etailinsights eCommerce Data and Sales Blog

Power User Spotlight: Nick Rusconi, Zmags

Power User Spotlight: Tim McSweeney, Feefo

Power User Spotlight: Zach Francque, ATTRAQT

Julian

My son’s name is Julian.  But that isn’t what we call him, or at least not unless we really want to get his attention.  As an infant, he was a bit of a “Fussy Gus.”  So we started calling him Gus.  Then somehow it progressed to Gussy.  It stuck.  Poor guy.  But when his Mom really wants to get his attention, she will sternly say “Julian.”  He will turn immediately and look.

Power User Spotlight: Taylor Philippi, SkyBOX Checkout

Taylor's Hack: Don't Forget to Listen to Your Customers

A lot of the time in SaaS sales, it’s easy to list off features and statistics and dive right into a demo of the product, which can overwhelm prospects or cause them to tune out on a call or WebEx. Avoid being put on mute after effectively securing a demo by listening, engaging with, and asking effective questions to your prospect. Find out what the root problem or pain point in your prospect’s current business is, and adjust your demo to highlight the specific areas of your solution that can help fix their current pain points.

And Hollywood says, “Where’d who go?”

Without a doubt, my favorite movie as a kid was Top Gun. I knew all the lines to the movie. My Gramps (J.B. Pierce) flew in fighter jets in the Marine corps (actually, he was a “gunner”), and he gave me his old helmet. I had an Atari joystick. I’d parlay these into a re-enactment of Maverick’s attack on Russian jets over and over. Sometimes I’d let Ice Man get shot down.

My High School Reunion

Recently, against my will, I attended my 20-year high school reunion. I didn’t want to go. But I was encouraged (read: forced) by a good friend, so I attended. I’m glad I went because it was great to see everyone.

Unfortunately, we didn’t rent out the entire bar. Therefore, there were lots of people in the bar who did not attend my high school. This was a recipe for disaster because many times I entered discussions with folks who weren’t from my school, and this took away the limited time I had to speak with my true classmates. And worse, I was confronted by a few people who remembered me, but I didn’t immediately remember them, and that feels terrible.

Power User Spotlight: Ryan Fitzgerald, eAccountable

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Ryan's Hack: Localize Your Prospecting

I can’t say enough about localizing your prospecting. We have sales people in major markets including Arizona, Texas, Illinois, and Colorado. Being able to call on a prospect and tell them you’re located within driving distance is huge. With all the sales calls that etailers receive, it's important to put a face with a name. Plus, knowing you're close gives them some comfort that if they do decide to work with you they have a local “throat to choke.”

This voicemail box is full.

If you email me, I’ll probably delete it – unless it’s a really good email.

If you call the etailinsights office, you’ll never get to me. Ever. I promise.

If you happen to have my cell phone number, you can call that, but I won’t answer. Then you’ll get a message that says, “This voicemail box is full.” Why? Because I get between 10 and 20 calls to my personal cell phone per day from numbers that I don’t have saved, likely because it’s a salesperson trying to sell something to me. They go straight to voicemail (do not disturb settings).

My son Julian turns two next month. He has very strong opinions already and does not like being told what to do (he gets this from his Dad). As you might imagine, this makes for some interesting battles about bath time, nap time, bedtime, etc. You see, the trick is that he has to think he came up with the idea to go to bed himself, not that he’s being told to go to bed. Yes, hard.

One trick I’ve learned is that I give him a very long sentence (i.e. a longer email) such as “Hey Julian, we can shoot the basketballs into the hoop for one more minute, but then we need to go upstairs and have a bath, ok?” He rarely ever replies to this long statement.

But, what I’ve found interesting is that I reply to my previous statement with a shorter one (i.e. a shorter email), “Julian, one more minute.” Then, what happens is amazing. He replies to me with:

“One more minute shooting the basketballs, then I have a bath Daddy.”