And I always ask people, Look, I can't change what's happened in the past, but I'm going to ask you to judge me what happens after this meeting with us.
Today, you're listening to the audible Ready Podcast, the show that helps you and your teams sell more faster. It's brought to you by the team at Force Management, a leader in B to B sales effectiveness. The show features sales leaders sharing their best insights on how to create a sales engine that helps you fuel repeatable revenue growth. Let's get started.
Hello and welcome to the Audible Ready Sales Podcast. I'm Rachel Kleadmiller, joined today by John Kaplan. Hi John, Hi, Rachel, how are you good? Good? So today John, we're going to talk about a common scenario that many salespeople find themselves in, and it's come up on our online platform, a center, a subscription platform. It can happen, particularly maybe when you're starting a new company and that is inheriting others accounts.
Yeah, this is I think a really important topic to talk about because it can be it can be tricky regardless of the situation. You're either following somebody that did a really, really good job or following a following a scenario where we didn't do a very good job. And I know there's people listening out there like, well, hey, I wish I got some accounts to inherit. So regardless,
hang in there with the conversation. You're going to have a scenario where you're going to receive an inherited account. If it's not happening now, it's going to happen in your career. So just listen to some of these topics that we talk about, regardless of where you are in your career, because I think these are some really really good points we're going to discuss today.
Yeah, and accounts can get moved around in your current role, you know, somebody can leave whatever. So let's talk of the first steps when we're presented with this scenario. What are our first steps?
Well, like everything else we talk about, Rachel, we're always talking about prepper and preparedness and the difference between stress and pressure you've heard us say over and over again is preparedness. So you want to get as much fluency that you can about the account before your first meeting
with them. If you can't talk to the previous seller, perhaps you might have replaced that individual, or then talk to people that are responsible for the product, or managers or pre sales or customer success, anyone who may have interfaced with that customer to learn as much as you can about that scenario. So the more that you come in with an educated point of view, the more your customer will trust that you are assuming a transition. I
think where people do this badly. Rachel is there basically like, Hey, I'm the new person, you know, tell me everything that you've told everybody else one hundred times, or I don't care what happened before here. I'm here now. It's just it's not a good look. Really takes it takes preparation, do your homework and figure out what's been going on before you speak to somebody.
Yeah, there's nothing more frustrating than if you then a vendor who comes to the table uninformed, especially if you've had a longer relationship with the vendor. I got a story for you, John, So, I was on a call, this was about a couple months ago with a vendor when we were talking about our content. You know, I
produced a lot of the content. They were asking me about the content and they said they said, okay, so what kind of access do you have to John Kaplan like, are you able to you know, have him do content for you? And I was like, well, given he's the founder of the company, I think we got the access.
It's like, what I couldn't.
Hide my face on the zoom But anyway, I digress.
But so your point is they didn't do their homework, right?
No? No, I mean that is like a basic point, right. I mean, maybe you can forgive if they didn't know where some metrics or what certain software you're using or whatever, but a founder of a company who is a very visual founder should be kind of one of the first
bullets I would get to know. But anyway, you bring up a good point, John, that you have to you really want to come in with that educated point of view, and that helps you build trust as the new rep, which you need, particularly if you have to grow the account. So shifting now from getting informed you got that first conversation, Hi, I'm a new person, YadA, YadA. How do I start to develop the relationships I need within them within the
account so that I can can build it? What are my action steps there?
Yeah, good question. I think you treat account transition you treat it like any other really sales call, where you're going to first make it all about them and then earn the right to make it about you. Start with a baseline of what you've heard I've had. I remember a wonderful example of a customer when we first started Force Management. I was traveling with a rep and it was a huge teleccount company. This company was in the services industry and they were there was an account transition.
This just gives chills to my spine because it was so profound. So they were talking to a vice president there and there was a new there was a new seller. I was actually traveling with that new seller that day, and they the customer looked at the individual and said, hey, nice to meet you. Before we get started, why don't you tell me what you've learned about us? And you could have heard a pin drop in the room, And it was so profound for me, and the customer was
doing it on purpose. The customer had a high expectation that there had been a transfer of knowledge, a transfer of information, and so they just had a high expectation. The rep actually did a pretty good job, but that's not what they were expecting to start with. They were expecting to start more was small talk and blah blah blah, and the customer just hit them and talk about being audible ready.
It is you.
Know, why don't you start by telling me what you know about me and my company? And I think that we should go into every new uh transition of an account, every new customer, every new relationship with being audible ready to speak to that, be audible, ready to speak to what do you know about us? And there's an old saying that says, if it's been in print, let's say we don't have we've never done business with this customer, and the customer or this prospect, and they say, tell
me what you know about us in our industry? If it's been in print, you should have read it. And so what they're basically gauging is like what kind of game you got? Do you have an A game? Do you have a C game? What are we working with here? So I think it's really really important to be to be audible ready in that regard. So, but I'm also prepared to once I talk about what I've learned about them?
What have you? Now, it's time for you and I to me and the customer to establish our own operating rhythm, and you'll hear me things. You'll hear me talk about things like you know, what do you like most about your experience with us? And what causes you pause about your relationship with us. I like to be very very vulnerable. I like to be very very open, and I like to ask those questions in a way that invites really good feedback. Where are we better than we think we are?
When sometimes when I talk about our products or solutions, I'll say, where are we better than we think we are? And then where are we not good as you know as we probably think we are. Those are two really good questions to bring vulnerability, to bring openness, to bring great feedback in to the conversation in a very safe
way for the customer. I like to also, Rachel set the ground rules and expectations for operating rhythms, like if it's appropriate, how do you like to be interacted with when we have information we need to get with you? Do you ever do quarterly reviews? You know what works best for you? Think about an ideal relationship that you have with a vendor? What makes that an ideal relationship? And I'm trying to establish the ground rules going forward.
I acknowledge and I'm aware of what's happened in the past. Now it's my responsibility to establish how you'd like to interact going forward in the future. So I know that was a lot of content there, but I'm I'm audible ready for that.
That's great. I think those questions are good, good takeaways for people to remember. You mentioned the in the story that you told the customer needed wanted to see who they were, who they were dealing with, what kind of game that person was bringing, and you know you might encounter skepticism. So what do you do if there's a lot of skepticism and your inheriting account, you're coming in new to it, but and your customer isn't as happy
as they should be with that current contract. How do you deal with that situation that you've inherited.
Well, let's just talk about reality. This will be your scenario more times than anything else. You're very rarely going to inherit account. That's great. You know you're inheriting an account. If it's a great account, you're not inheriting it. If you're new, you're not inheriting it. Right you with me? So people are going to hang on to those accounts that are that are you know, running really really well.
So this is a really really appropriate conversation. I think more often than not, what you're inheriting is probably not in a great state. So the first thing I do is I tell myself, do not be defensive. I didn't create this problem. I'm willing to help them with their problem. I need to be a problem solver. So I listen. And sometimes it's hard to hear how your company sucks
or how your product sucks, or what have you. But you have to be prepared to not only listen to that, but to be open to that and don't minimize anything you know. At the same time, I also I don't go native. This is what happens to some immature sellers. They go native with the customer and they start to agree with the customer. Yeah, that's a problem for us everywhere, and we need to do better at that or what have you. That you know, nobody is expecting you to
throw your own company under the bus. So the main point is to listen and understand the problems that it causes. Understand and acknowledge you know, a previous reps, bad behavior, or a product not working.
Or what have you.
Everybody needs to be heard. It's a it's a common human behavior. We all have the need to be heard, and this is where you need to really demonstrate that skill set. So then you establish that you care and you're committed to changing the relationship, changing the experience. And I always ask people, look, I can't change what's happened in the past, but I'm going to ask you to judge me on what happens after this meeting with us today. I think it's really important for me to establish that
I can't. I'll do the best I can to go back and figure things out. But what I'm asking this customer to do is allow me to prove myself, is allow me to and it's important for the customer to actually say that not only to you, but to themselves. So like, Okay, this person is I need to judge
this person on what happens going forward. But oftentimes there are going to be open items and issues, and I think one of the I call them kind of like easy wins, And it's not so much that you'll have the solution, but the way you follow up from these conversations and how fast you do it and how in a quality way and being able to tell and reiterate their side of the story and to get your company to respond in some way and then follow up quickly. So I think timing is really really important from a
meeting like that. So again, more often than not, your experience is going to be you're going to be inheriting something that's not ideal. Listen to what makes the situation not ideal, ask for the ability to be judged going forward, and if there are follow up items from that conversation, follow up immediately, even if they're small things, follow up immediately and with urgency. And I think that's a pretty pretty good way to think about it.
That's so that's such a good way to end it, John. I think if you do nothing else, if you are responsive and your customer's urgency is your urgency, that goes a long way.
It does.
Those are some great points, John, And I think there's one more point here that I want to bring up that if you're new and you've inherited the account, it's not always guaranteed business.
Yeah, this is the flip side that we just talked about. It's like, okay, let's say you do get an account that has been doing fairly well. I never underestimate how challenging it is to continue that success, and how important salespeople and continuity are. And sometimes relationships are fractured just by the very nature of a seller leaving. I think, if I'm a seller, I never want that scenario to happen. I don't want to be. It's not a badge of honor or courage to say, oh, look that account fell
apart after I left. It should be you should be very, very proud five years from now to see that account just crushing it and that you did such a great job of serving them, including transitioning it to others. But don't assume that everything's great when you take over a
supposed great account that you'll always have the business. Always establish that baseline for where you're at right now, and then establish your relationship with that customer going forward, doing the things that I talked about earlier, like setting your own operating rhythm, judging the success and the measurement of success on where we are kind of going forward. It's the old adage don't rest on your laurels, especially if those laurels aren't yours.
That's great, Thank you, John, You're welcome.
Go Get Them, Go, Get Them.
Thank you to all of you who continue to listen to the audible Ready Sales podcasts, and don't forget to check out our new online subscription platform, a Sender asender dot co. Thank you. At Force Management, we're focused on transforming sales organizations into elite teams. Our proven methodologies deliver programs that build company alignment and fuel repeatable revenue growth. Give your teams the ability to execute the growth strategy at the point of sale. Our strength is our experience.
The proof is in our results. Let's get started. Visit us at forcemanagement dot com.