Fuentes Friday Edition #0011

This past week I heard on multiple calls from multiple buyers some variation of, “We already have started to build something like this internally.” With the proliferation of no/low code tools and AI, I imagine this will be coming up more frequently.

This is very different than the buy vs. build objection that often slows down sales cycles. This new objection has many layers, but the two most significant ones are:

• How much better can your solution be?
• What makes YOU so special that you can build something better than US?

It reminds me of my days at Best Buy selling computers. And how, when people were offered Geek Squad services or Performance Service Plans, they would normally (yes normally, over 50%) object with, “My neighbor/wife/cousin/kid/mailman is a computer expert. I will be fine. Thanks.” They were not saying that protecting their computer was not valuable—they were saying that they did not believe Best Buy could do it better enough than the person they knew to justify spending money.

To overcome the objection, we would sell on a few things: 1. Convenience (get it now, get help when you need it—not when your family member is available); 2. Accountability (this is our business, so we want to do the best job possible); and 3. Expertise (this is what we do, all day every day).

You will notice that expertise came last. We found that challenging our buyers first around the “qualifications” of their trusted person was a recipe for disaster. Instead, we sold on the values of convenience and accountability before leveraging FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) around the expertise.

In the calls that I have observed this week where the objection was handled well, the sales professional usually did the following:

• Acknowledged that it was exciting that they found value in the problem
• Dug into what specifically they were trying to solve or make better
• Asked what was meeting their expectations
• Discussed what were the next steps in the evolution of the internal product
• Laid out how their company solved the problem and what the main differences were
• Closed on having an additional discussion to continue to explore similarities and differences

The reality of ALL the calls that I observed was that the home-grown solutions were significantly subpar. They were the equivalent of medical diagnoses via web search vs. a medical exam. However, the prospects were proud and needed to be brought along in the journey. A successful outcome with these buyers was convincing them that, just maybe, there might a better way. Not that the salesperson was the better way and that they should buy.

Being a parent is fun. The best part is answering the incessant questions. When my son was younger there was a lot of curiosity, now there is a lot of “but, why’s?” Yoda had it right: