In today’s age of automated ‘everything’, it’s refreshing to hear about sales success sprouting up from good old fashioned human interaction. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit here, but I am keen to share the natural way Justin Bridgemohan uses that technique to lead the rapidly-growing sales team at Influitive, an advocacy marketing platform.

The key to Justin’s success is the way he delivers value in every human interaction he has with prospects and customers. He’s used that as the foundation for his own success at Influitive and he recently sat down with Scott Ingram of the Sales Success Stories podcast to talk more about it. In particular, he shared his top three difference makers for closing sales the “natural” way: by using his expertise, by offering value to his prospects and customers, and by using empathy to help them overcome their sales obstacles.

Difference maker #1: Become an expert in your domain, not the entire market

When Justin first started at Influitive, he quickly realized that he was never going to know more about marketing than the CMOs he was speaking to. He figured out that while he would never be a marketing expert at that level, he could learn all he could about advocacy marketing - Influitive’s core competency.

By asking himself a single question, Justin was able to fill in the gaps in his knowledge and become an advocacy marketing expert. What question? “What can I know about this topic that my customers don’t know?” Once identified, Justin then set out to learn all he could on the topic. He read all the internal content he could get his hands on, books recommended by colleagues, and he asked questions. He spoke with the product experts at Influitive to find out more.

It didn’t happen overnight or in a weekend, Justin explained. He studied for hundreds of hours, but he knew that if he invested his time wisely and expanded his expertise, that it would work out for him in the end.

Difference maker #2: Provide value with every customer interaction

Buying an enterprise software solution like Influitive isn’t something you do on a whim and Justin understood that very early on. He knew that his prospects and customers wouldn’t buy from him the first time they spoke. They probably wouldn’t buy on the second or third time either. This is how Justin developed his second difference maker: providing value to his customers every time they spoke.

According to Justin, most sales people miss one of the most obvious sales success notions: that you must work with people who want to work with you. If you do, success follows. To ensure that his prospects want to work with him, Justin brings value to each interaction he has with them. He knew that if he got prospects to follow his lead, that he would have better sales success. And that’s exactly what Justin does, whether it’s simply the initial conversation or a demo with the decision makers, Justin uses his expertise to give prospects the value they’re looking for every single time.

Difference maker #3: Be a sales guide, not just a closer

The foundation of the modern sales person is to “always be closing”, however, Justin doesn’t believe in that. He believes that closing should be the natural results of the relationship he has with prospects. If he has done his job well, then closing the sale is simply the next step in the relationship. There’s no need to “close” anything, in Justin’s opinion.

Throughout his relationship with prospects and customers, Justin is simply the sales “guide”. He uses his listening and empathy skills to find out what they’re most afraid of before, during, and after the sale. Then he tailors his approach to this and helps them overcome those fears. Simply by being aware of these fears and obstacles, Justin’s able to guide prospects over them easily and steer them towards the success they’re looking for.

Make It Natural

Here at Nudge, we’re big fans of building trust with buyers, so Justin’s methodology really speaks to me. With all the technology out there and software apps sales people can use, sometimes it’s worth it to go old school. Know your industry well, share that expertise with your prospects and customers, and then listen to what they have to say and react accordingly. That’s it.