- Whether you're talking to investors
or you're trying to recruit someone
or you're doing customer development
or you're actually talking to a prospect
to sell them something a software,
piece of software, for example
ultimately you're in a sales conversation.
And there's this one thing that you absolutely need to do
to make your sales conversations successful.
To be able to recruit that person, land that investment,
close that deal,
you need to be able to ask open-ended questions.
And I didn't completely understand this
when I first started getting into sales and marketing
but once I started to crack the code
on open-ended questions, everything changed.
So, in this episode I'm gonna walk you through
the three principles that you absolutely need to know.
Three examples of open-ended questions that you can ask
to completely transform your sales process.
Intro (upbeat music)
what's up everybody, welcome to unstoppable I'm TK
and on this channel, I help SaaS founders like you
grow your SaaS businesses faster
with an unstoppable strategy.
If you are new to this channel, welcome
be sure to hit the subscribe button and that bell icon
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I drop an episode like this with the TK energy.
Now, if you're already part of my SaaS
go-to-market coaching program,
if you're part of this community already, we'll come back
it's really awesome to see you over here.
I remember when I got into sales
the reason I got into sales...
I'm an engineer at heart but I started a company,
a company called ToutApp, it was a SaaS business
and that's when I realized look,
if you're gonna get good at being a founder and a CEO
you need to get good at selling.
And so I started to embrace selling.
And one of the biggest things I realized being
the engineer that I am
I started to see patterns in everyday conversations.
It turned out that no matter what I was doing as CEO
it was kind of a sales conversation.
If I was trying to recruit that VP of sales
or recruit that next hire, it was a sales conversation.
I was selling them on the company.
If I was talking to investors
and going through my pitch deck
and running through those meetings
it was essentially a sales conversation sell them
a piece of the company.
If I was actually talking to customers
it was obviously a sales conversation.
And the biggest aha moment that I had was sales
which I had a distaste for
because I didn't fully understand it and I came from
a very logical side of being an engineer.
Sales is not about being pushy.
It's not about being tricky or forcing someone to buy.
Sales is...
in fact there's very little convincing that happens in sales
sales when done right in its truest art form
is finding out how to serve your clients.
To actually help them come to a realization
that will help them.
That's what the best sales people do.
And the way they do it
is they actually ask open-ended questions.
It's not about going through these magical set of words
that I'm gonna say to you that's gonna make you realize,
Oh my God, I need this piece of software
it's about you answering certain questions
that helps you realize, I need the software
and that's the power of open-ended questions.
So, I'm gonna walk you through three
of my most favorite open-ended questions
that I've used in sales conversations
for actually selling software, I've used in recruiting,
I've used in investing, all of these.
It works really well, I'm gonna walk you through
my three favorite ones.
To fix how to dig into these principles
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and let's go into principle number one,
open-ended question number one.
Open-ended question number one is
what does success look like 12 months from now?
Here's the thing.
We talk about this in the channel all the time.
If you're gonna be solving a problem
it better be important and urgent.
If it's not an important and urgent problem
then it just won't matter.
You won't be able to sell enough.
You won't be able to get traction.
You won't be able to grow exponentially
because it just will be too hard to convince people to buy.
Now, if you are solving an important or urgent problem
chances are that important and urgent problem needs
to be solved in order for people
to actually achieve their goals.
That's how something becomes important and urgent.
Now, you can approach sales in one or two ways.
I can go in and say,
Hey, listen this is a very important problem that you have.
You should think about this.
You could do that, it may work.
Another way to do it is ask them,
Hey what are your big goals?
What does success look like 12 months from now?
Because what it'll help you do, is get the client
or get the person you're selling to,
to start to think about, what does success look like?
Where do I need to be?
What does great look like in terms of my business or my role
or my department, whatever I'm selling into essentially.
And the power in open-ended questions is that
it gets the other person to open up
because you're not trying to sell them on something
you're not it's just a simple question.
like, Hey, what does success look like?
And they will give you a view into their world.
That's the power of an any open-ended question.
The particular power about this open-ended question
it gets him to think about what does success look like.
Which then leads up to the following question is
what's holding you back?
When you actually ask these,
this is why these two
are my most favorite open-ended questions to ask
in any sales conversation
is because it gets you to think about,
what do I want?
And what's holding you back?
And between these two lies
the important and urgent problems.
And I know for a fact that if I'm talking to say
a VP of sales, because I'm selling to them
I know that pipeline is gonna be a big thing.
So, when I get them to think about
what does success look like 12 months from now?
Most of them were like, well, we have hit new revenue growth
and we've grown it by 300%, for example.
And then I can ask,
well, what's holding you back?
and automatically he's gonna start thinking about pipeline
because he's like, well I need to have enough pipeline.
I need to have three X coverage on the pipeline
so that I can stand the chance at hitting my number.
And by now what will have happened is
without me selling him on something,
without me trying to agitate some problem
I'm already getting him to think about
what are his most important and urgent problems
just by asking these open-ended questions.
This is the power of asking open-ended questions.
Instead of you just telling the person
what they should be thinking about
you get them to realize what's top of mind for them,
what's important urgent for them.
And that way, when you do start to get into the selling mode
where you're like,
Hey we think we can help you solve some of these problems.
Here's what we do.
Let's talk about a demo.
Everything starts to shift.
They're starting to open up a lot more.
Now, I wanna go into my third open-ended question
but before I do that, let me just pause here for a second.
If you're starting to see the power
in these open-ended questions
particularly two of my favorite ones,
if you're starting to see the power in these
can I just get a yes in the comments below,
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the YouTube algorithm really likes it when you do that.
I also really like it when you do that.
So, go and smash that like button and give me a yes
in the comments below.
If you do have questions about
these two open-ended questions
put it in the comments below as well
I answer every single comment that you guys post
they're actually really awesome.
It's awesome to hear from you guys.
Also, if you are thinking about your sales process,
your sales methodology,
if you think about growing your SaaS business,
be sure to check out
my five point SaaS growth strategy guide.
It's completely free, I'll tell you more about it
at the end of this video,
let's go to open-ended question number three.
Open-ended question number three.
After you've done the,
what does success look like?
What's holding you back
and you're starting to have this conversation
and back and forth you wanna actually start
to go a little bit deeper.
So, my third open-ended question,
that I coach all the go-to-market program members
to actually ask
is how are you thinking about blank?
And blank is essentially this macro trend
that you are tied to.
Macro trends are super important in sales.
Macro trends are these external things
that are happening in this person's world.
Your ICP's world, the person you're selling to.
And that macro trend necessitates your software
the software that you're selling.
So, one of my favorite examples is GDPR.
GDPR is a privacy law that's been passed
in the European Union and other regions,
other parts of the world a little by little starting
to adopt GDPR like regulations.
And it requires that companies are actually compliant
to those privacy laws.
And so, I actually advise a company called Data Grail.
I'm also an investor with them
and it's also a longtime friend that runs it
they create privacy compliance software.
So, when they go to companies
they will end up asking about
how were you thinking about GDPR?
For them GDPR and that privacy regulation
is a macro trend.
Every software company, when you're thinking about
the messaging, the strategic narrative, the positioning
all those pieces that go into go to market strategy
you're starting to think about what the macro trend is.
And when you have a really compelling macro trend,
customers pay attention to you more.
They're more likely to actually take action.
So, in the world of open-ended questions
and sales conversations once you start to ask
what does success look like?
Then you started to say, what's holding you back
inevitably, if you are fishing in the right place
this problems gonna start to come up because
you should be solving a top three important urgent problem
for this person.
Otherwise, maybe you're talking to the wrong person
you should be thinking about your ICP.
And so, when you start to think about that, undoubtedly
you will start to get into zooming in
and end to that problem.
And what you wanna say is not,
Hey, we think about GDPR all day long,
here's how we think you should solve
and here's why you should care about it.
You should just go with an open ended question first.
How are you thinking about blank?
and blank being the macro trend that you are talking about?
I'll give you another example of this.
I know that roughly 8% of SaaS businesses
make it past three years, despite funding.
So, which means that majority of them fail.
92% of them fail within three years despite funding.
So, that's a macro trend in our space.
So, when I talk to founders,
I say, Hey look, 8% will succeed.
What are they doing differently?
One of the big things they do differently is
they think about go-to-market.
That's why I have my go-to-market coaching program.
So, I asked them, how are you thinking about that trend?
How are we thinking about getting distribution around?
Because that's the biggest thing that kills startups.
That's a macro trend.
And I don't just say that,
I say, Hey, how are you thinking about blank?
How are you thinking about go-to-market?
How do you think about distribution?
How are you thinking about the biggest killer
of self SaaS startups?
And that is an open-ended question
that gets people talking about,
here's how what we thinking about it.
Here's what's wrong.
And here's what we need help with.
And all of a sudden, you're not pushing something
on to them these open-ended questions start to create
a discussion and surface the issues
and you can have a real conversation like,
here's how we think about it.
And all of a sudden you're not selling
even though you're selling like a master salesperson
but it doesn't feel like it that way
and that's how the best salespeople operate.
So, that's the three open-ended questions
that I love the most but I do have a bonus one for you.
But let's recap.
Number one, what does success look like 12 months from now?
Number two, what's holding you back
from reaching that success?
And number three, how are you thinking about blank?
the macro trend space.
All three of these are great open-ended questions.
I do have a bonus one for you.
It's not quite a question
but it's the absence of a question.
My other favorite tool in sales
in addition to open ended questions is the mute button.
A lot of times when we think that
we're in the sales position,
whether you're a founder doing sales
or you're actually a salesperson
we just feel like we need to be talking
and that's far from the truth.
Selling is actually talking the least
and letting the other person spill the beans
and really talk about what's going on in their world
and what their problems are.
And then that way you can cater your solution
to their most important problems.
So, the most powerful tool you have
after asking each of these open-ended questions
is to hit the mute button.
Seriously, ask the question and then hit the mute button
and just let them talk and be comfortable with silence.
This is true just as much in customer conversations,
it's true in recruiting conversations,
it's definitely true in investor conversations.
Be comfortable with silence,
be comfortable with hitting the mute button
or the metaphorical mute button if you're meeting in person.
Be comfortable with that because as soon as
you just stay quiet the other person will talk more
and more and more and more and more
and it'll give you more information
and more cannon fodder to understand their world
and better position yourself
and your solution to the problems they're having.
So, use the mute button, that's my bonus tip for you.
So, that's all I have for you today.
Those are the open-ended questions
and the mute button that will truly help you transform
your sales process.
Now, if you're building out your sales strategy
and you are building out the growth strategy
for your SaaS business, you'll probably be thinking about
you go-to-market strategy.
You're probably be thinking about your pricing strategy.
You're probably be thinking about your positioning,
your value prop,
you'll probably be thinking about your sales methodology.
Now, I have a ton of videos around all these key pieces
but I've codify it into this one five point
SaaS growth strategy guide.
Inside of it I help you craft a one-page strategy
and I link to a bunch of resources I have in my channel
my best performing videos all from that one guide.
It's completely free so you should definitely grab a copy
if you're building and scaling a SaaS business,
and you wanna think through all these key strategic pieces
the right way.
How do you do it?
Just go to getunstoppable.com/strategy,
getunstoppable.com/strategy.
It's blue free you can get access to it right away,
inside of it, I'll give you all the resources you need
to craft your one-page strategy to drive growth faster.
Also, if you got value from this video, please smash
that like button for the YouTube algorithm
just means the world to us when you give it as well,
comment below with any questions you have,
if you have a fellow founder,
that would get value from this,
a fellow team member that would get value from this,
please share this video with them
it mean the world to us,
we put a lot of love into these videos.
And lastly remember everyone needs a strategy for their life
and their business
when you are with us, yours is gonna be unstoppable.
I'm TK, and I'll see you the next episode.
(upbeat music)