Rounding up the latest in sales research and innovation.
March 10, 2021
We’re back with another roundup of sales news, this time focused on the concept of Impact. In Maestro’s DRIVE information-gathering framework, Impact is the I. It’s also the most important area of information to dig into with a prospect. This is not because it’s the most important information for you, as the salesperson. It’s because conversations about Impact are the ones that will have the largest, well, impact on whether the prospect will decide to buy.
As it turns out, from a psychological perspective, it might not hurt to keep Impact front and center in every conversation you have—whether it’s a discovery call or an attempt to convince your kid to do their homework or their batting practice.
To start with, Impact handles a lot of the same ideas that might be covered in “Need” in BANT or similar frameworks. But the idea of “Need” (along with Urgency, Prioritization, and other concepts in other qualification frameworks) often depends on the prospect understanding that they have some sort of lack. As many salespeople are aware, often the prospect does not have a clear picture of their needs.
That’s where the Impact conversation is so powerful. You ask them what impact having the product or solution would create. You guide them into imagining their life with your offering. After they’ve visualized that new and improved situation, you ask what will happen if they don’t buy. Now they will start to be aware of deficiencies that they might previously not have perceived.
The RAIN Group is one of the few other sales organizations talking about Impact. But it underlies many common topics you may be used to discussing in the sales process. For example, one major impact that prospects are interested in could be described as “keeping up with the Joneses,” or FOMO. Or your offering might improve employee engagement and morale by taking boring tasks off their plate. To have a good conversation about Impact, you need to understand the value you can bring to their organization—and the value they are missing out on if they don’t partner with you.
Remember that the greatest way to help your prospects visualize the impact before they buy is through stories. Those can be case studies or testimonials, or simply sharing the facts about your current customers’ successes during demos. You can use real human stories to make the impact much more vivid.
When it comes to storytelling, you’ll get the most impact if you choose the right details. As an editor, it’s one thing for me to tell people that typos make them look unprofessional. They’ll just think I’m nerdy or compulsive. If I illustrate my claim with photos from Cake Wrecks where the business misspelled “Birthday” on a birthday cake, they’ll be more likely to remember the impact of editing!
TED Conferences (the brand behind TED Talks) has started using storytelling in advertising for partner brands as of February 22. And ReferralCandy is talking about stories as a way of amplifying word-of-mouth. But they are especially important in the live sales conversation, where a rep is trying to help the prospect understand the Impact a purchase is likely to have.
As it turns out, talking about impact is not just a great way to get prospects excited about your offerings. It’s also a great way to motivate your team. Lisa McLeod and Elizabeth Lotardo, authors of Selling with Noble Purpose, found that “the more clearly an employee understands their direct impact, the more likely they are to go the extra mile.” Employees are not nearly as motivated by the idea of their organization hitting financial targets as they are about the idea of achieving the organizational mission.
This is true even in sales, where employees may have a reputation of only caring about hitting their targets and earning commissions and bonuses. In fact, it’s easier to get motivated to put in long hours, conduct hundreds of calls, and weather tons of “no’s” if they feel like they’re going to earn those commissions and bonuses as a recognition of how they’ve contributed to a team goal that really matters.
Impact gets to the heart of the DRIVE information-gathering model, but it’s not the only piece of information you need in order to accelerate sales. Keep following the Mastery blog as we journey through Impact, Velocity, and Expectations.
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