Early software sales are typically a mix of service and product, and in fact can look a lot like consulting deals. Here are a three tips to help plan your next sales call.
- Focus on the prospect’s business needs, issues and concerns more than your smarts, methods, or credentials.
- Promised results (benefits) matter more than methods (features).
- Methods (features) matter more than your experience or credentials.
- Share your ideas and knowledge, tell them something they don’t know that’s relevant to their business needs.
- Use customer testimonials. They increase your credibility.
- If you don’t have testimonials ask for them (once you deserve them).
- Focus on converting all of your early customers into references. References matter more than revenue for early stage companies.
- Remember that a customer is someone who has PAID you, not someone using your product for free.