Making Sales your Competitive Advantage with Thoughtspot’s Ryan Heinig

Let’s face it - the market is hard and competition is everywhere, and with more and more SaaS companies being launched every year product differentiation is simply getting harder to explain in a quick demo. 

We spoke with Ryan Heinig last Wednesday who shared frameworks galore to help you. If you’re looking to learn from a great leader check out the conversation between him and Todd Busler. Here’s a sneak peak at the strategies he shared:

1. Customer Stories are the best way to deposition competitors

The best way to deposition your competitors is using your customers words. Thoughtspot uses the Feel, Felt, Found framework to relay these customers stories

Quick Summary of Feel. Felt. Found:

• Feel: Acknowledge the concerns/questions from your prospects
• Felt: Identify a customer in a similar position who shared concerns
• Found: Share in there words why they ended up choosing your company

2. Engagement Wins

Companies often choose to partner with the teams that offer the best engagement - P.S. These are tactics that deliver value to your customer - these are not emails/activities that are “checking in”. Why? A company isn’t just software, it’s also often a partner. 

Thoughtspot brainstormed a list of 75 different ways to engage their customers including tactics like executive reach outs. We use strategies like loom videos, getting a PM involved in the call, and strategy sessions (here’s a few more ideas we’ve brainstormed).

Engagement can set your team (and product) apart in the crowded market.‍

3. For managers: Build it into your culture‍

If you want to see adoption (whether that’s using the list of 75 engagement strategies or adopting the feel, felt, found framework) consistency from sales leaders and key reps are critical. Here’s the best way to get reps to adopt a new strategy/set of tools:

1. Find your key reps and get them successful using the tactics. People look to their peers and if your top reps aren’t adopting your new tool/framework/pitch deck etc. it’s not happening
2. Sales leaders need to adopt it, and in some cases should introduce it in partnership with enablement
3. Make it part of every cadence your business runs:

For example, are you introducing feel, felt, found for customer stories?

1. Spend time collecting and memorizing customer stories
2. Ask a rep to share -  feel fit found with customer examples at every team meeting
3. In deal reviews - ask questions about the customer stories they’re sharing given an objection
4. Listen to gong calls - highlight and share examples of the reps who are doing this well

Want to drive adoption of your engagement strategy?

1. Encourage coffee break Fridays where you spend an hour running adding that extra engagement to your top accounts
2. In deal reviews - ask what tactics are working for you
3. Share wins of reps closing deals using engagement strategies in email/slack
4. Block off your own calendar so reps can either - ask for help, or get you to be an engagement point for their active deals. 
5. Get your e-team involved and highlight to them the difference an executive touch on a deal can make

Want more? Watch the full video by registering here.