Eps 8.0 Design Flow - The AI Hive in Action with SDR Preview - with wrap up

How are you doing on time? I just wanna make sure you're okay. - I'm good. - I'm good, I have a few more minutes. - So before we, so let's do a role play as if you're the AI agent here and, or maybe you were the SDR in the earlier cycle, right? - Correct. - So let's have an SDR talk to the agent. I'm the agent. - Okay. - And let's do that same scenario. And we'll try to convince the SDR that they need to capture more information and they need to go back to their customer and get this type of information before we can move forward. - Awesome. So I'm the SDR talking to the agent, right? - Yeah, just like we did with the sales rep, but it will be more controlled. - Got it. All right, I'm ready when you are. - All right. - All right. So, hey agent, my name's Johnny and I just talked to this customer, so excited. They're Johnny's trucking and they manage, you know, they're trying to manage the amount of goods in their trailer, their logistics company. And you know, they have like six or seven depots. I think they're only US based, don't really know, but they're trying to manage the amount of goods in the trailer. Like that's why they came to our website and kind of were interested in the first place. And I talked to this guy named Kevin, who's like their lead IT guy. So he's a technical guy. He's not really worried about like the, you know, the budget and all that kind of stuff, what to get somebody else later to kind of bring that, you know, kind of to that to us. But they do know about some of our other partners, some of the other companies that we're working with, they partner with Snyder. They told me that like their budget, they just want to keep it low. And time wise, you know, they want to move pretty quickly. And I offered them a demo. I think that's going to be awesome. They are excited about that. They told me that they don't want it to be canned. They want it to be, you know, like a custom demo based on their business and these moving parts. They do long haul and short haul. That's probably important to know for like, and they sub for people like FedEx and things like that. But they're excited about our forever good product and our platform. So I just wanted to make sure that we can take care of that, right? Yeah, what do you think? Well, yeah, Johnny's trucking. I just checked them out online. They do have seven major depots across the country. About 1,000 trailers on the road I didn't give in time. They conduct long and short haul type of opportunities. In fact, it looks like some other big customers that they work with are companies like Home Depot and Dawson FedEx. They also have relationships with what appears to be Snyder organization. Looks like they do some work with them. I don't know if you're aware of it or not, but we actually have some business with Snyder. So on the surface, it sounds like a really good opportunity. Let me just go if you could and I'll jump into a couple of questions if you don't mind before we move forward to the sale drop. Please do. Yeah, so the person we're speaking to was a Johnny. Kevin Kevin. Yes, Kevin, the AI agent will know that, by the way. That's right. That's right. That's right. There's a great example of why the AI agent is a part of this. I didn't get on purpose. No, I didn't. So it sounds like Kevin is in the technical department, which obviously he'd be first to know about the technology being used in the organization. Have you identified what they use today? No, that's a good question. OK, yeah. So what I'm going to do for you is I'm going to build out a list of questions if we don't have the answers. So you can-- and I'll put them in a way where you can ask the client these questions as we move forward. Also, stack rank them as to what the priority questions are going to be in order to move forward to the next level. How's that sound to you? Wow, that's awesome. Nobody's ever done that for me as an SDR. And one day I want to make sure I'd love to be an AE or something like that. I feel like this might help me grow my career as well. This is awesome. Absolutely. And I've taken a look at your track record in the CRM tool, and you've done a lot of business for the company. So I think you're doing really well. So let's just carry on through the conversation. So you're speaking to the technology person. You don't know what technology they use today. Do you know what they like or don't like about the technology? Probably not. I see you don't know what they do. So we're going to want to know a little bit more about the technology. Now, as you know, our company works off B-manter, which is budget, method, authority, need, time, and risk. And these are all great questions. But a lot of these questions are not asked up front. So let me ask you a few more. The basic simple ones for me and the company wants to focus in on the why by anything, why by now, and why by us. Can you give me a little bit narrative as to why they want to buy now? No, I just know that they want to move fast. Man, I should have asked that. Yeah, we'll get to that. And what about why by anything at all? Oh, I don't know, because I don't even know what they were using. Dang, that's a good-- I missed that one, too. I don't think you missed it entirely. You've got some good information. You know that they're a trucking company. They're moving goods from point to point. And they want to make sure that those trucks are full to full capacity. So they're not wasting any money associated to that. We can make assumptions to what the challenges are based on what we know from our Schneider experience. And a lot of that tends to do with fuel cost, logistics of ensuring that trucks are full capacity, ensuring that anything that's moving across the roads are compliant with DOD laws. That's the Department of Defense. What would be DOD? Yeah. You'll see. Yep. Another side note, Agent will no answer. That's right. You know, and there's a series of compliances that they make sure. So we can make some assumptions. And I'll ensure that I put those assumptions in the list of questioning. So you come across sounding very intelligent to the client. How does that sound? That sounds awesome. Thank you so much. Yeah. And do we have any understanding of what kind of money is they're looking to spend? No. They just said they want to keep it low. I did. Yeah. I got to go to my AE. But the last time we had one of these, and it seemed like this, it felt this way. They figured that this is probably going to be 300 to 500K deal. So I don't know. But we didn't throw any numbers. And no numbers were spoken, right? No, sir. No, no, no. No. That's fine. That's fine. We can make, again, some assumptions. But all these assumptions are going to have to be qualified. So I think we're in great shape. I think the information you've gotten so far is acceptable. I think there's an opportunity. But we're just going to have to further qualify. And the big ones for us are going to be those three-wise. Why buy anything, why buy now, and why buy us? I'm not so worried about the why buy us right now. I really want to know why buy now, and why buy anything. And that really comes down to need in the B-manter model. We'll ask budget, but it sounds to me like your contact Kevin being an IT is probably not going to know budget. So what we might want to ask Kevin is who in the organization would control the budget, and if he would be a sponsor for us to talk to us, that's that sound awesome. I didn't even think about that. But yeah, that's a really good way to frame or formulate that. I never thought about that. You're really helping me out a lot. Thank you. No problem. And one of the other things you want to consider is I know you've promised-- I think you said a 3 o'clock call. I saw an email. I saw no notes you put in the CRM tool. You were looking for a custom demo tomorrow at 3 o'clock. Is that fair? Yeah, that's going to be awesome. OK, well, we're probably going to have to push that off. But we're going to keep the meeting. We're just going to alert Kevin, not to invite anybody else to that meeting. And let's just have a conversation with Kevin again. And let's have it a little bit more formulated. Now, to save face-- because I know you're going to be in a situation where, well, why are we not doing this meeting? Yeah. Yeah, man. We're going to let him know that we want to make sure Kevin's most successful in this project. And if they able to do that, we're going to decap some more information. So that way, we're not going down the wrong path. Oh, wow. So like just kind of do like another discovery session. Correct, yeah. So what we're going to tell Kevin is that you went back to the business. And the business said, we'd like to know a little bit more information to ensure that we're mapping to their critical issues, both technical and business issues. And with any organization, I'm sure even in their organization, since he's an IT, he's probably working with a lot of line of businesses. And very much like yourself and your technical team, there probably want to know answers to questions, even in their daily operations. So I'm sure Kevin's not used to. It's not a far-en thing to ask of in order to qualify a little bit further. OK, that sounds good. You really think that's going to work? Absolutely. In my experience with working with other STRs in the company, I would say 80% of the time going back to the client resulted in a 10-month reduction in sales cycle. Blah, blah, blah. Oh, that's awesome. Fred's going to love that, because he's really down his number this year. So we're trying to get them across the finish line, too. Would you like me to put a summary together for Fred? Because I know you need to ensure that you're hitting your marks when it comes to making meeting goals. Happy to give Fred a little bit of an update as to where you are and what your next steps are. Would you like an email traffic for that? You can actually do that? Absolutely. Oh my goodness, that's awesome. Yes, please. Awesome. So here's what I'm going to generate. Give me a few seconds and I will generate you a customized email to send to Fred. A series of questions to ask, Kevin, some data points that make you sound like you're an expert within the transportation industry. And let's set up that comp. Oh, I hope it's not too much to ask for that one more thing. Every week, I have a weekly roll up that I kind of do for my leadership, where I kind of show them the things that-- in this kind of how we're compensated and gold. Basically, you know, kind of give them a summation of our leads and kind of what I've done. Is that something that you can help me formulate as well? So I can roll that up to the business? Absolutely. I'm going to have access to your CRM. So I see all the information you're saying, but in my experience, CRM tools are not really filled with great information. Maybe what we should do, and I just do a separate session and talk about the end of your week. It's Thursday, it's Friday. So if you want, we can close this session and open another one. And when you can give me a kind of a dump on maybe I don't use the word dump. But you can give me an overview. I mean, we use a dump, you know, who knows, right, guys? I mean, at the end of the day, we're trying to make this real as possible. That'd be real, that's right. So when you give me a day to dump on what your week look like, and I can ask you some key questions, we'll limit it to an hour, and I can provide you a roll-up. In fact, if you like, I can give you certain risk levels. Like, this is a great qualified opportunity all the way down to. This is not so much qualified we need to qualify more. That would be amazing, fantastic. OK, my ask is going forward. You just use me on a daily basis, and we don't have to worry about the Friday call. And I'll just automatically send you an email with an update. Did you just sell me on using? Yeah, I like it. I like it. So that was awesome. Yeah. And obviously that can go on and on and on. Of course. But the benefits of that is the SDR is not alone. The SDR has a friend. The SDR has a coach of mentor. Too often, the SDRs are part of a team of 50, sitting in Austin, Texas, or Salt Lake City, Utah. And they come in in the morning, and they leave in the evening, and they hate their life. And they have no coach in mentoring. And they get beaten up by cell trips all the time. So if we can be a little bit more courteous and curious and thought-provoking for the SDR as a partner in crime, instead of a military sort of agent, like, do you ask budget? Do you ask method? Do you ask need? That's not what we need to be personable here. That's right. No, 100%. And that's why I was asking, hey, can you do that for me? I never had anybody do that. I never really realized I could do this. Or, you know, that I need to ask that. It's really engaging for that SDR to understand. Because again, the other part is most of these kids are young. They're like college, right? Like, they don't know how to stuff. They don't have a way with all of life. Just, yeah, they're still getting the feet under them, right? So this right here exposes in the so much more, but also gives them context in terms of your responses. It's not just to your point asking a question given an answer. It's giving context as to why each of these questions matter, but also reaffirming that, you know, even when I said, oh, man, I'm just like, oh, you didn't miss it. You got some good information here. Even though we all know it's like, it could have been a hell of a lot better. However, you have something, right? We're going to go off of what we have, right? We're going to make some assumptions until we can't. And then we'll make some facts based on those, right? So this is a beautiful evolution. I'm excited, dude. There you go. And then, you know, clearly, if we get those answers at tomorrow's three o'clock call, the follow on all to the sales rep. First off, we're going to notify the sales rep that this action is taking place. So it's a preview to it, right? Yep. So once the SDR actually has that call with the sales rep red, that conversation's going to be a lot easier to have. Fred's not going to have to ask all the hard questions. Fred's going to go, OK, you got me all this. Did you get this in this? I'm like, no, it's like, but we probably don't need that. That call should be pretty more of a qualification call. It should be an agreement call. OK, we all agree on this. What are things we're not asking? What else do you think? Do you think this is legs? The agent tells us this is about a 20% chance of close. So maybe we should say no to this and hold off. Let's do a test with the client. Let's walk to the door and see if the client comes back and demands that we talk to them. Because if they demand, we talk to them, then we have something to go with it. Two often sales reps don't walk to the door. And walking to the door. And for everybody that's listening to this call or seeing this transcript. And going to the door means you as a sales rep get up out of the room or on the conference call and say, you know what, guys? Sounds like we're pretty far apart, which is fine. When we're a little closer, maybe we can get re-engaged. But at this point, our company is probably not going to bid on this opportunity or even work through this opportunity. There's just not enough here yet. When you get to these elements, we'll be happy to talk to you. And then you walk out. Literally walk out of the room. And then I like that. And then the-- and it's a sales tactic. Because then the person on the other side is like, oh, shit, I have to report back to my boss that I'm making progress on this vendor assessment. That's what they're doing. They're doing a vendor assessment. And when they find out that this vendor is not going to participate because we don't have enough answers, I'm in trouble. That's right. So it's a great technique. Lot of reps don't do it because they don't want to lose an opportunity. Even if it's at 20% chance of win, can you mean you're telling me I've got a chance? That's right. That's right. That's how they will-- that's the outlook. The outlook is that massively different. Massively different. Dude, this is exciting. So this is a good example. Andre, great job on this. And it's interesting. Like you said earlier, after we do this role play, and we think about our 30 years in this business, 25 years in this business, this is still going on today. This has not changed. And if anything, it's gotten worse, in my opinion, because the SE is no longer a sales engineer. There are brains on a stick. So that's all they are. And they're not asking these questions anymore. But they're brought in just to be brains on a stick. That's right. And there's no incentive for them. In some cases, by the way, team, a lot of subject matter experts are not comped on deal closure. And a lot of SEs now are not comped on deal closure, not even carrying quotas. Some are just carrying BDOs, which are business directive objectives, which is like a beauty contest. To hit this gate, you get an extra $5,000. So there's no skin in the game. When no skin in the game, and you've got a sales group who's not asking hard questions, then you have an SE who doesn't care about asking hard questions. Those questions are not being asked. That's right, that's right. For as much as, you know, I think that's the other side of it. For so many years, we've seen people come at this challenge from multiple directions. They either come from, let's go give the smartest people and make them SEs. And then they go there and, you know, to your point, they're technical wizards, but they don't ask any questions, right, because we all know that. I used to be that guy where it was like, just put me, you know, just put me behind closed doors. Let me do my magic in the, you know, configuring this, that and the other doing this, that and the other. But please don't let me have to talk to people. And then, and so there are wizards behind that. But when you're doing a demo, you can't just flow. You have to have an engagement, right? You have to say, you know, as I'm walking through something, right, so how do you do this part right here today? Because one of the things that we found that most people struggle with is this element. Do you all struggle with that same element? Oh, yeah, that's, that's, yes, big one. Side note, there's a key to our win. Next, and you keep going and you're probing, it's, you're having a, as Kevin likes to always say, you're telling a story, dude, the best SEs are the ones that know how to tell a story, even as they do something is, is complicated as a, as a customized demo, right? You're always storytelling, even in discovery, right? That's the best way to engage and truly build the relationship with your customer, right? They give you, is to give, get again, right? They give you something, you know, that, so you get something and what you give back is the story with some answers, some summations, right? And some work that we're going to do to kind of help you to the next level, right? That's the beauty of it. And so, you know, again, anything just a hardcore technical person and just saying, you'd be perfect as the SE because we need to take the person, not the win. On the other side, you get people who are salesy and they come off as like the second to your sales person. So now the customer is like, holy crap, we got not just one salesperson beating us up. We got a second, a million here. I could see, like, that's, that's a disaster too, right? And so it is the, the beautiful symphony and blend of somebody who knows how to tell a story but also understand that that's a technical, right? So, yeah.