20: Buying Is Harder: Looking at the Other Side of the Sales Coin with Garin Hess
Buying Is Harder: Looking at the Other Side of the Sales Coin with Garin Hess Welcome to Sales Tech Podcast, the show that talks about sales technology, what’s working, what’s not, and where the industry is going. In this episode, Thom sits down with author and serial entrepreneur, Garin Hess. Garin is the founder and CEO of Consensus, an intelligent demo automation software company that helps sales professionals be more successful. Garin has spent his entire career in enterprise software and is passionate about combining technology and methodology to make B2B buying easier. Today, Thom and Garin talk about the buying aspect of sales and why Garin believes it can actually be harder than selling. Garin speaks to challenges that sales engineering professionals are facing today and provides best practices for buyer enablement. Finally, Garin speculates on the future of sales technology and what it means for B2B buying. What We Covered: 00:38 – Thom introduces today’s guest, Garin Hess, who joins the show to share his background in buyer enablement and B2B buying 04:56 – Garin speaks to why there seems to be a lack of sales technology to support Sales Engineering 09:11 – Challenges that sales engineering professionals are facing today 13:01 – Garin provides best practices for overcoming issues of qualification 14:49 – What makes it so hard to buy in the B2B environment 18:26 – Trends Garin has observed in the world of sales technology 20:11 – How to get sales professionals to utilize the sales tech available to them 22:07 – Garin provides one final piece of advice to sales professionals and sales leaders 23:44 – Thom thanks Garin for joining the show and lets listeners know where to connect with him Tweetable Quotes: “Our focus is on demo automation because the demo and engaging sales engineers is one of those things that’s inherently difficult to scale and make really efficient. And so that’s why we focus there.” (03:21) “Sales engineering has traditionally been looked at as a necessary evil rather than a strategic function. Marketing and sales are always looked at as strategic functions.” (06:20) “This issue of qualification is such a problem because it steals time away from their most important deals.” (11:06) “The premise of buyer enablement is you, as the seller, should be in charge of the buying process.” (17:37) “One of the main things I would emphasize in sales, in general, is we focus a lot on financial ROI, which is great. I’d like to emphasize that we should be focusing on emotional ROI as well.” (22:13) Links Mentioned: Garin Hess on LinkedIn Consensus Website Selling Is Hard. Buying Is Harder