Hey everyone! In today’s episode, I share the mic with founder and CEO of Consensus, Garin Hess. Consensus automates product demos, so you can spend more time closing sales and less time demoing.
Tune in to hear what the inspiration was for Consensus, how Garin helped companies get higher close rates and reduced sales cycles, and what he thinks you should do when approaching high-level leaders!
Time-Stamped Show Notes:
- [01:01] Before we jump into today’s interview, please leave a review and rating and subscribe to the Growth Everywhere Podcast!
- [01:54] In his last start up, they were constantly doing demos and had troubled scaling up and personalizing demos for each buyer.
- [02:20] That was Garin’s inspiration for Consensus and buyer-enablement.
- [03:00] There is a software company that makes software for medical offices.They ran a 90 day test for Consensus.
- [04:12] They found that the deals that went through Consensus, closed at a 44% higher close rate than those deals that were made without using Consensus.
- [05:10] Demos went to Office Managers and Doctors and demos were personalized for each doctor.
- [05:45] Automating this process has made it easier to demo software for clients and reach them on a personal level.
- [06:06] There was a 68% reduction in the sales cycle.
- [06:15] This is something they would recommend for B2B’s.
- [06:45] It costs about $90/User/Month
- [07:05] One customer spent $150,000/year and got an $11 Million ROI.
- [07:10] Some people think Consensus should be charging more, by they feel comfortable with their current rates.
- [07:45] Consensus Snap is the quickest way to get started, as it is just a plug-in where you can click and record your screen or using the web cam.
- [08:11] It allows for the creation of rapid-fire demos.
- [09:40] They had a great result using Consensus Snap with Oracle.
- [10:05] The more in-depth Consensus tools will take more time than Snap.
- [10:30] It can take 30-60 days to set up your demos.
- [10:55] There is a marketing side to the platform that allows marketers to post dynamic demos on the website.
- [11:36] Consensus focuses on buyer enablement.
- [11:51] In B2B sales, the roles are flipped.
- [12:05] Sales teams are in charge of buying, while the buyer is in charge of selling.
- [12:22] Buyer enablement means that you are shifting your mindset from selling to enabling buyers.
- [12:30] The buyer has to go sell to the rest of the buying group for you.
- [12:45] If you can energize your first buyer, that buyer is in charge of getting other stakeholders excited and on board.
- [13:15] The buyer doesn’t know how to buy your product.
- [13:40] Consensus equips the champion to sell your product for you.
- [13:45] They have a dashboard called the “buyer board”. The champion uses this to track the automated demos they have sent to each stakeholder.
- [14:50] They initially focused on small businesses.
- [15:20] They began acquiring larger customers as time went on.
- [15:45] They still have small business plans, but their main product works for larger companies.
- [16:45] They have now grown to 250 customers. 95 of those are enterprise customers.
- [17:10] Some of their customers have 10-20 different users, whereas others have hundreds.
- [17:40] Most people start with a small license, because they want to test it out with a small team first.
- [18:10] The sales cycle tends to be 3-6 months for a mid-market company and 6-8 months an enterprise level company.
- [19:05] When they pivoted to focus on enterprise customers, they put a halt to email marketing.
- [19:18] Now, they spend very little on marketing and more on direct outbound sales.
- [19:33] When approaching high-level leaders, don’t pitch them right out of the gate.
- [19:55] It was a better approach to ask them for feedback and fill out surveys, while sharing the technology with them.
- [20:30] They get a high response rate using these methods.
- [21:25] Consensus also does a lot of account-based marketing.
- [21:36] Garin recommends the books The One Thing, Procrastinate on Purpose, and Essentialism.
Resources From This Interview:
- Consensus
- Must-read books:
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