim for people to stop being grossed out by “sales” just because of how it was packaged in the past. Traditional sales methods used to be really pushy and super assertive, sometimes even aggressive-so people, both targets and reps, veer away from it.
Little is known that sales can be empathetic, kind and inspiring simultaneously! Sales or any brand can be humanised! The reason why a lot of people move away from the sales bit of a lot of organisations is that they don’t see the human factor in the business. All that’s visible are the pushy reps who care about nothing but selling their product. Not anymore! Peter’s business, FSS, aims to give sales a new face by providing training and coaching to start-up business founders so they can humanise their sales strategy.
What makes an effective salesperson?
Hire the right person and understand where they’re at in their sales journey. Understand them on a “human to human” level. Make sure they fit into your culture so that any transition will seem easy. In reality, in B2B sales, the best salespeople are the ones who ask the best questions.
Understand the concept of problem-solving vs. product selling. Any sales rep can talk about how great their product is, how cost-efficient their product, and all the benefits. However, the customer is not interested to hear about how your product is the best, but they want to find out how you could solve their problem and make their lives easier.
Get them customer-centric. Ask them whether they’re good at opening a deal, navigating or closing a deal. Chanes are; they’re only good at one-not all three.
There’s so much more to being a salesperson than being pushy and talkative. Watch the podcast in full and unlock the secrets to selling better!
