The #1 Edge Every Founder Overlooks

Today’s Skill: Knowing Your Industry Inside and Out

If you’re continually banging your head against the wall during the sales process there could be a glaring reason why.

You don’t understand your prospects business.

When I left the golf industry and started selling software and services, I thought knowing my product was enough to bring in new sales. I wanted to be prepared in case those questions came up on calls.

And, they did. But, you know what I soon found out was more valuable?

→ Tying those features to a client story.

→ Backing it up with 3rd party data.

→ Referencing new trends that were on the cutting edge.

I became someone that people wanted to talk to because I knew how to help make them better. They were learning from me and therefore I became more of an advisor and less of a salesperson.

It reminds me of a famous quote…

Buyers don’t care about your features; they care about their world. And, if you don’t understand their world, you’ll always be an outsider looking in. But, when you become an expert, it deepens the conversations and enhances the relationship.

So, how do you get past surface-level knowledge and become the “go-to” for your prospects and clients?

It Starts With Research

Here are seven angles you can take to researching your industry and clients on a deeper level.

→ Follow the Money

Learn how the types of businesses in your space actually make money or serve others. Where do budgets go? What are the revenue drivers? Once you know this, your conversations shift from “pitching” to helping. There are always underlying reasons people need to buy something. What is the driver for them?

The more you know about how their business ticks, the better equipped you are to get out ahead of it.

→ Spot the Trends

Subscribe to industry newsletters. Follow Companies or Insiders on Linkedin. Listen to Podcasts. Read analyst reports. You’ll start to notice patterns. That’s the stuff buyers are thinking about daily. Although it may not relate exactly to the product you sell, being able to speak about these conversationally builds your “street cred.”

When you speak their language, you gain mad respect.

→ Study Competitors

You may have hundreds, big and small. Who are some main ones? If it comes up in conversation, you want to be able to talk at a deeper level than “we are better” or “they don’t do the things we do”. How do they position themselves? Where are they winning? Where are they losing? Who are direct ones versus tertiary ones? Don’t obsess over them but educating yourself helps you differentiate.

You don’t ever throw other vendors “under the bus” but you do want to have honest insights to guide the conversation.

→ Listen to the Market

Find out where your buyers hang out. Slack groups, LinkedIn communities, conferences. Go there. Get involved. Listen to how they talk about their industry and the buzzwords they might use. Ask about certifications or education they acquire. Pay attention to their words, not yours.

Speaking in their language is one of the fastest ways to build credibility.

→ Learn Your Buyers’ World

Who signs the checks? Who blocks decisions? What keeps them up at night? Although nuanced across businesses, you’ll find common trends. For example, selling into local government, I knew that almost every municipality had to get approval on a council agenda. That helped me approach that subject and educate the buyer on the process, as it might have been the first time they were buying this type of product.

When you can describe their world better than they can, trust shoots through the roof.

→ Read What They Read

Annual reports. Case studies. Whitepapers. None of them are great fiction novels, I get it, but it gives you a glimpse into new opportunities/threats on the horizon, what the industry values and how they measure success.

PS - get good at reading your prospects specific documents. You may see CEO letters, Budgeted line items, New Wins, Recent Press Releases, etc that give insight into what is important to them.

→ Talk to People (often)

When is the last time you interviewed your customers? Not about your product but about how they conduct business? It’s an absolute gem for learning about the industries you serve. You can ask blunt questions and you’ll get blunt answers. Find people inside and outside of your client base to talk to that are directly involved in the industries you serve.

Nothing replaces direct conversations for building true perspective about the “behind the scenes” of what is happening with the clients you serve.

It Continues With Practice

Once you get good at any or all of the above items, start to incorporate into a practice that you build on for the future. The more you learn and share, it’ll start to become engrained in your conversations without forcing it.

→ Build Your Playbook

Don’t keep it all in your head. Create a running doc where you capture articles, competitor moves, buyer insights. Keep it updated regularly. If you use an LLM like ChatGPT, create a running project to capture all of it and easily pull it back up when you need.

You don’t need to memorize everything, but having it all somewhere allows you to reference in a pinch.

→ Test Your Assumptions

Don’t assume the blog you read or the LinkedIn “hot take” is gospel. Ask your buyers: “Does this resonate with what you’re seeing?”

Additionally, surfacing what you’ve learned shows you’re interested. A simple softball you can lob to your prospects like, “Hey Tom, I was listening to this podcast about “X” last week and it was an interesting take on “Y”. Have you given any thought to that with your business?”

It’s likely to open more dialogue that adds value to your conversation.

→ Make It a Habit

Industry knowledge compounds, just like doing pipeline reviews. 😉

Block time each week to scan the market, follow some industry folks on Linkedin or listen to a Podcast. You can set up Google Alerts to get some of this stuff sent to you directly. Posting occassionally on Linkedin about your industry and relevent topics draws your buyers in. Build a consistent practice with these activities.

The bar is so low in sales right now. Set yourself apart by putting in the extra effort of learning in order to educate. You’ll be seen as a peer, not a person trying to sell them something.

Your sales calls will become unlike anything you’ve ever experienced before.

Your Action Item:

There’s no better day than today to learn about your industry.

Let’s make it super simple to start.

Use the prompt below for whichever LLM you’re using (ChatGPT, Claude, etc).

Take what it gives you and let that be the starting point. Train it with new insights you learn, ask it deeper questions and build on it so it becomes your central point of truth going forward.

You set yourself apart from every other vendor not by knowing more about your product but knowing how to help your prospects solve problems.

Having the ability to speak to those varying solutions and providing expert guidance is how you make your prospects not ignore you.