[Music]
most sales trainings when it comes to a
new product launch actually focused just
on features and benefits of the product
they don't actually talk about market
trends they don't actually talk about
what's changing in the buying process
for when you introduce this new product
and so it's some levels not all that
helpful to actually making sale or with
other product
[Music]
[Applause]
this episode is brought to you in part
by TSE certified sales training program
the program is to challenge sales reps
to teach them the fundamentals and to
help them become consistent at closing
deals to find out more about the program
go to the sales evangelist comm slash
course this episode is also brought to
you in part by audible.com get a free
audiobook download and a 30-day free
trial simply go to
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[Music]
hey hey hey everyone welcome to another
great episode of the sales evangelist
podcast
I'm your host Donald Kelley the sales of
Vangelis and I'm so excited for another
great episode I'm so excited to be here
with you today and on this episode we
have Thomas Steinberg he's a professor
and faculty member at the University of
Virginia Darden School of Business about
one year ago he co-authored an article
that when in Harvard Business Review
called how to sell new products and in
this article he shares an idea of the
challenges and difficulties companies
usually have selling brand new products
now you're probably thinking well Donald
that's awesome we do a great job of
selling new products now in realities
you're probably not doing so well and I
want you guys to listen to Tom and
understand here from his experience
working with some of the largest
companies in the world and examining and
studying why it's so difficult at times
to sell new products to an existing
customer you're probably gonna want to
take some notes on this one welcome to
the show Tom thanks for having me
appreciate it Donal well I'm super
excited to have you I know you're gonna
bring us some great wisdom and some
great insights today I bragged about you
a little bit there and how we got
connected but before we dive into all
the fun stuff why don't you give us a
little bit more about you and what you
do man sure I teach business business
marketing and sales at the Darden School
of Business among other things I'm also
administrator but I've been here for the
last seven years and it's just a great
place to be I get to work with a lot of
really young bright people every year
keeps me young
awesome man well that sounds like a good
gig grateful for folks like you who help
us to increase our business acumen I was
talking as telling my friends about you
and how I first heard about you we were
I was listening to Harvard Business
Review and you did a segment on that
podcast an episode where you're talking
out selling new products versus selling
an existing product for companies and I
want to pick your brain on that because
many of us who are listening to this
where sales reps and sales leaders
working you know small midsize companies
and we have this is like totally foreign
this is like alien language you're
speaking here but I wanted to talk about
why we should consider this and why it's
the challenge in the first place so
maybe we could start off there with your
experience with that yeah the thing that
got me interested in this she actually
did a about a five-year research project
on this topic but the thing had gotten
me interested in this as Denarius study
is that I had sort of grown up so to
speak
Xerox many years ago okay 25 years ago
now and you know Xerox was good at a
couple different things it was had an
amazing research and development center
as many people know he rocks invented
the GUI interface that's common on every
laptop every PC you see these days the
fax machine that had these amazing
communication boards that you could talk
to somebody in London like they're right
in the same room with you and this is
well before anyone else had them this
incredible R&D and they also had this
incredible sales organization and
everyone that I meet they grew up in
Jacque sales still talks about it being
an amazing experience and the
interesting thing about it was drugs
failed to commercialize almost every
product that I had just talked about you
know somebody else reaped the rewards
from that from that work and maybe thank
you so how did a company with such a
great sales force lose out and
commercializing those products and so we
wound up doing a long research study to
better understand what it takes to sell
new products and and what's so hard
about it and from I mean that's really
sad to hear that I mean I guess you know
Xerox never heard from it but I can
guess the opportunities were I just
think about how much opportunity to
missed out on and it just came right
back down to this idea right I mean was
it just because of a management issue
you will say when it comes to words like
selling that new product or was it just
like the sales rep like what were some
of the things that you discovered that
caused this to be so so bad yeah well
when we looked into the problem we you
know we try to do a number of things one
thing was look at
what's different about the way people
sell another thing we looked at is that
what are the types of people that really
excel in this process in them taking up
one more level we said where the
organization structures you know what
companies are organized
what sort of cultures they create be
able to sell new products and the
combination of those things finding the
right process finding the right people
and finding the right organization
culture the the key to making this
happen interact yeah absolutely there's
still a great company they just sort of
missed out on some of the you know some
of the rewards that they should have had
relative to what they were developing so
let's talk about how could we fix that
like the sales managers had listening to
this and the thought was if a sales rep
is selling the sales rep they're selling
just two regular an account executive
and you know she's selling to her
typical client why is it such a big
challenge for her to now be in charge of
selling new products or should she sell
new products or should she not sell new
products yeah I think well let's start
with what they were what most reps would
like to do if you give them a choice
with love to sell new products at least
in beginning they feel like it it gives
them an advantage opens doors at the
clients account and then the question is
what happens in the long run do they
continue to put effort towards selling
new products is that they let it go and
some of that has to do with getting
people's perspective right so I can talk
a little bit about what's different
about selling new products yeah and the
first thing that comes across in terms
of process is different it's just super
resource intensive it takes a lot more
time so new products takes a lot more
energy there's more people in the buying
side we are mostly interested in selling
business-to-business companies with long
sales cycle and what we found was it's
about 30 to 40 percent more time that
people spend selling a new product as
opposed to an extension to a line in
addition to that you're meeting with a
lot more people in the buying process
and you have to develop a different
network site to be able to to sell and
so it's very resource intensive on top
of that there's sort of like this diff
rinse it with a new product and an
existing product that you also have to
take into account so from the customer
side when you're selling a new product
everybody wants to talk everybody loves
you and she's finally have something new
to say and most buyers want to stay
current with what's going on in the
marketplace so - a rep in the beginning
it seems like man this is awesome I
finally can have conversations with
people that wouldn't either wouldn't
have conversations with me before or I
can change the type of conversation I'm
having this entire this feels great but
what happens later on in the buying
process Luther coming up and because
it's a new product it typically means
that there's change in the buying
organization so it's actually late in
the sales cycle the objections start
being surfaced to a particular sale and
from a selling perspective this is
really problematic because what feels
like I was making traction I was finally
making lots of headway suddenly feels
like men everything's just stuck in the
mud I can't make any progress with my
client and at that point a lot of reps
feel like they had the rug pulled out
from under them that's one of the things
we heard in our research is that people
would say man it just felt like the rug
got pulled out from under me late in the
sale and so then what happens is they
become discouraged and and they stop
really devoting effort to selling the
product oh man it can be a really
frustrating sale I've been there I'm
raising my hand you know and it is it I
think it can definitely be towards
appointment and go back to one of the
things you mentioned as new seller one
of the earth as a young seller one of
the things that I may be old so it have
the same situation too but I knew that I
was I was like water I would go to the
path of least resistance
right and yeah you've given me all this
work to do now it turned me off and it
would push me from not doing it and I
mean is that some of the things you're
seeing then I imagine right yeah we we
hear that all the time is that you know
one thing you've got to manage as a
seller is your time it's really the only
thing that you have is your time and
once you start getting that resistance
well your numbers typically don't go
down quarter to quarter they typically
go up and if
comes harder and harder to figure out
how to make that investment and we do
find that it pays off in the long run
with persistence but it's a difficult
thing to do to make that commitment to
selling the new products particularly
when you have you know your quarterly
numbers to make oh yeah I mean I don't
have to worry about that crap I want I
just want the money so what in your
experience and in the research that you
are seeing now what I guess what started
to happen and the I guess the same thing
tie back to Xerox as well where the
product wasn't new products were not
being sold so now the if management find
himself in a sticky situation a small
company leaders listening to this and
they're like there's no way I can do
that
everybody has to learn to sell
everything any thoughts that you would
bring towards that well I I just think
that's an interesting questions but how
do you manage this and I'll give an
example that we found from our research
some companies that do this well so one
of the things is true with new products
is that it takes a while to figure out
how to sell one of the things that we
found in our research is that there's a
couple different types of reps different
types of mind sets for reps that they
might have you know one is that I have
to make my quarterly number and its
performance mindset and I will never
miss my quarterly numbers like that's
the worst thing on earth there's another
rep who really gets joy out of learning
and their primary mission in life is to
is the problem solve and devote
themselves to to learning and what we
found in our research was that the
trajectory of sales for these two
different types of reps is very
different so from the performance rep
what we find is that typically right
after the product launch they don't
invest as much in learning is what
happens for both preps is that their
sales go down initially after a new
product launch because you have to go
and learn how to sell the sort of
customer site for the performance base
rep they go down left for the learning
base rep they actually there's a really
big drop in sales early on and what
happens for these reps is that they
spend a lot of time learning what's
different at the customer site and how
to make this sale they sort of spend
time anticipating reject
so that means they're not selling your
existing portfolio as much yes what
happens in the long run between these
two reps is a dramatically different
story so for the performance-based wrap
this rep in the long run their sales
recover but they go up only so far for
the learning-based reps what you find is
sales go up in a really rapid pace but
it's late late late in after the product
launch and what this tells us from a
management challenge is that you have to
find at least a subset of reps who go
out and learn how to sell the product
and they you need to give them time to
go in and invest figuring out how to
work the client how what their pain
points are going to be what are their
objections later on in the sales cycle
and then bring back to that to the firm
and redesign the sales process so that
you can sell this new product then it's
very interesting when we talk to
marketing teams that support sales
processes and ask them what type of
training do you give your reps how do
you teach them to sell the product
basically most marketing teams throw the
product on the over the wall and then
disappear it never to be seen from again
they say you go and figure it out so
somewhere in the sales organization we
know that you have to dedicate some time
to learning how to sell this process
anticipating objections later on now
whether that has to be the whole sales
force or part of the sales force after
product launch I think you can make
either one work but somehow there has to
be learning in the organization and not
only that you have to find the right
types of people to go out and do that
because not all of your reps are going
to best the right amount of time to make
that happen is that helpful
oh man that's very helpful because you
know just thinking about it from you
know in that light it's almost like
you're re-engineering instead of like
you said go back to the marketing folks
instead of taking marketing and saying
here's a great new of software like they
used to do to us go and sell this sucker
now it would have been beneficial for
them to reengineer and say how are the
salespeople selling and how our clients
buying if I understand correctly and
then let's go back yeah most sales
trainings when it comes to a new product
launch actually focused just on features
and benefits of the product you know
it's like the early it's the early save
stuff they don't actually talk about
market trends they don't actually talk
about what's changing in the buy
process for when you introduce this new
product and so it some levels not all
that helpful to actually making sales
per product
[Applause]
now hold your horses Tom isn't done yet
he's gonna continue to break down this
idea continue to enlighten us and share
ideas of how we can sell new products to
existing customers we'll pick up right
after the break
you're listening to the sales evangelist
podcast and I'm your host Donald Kelley
the sales evangelist
[Music]
I kind of got into sales by accident but
still yet not really my family are
Jamaicans and we've been selling ever
since I was a kid so I knew I wanted to
do something related to that
my friends however in college told me
you have a great personality you should
go into sales and I did
now b2c selling was amazing I made some
pretty good money but when I got into B
to be selling it was difficult and no
matter if you are an accidental seller
or you want to do this since you were
born if you don't have the proper
training you're not going to succeed so
I didn't luckily I got help I had the
passion to drive now I knew exactly what
to do and I started to thrive this is
why I created TSE certified sales
training program because there are many
of you just like me who didn't have the
right training but had a desire tse
certified sales training program will
teach you all of the fundamentals you
need to really thrive and to be
successful as a seller join our group
coaching program we would love to have
you find all the details in the show
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[Music]
hey we're back and Tom and I gotta pick
up where we left off and continue to
educate and share with you some of the
concepts that he has learned through his
research that can help your sales team
sell new products to existing customers
more effectively
[Music]
you know and it's funny that you
it sounds so basic right now just like
talking through it and would think like
why didn't no one ever think about this
before why didn't no one ever do this
before but it's just I think I have my
conclusions but why do you feel
sometimes that companies don't ever do
this back up
you've taught this before and you share
this with companies would you be willing
to share or in your experience with
anyone that you know if that who did
this well that any any companies you're
you're familiar with yeah I can't
default the company about it I'll give
you an example that we can talk about in
general so there's a company that is
moving from old line media to to digital
media and their sales force it was asked
to sell these new digital ads and in
this new space and what was interesting
is that the reps actually had all the
knowledge they need needed to go out and
sell these ads and what they were
worried about was what I actually look
stupid selling these these new ads in
this new space they had the knowledge
they needed but they were worried
because they hadn't interacted with
their clients before on how they would
look how they'd be perceived once they
tried to move their clients to this new
type of media and what was interesting
about the sales process when we talked
to the manager and when the light bulb
went off in his mind about what was
happening it's totally totally changed
the way that he approached coaching with
his tea and what he did was really to
have a two pronged approach to selling
the product so you'd realize that they
already knew the features and benefits
you didn't need to do anything else
there but what they didn't know was the
market trends and so he invested some
time figuring out what are the trends in
the market where is this market tending
to go how can he help his reps become
experts with their clients in selling
this new type of product and then also I
think was really clever and very
insightful the other thing that he did
was to ask the reps to figure out
exactly what their job was so he asked
them to write down what the role was and
what their role wasn't and he had them
do some
and probably one of the things I was
really most surprised about as we did
this research was how much of an
emotional component there was to the
sale because most of the reps that I've
worked with over the years I think of as
having pretty thick skin but when it
comes to new product people still worry
about their image they want to look good
in front of their clients they want to
be an expert and until this manager
could get them to understand exactly
what their role was and to help them
feel like they had the right types of
market knowledge they were willing to
engage in the right conversations with
their client once he fixed that
emotional problem got them over the
hurdle then their sales started to take
off and I think that insistence I'm
figuring out what's different about the
sales process what your role should be
in the sales process and how you can
make a difference in your clients
business and to encourage people that
they have all the resources all the
talent they need all the expertise they
need to make that difference that's when
things start to really take off in their
situation did they adopt the mentality
of having the different individuals or
different roles sell to new customers or
were they this manager to still allow
everyone to do the same job if that
makes sense
did they segment the role yeah in that
team they certainly had leaders within
the team that that maybe adopted things
faster but eventually they got the whole
team up and running on this and I think
that's possible in most cases you may
have some people who adopt faster than
others you can use them as an example
you should be sharing best practices
about how to sell within your team but
eventually you can get most people up
the curve okay so very good to me if I
could just add to that one little thing
too you know as people might find this
interesting when working with their own
team another thing that we found when we
are doing our research is it often it's
not the best overall performing rep that
becomes a leader in selling a new
product sometimes it is somebody else
from the team may be a high performer
but not the super high performer
there's willing to invest a time and
becomes the first person to adopt
there's been some companies that we've
worked with where actually the very best
friends said no no no I'm not going to
top that until somebody else figures it
out and if that's the case you should
find somebody else to figure it out and
let that other rep go and sell what
they're comfortable
until the process is proved but you do
have to figure out how to share best
practices at some point that is awesome
no I like that fact that the best
practice concept and some organizations
that I've been a part of what they have
done is you know have that person
whoever it is like you said it didn't
have to be the top performer but
somebody that did maybe somebody's just
really great at setting appointments
have that individual you know give like
a you know in a sales meeting like a
10-15 minute
you know quote-unquote mini workshop on
what they're doing - yep so well and I
see that some organizations that our
loggers typically will have everyone
just almost like an isolation lone wolf
chamber like everybody run figure out
how to do this on your own and let's
come back but I feel in sales you really
have to do it almost like a Moneyball
time a little bit work you got to make
sure you understand those numbers and
the data's and if you can understand
your numbers you're gonna be able to
guide your team and charter your course
and perform the best yeah you can figure
out where the problems are in the
process and fix those anyone that like
any other advice you'd give to someone
who's listening to this and they're like
holy moley I've never ever thought about
this a Sales Leader and their mind is
just as blowing as mine was when I first
heard this idea any other advice that
you would have that you'd give them yeah
if I think of cultures that do well in
terms of being successful its cultures
across companies that really take a
long-term perspective on the sale so
somehow you have to buy your rep some
space to figure out how to sell this new
product and they invest in learning you
know another piece of evidence so along
those lines you know about differences
between reps and how to get that out one
of the things that we found differences
across the best performing reps and then
average reps in selling new products is
the best performing reps really focused
on things that were very deep in the
sales process so they focused on
questions like what's going to happen to
the buyer if they adopt this product so
new products often mean there's
organizational change people might have
different roles in the buying
organization post-adoption
so they figured out well what would
those power dynamic changes be they
asked questions like will the buying
organization have a criteria list to buy
this new product or
so new that they can't even figure out
what it is or how to adopt it you know
they won't know how to make a purchase
later on they focus really deep in the
process average reps lower performing
reps what they typically focused on was
immediate thing so they focused on you
know do I have enough product knowledge
and product knowledge is important it is
definitely correlated with success in
selling new products but that's just a
table stakes that's just getting started
focusing on process and what's going to
happen later on maybe two three months
four five six months into the process
that's where the where the best reps
really shown they could figure that out
early so setting up an organization this
to share best practice to figure out
what's going to happen deep in the sales
process that's how you make a real
difference here love it man
well if there's one major takeaway you'd
like folks listening to this episode to
walk away with what's that one major
piece of advice Tom yeah my major piece
of advice would be focus on learning
that performance earlier and if you
focus on learning right after the right
after the launch of a new product or
maybe even before the launch of a new
product that will lead to success in the
long run and its really worth it if you
look at the payoff from selling new
products versus an existing line profits
can be six to twelve times more
it's six times more on average across
many industries the best performing
companies versus the average performing
companies 12 X relative to the bottom
quartile and so if you think about
success and profitability new products
are the way it just takes a different
different process oh man well I
appreciate you mentoring that wisdom
with us thank you so much for taking the
time to come on a show today if folks
want to get in touch with you what's the
best way for them to go about doing so
the easiest way to get a hold of me is
just Google me at the Darden Graduate
School business there's only one steam
bird anyway if you Google Steinberg and
Darden my home page will come up and all
my contact information is right there
well man we appreciate that and we
appreciate you taking the time to come
on a show today and sharing the wisdom
with us especially when it comes to
words this topic of our new products
thank you again for your time Tom thanks
so much for having me it's really been a
pleasure it's an honor
[Music]
I'm not gonna lie the first time I heard
about this I was like and I don't know
about all that is that really true then
I listened to it I'm like dude this man
is preaching some good stuff here and I
really enjoyed the conversation I got a
chance to learn a lot from him and I'm
taking some of those and applying that
to our business and I think is the same
thing that you need to do you need to
evaluate the way that you're selling
your new products are you doing it right
or did you just jump into something and
marketing had no communication with you
on how to best sell this to the proper
customers I want you guys to be able to
have that discussion as a team maybe you
can bring it up in your sales meeting
this week I encourage you to connect
with Tom and learn from him he has a lot
of great information amazing research
that can help you and your organization
find again all of his information in the
show notes and also while you're on the
shown up page check out TSE certified
sales training program it would be an
absolute honor to have you and your team
join us you can find all the details by
simply going to the sales evangelist
comm slash course again the sales
evangelist calm slash course we share
stuff like this because we want to help
you we want you and your team to be able
to find more of those ideal customers we
want you to have more meaningful
conversations we want you to close more
deals but most importantly we want to
challenge you to go out each and every
single day and do big things hey I want
to thank you so much for taking the time
to listen to this episode today and also
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as always I am your host your coach your
mentor your guide down the sales journey
mr. Donald C Kelly the sales evangelist
[Music]
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[Music]