Mini book read.
Ask any person, and they'll tell you they avoid being sold to by anyone—even on behalf of the brands they love. We may enjoy buying things, but on our own terms. To vet products or services we rely on ratings and reviews, word of mouth, and the opinion of the people we know.
Flip the situation and now we're the ones selling—even if it's only an idea. How do we convince the other person or party to hear what we have to say? Are we comfortable communicating the value of our product and service knowing they've done their research, just like we do?
I forgot who said it first, “nothing happens until someone buys.” It may be a little extreme as a statement, but it rings true. This is especially true for businesses that sell to other businesses.
The Transparency Sale offers a path to selling that doesn't feel icky—on both sides of the transaction. Todd Caponi says, “A newish, top priority for marketers is the need to know what buyers will find when they look — and help their organizations lead with self-aware authenticity.”
Three layers of value
When I read a book, I examine the ideas in three ways—as a learner, as an author, and as a practitioner. Here's my take on The Transparency Sale.
First as a learner—the book starts by redefining transparency based on the brain and decision making and buyer empathy. Caponi explains why doing it right matters and proceeds to make the case for change. The next three sections expand on the question of why change? Why you? Why now? Section five outlines why stay, buy more and advocate. A bonus chapter is about applying transparency to things like job search, recruiting, requests for proposals and more. Simple charts and graphs visualize some of the key concepts. The chapter on mutual decision plans is quite useful in complex sales where more than one decision-maker is involved.
Then as an author—the book is structured as a logical progression of questions, each with a few chapters to explain different aspects of the answer. The afterward about the end of lying drives home the message with a relatable personal story. Keepers at the end of each chapter summarize the key concepts. Caponi weaves brain science with his sales experience to make the case for transparency. “The second the buyer’s brain senses insincerity, ineptitude, or inconsistency, their brain’s ‘uh-oh’ alarm will sound off subconsciously.”
Third as a practitioner—unless our mindset about what needs to happen changes, our strategies and tactics are not going to change. What Caponi says rings true from experience, “buyers don't trust what marketing and sales put out anywhere near as much as their accelerating dependence on reviews and feedback. This content is now easily accessible across every channel - used by buyers to better attempt to predict their experience with you, your products and services.” Based on his research and work, being honest increases the number of qualified opportunities, the average deal size, and the likelihood of closing the deal — and decreases the length of the selling cycle.
My highlights
This section is about the key actions or takeaways that I'm going to implement—or do differently— because of what I learned in the book.
We so dislike being sold to that we've gone from hiding in our own homes when doors to door sales people approach our neighborhood, to not answering the phone at dinner time, to ignoring emails within the span of ten years.
Yet email is an effective tool when we learn to empatize with the buyer's inbox. Technology is changing the way people buy, and it can help us change the way we sell, too. The chapter on email contains a very detailed walk-through of what blends in and what stands out.
I read an email pitch recently that was a soft sales pitch using almost every motivational angle. It tried the celebrity worship angle, the “I'm trustworthy” angle, the personal connection angle, the patriotic angle, the “insider” angle and the FOMO/trendy angle. It read like someone throwing spaghetti at the wall, hoping something sticks.
Most importantly, it felt insincere, because if things were going so incredibly amazingly awesome, why send out these e-mails? When people are that wonderful, other people will tell them or they will know.
If you want to get someone interested in you and what you have to offer, the first step is to show them you are inerested in them. To show them you are interested in them, you must actually be interested in them.
It seems obvious, but clearly so many miss the point. Personalized value lasts, while gimmicky tricks don't go anywhere, as in my example above.
On mutual decision plans Caponi says:
It is important to remember that with every interaction, you're eigther building trust or eroding it. Using a mutual decision plan builds confidence that this isn't your or your company's first experience addressing the issues that will arise during the purchasing process.
On presenting, he says your last slide shouldn't be a question mark. That slide should contain the information you want people to remember—two key points.
How behavior spreads
The reason why I talk about behavior may seem obvious—unless we observe what people do and and understand how actions spread, we won't get to the root of motivation. And motivation is one of the powerful human levers, along with availability and triggers, that get us what we want.
There are many things we can do to create rapport before we try to sell something. But it's the post-purchase interaction that will determine if we were successful or not. In other words, signing the contract is the beginning of our relationship, not the end.
It's important to stay involved in the relationship—sales and marketing people are not done. An email confirming the purchase and outlining what will happen next creates the bridge to the team that will deliver the work. This sets the tone for the engagement and carries the momentum forward.
Our behavior is more likely to fall into step with a process when we have an idea of how things will go. When a team is involved in delivering a service or product, a good way to get on the same page is to hold a kick off meeting outlining—the buyer's objectives, why they chose you, a reminder of what they purchased, and introductions.
How we behave at each stage of a collaboration either builds trust or erodes it. Companies that sell directly to consumers are not off the hook. Customer support and the service team are an extension of the team behind the product and service. If the experience is not the same, we know it.
We don't like being sold to, and we don't like having to call support. “Your customers don't want to talk to you,” says Caponi. We really don't. And we really don't want to fill out a survey after troubleshooting. If you learn these simple behavioral norms you're halfway there.
Clients who choose to move on and stop doing business with you will likely give you the logic for their move—little ROI. But dig a bit deeper, and you will find a “feel” answer. Something didn't feel right. Feelings will get you every time, and they spread from one person to a whole team.
Honesty is the best policy
We don't expect honesty. But when we choose to be honest, we lay the ground work for a potential long-term relationship. If the person who emails you out of the blue with a soft sell using every motivational angle were honest, the message would likely come across and might have impact.
Feelings and emotion drive how we make decisions, then we justify them with logic and rationality. We respond to genuine interest, we read it in the tone of an email as we do in the inflection of someone's voice.
Our brains are wired to make decisions with emotion and gut feelings. We move toward a reward and away from risk. Dr. David Rock created a model to talk about how we make decisions. The five domains of feeling include:
- the relative importance of a purchase to others (status)
- how we feel we can predict the experience (certainty)
- our perception of a sense of control (autonomy)
- whether the purchase will perform as we expect (relatedness)
- a cost/value assessment (fairness)
Plus, we make over 90 percent of our decisions subconsciously. All these reasons and the fact that we resist influence make a case for honesty as the best policy.
I'd give The Transparency Sale a 4.2 star rating. And that, says Caponi, is reason enough to read it. It's a departure from the typical sales book, and this might add an incentive to check it out.