9 sales tactics for tech companies from MobileDay's Howard Diamond

by Elyse Kent
May 5, 2014

[video:http://vimeo.com/93474564]

Howard Diamond is the sales guru in the software industry. He has a long history of building companies, which includes Aventura, Level3 Communications, and Corporate Software, the largest software reseller for Microsoft and IBM, whose revenue grew from $500 million to $1.2 billion in six years. His current project, one-touch conference call company MobileDay is growing fast in Boulder with the backing of Foundry Group. During TechStars' 7 Weeks of Awesome event, Diamond shared the secret sauce behind his high-growth companies: hard-hitting sales tactics.

1) Most important characteristic of any salesperson is listening with empathy

  • Truly listen: every great salesperson needs to be a great listener because 'customer pain points' are different. You must understand the problem and know your product well enough to position it correctly to the person: "When you’re passionate about a product it's easy to lose sight of the market and what it's driving.  Don’t get lost in the tunnel. Listen to what the customer is saying."
  • Have empathy: if your product is not a fit for the customer, then be clear about it. Choose trust over a sale.

2) Forget the $99.99 gimmick

  • Bringing your product to market differently shows value and that you took the time to analyze your product and how it fits into the market
  • Precise pricing (especially for enterprise software) demonstates sharpness and value.

3) The ROI must be identifiable

  • People don’t sign contracts anymore on theory, they want to have the specific benefits spelled out.
  • Create a way to show your customers the true value of your solution for their specific company. Creating a calculator for customers becomes an excellent sales tool that you can put in their hands.

4) Freemium products give you the chance to prove yourself to the initial base

  • Small companies must have outbound focus, despite it being a pain in the ass. If you believe in your software, the best way to gain traction is to release a free pilot.
  • Call customers that use the platform and try to up-sell.

5) Put work into hiring the right people

  • Salespeople can be told to sell in any market, but you can't take someone without a sales gene and teach them sales.
  • Upgrade your team. Most people don’t hire a ‘A’ players because they are difficult to find and they require more money, but they are worth it.

6) Training the team

  • We’re all different, fundamentally taking other people's sales techniques don’t work.
  • Most salespeople don't know the right questions to ask.
  • Ask "How is what I heard relevant?" Your team must be able to relay different perspectives and identify the real issues - which sometimes differs from what is vocalized.

7) Bust through the generic sales email

  • Get through the generic marketing/sales lingo and get the other person's attention by personally relating to the person. Forget the four-paragraph emails, no one wants to read your brochure. Short, sweet and to-the-point will get their attention faster.

8) Get into the sidedoor

  • First deals are the hardest, contact those people who are the least risk-adverse in your market.
  • If you can't get to the HQ, penetrate the local office. If it works well for them, they’ll be your sales people.

9) Try anything

  • You don’t have to come up with the brilliant idea. Come up with five to seven things that may work, and try tactics gradually. Admit what does and what doesn’t, and act based on the findings. Put power behind what works.

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