Travis talks with VP of Inside Sales at PatientPop Inc., Kevin Dorsey, about when to implement DandI, changing the story of sales, the importance of knowing your prospect and messaging effectively, and more.
Episode Highlights:
DandI important for so many reasons, hard to be the only
“Even though I’m successful, when I walk into a room and know I’m the only, it’s hard.”
“I don’t like how most conversations around DandI go because they’re talking to the wrong people.”
“When we talk about DandI as a company culture, it’s already too late.”
“In the tech world, the real problem with DandI is by the time they are ready for their professional jobs they have already been told what they’re going to do or where they would succeed.”
“In tech, you can’t just go hire more diversity because the applicants aren’t there. The applicants aren’t there because this isn’t the career that they thought they wanted to get into.”
“We need to move DandI into the schools.”
“We need to go into high schools and colleges and talk to them before they’ve made their career decision that they should go this path.”
“Talking about it and doing something about it are two different things.”
“DandI needs to start in the schools because by the time it’s in the company, it’s already too late.”
The story not being there/changing the story of sales
Students think sales is shady
Not reality- you can make great money faster than so many other people
The story isn’t told properly
“Money motivation is very rare.”
Starting intercity sales school- take them out of high school
Give them a way to take care of themselves right away
“We can teach the inside sales role to younger people; we just have to get ahead of it and get it in front of them.”
Teaching professionalism, speaking clearly, controlling their emotions, how to hold conversations
90-day sales bootcamp
Messaging: giving people a reason to want to talk to you
“At the end of the day, the messaging is what closes a sale.”
“If you have bad messaging, nothing else matters.”
“The tools only amplify the messaging that you have.”
“If you understand how to converse, how to do messaging and how to truly influence, you can move industry to industry and be very successful.”
“If you don’t understand messaging you can only rely on your product, and that’s where people get stuck.”
Sales is hard, but it is simple
“If you really break it down, sales is nothing but a really long if, then chain.”
You can map out this chain if you take the time to understand your prospects better
Flaw: training is always about the product, not about the prospect
Learn about why people are the way they are/what they care about
“People don’t talk to prospects the way they need to and that’s the problem with messaging across the board.”
Sales is overspecialized
Started with predictable revenue, now we have SDRs that can’t close and AEs that can’t prospect
Not a good buyer experience, we specialized because it was better for sales, but not buyers
“One thing every sales team should invest in, is a great copywriter.”
Written word is everything
Most sales teams are bad at copywriting and it’s a big part of the messaging today
“Scripts don’t make you sound robotic; you make you sound robotic.”
Scripts are important, it’s your job to make them come alive
Fundamentals need to be there
Having all new reps talk to customers to improve your messaging
“Most salespeople describe their product in a way that their customers never do.”
Practice growth platform
Does it grow their practice?
But do doctors say, “I wish I had a practice growth platform?” No, speak the way they do
Interviewing customers
Can provide insights, can say I talked to XX teachers, they all said they have this problem, do you?
“You can talk with your prospects on a whole different level because you actually understand their world.”
“Know your prospects better, and a lot of that starts with your customers.”
Favorite Points:
Moving DandI into
