Are you attempting to sell a technical product to a non-technical crowd? If so, we’d love to introduce you to Joel Passen, Head of Global Sales at Beamery.
His company sells HR and talent acquisition products, or what they call a “recruiting CRM and marketing software.” But not all their buyers have an extensive technical background.
So, Joel’s uncovered firsthand how to sell a highly technical product to a variety of buyers, many of whom are non-technical.
On a recent episode of the B2B Revenue Acceleration podcast, he gives us 3 ways we can sell our products to non-technical buyers.
I want my sellers to empathize with buyers firsthand. I want them to feel their pain.
Joel Passen
3 Ways to Sell a Technical Product to a Less Technical Audience:
1: Hire Your Sales Team Directly From the Industry
If you are trying to sell a non-technical product to the less-than-technical … use a sales team from the industry to which you are trying to sell.
They’ll be able to empathize with the buyers, understand their pain, and connect.
2: Make It an Educational Experience for Every Buyer
Procurement is taking longer, and the team of decision-makers needed for a purchase is expanding. Likely, you will need 8 to 12 yes’s before a sale is completed.
Joel ensures Beamery creates content geared toward every stakeholder: c-suite, IT team, technical, non-technical, procurement.
They hit every level with content by position, expertise, and technical ability.
3: Let Your Product Tell the Narrative
Joel brings his sales team on-site to a prospect to show prior use cases and help build a business case around the prospect, to allow the prospect to become part of the narrative.
Tips on Differentiating in a Crowded Space
Joel’s space is crowded: There is about $5 billion in the HR tech sector, and he’s uncovered a few things about marketing to a crowded space:
- First of all, you have to have an innovative product that cuts through the noise.
- Be more operationally sound than your peers.
A Few Differences in Marketing to N. America vs. Europe:
The procurement and buying process is more formalized in the UK: Meetings are more formalized, committees are more formalized and communications are more formalized.
In the US, there is more of an ad-hoc approach, and the executives often don’t get involved at all until the middle of the buying process.
Talent acquisition is really sort of a sales and marketing game.
Joel Passen
A Brief Overview of the Current State of Talent Acquisition:
1: Talent Acquisition Is Becoming More Like Sales & Marketing
Here’s the deal: Unemployment in the United States is at an all-time low. In some places, they’re experiencing “negative unemployment” — i.e., there is a talent shortage — especially in tech, especially in places like Silicon Valley.
To acquire and keep top talent, you will have to court them, treating candidates as top-of-funnel leads. Use marketing, outbound calls, … the whole nine yards. (Find out more about their process at Beamery.)
2: Augmented Jobs (AI Assisting Humans)
AI is really noisy right now, but Joel doesn’t believe humans will be replaced by AI; but that AI will be used to augment and upskill humans in their roles.
In other words, Joel think AI will be used to help humans be more efficient in their jobs.
3: Acquisition is Becoming More Data-Driven
Just as finance, sales, marketing, and procurement, have moved to a data-driven approach, talent acquisition is beginning to use machine learning and AI to eliminate bias and create a fairer, more data-based approach in talent acquisition.
This post is based on an interview with Joel Passen from Beamery.
To hear this episode, and many more like it, you can subscribe to The B2B Revenue Acceleration Podcast.
If you don’t use iTunes, you can listen to every episode here.
