Jan Gunash

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Great technical sales representatives should be able to run a masterclass on the products they’re selling. No question, hard stop—put a period at the end of that sentence. Sales is built on trust, and gaining trust from technical buyers means that you can speak their language and answer their questions.

Quick tip before we start: Studying theory and memorizing specs are great, but run your own product demos and take some time to review common support cases with your team—at least during their training and onboarding.

For client calls, I generally follow the same cadence, which loosely differs based on how much the client knows about the product and company already (generally gauged by CRM statistics, the client’s landing page submission, or outbound interaction). Sprinkle in some background research on their company as well. Here is my general structure:

Qualify, also Disqualify: Is the product I’m selling a good fit to solve the customer’s need? If it’s not, let’s save us both time and avoid a bad experience with a product that doesn’t fit.

Collect Information: What are they looking for? What are their current processes, and what would they like to do in the future (in context with the product’s capabilities/product plan)?

Don’t Ask Generic Questions: Ask insightful and specific questions based on the client’s needs and interests in utilizing your product.

Transition into the Pitch Deck/Presentation/Demo: Now that you’ve gauged what they’re looking for and what solutions you can offer, hop into your demo and highlight relevant and useful features or applications that the client would be interested in.

Highlight Pricing: Tell them how much the product is and be confident. Then wait through the eternal pause.

The Eternal Pause

(noun)

1. A deliberate and strategic delay in conversation used to encourage the client to speak or react, demonstrating the sales professional’s assurance in their product’s value and pricing.
2. The period of silence that ensues after presenting the price of a product to a client, during which the sales professional remains silent and waits for the client’s response. This pause often tests the sales professional’s confidence in the product and its pricing.

Ask Questions: Wrap up by asking if they have any questions about what you just covered, but also ask insightful questions yourself. I usually sprinkle in questions throughout the conversation as well to retain engagement.

Then Ask the Tough Questions: Think about how the conversation went. Was enough on the table to close the deal? Were all the decision-makers present? Pricing went over well? Did they want additional information before making a decision? If all things suffice, close it. If there are more steps, set a follow-up meeting while you’re still on the call.

Another tip: Record your calls or note client questions that commonly come up to share with the broader product, marketing, and sales teams. There’s a marketing asset or new product feature hidden in those notes.

Actually, one of the greatest moments for me in technical sales was hopping on a call with a group of engineers, going through their project needs, sharing the product and proposed solutions, and then having them say…

“This is great, we’re in. Can you connect us to a salesperson to get this purchase started?”

Music to my ears because they thought I was an engineer or a technical specialist at the company who held a conversation at their level about their domain. I did, however, swing the curtains open to tell them I was indeed a salesperson to start the procurement process.

The most important part of these sales calls is to understand pain points (a.k.a. areas your product can provide a solution) and build trust (a.k.a. a relationship). So you need to listen as much as you talk.

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