CUTTER CONSULTING GROUP

[E255] Stop Disassembling Cars

January 16, 2024


What if you are delving too much into intricate details about your service that you potentially lose deals?


When selling, are you going into so much detail about how your service works that you are actually losing deals?


So many reps over-explain – essentially disassembling the entire car in order to prove that it has value.


This habit can be the result of several things.


In this episode, I unpack the reasons why it happens and what to do about it instead.


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  • Show Transcript

    I am so glad that you're here. I'm so glad that you're taking the time to hopefully up a level your sales career or your sales team by listening to podcasts like this. Hopefully you've subscribed. If not, make sure to subscribe. And if you like this, leave a rating and a review. And in this episode, I am going to address some sales related questions to try to help everybody in sales do more, be more and sell more.


    With their career and achieve their goals. Now let's go ahead and jump into this episode. So I was in the market for buying a new car recently, and I went to a car dealership. And I test drove the car, we checked it out. I really liked it and I wanted to buy it except I had some questions. I was hesitating.


    I wasn't sure if this was really the right purchase, the right time, if it was really the right decision. So the salesperson to help convince me. decided to disassemble the entire car in front of me to show me all of the parts, to show me how it worked, to show me all the gears and the wires and everything that was included in the car so that I could see how it worked so I would know if it was something I wanted to buy.


    And obviously, of course, that worked because as soon as I saw it completely disassembled, I thought, hey, this is a great deal. There's so much in this car that makes it worth it. I just have to have it. And then, of course, it took a long time to put it back together, but I bought the car and it was a great decision.


    Obviously, if that were to happen, it would be a mind blowing experience if that's how cars were sold or TVs were sold. Could you imagine wanting to buy a TV and the salesperson thinks the best way to help you understand the value and what the TV will do for you? Is to take it apart down to the circuit boards so you can understand the mechanics of the TV so you can then relate the value you're going to get from it with the parts that are involved and the inner workings of how it works.


    Most consumers don't care how something works. They want the results and not just consumers, right? A lot of times I talk about sales and a lot of people think that doesn't apply to business. When you're dealing with a company, small, medium enterprise, it is people are the same, whether they're consumers in their living room or their consumers in their office doesn't matter.


    It's all the same. They're consumers. They are having to make a decision. They're having to buy. There might be other stakeholders involved, but they're a consumer at some level. And fundamentally, they don't care how something works. They want the results. Nobody buys a car because of the parts. Now, obviously, there's collectors of cars, and they want to know that everything is in tip top shape.


    It's a collector's item, and it'll be worth something later on, and that's an investment. That's completely different. But in general, nobody cares what it does, and the parts involved, they want to know what is in it for them. That's the theme in some of these episodes that I've been doing recently, is I'm seeing this a lot where the challenge is salespeople.


    Are over explaining and I see this a lot when someone is selling a service, especially something that can't be touched, can't be seen, can't be smelt, can't be heard, can't be tasted, right? It's this kind of cloud of service where you just don't know what it does until it does something and gets you somewhere.


    You just don't know because it's hard to trust. It's hard to understand what is involved. You look at a car and everyone understands, okay, there's parts of a car and they know what it's going to do for them. And so they don't need to take an apart. But when somebody's selling services, one of the challenges that they start taking apart those services and they start explaining every single piece of that service so that somebody can visualize it.


    I know I have done that before early on in my sales career used to do that as well. It's a common practice for a lot of analytical by type salespeople or people who are insecure. It could be either one of those categories where they just want to explain and or over explain so they can get somebody to believe in, to visualize, to get the concept of it.


    And to trust that it's going to help them. Yes, your customer wants to know how your service works. They want to know what it will do for them. They don't care about the features. They care about results. Yes, they want to know some of the inner workings. But really about what's in it for them. Again, that's what I keep talking about recently because it's so important.


    If someone really wants details, you can get into the weeds with them. They'll ask you when you're dealing with an analytical customer, they're going to want those details because that's going to help them feel secure. In that case, give them some details. Otherwise, make it a standard practice to stay high level.


    When talking about the mechanics of your service or your product, nobody needs to know how electricity works to know that when they turn the light switch on, they're going to get light. They want to know that when they hit that switch, the light turns on, they'll be able to see or spend time with their family or eat a meal or read a book.


    Whatever that is. They just want to know the results. Can I hit this switch and get light and can I do what I want to do with that light? I don't care. Please don't explain to me how electricity works. I don't care. And so too many salespeople get caught up in the nuance, nuances of what they're selling, or they get too excited about the little details or they lack confidence.


    When someone goes into a lot of detail, it can be due to the salesperson trying to convince the other person and convincing is bad. Persuading is good. Serving the other person is good. Solving problems is good. Convincing not so good. One of the other side detriments of going into a lot of explanation and disassembling that car to show somebody how it works, disassembling your service.


    So they can see every single step, every single detail, every single process that goes into it, is that you could seriously trigger them to fall into analysis paralysis, which is very bad. And analysis paralysis is when there's too many options, there's too much information, it's overwhelmed, they're trying to find the right solution, the perfect solution, and there's too many decisions to make.


    And so when the brain gets confused, it generally defaults to no. It generally defaults to shutting down, staying safe, protecting itself, saying no to whatever decisions at hand and waiting for the right solution to present itself. And so when you're convincing by going through those details, you can trigger analysis process, which will definitely cause you to lose a lot of deals.


    So what to do instead? Don't disassemble the car. Don't disassemble the TV. Don't disassemble. Your service to try to justify why somebody should pay for it and what the value is. The value to them based on the cost is relative to the outcome. It's relative to the result. It's relative to what they're going to do.


    So always focus on that. Make sure to listen. To the last few episodes where I've talked about this specifically, because it's all about the value when you sell to the value and you help them see the value, how it gets there doesn't matter. I don't need to know how that car works to know the value I'm going to get from that car, whether it's transportation, whether it's ego, whether it's making me excited, making me happy letting me have fun, whatever that is. I don't need to know the details. I just need to know what it's going to do for me. So make sure you focus on that. If you actually sell less on the convincing and showing them under the hood, if you do less of that and connect with more about why they want, none of those other details will matter.


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By Jason Cutter February 19, 2025
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By Jason Cutter February 18, 2025
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By Jason Cutter February 17, 2025
The Abundance of Options Today we all have lots of options. While writing this I could speak into my phone and order whatever I want. I can get food delivered before I finish writing this article. I could get a TV delivered to my door before I wake up tomorrow. When someone wants to buy something, they are armed with as much information as they want to access. They can research, read reviews, and watch videos about a product or company. The Shift in Power to the Buyer Because of this, the power balance of sales has shifted away from the salesperson and company to the buyer. Knowledge is power – and they now have all the knowledge they want. With knowing that they have ultimate choice of what to buy (internet and globalization has led to the ability to order anything you want from anywhere…so you are no longer limited to the stores you can drive to and what they have on hand), it means that everything is a commodity in their minds. Nothing is unique or special. Everything is interchangeable. Does the Sales Experience Even Matter? So, this means the sales experience doesn’t matter anymore. There is no reason to put effort into the sales process, the conversations with potential customers. No value in spending time trying to ‘help’ people – since they just view products, salespeople, and companies as interchangeable. You are not special, so there is no benefit in caring. They will walk into your store, and they will decide what they want. They fill out your online for, and they decide if they answer when you call and how the call will go. They walk up to your event/booth, and they decide how the interaction will go and if they want to listen to your elevator pitch. They will let you know if they are interested in moving forward. They will let you know how they want to buy. So, like I said above, there is no real value anymore in the sales experience. Or could it actually be valuable? Is it possible that all that matters IS the sales experience? If people feel they have ultimate information and control of the buying process, how do they decide on what to buy and who to buy from? When I search on Amazon for a product type I have never purchased before, how do I pick? When I want to go shopping for garden supplies for the house, how do I pick where to go? When I need to buy a new fridge, who will I hand my money over to? The cheapest place with terrible service? The place with reasonable prices and great service? The Sales Experience Shapes the Decision I choose based on the sales experience that I will receive. With everything else being equal, I (and I believe most people) will select the place to shop at or the products to buy online based on the experience I receive. To me all that matters is the experience. While I am trying to buy something. Once I receive it – ensure it does what I need it to do. With the feeling of unlimited choices, it can actually be harder now to buy something that in the past. People get into analysis paralysis more often. Which means that for consumers to buy something new they need help. They need a professional salesperson. They need a sales experience that matches their expectations. They want a guide who will help them make the right decision for them, with an experience that goes above and beyond what more people receive any more when they walk into a store, call a company’s toll-free number, or visit a website and have to fill out a form. If you want to succeed in sales – the only thing that matters is the sales experience you provide.
By Jason Cutter February 13, 2025
The Balance of Effort in Sales The blogs this week have been about the other person going most of the way. Whether it’s a prospective customer and your salesperson, where the salesperson truly can’t want the deal or make most of it happen for that customer to truly be successful. On the path for that prospect to becoming a customer, they should go at least 51/49. Whether it’s your team and their manager, the manager can’t want the team to succeed more than the team actually wants it for themselves. It’s not scalable for the coach (manager) to run on the field every play to win the game for the salespeople. What about sales ops processes and systems? What about the tools available to the sales team and the ones that are classified as sales enablement? In a reversal of philosophy, I believe the sales ops processes should go 90, the team should only have to go 10. Why Do We Need Salespeople? Let’s start where it matters – what is the point of having salespeople? I know many owners question the need and desire to have salespeople. They are hard to manage, tough to deal with, always want more money (potentially for doing less work and closing less deals), and are very resistant to change. Of course, that is a generalization. Of course, there are salespeople who don’t check those boxes. However, having worked with a lot of teams in a lot of industries, that generalization isn’t completely wrong or unfair. So if there is even a small part of that which is accurate, why would we even mess with the messiness of having salespeople? Of needing to employ and manage humans? The Human Element in Sales We need them. That’s why. Even in 2025, AI and technology has not successfully replicated the requirements of sales – which is about helping a human (prospect/customer) make the right decision and move outside of their comfort zone to buy something new. It still takes your human (salesperson) to persuade that other human. It’s why I say all the time that its not B2B, B2C, Retail, SaaS, etc. – it’s H2H. Sure, people can buy something online or even in a store without speaking to someone. But if it’s a considered purchase where there are options and decisions to be considered – it still takes a human being involved. That means ultimately your human (salesperson) has one job, and one job only – persuade the right prospective humans to buy. Minimizing Distractions for Salespeople Everything outside of that mission, task, focus is a distraction that takes away from their highest and best use. Imagine if we had a surgeon who had to prep the room, prep the patient, schedule the surgery and meetings, and do all the parts of the surgery themselves. Nope – they show up for the surgery and do what they do best. Then they take off their gown, gloves, and walk away to get cleaned up and move on to the next thing. Your goal as a sales ops leader is to support the team with systems and processes that allow them to focus on the one thing you need them for. The human part. It would be amazing if they could show up, talk to people, and make sales happen. Of course, there is more that they (and any professional) need to do before, during, and after the sales conversation. But your goal is to minimize all that. Every hour that your salespeople aren’t selling or doing sales-related activities, they aren’t moving revenue forward. The Ultimate Goal of Sales Ops What processes can you put in place that go 90 percent of the way, where the salesperson can do the last 10 percent? An example would be building an email campaign that runs automatically, and when the right people reply, the salesperson gets involved in getting that person from email to phone call. Another example would be your CRM serving up people for the salesperson to call – leads or anyone in the sales pipeline flow – with all the backstory, research, data, intel needed for them to review it then take action. What can you put into place that takes away as much distraction and effort from your sales team such that they can focus on the one thing you need to focus on – other humans?
By Jason Cutter February 12, 2025
The Danger of Doing Too Much as a Sales Leader Alright – so maybe they don’t need to go 90. In true servant leadership mode, you would go way more than 10% of the way to your team. But you have to be careful, as a sales leader. The inclination might be to do it all for them. To help them close their sales. To make excuses for them to your leadership as to why they aren’t closing more sales. Especially considering the very high likelihood that you are a sales manager because you were a great salesperson in the role that you are now managing. And there is a slight chance that you are a player-coach…so you are leading and selling. This can make it really tough not to want to run out on the field to win the game each time. But that doesn’t scale. That doesn’t lead to increased results. You can only sell so much as one person. Creating a Culture of Ownership So, you need to have people on your team that are coming to you. What does that look like? The pinnacle is a salesperson who doesn’t close a deal, comes to you right away and asks for feedback. They want some critiques as to where they could have done things better, different that would have led to the desired result – a closed sale. That takes a healthy level of ego by a professional who has the ultimate growth mindset. They know there are always ways to improve. They want to improve. And they are willing to risk their ego (and the internal, protective, primal part of our brain that doesn’t want to risk our place in the tribe) by asking for feedback that could be negative. Whenever you can, encourage that type of response. Ensure that the team knows that the team itself, and you as their leader, is a safe space – where the goal is to improve, grow, win and that everything done to support each other is done in that mode. They truly have to feel safe to share their mistakes and to get support in learning how to do more, better. Feedback That Drives Growth Part of this takes team and individual meetings that are actually filled with positive support. That doesn’t mean it’s always positive, motivational fluff. It’s not even about the shallow strategy of the feedback sandwich. Its about being real, honest, and empathetic – meaning “I see you are here, I know you want to be there, I will help you get there – even if its hard and it means saying hard things.” It should never feel mean or abusive or like an attack. But you can give some really direct feedback that will sting that ego I mentioned, but the person will know the intent behind it. The second part is hiring this type of person. Hiring people for the team that wants to win, grow, succeed. And they know that you don’t get better by being coddled, sheltered, or protected. You want people who don’t like the thought of perpetually living safely in their comfort zone. And they are excited about the opportunity to be a part of a team that pushes everyone, empathetically, outside of their comfort zone. Are You Leading or Just Managing? If you find yourself as a leader having to push your team, or going to them most of the time, or most of the way mentally – then they see you as a manager not a leader. They see you as someone who manages them, pushes them, and wants them to do things they don’t want to do. I have written some blogs here that go into what your role should be – as a leader, not a manager. Pulling people along with you, inspiring people, and supporting yourself with a team of people who want to win. Not just those that want to show up, do as little as they can and hopefully go unnoticed (yet – complain about not making enough money and how the comp plan isn’t fair, or the leads are bad, or their schedule means they can’t be successful.) Make sure your team knows that they need to come to you – at least 51/49. They should be asking for help, guidance, training, feedback, and support more than you are having to push it down onto them.
By Jason Cutter February 3, 2025
If you have seen the movie Hitch, then you know the scene. Will Smith’s character (Hitch) is trying to coach Kevin James’ character (Albert) on how to finish out his upcoming first date. He is giving him pointers, one being that if his date fumbles with her keys at the door, it could mean she wants a kiss. So Hitch wants to see if Albert knows what to do – for a good night kiss. Hitch gives him the advice “you go 90 percent, and then wait for her to go 10%” which Albert then asks “wait for how long?” Hitch: “as long as it takes.” Albert leads in, Hitch is holding back to see if Albert will wait, and then Albert goes all the way and gives him a kiss. Hitch gets upset, and says “You go 90, I go 10 – you don’t go the whole 100%.” The Sales Analogy Kissing our prospective customers is not acceptable (just ask HR!). But the concept is the same. You don’t want to ever make 100% of the effort for your prospective customers. You don’t want to be the one who is doing all the work. Fundamentally, it is not good practice to want the deal more than the other person. When you go your 90, you need to wait – as long as it takes – for the prospect to go to their 10. And I would say that you want to go somewhere between 10-49, in reality. How Successful Sales Professionals Balance Effort Successful sales professionals know how far they have to go to meet the prospect where they are, while also knowing how much effort the prospect needs to put in to show they are committed. Where most salespeople get in trouble is they get desperate. They want the sale (kiss) more than the other person and they go the full 100%. Of course, persistence is important. And you won’t get what you don’t ask for (although…if you have followed me for any length of time, you will know I am very against having to ask for the sale). But you also have to ensure that your prospects actually want what you are selling. And they want it for their reasons and their motivations. They are driven to pursue your production option(s). They must go 10, 40, 60% of the way to you. The Pitfall of Chasing Your Prospect Just like courtship and relationships – if you find yourself chasing and one-sided-pursing the other person then it means you want it more than they do. It also means they own you. You are essentially begging them for the relationship – convincing, manipulating, begging, bribing, persuading your way forward. Which means they consciously and/or subconsciously know that they are in control. Because if they say no, you will keep pursuing and offering solutions. In sales – that looks like a salesperson who is calling, emailing, stalking a prospect – making offers, offering discounts and trials, and trying to find any way to make deal work. They are going 90-100% of the way for the prospect, not requiring them to go anywhere towards the agreement. This will end terribly. If they do decide to buy – taking the discount, free trial, taking the sale bait – they will not be happy (since they weren’t bought in for their reasons), they will look for reasons confirming why they didn’t really want to buy anyway, and they will know that they own you. Your company will have to convince them on a regular basis to stay in the relationship. The Right Balance for Customer Ownership You fundamentally need that prospective customer to come to you. Not 100% where you are just an Order Taker. But potentially 51% of the way – so they want it more than you. The more you can get them across that 50/50 threshold, the more they will be a satisfied customer. But remember – at 51/49 – they still need persuading, they still need to understand the value of your product for where they ultimately want to be in their life/business, and they still need your support. They lean in the right amount, you lean in the right amount = sales magic!
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