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In this week's newsletter: The Science of Selling: Understanding the 6 Whys Behind Every Buying Decision

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Weekly Briefing No. 199
by Edwin Abl

Hey — It's Ed. Welcome to my weekly briefing, scale smarter.

Quick Reminder: You are receiving this email because you subscribed to my weekly newsletter or downloaded one of my content assets. It's not a link dump of "hey, here's what I'm listening to and reading." It's 7+ articles, with summaries, notes, views, and commentary, spanning topics on leadership, B2B SaaS marketing, SaaS GTM, sales, well-being, or other interesting finds from around the web. Occasionally, I send long-form articles on leadership, marketing, and personal growth.

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==> Here’s what I thought was worth sharing ↓

• The four types of managers people like to work for
• A report on content marketing trends in 2023
• The science of selling: understanding the 6 whys behind every buying decision

Thank you for subscribing 🙏.

IDEAS FROM ME 📈

2. Who knew there were four types of managers everyone likes to work for? Are you one of them?

These are:
1️⃣ Managers who appreciate their employees and their work
2️⃣ Managers who are open to feedback
3️⃣ Managers who show they care
4️⃣ Managers who invest in their employees' growth

The insight here is there is no "one" fixed way to be a great manager. There can be different approaches. The key is acknowledging where you have gaps and where you want to work as part of your leadership journey. The best way to do that quickly is to gain "feedback" as fast as possible on an ongoing basis.

Being a great manager positively impacts everything.

2. Are you interested in learning how to become a CMO?

If so, I'd love some volunteers to run through my latest course (for you, it's free). I'd like specific feedback before the public launch.

The course covers the following:

• Defining the value proposition and positioning
• Demand generation channels and campaigns
• Collateral, content strategy and building an audience
• Go-to-market reputation, community and advocacy
• Shaping the whole company's commercial alignment
• Owning MarTech effectiveness and data insights
• Product and Customer Marketing
• Building a world-class marketing team

DM me if you can help or join the waitlist below:
https://www.pathwaytocmo.com

3. I'm a big fan of icebreakers at the start of the weekly meeting. Let's face it most people hate them; they're dull, boring and uninspiring. Why not front load with a bit of fun? You'll get the bonus of supporting your team's connectedness and engagement.

Test some of these out.
https://jackiecolburn.medium.com/more-icebreakers-you-can-steal-for-better-meetings-

SAAS GTM 📈

4. [Report] Content marketing trends and insights 2023 covers:

🟢 Top Trends
🟢 Artificial Intelligence
🟢 Link Building
🟢 Content Design
🟢 Interactive Content

Get the Full Report

Although, lots of the trends can seem more impactful than others. One I would highlight is “When businesses dedicate 10%-50% of their content marketing efforts towards content design, they are 33% more likely to report very successful results versus those who dedicate nothing.”

Why? Because often, good design is a by-product that people don’t think about matters. The key learning and insight are that design is IMPORTANT. It creates the perception of quality; psychologically, the visual component matters greatly.

5. The key to dominating a crowded SaaS market.

==> 8 Key takeaways:

- Target customers for success
- Product-led growth puts end-users first
- PLG success requires easy trial, purchase, and use
- Winning in a crowded market requires a tailored solution
- Early PLG strategy is crucial for scaling
- Effective PLG converts users and generates referrals
- A failed PLG strategy wastes costs and hinders serving critical users

Remember, PLG is not right for everyone.

6. I aim to help clients understand a more holistic view of a “marketing engine” each week. That’s not easy. Within that machine build, we often discuss the importance of ICP and ideal audience profiles.

If you want to book a session can do here → https://www.edwinabl.com/coaching-service-page ;)

Because the critical insight is: My years of experience in marketing suggest that the more detailed the ICP is, the easier it is to achieve your KPIs. And that’s shared within this overview of full-cycle marketing.

How to start full-cycle marketing.

WELL-BEING 🧠

7. A definition of mindful productivity.

“Mindfulness and productivity may sound antithetic. Many people still see mindfulness as something you practice outside of work, as an activity with a dedicated time and place. While meditating or doing yoga can be amazing vectors for mindfulness, they’re not the only ways to stay in touch with our thoughts, feelings, and the world around us. Being mindful means interrupting the autopilot mode we often use daily, taking the time to appreciate the little things, and observing your mental events.”

Mindful productivity: a sustainable way to work and think.

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One more thing...Thanks for reading.

Enjoy your day. And if you like this newsletter and want to support it, forward it to a friend 🤝, tweet me 👏, or if you’re seeing this newsletter for the first time, you can subscribe here.

Thanks,
Ed

🤔 The Science of Selling: Understanding the 6 Whys Behind Every Buying Decision

Have you ever wondered why your potential customers walk away from a sale, even when you think you've presented them with the perfect solution?

The truth is most companies fail to understand how the human brain makes buying decisions, but with a few key insights into the psychology of buying, you can create powerful, buyer-centric approaches that will help you close more deals.

I found this formula many years ago, but it's still relevant today. You need to focus on the "6 whys" - "The small strategic commitments of a sale" (specific commitments must occur more than others in the brain - to say yes, what do we need).

The six commitments that every sales process should focus on are:

1. Why should I change? The foundation (we struggle the most with this one, status quo bias, and if we don't solve this, we're irrelevant). Focus on problems, the scope/ cause, and consequences and provide provocative insights. Most salespeople don't search for problems - they don't act as problem finders but focus too much on the solution. They don't dig enough into the problems of the buyer. A psychiatrist study shows - 'The first problem the patient brings you is never the real problem'.

2. Why now? The longer someone takes to make a decision means they will not take a decision. You need to be clear on why it is essential to do something now - this helps to speed up the sales cycle; you need to make it easy and less risky.

3. Why your industry solution? Most don't understand your REAL competition, the broader market piece. What's happening in the market? We're too obsessed with our proposition.

4. Why you and your company? Know your buyers will have multiple options. You must be succinct in the solution and 10x differentiators you will deliver. Everyone wants to make wise decisions; everybody has many options, whether you know it or not.

5. Why your product or solution? Avoid cost leader. Look for distinct value, how you are different and does the buyer care. Competition is not static; look for distinct value. How can you make it matter to them? Think about their journey. Connect the dots, make it about the person - no one cares about you or your company.

6. Why spend the money? 2 buying motives, desire for gain and fear of loss. We're inferior at the fear of loss, how to position to figure out what they'll lose. Addressing why spend the money. Reveal how the buyers avoid loss with you - when there is no apparent connection to avoid the fear of loss, you will struggle. Don't complicate buying decisions; the human brain can only handle so much.

A BIG final takeaway.

Base your sales process on creating "next step layers".

Science shows that small incremental commitments are the most effective way of closing - not a final big close.

You will be more successful if you base selling on science and the six commitments.

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CAN WE WORK TOGETHER?

This newsletter is my passion project. I hope it helps you gain deeper insight and equips you to learn at the pace needed to keep up. Many readers have asked about how we can work together. In case you’re interested, I do three things.

(1) DUE DILIGENCE: A bespoke framework and capability model ‘DEMAND KARMA’ that delivers DD services to investors, VC firms and CEOs.

(2) GTM COACHING: Retained advising at funded scale-ups. A simple monthly fee. Helping CEOs build a scalable marketing machine.

(3) MENTORING: Designed for people looking to get to the next level — My sweet spot is helping to mentor CMOs, CROs, VPs, Directors and "Head of" / aspiring leaders to step into the CxO role.

If you’re interested, let’s jump on a call to see if you’re a good fit.

Click here to schedule a call .