How did you close that million dollar learning deal?

I’ve been working in the EdTech industry for over a decade. A sizeable portion of this journey has been spent doing B2B sales, where I’ve had to convince learning & development teams in large companies like Orange Telecom to buy learning programs. I’ve had the good fortune to be able to strike a number of million dollar deals in my career - both face to face as well as over zoom calls post the pandemic. 

‘How did you close that million dollar learning deal?’ is a question I get asked often at work. More than using the technical skills of selling, it’s my mindset that has played a big role in success.

In this essay, I am going to outline 3 Million Dollar Sales Mindsets (MDSM) that have helped me close large deals with the hope that this helps other B2B sales folks do the same!

MDSM 1: It’s a ballroom dance to build trust.

I think of the physical room / zoom room more as a ballroom, where I have a chance to dance with the buyer on the other side, and have a great time! This metaphor helps me think of the sales meeting more as a performance where I have the freedom to confidently express myself, have fun, be flexible and work with my dance partner to create joy and magic - in the form of a solution to a problem that my buying partner has. I become mindful that each buyer is different and I can’t always be leading the way in the spotlight, but instead have to be open to adjusting to the situation based on sensing my buying partner’s push and pull impulse, and reacting to the action by following with a particular movement at the right time. Ballroom dancing (in this case selling) becomes a two way engagement of building trust in which both me and my buying partner try to understand each others’ emotions, thoughts and feelings by giving each other the space to authentically reveal ourselves. After each session, I spend a few mins reflecting on how I could have danced better in order to have built a more solid partnership.

MDSM 2: It’s a treasure hunt with curiosity quests.

In my sales calls, I consciously practice the idea of ‘being interested’ vs. ‘being interesting’. This subtle but important shift comes from being obsessively curious about the buyer and their employer. I exercise a strong desire to know about my buyer’s background, beliefs and story. An example is how I learnt about the challenges my buyer was facing to get her son interested in science. Since I knew a thing or two about teaching kids, I shipped her a fun DIY science book that she used to engage her son. The book worked and this gesture went a long way in helping me build a lifelong relationship with the buyer, and cementing my credibility as an expert in learning.

I also use a number of ‘why’, ‘how’, ‘what if’ and ‘why not’ questions to discover the real reasons that have triggered the buyer to want to buy. ‘Why do your employees need to learn?’, ‘Why now?’, ‘What keeps you up at night?’, ‘If you could use a magic wand to design a solution to your problem, how would you do it?’ I treat the sales conversation as a sort of treasure hunt where I am the explorer as the buyer drops clues at every nook and corner. I combine the ability to read and interpret signs and symbols with a competitive edge to navigate my way through conversations. The more I know, the more connections I can make, and hence the more creative I get in pitching a solution to the buyer’s problem. 

MDSM 3: It’s a Eureka moment of insights.

All buyers have objections, and to some degree are even suspicious of sales people. I’ve figured that to get past these gates of suspicion, I need to create moments of Eureka where I educate and not sell. I make it a point to be well versed about my industry, product, upcoming research and past case studies. I use this info to create moments of insight that can deliver a bit of a jolt to the buyer when they make objections.

As an example, my buyers always mention how online videos are not impactful in helping people learn. But the latest research in the field of neuroscience shows how if we’re repeatedly given access to information, we’re much more likely to change our behaviours - a big reason why companies invest in learning programs. The key word here is ‘repeatedly’, and not just once. I then explain how our products have enabled this repeated access to information (using the very same videos the buyer was making an objection to) to create stories of transformation with other buyers.

I look for ways to make my buyer feel a sudden realisation about an objection that they make - an emotional wallop. One they know is viscerally right and on which I have made them trip over the truth. That’s the defining moment in the conversation when the buyer changes the way they see the world and when I know I’ve won their respect and credibility. The rest as they say is history.