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In-Sights: Most Sales People Hate To Talk About New Business

  • Writer: Tyson Group
    Tyson Group
  • Jun 5
  • 5 min read

Updated: Jun 9



Forget 'needs analysis' – it’s all about opportunity-based sales. In this episode,  Lance Tyson  tackles why salespeople often dodge new business conversations. He reveals how to reframe pitches as 'nitrous oxide' for brands, not just fulfilling needs. Discover the real goal of that first meeting (hint: it's not closing the deal) and how 'tactical spends' can be your Trojan Horse to bigger wins. We're diving into why sales meetings often get stuck on existing business and how to shift that focus back to landing those fresh opportunities.

 

Lance is the bestselling author of Selling Is An Away Game and The Human Sales Factor. 



 

Check out Lance's Bestseller Books:

-        The Human Sales Factor - https://tysongroup.com/books#thehumansalesfactor 



-        Selling is an Away Game - https://tysongroup.com/books#sellingisanawaygame 



 

Check out Tyson Group's Open Enrollment Programs: https://www.tysongroup.com/openenrollment

 

Download our playbooks: https://www.tysongroup.com/sales-playbooks 



 

Schedule a call with one of Tyson Group's member: https://bit.ly/41YJW7K 



 

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Listen to the podcast here




In-Sights: Most Sales People Hate To Talk About New Business

Needs Analysis Is Dead! Unlock Opportunity-Based Sales

You don't want to be calling your first meetings, needs analysis, because your salespeople don't sell anything anybody needs. I don't care if you've called it that for the last 50 years. It doesn’t matter. It's not a solution-based sale. It's an opportunity-based sale. It's a consultative approach. Remember, if Jeff is a young salesperson and I tell him he needs to go in there and do a needs analysis, he'll think he needs to ask needs-based questions, and he doesn't.


Branding opportunities and marketing opportunities are opportunity-based. Nobody needs what you have. Nobody needs anything you bring to the table. Your properties augment their brands at best. You're maybe nitrous oxide. That's it. Every company you do business with already has a marketing engine. They don't need what you bring to the table. Am I in a credibility meeting? Am I in a capability meeting? That may be important to Jeff because he's coming across a wide swath of brands.


Against The Sales Odds - Lance Tyson | New Business
New Business: The only goal of meeting one is to get to meeting two. There is no other reason

The Meeting One Trap: How To Secure Meeting Two & Avoid Deal Deaths

I'm at a local level with Adam or Brandon. I'm like, “Who am I meeting with?” This is the first meeting. What am I trying to accomplish? I still don't know, and maybe somebody can pull this from me. Maybe we'll find out. How many meeting ones do your people go to and never get a meeting two? The only goal of meeting one is to get to meeting two. There is no other reason if it were a brand-new logo.


I get that you get teammates who are very easy to work with. We've got to teach them part of the sales process. All the folks at Dover, Knowles, and things like that, you don't need to teach them a lot of prospecting. Some campaigning, how to get in touch with people, even voicemails and stuff, but the only goal of meeting one is to get to meeting two. Some brands should be difficult. Maybe they need a 1.5. Maybe they didn't get enough discovery done or evaluation done, and you do 1.5.


Most salespeople hate to talk about new business.

If you guys aren't looking at a local level, let’s say Brandon has three people who met with Safelite in Columbus, Ohio. They're headquartered there. Let's say the CEO is a Kentucky alum. I don't know that. Maybe they are. We do business with them, Brandon, so maybe. It's not very far, three hours from you. He finds out that there's a meeting one, and his salesperson gets to the VP of marketing level, but then over a period of the next couple of weeks, there's no traction. It's six months later that they meet. That deal died. Anything that was going on that died.


Tactical Spends as Trojan Horses: Breaking Through to Bigger Deals

That salesperson might come back. As Brandon is talking to them, they come back from that meeting one, and they said, “They're blown out of budget.” Brandon is smart enough to know, he's been around the block, that they probably have stuff they can spend this year, some tactical spends. Safelite always looks into driving some leads to their partners.


That's the other thing. Even though we're planning for next year, there are some tactical spins. We see that all the time. I was with the Minnesota Timberwolves, and we had a whole pipeline session on tactical spends with some of their major brands. I think they found half a million dollars with 3M, just on tactical spends, those band aids. I'd rather get a tactical spend to get a bigger deal than get no deal to try to get the bigger deal. It's kind of a Trojan Horse. It’s a siege game. I don't want to play a siege game itself. I want to get in, and that's a philosophy we need to have.


Against The Sales Odds - Lance Tyson | New Business
New Business: I'd rather get a tactical spend to get a bigger deal than get no deal to try to get the bigger deal.

That goes back to what you guys see at that sales meeting, a new business meeting. I had almost tried to add meetings to your thing. I would bet some money, though, that you're more interesting conversations at your sales meeting happen around existing business as opposed to new business. You know how salespeople act. It's like when we were all in high school and we got a substitute teacher. The first thing you do as substitute teachers is to ask some questions about them personally, and try to see how far we can get into the class before they turn any work on us.


Most salespeople hate to talk about new business. You've got to dual roles. My salespeople have dual roles. They renew and they sell new business. We don't let them talk about renewals in the sales meeting. That would gobble up all our time because that's where the drama exists. I would challenge all of you to make sure you're doing that.

 

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