How do you know which prospects are worth your time?

This week we’ll cover the three most important criteria for separating well-qualified buyers from leads that will waste your time and not result in a close.

The first: Criticality

We’ve defined three total “no-no’s” that will kill any chance of a deal:

1. The Pitch No One Wants - Don’t jump into a pitch no one asked for.

2. Word Salad - Don’t use words in a sales meeting that you wouldn’t use in a bar.

3. Making Assumptions - Don’t assume your technical/industry knowledge is relevant to the conversation.

Today, let’s take those principles and apply to the most dreaded task of drafting a cold email…

Selling HIPAA Compliance to a Plumber

One of the things we do at Antimatter is build personas.

Henry is the CTO of a healthcare startup. He's migrating from a datacenter to AWS. He's worried about HIPAA compliance and the security of his patients' PHI data.

Now. There are maybe ten million healthcare startups in the world. And somewhere out there, there is exactly one Henry who needs all of that…

Corporate Word Salad

You're back in the bar. Brad is history. Now you're talking to Brendon. Brendon's actually pretty nice. He asked what you do for a living. You told him you're the CRO of a tech consulting company.

Then Brendon says: "How does your organization obtain access to qualified decision-makers?"

For the second time in a week, you puke in your mouth a little bit and make a beeline for the nearest exit. You really need to find a new bar.

The Pitch No One Wants

A guy walks up to you at a bar. He opens with this:

“Hi, I'm Brad. I'm an E.D. at Goldman Sachs. I went to Princeton. I run marathons. I have a golden retriever named Churchill. I make $340K base. Can I buy you a drink?"

You puke in your mouth a little bit and then make a beeline for the nearest exit.  

Have you ever heard one of your sales reps talk to a new prospect and had that same reaction? Like “OMFG just stop talking, you’re not helping!” Yeah, we’ve been there.

Choosing a name.

Once the right product name takes shape, the rest of the story falls into alignment. The visuals, the messaging, even the way the team talks to prospective customers. But how do you find that perfect Product Marketing hook?

Big challenges are what get me moving.

And few challenges are bigger than fixing how Americans pay for prescriptions.

That’s why I’m excited to share our work with Exouza, a bold new company led by CEO & entrepreneur Susheel Jain and CIO Dan Cooper

So what exactly is Product Strategy anyway?

Let’s take a step back to look at the big picture.

• What exactly is a Product Strategy?

• Why do you need a Product Strategy?

• What makes a good vs. bad Product Strategy?

• How do you create a Product Strategy?

There’s nothing better than an inspirational leader giving a great pep talk.

But if it feels like your exec team has crossed the line from optimism to fantasy, you’re not alone.

“Q3 last year was really strong, so if we can just grow that by 25% per quarter…”

“Our biggest customer hasn’t had to open a service ticket in six months!”

“We’ve got zero bug reports on our new platform!”

Sound familiar? These may seem like signs of strength. They’re not!

Why do some companies struggle to find small fish, while others sit back and close multi-million dollar deals?

• “These deals aren’t big enough!”

• “We need to move up-market!”

• “I’ll never hit my quota like this, it’s not worth my time!”

• “It costs us more to support this tiny customer than our biggest client!”

Here are our five tips for catching bigger fish.

Our inspiration: The man who broke Einstein.

In 1928 a British physicist named Paul Dirac accomplished something unique in the history of science. But there was one problem… It broke Einstein’s more fundamental law of physics.

If you had one day to make $100, what would you rather sell?

🍪 Chocolate chip cookies?
💻 Technology modernization and engineering integration?

Let’s be honest: chocolate chip cookies are delicious…

“I want you to say ‘I’m confident’ during your sales pitch.”

“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” he said.

“Yes,” I said. “I already warned you it would be the stupidest thing you’ve ever heard.”

There’s only one cure for laziness, and it’s not a Performance Improvement Plan…

"We're Not Closing Deals Because Our Sales Reps Are Lazy!"

I’ve heard this so many times. And you know what? It’s true. Sometimes sales reps are lazy. But guess what?

Programmers are lazy.
Designers are lazy.
Executives are lazy.

After 25 years working for someone else, I’m starting my own business.

It’s daunting.
It’s exciting.
It’s happening…