July Metaphor Min: Get Them Out of the Harbor!

You are the sales manager of this tech firm. The good news is your company has a new product to offer the market. The bad news is your team doesn’t see how to approach or easily present it to prospects. They are also reluctant to call on old prospects who have previously said “no,” because those prospects saw “no need” for the original product.  Success with the new product clearly starts with changing the team’s attitude. What would you do?  Here is how Chris Freeman, a sales manager who found himself in this situation, overcame these challenges– with the help of metaphors and analogies.

First: Simplify Complexity

The new feature in question was a highly technical enhancement to an IT security product that automated a previous manual-only capability.   The sales reps weren’t against the innovation. They were just tying themselves in knots trying to explain it in non-technical terms. Chris appreciated their dilemma and pointed them in a different direction.  He knew what all “Metaphorians” know: people embrace the new more quickly when they can relate it to something they already know.  [Side bar: When automobiles first came out, they weren’t called automobiles. They were called “horseless carriages.”  No one could relate to “automobiles,” but everyone knew what carriages were. Fast forward to modern times: Steve Jobs didn’t excite buyers with a technical description of the Apple iPod.  Calling it “A thousand songs in your pocket,” an image they could understand, was what made people rush out to buy it.]

Chris suggested that, instead of getting lost in the weeds of tech complexity, the reps simply say, “Mr. Prospect, this new feature is like when you are typing a text on your iPhone and it already knows what you want to say, or when you are searching online and Google finishes your search and anticipates what you are looking for. This is how this new feature enhances your ability to gather intelligence and that is what makes this product unique in the market and most helpful to companies like yours.”

With the problem solved for reps on how to explain the new feature in terms prospects could easily understand, the next challenge for Chris was to ensure the team would be using a winning sales strategy on prospect calls.

 Second: Know Whose Game You Are Playing

Chris knew that the best salespeople are good educators; they don’t push prospects into buying. They help prospects understand the value of what is being offered as it relates to their unique situations. “It’s a mistake,” said Chris, “to try and force a customer to fit into our mold. We need to understand the game that the customer is playing, what are they trying to win at? If we are playing our game (pushing product), they don’t care.” He used that model as the framework for training reps to sell the new product.

Third: Get Them Out of the Harbor

There’s an old saying, “A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.”  Reps were trained on the new product, had ways to talk about it, and understood how they should be approaching old and new prospects, but if they weren’t enthusiastic about reaching out to both old and new prospects, nothing would happen.

They needed to be excited about seeing both new and old prospects and to see the opportunity that awaited them.  Appealing to their (sales) egos and to the promise of success, Chris painted these mental pictures for them…

“Someone is going to plant the seed of an idea with the customer. It will either be you or your competitor. At some point, that seed will germinate and grow. Once it takes root, it will be harder to pull it out. Do you want that seed to be yours or someone else’s?”

“Think of a locomotive. It takes a tremendous amount of energy for a locomotive to get started. A small item can block a locomotive from moving when starting at a stop. It’s like getting started with our new initiative. It will take work and the hardest part is getting started and building some momentum. However, once a locomotive gets moving and has momentum, the force needed to keep going significantly reduces. It gets easier. It’s also much harder to slow down and stop. It’s the same for us ramping up the new messaging. It will be difficult and uncomfortable initially, but once you are ramped up, the effort needed will be much less.” 

And the Results Were…

This story has a happy ending.  Overall, the team was willing to put in the effort to get started and get over the learning hump of a new product. They ramped up their customer meeting activity, which led to an increase in new account meetings, and ultimately increased revenue.

The reframing power of metaphors and analogies helped Chris achieve the results he wanted.

You can do the same. Think about your current sales challenges.  What metaphors or analogies can help you

• Simplify complexity?
• Frame a strategy?
• Rally others to act?

Anne Miller

Make What You Say Pay! – with Metaphors

Photo by Kim Tunger on Unsplash

P.S. Chris Freeman has been in tech sales and sales leadership for 25+ years with recognized brands like Lucent, Juniper Networks, Citrix, and currently at NetScout. He also hosts a weekly sales podcast called the High Tech Freedom Sales Podcast where guests share best practices, lessons learned, sales tips, career advice, and a few investing tips along the way. You can connect with him through his website at www.hightechfreedom.com or linkedin.com/in/chrisfreeman

Metaphors Make Presentations Memorable!