Brendan Short started out as a SDR at Wiser, a startup which makes a dynamic pricing engine for retailers. Now he’s the VP of Sales. So it’s safe to say that he has learned a few tricks along the way. Short filled us in on some of his favorite sales tactics.
Manufacturing urgency
How do you get prospects to sign on the dotted line today rather than tomorrow? “The number one thing that I talk about in the weekly pipeline meeting is probably manufacturing urgency,“ says Short. “That is Sales, manufacturing that urgency. When I started we had a plan that was 49 bucks a month. Now our lowest plan that we will ever sell is more than ten times that. You dropping a note saying ‘Hey the price is going up’, that could work. People want to buy a deal.“
The Next Step
To maintain momentum once you have created that urgency, always define the next step. “At the end of every single email or every single call have a very clear next step,“ he says. “and have that next step be mutually agreed upon. That’s super-important. You can even say ‘What do you see as the next step here?’”
Every next step must have a date attached to it. “If they say ‘I’ll get back to you on Wednesday’, I don’t want to look at this opportunity until Wednesday. When I come in tomorrow morning, the only opportunities I am going to look at, or call or email, are opportunities with a next step date of today or prior to today.”
That doesn’t mean that the next step is to wait for the prospect to get back to you in a month. “I’m going to shoot them an email, or wish them a happy Friday or I’m going to send them an article once every week for the next 4 weeks,” says Short. “So I’m actually going to put the next step date as a week from today.”
Creative ways to engage
Wiser’s reps often use novel tactics to engage with prospects. The company just started using OneMob which makes personalized videos. Reps make videos if they can’t get hold of someone or if an opportunity goes cold. “You say ‘Hey John I saw you went to Duke University, I’m a big fan of the basketball team. Would love to tell you about what Wiser does, do you have 10 minutes?’” says Short. ”Sales, a big part of it really is, do they like you? It’s making people like you.”
