As our Market Dominance Guys continue this road trip book signing tour with Helen Fanucci, Chris emphasizes the significance of practicing sales conversations in order to become a high-performance salesperson, with the script being the key to unleashing creativity in sales. Helen tells the story of her experience cold-calling using ConnectAndSell, a script, and how it affected her Fitbit. Additionally, Chris talks about the energy transfer that takes place in a sales conversation, and how BDRs need to provide energy but also listen carefully to the emotional response of the prospect. Helen shares her experience of working with a coach and learning from the best in the world to improve her sales skills, and the importance of being objective about oneself to become a great salesperson. This episode provides valuable insights on how to engage customers effectively to build lasting relationships. As Chris says, "You are a performance athlete with your voice. That's what you are. That's what you have to work with." Join us for this episode, “What Do a Fitbit and Surfboard Have in Common with Cold Calling?”

About Our Guest

Helen Fanucci, Transformational Sales Leader at Microsoft is the author of Love Your Team: A Survival Guide for Sales Managers in a Hybrid World.

Helen's book is available on Amazon:

Corey and Chris' book is also available on Amazon:

Corey Frank on LinkedIn

Chris Beall on LinkedIn

ConnectAndSell

Branch49

Full episode transcript below:

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Helen Fanucci (00:01 ):

So that's what I got. Any questions or Corey? Anything that, 

Corey Frank(00:05 ):

Well, I want to go back to the cold call. 

Helen Fanucci (00:07 ):

Alrighty, let's go for it. 

Chris Beall (00:09 ):

Me too. Me too. I like that. 

Corey Frank(00:11 ):

Chris, since you and Helen originally met, there was no, I think you met at a conference where it was very clear that this person was the ConnectAndSell.

Helen Fanucci (00:22 ):

Yeah. 

Corey Frank(00:22 ):

And that was what, four years 

Helen Fanucci (00:24 ):

Ago almost? Yeah. 

Corey Frank(00:25 ):

So from a sales cycle, Chris, what I'm looking for is like the forecast. Did you keep that? You're married now and you're most of the time in the same household when you're not traveling. But it took until last week to close the deal for her to actually use ConnectAndSell. 

Chris Beall (00:43 ):

Well, I've prioritized which deal I was trying to close. Oh see. And I did a pretty good job on the first deal. I believe I was two days into the sales cycle and did okay on what she calls the proposition and I call it proposal. I see. So that one I prioritized. It brings up a good point though, and b2b. So this isn't a B2B sale, although it kind of is. I mean in a way because she was calling us as Microsoft, right? And Microsoft's not the easiest company in the world to get to do business with you. I went to Fargo, North Dakota and a December day a few years ago thinking we were going to get a test drive, a free test, drive up Microsoft. After seven hours there we walked out and had a nice dinner after the weirdest, coldest, slipperiest, Uber ride I've ever been on. 

Chris Beall (01:31 ):

And a truck that we had to climb up into and no test drive. So here we are. You want to see a long sales cycle. That was quite a while ago. Yeah, that's the Microsoft sales cycle. But when b2b, the replacement cycle for pretty much everything is three years. That's kind of like if you bought one, whatever it is, you're not going to buy another one of those for three years. Think about it. You're in a company, you're the one who wants X, Y, or Z to help the company do its thing better. Are you going to come back the next quarter to your board, to the committee and say, oh, just kidding, that thing that we just bought X that out. Let's get a different one. Right? Doesn't go like that. You might do that as a consumer on occasion, but think of it more like buying a car as a consumer. 

Chris Beall (02:18 ):

You're probably going to keep the car for three years, four years, or in my case 24 years with my big red Ford excursion, which Helen thinks is a bit of an eyesore and dangerous. Other than that, it's all right. So think of it as a three year cycle. Now, the consideration cycle for a product, a category of product is about a quarter. So the products that give you intent, like Bombora 6 cents, and I guess LinkedIn's doing it now and ZoomInfo is doing it, they actually have their intent window generally set at seven days. That is if you learn that a company is spiking in looking at a particular category, you got seven days to get in there according to experts who sell that stuff. So think about that, how tough that would be. So you start calling on day one, how long is it going to take before you actually have a conversation with somebody and at some point they're out of cycle. 

Chris Beall (03:13 ):

So when you look at how much of your market, your ideal customer profile, your total addressable market, how much of it in the perfect case is in market this quarter? It's math, one quarter out of three years, which is 12 quarters. So one 12 of your market, say you have the perfect list, awesome list. Every single person on that list is working for a company that needs your product eventually. A hundred percent. So what percentage of them need it this quarter and are going to even engage? Well, one 12. Can anybody do that math? So we got mathematicians in the group. They go far. So they are, yeah, exactly. Yeah, they came from somewhere. So that's your actual addressable convertible engageable market. And you've got to engage early. So there's this whole intent thing, by the way. Sounds great. But what you're basically saying is, I want to be late. 

Chris Beall (04:10 ):

I want to be late with no relationship instead of early with a relationship. That's what you're actually saying. And yeah, if you can close deals in two days like I did, then you can maybe afford to be late. But this is what really modern B2B is all about, is forming trust relationships over time that can turn into stuff. So Helen had a conversation with somebody, a pretty big company, and this somebody is a modestly big somebody and it's conversation she had on Monday using connect and sell. And that conversation may or may not lead anywhere for Microsoft in the next quar