1761 – Go-To-Market Strategies with Whitney Stowell of Cribworks LLC

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0:59with us right now it's whitney stoll whitney you are the ceo and founder at crib works you're found on the web at cribworks.co whitney thank you so much for joining us hey josh thanks for having me i'm glad to be here you're based in dc and and tell us about the work that you do who you work with and the impact you have in the world yes i'm based here in dc and crib works is a sales and business development growth agencies. So I go in, I help companies build their sales pipelines, account management plans, so they can position themselves to win more business. So we really focus on their sales operation, but also companies that have opportunities, they really want to position themselves to win.

1:41So whether it's looking at their sales pipelines, where there's problems within their pipeline, why are they not winning, or actually going after large enterprise level opportunities, opportunities? How can I actually help them position themselves for success? So that's what I primarily focus on. Yeah. Do you see, for most people that you have conversations with, what would you say the breakdown is between they just need more opportunities in the pipeline versus, well, they got enough opportunities in the pipeline, they're just screwing it up. Like, what would you guess is the breakdown between those two?

2:14And again, probably most people are a little bit of each. Oh boy, that's a great question. I mean, we go on for days and break it down. I mean, there's multiple rabbit holes that we could go into. I would say the way that people structure their sales journey as it relates to their customer journey, I think is one thing to really look at. But if they look at their sales pipeline is where there are leaks in the pipeline from where they bring in leads to where the proposals actually get submitted to where, you know, they actually sign a contract. I think there's, they don't really look at the leaks in the pipeline?

2:48Why are leads not actually converting into demo meetings where ultimately the demo meetings actually get submitted into potential proposals? And are they actually vetting those opportunities enough because does a customer actually want to receive a proposal from them? Are they actually vetting them? Does the customer even know who they are? Are you submitting them blindly? How well do you know the customer and how well does the customer know you? Especially the larger the opportunity there is, it can be a lot more people are involved. There's a lot more tech from technical to engineering, even political aspect to it as well.

3:25Especially you get over, say,$100 million,$500 million deals, you're looking at factories, you're looking at a lot more aspects of a deal. But you got to make sure they're looking at those aspects, does the customer know really who we are? And do they actually want us for this opportunity? You know, someone that might be struggling with a little bit of the top of the pipeline kind of situation, you obviously keep eyes and ears on what's going on in sales right now. What do you see working well today that maybe didn't, you know, or maybe, you know, asked a different way. What used to work that's just a little bit more challenging?

4:01And what are you advising teams to do to increase the number or volume of opportunities? I'm going to think of an answer in two-part approach. I'd say if you can always flood your inbox with lots of leads, but are they actually going to be quality leads? And that can have an adverse effect on what your sales pipeline looks like for when a sales leader or a CEO reviews it on a, say, it's a weekly basis, biweekly or monthly basis. They might say, well, there's a very large pipeline, but actually, if you look at it, we're only closing a very small percentage of it on a monthly basis. So you want to put quality into your pipeline.

4:38You just don't want to put anything into your pipeline. You know, not every deal is going to close, but put quality into your pipeline. Now, the second part of it is what is working. I think professional associations are, I think, an underutilized aspect of where to really be able to find strong leads, warm leads and partnership opportunities where you can actually really be able to grow effective pipeline and top of the pipeline. So I think that's, I think, underutilized. I think people don't like to go out and socialize at some point, but I find that really to be a great aspect of growth. Yeah, I agreed.

5:15Even for your clients that are dealing with a very what you would think would be very black and white RFP kind of proposal. I mean, it's just, you know, just feels like it's just very transactional. What is your opinion of those things that might not be as black and white, right? Relationship, perceived authority, the emotional side of buying. Does that exist, particularly for your clients that are doing a lot of business and government contracting? So I have a client that's government contracting. I also have ones that are in the commercial side as well. So it's not just as well as black and white, because they go to market multiple different ways.

5:56There's direct contracting. There's also they do it through partnerships. So they're doing it through subcontracting as well. So there's different avenues on how they actually, a customer can actually buy. So there's multiple different ways that you can ultimately win business and grow. So on that aspect, there is definitely an emotional side to it. But are you there to actually look at what the end customer really needs? What do they actually value? And the one thing I always look back on is the why you. like what makes you different than a competitor? Like what do you actually bring to the table that is different than somebody else?

6:33And I think people get wrapped up in the product, you know, their features and the benefit, but are you actually answering what the customer actually really needs? You know, it's, you know, a lot of people have a very similar or same product, but do you actually differentiate yourself from somebody else? And that could be the difference on where the emotion is and the value is. Yeah, I would imagine, Whitney, you're a fan of asking great questions. Can you talk about the role of questions in sales? Yes, you do a lot of listening. I'll tell you what, you do a lot of listening on that. And it's, I always like to ask a question of like, walk me through this.

7:11So if someone's talking about an opportunity or a project, I would always like to say, well, can you walk me through, you know, why this project is at the top of the table? Where is there a breakdown within your project that you need help with us. And so really having them kind of break down the why and just having them just explain to me, you know, why this is something that they need. It's like, all right, that's a big gap within their overall project. It gives me an opportunity to understand like if my services are the ones that can actually help them meet their needs right now. For example, is if there's a project right now that needs 24 seven customer support, that could be a big goal.

7:54You know, they might not always say it up front, but after talking with them, it's like, you need someone to be on call 24 seven. Is that something you need? Like, okay, yes, I can help achieve that. And the other part is, is I have to build up trust with my client. I think that's not everyone's there to sell, sell, sell. You need to do a little bit more give, give, give than get. So build yourself up as a trusted advisor. I think that's something you really need to work on. It's like build yourself up as a trusted advisor. It's like, hey, I'm not the right one, but I do know someone that is. So you're not always thinking about yourself.

8:28You're thinking about other people. You're building your network. And I think that can be a very powerful aspect. So your customer will start to trust you more and be a lot more open with you. Yeah. Yeah. What about, you know, maybe kind of touches that we can add to our sales cadences that might help move the needle forward? Maybe these are assets. What are you seeing being pretty important today? Can I ask you just to get more clarity on that? Are you looking at it from a leadership perspective, a marketing perspective, a sales perspective? Yeah, I think once someone is in the sales pipeline and you're engaged in a conversation, rather than just keeping the relationship to the scheduled calls and just the paperwork that's going back and forth, are there assets?

9:18Are there other things that you can be doing so maybe that might differentiate you from other vendors that this potential customer is looking at, for example? Sure. One of the ones I would want to know off the top of my head is, is there a compelling event with that customer that actually wants them to actually move forward on this opportunity? I think that's one of the big things. Or are they just engaging with you just to engage with you? So I think the compelling event is, is there a reason for them to want to buy something? Or else you're just spinning your wheels and there's no opportunity that's going to want to come.

9:58So I think that's one thing to keep in mind, because there's going to be people that just want to talk to you just to talk to you. So I think that's one thing you need to do is to level set with yourself, because especially from government contracting, they might not buy for a year. But you just touch base with them every couple of months. but if they want to buy now, they will tell you that they want to buy now. But to keep engaged with your customer, you can send them, Hey, here's a recent article that I wrote based on our preliminary conversation. Hey, just want to pass this on to you. Or here's an ebook that our marketing team just released.

10:33That's in your, so you help them stay informed, but you're not pushing anything that is, yeah, that's really, you know, Hey, I'm trying to sell you're keeping them informed, but you're just giving them content to help them make informed decisions. Hey, we're going to go all out to a happy hour, or we're going to go to an event. You're not being very upfront. You're not pushy. Are you going to be at this conference? Yeah. Are you going to be at this conference? It's in your area. Why don't you come out and meet up with us? I can introduce you to our CEO. So you're constantly keeping them in the loop, but you're not pushing on them too hard.

11:07I love that. Yeah. So just kind of really leaning into the relationship and also kind of that trusted advisor role and treating your customer like a grownup, really, and a friend. How would you, if you truly were advocating and this truly were one of your friends, what would you do not just to help you win the deal, but how could you help create the best possible outcome for them? Correct. Yeah. And you really level into the trusted advisors area. So you're building that relationship and they might ask you, hey, hey, I have another project that I'm working on. Do you have somebody that you could recommend?

11:43You might have someone in your network be like, yes, it's not me, but here's somebody that I've worked with in the past. They do great jobs. And then you can leverage your network. And that individual, that company that you recommend will thank you tremendously. And now you're in a very good position with them for a future job or future opportunities. So you actually build your credibility with that potential client. So you actually, you really start to build. So trust or advisor status is something you need to work on. And I know I work on that with a lot of my relationships. I continue to do it day in and day out.

12:16So it's something to continue to build on. But I do see companies that all they want to do is think about themselves. And some companies, especially some clients, some of the larger ones, they want to know that you're just not in it for yourself. Yeah. Your website, cribworks.co. So tell me a bit more about how you engage with your clients. Like what does that look like? Sure. So I have several different ways I engage with my clients. One is a direct approach. So if they want to be able to go into a new market, say they want to build a, go into a, say whether it's government contracting, you want to go into a new commercial market.

12:54I help them build, go to market strategies, help them build a business development blueprint on, or build in strategic partnerships. They want to figure out how to build a strategic alliance with partners to be able to grow their sales pipeline. So I actually set up a blueprint on how they can actually move forward. Where are the opportunities? Where can we go? What are we going to have to what are the next six to 12 months going to look like? So they're not shooting from the hip. They actually have a strategic approach on how they're moving forward. What association do we need a part of? Where are the events?

13:24It might sound like marketing, but you actually need to have your sales involved and where they're actually going. What's the social selling aspect going to look like? Because a lot of our movement forward is on LinkedIn, is engagement. How do we reach out to them so we send them the proper messages as well? So that's kind of a brief overview of what we focus on. I see that you do sales strategy sessions. So let's say someone's listening to our conversation right now and they really just want to bounce some ideas off of you or kind of get to know you. What do you typically do in a sales strategy session?

13:57So in the sales strategy session, I need to get a preliminary overview of who they are and what they do and where they want to go. And so say it's a company that has to have the product and they want to know how to position that product in the market. And so usually in a brief 60 minute call, we'll talk about it and I'll usually give them three takeaways. If I give any more than three takeaways, I believe that that's usually information overload. So I usually just give a quick sales strategy call. And if they want to go into further detail, we can talk about that. But it's really just to give them, because I've been in sales for the past 15 years, work everywhere from government affairs to marketing to corporate strategy and business development.

14:35So I know what it takes to actually move this forward so I can give them very authentic conversation on where to go. Yeah. All right. Whitney Stoll, again, your website, cribworks.co. When somebody goes there, what would you recommend they do? So go check it out. I've got some articles, blog posts, and I got some content there. it really focuses on different areas from sales strategy. So go in, check it out, and then fill out any information on there if you'd like to reach out and connect with me. And I'm happy to set up a sales session and there's some eBooks on there as well. Awesome. Whitney Stoll, again, founder, CEO, CribWorks, found on the web at cribworks.co.

15:13Whitney, thank you so much for joining us. Hey, I appreciate it. Thanks again for the time.

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