This week we had a lively conversation starting on the topic of Demonstrating Credibility.
How do you help your customer see you as an expert and establish your position as a trusted advisor.
Make your story relatable
- Address from discovery point of view
- Have a relatable persona.
- Bring a reference in their industry.
- Ask them questions to frame your expertise
Building Credibility
- Act like you have it
- Get someone else to introduce you.
Learn the story, not the words.
Practicing to ensure you are confident.
- Has to be out loud.
- Practice the exact words you'd use.
Gaining internal credibility
- Getting accreditation on products
- Practice what you're going to talk about
- Be ready for questions
- Ask for feedback - what can we improve on?
- Prepare like you've never won, perform like you've never lost.
- Replying to emails, slack, etc.
Demo certs
- Requirement?
- Script/scorecard
- Hit the points
- Style, aims
- 30/60/90 day targets with demos
- Demo roasts
- Safe environment to show and tell demos.
- Help re-train experienced staff
- What is a safe environment?
Other things you can do (even if you don't have deep product knowledge)
- Read through about them and their business
- Read their priorities and business reports
Have you modified your credibility tactics for government or industry
- Some industries are very picky
- Sometimes only the right reference will do
- You are always the subject matter expert on the software.
- Demonstrate some of your research or effort to understand their issues.
- Sharing references - sometimes they don't care about them.
Topics for future weeks?
- Creating safe environment for experimenting with product/demos
- Safe space with customers
- Bad behavior by external staff