Reflex Response
I'm not the right person to speak to (too low)
What is "Thank you for your help, who's the right person I should be speaking with?"
Bonus *While I have you on the phone, what changes are impacting you and your department right now?"
Send over some information.
What is "I'd be happy to; so I can send the right
material can you tell me the area of your reporting process that is most in need of improvement?
We use (blank) ERP or BI tool
What is "That's very common, every one of our 4300+ customers uses (blank) or something like it. Workiva's platform doesn't replace (ERP or BI tool), we work with those tools throughout the reporting process and have partnerships w/ most (ERP or BI tool). Once you pull data from your ERP/BI tool, where does it go from there?"
No thanks...click!
What is "A follow up call or email mentioning we must have been disconnected and sending over information that provides value to the prospect."
ESG
What is "Environmental, Social, and Governance"
I'm not interested.
What is "Many of our customers said they weren't interested too until they found that our technology helps companies reduce very manual reporting processes and transition to a virtual work environment. What part of your
process are you struggling with the most
right now?"
I'm headed into a meeting.
What is "Understood, when is a good time for us to connect and share how your peers are utilizing our platform and discuss your current reporting process?"
*Bonus: Send a placeholder calendar invite whether a date and time is given to show you'll be following up with them (The Amanda special)
Our team/company is very small.
What is "Workiva has more than 4,300 customers which range from mom and pop shops to Fortune 100 companies. In fact, many of the companies I
work with are similar in your (entity, employee, revenue) size."
I used you at a previous company, but don’t have the seniority yet to suggest a change.
What is "How can I help you make a compelling case to the right decision makers to meet with our team for a Discovery call?"
WIIFM
What is "What's In It For Me"
I don't have budget to discuss any technologies.
What is "I understand you weren't expecting my call and I wouldn't expect you to have a budget sitting around awaiting my call (laugh), but most of our 4300+ customers started conversations without a budget."
I'm busy and in the middle of something;
can you call me back later?
What is, "I understand you're busy, how about we
schedule 20 minutes to catch up next month after your Q work is done?"
We're already using your competitor.
What is "Many of our competitors do a small fraction of what our platform does which means more technologies/vendors to purchase to accomplish what we do in 1 Ecosystem/Platform. I think it makes sense to connect for an educational meeting comparing our platform to competitor and you can see the differences which adds value to your team regardless of which vendor you choose in the long run."
Who is Workiva?
What is "Workiva solves Complex Reporting for 4300+ customers improving the process of gathering and organizing reports to save time, reduce risk, and make faster and better business decisions based off accurate data."
ERP
What is "Enterprise Resource Planning"
I have everything I need.
Excellent! Clearly as a forward thinker that invests in everything your team needs, you'd be open to taking a look at the #1 Financial Reporting platform in the world to make sure you have the best of all tools and compare Wdesk to your current tools?"
Get back to me in X months or X quarters.
What is "no worries, if you don't mind me asking is there a current project going on or what's going to change between now and then?"
(The goal is to gather as much info as possible being persistently professional and not pushy, trying to get the prospect to realize it might make more sense to meet sooner rather than later).
Workiva is too expensive (former conversation, old opportunity, heard our cost from a 3rd party source)
What is "Our pricing model changed to SBL (solution based licensing) 2+ years ago and many factors determine pricing; I think it makes sense to connect with our RSD to show you what's changed on our end, see what's changed on your end and our team can provide an updated quote based on your company needs?"
We are going through a merger/acquisition, now is not
a good time.
What is "I've heard this from some of our current
customers that Wdesk has been able to help
simplify the complexity of SEC reporting and
SOX compliance process as number of team
members and systems grow. Given that, do
you think it'd be worth looking at the latest
technology to consider for your team's
future?"
MEDDPICC
What is:
Metrics
Economic Buyer
Decision Criteria
Decision Process
Partner
Identified Pain
Champion
Competition
I'm not the right person to speak to (too high)
What is "Thank you, based on our experience in working with (CFO/Controllers) such as yourself, it typically takes an executive sponsor to realize the excellent ROI with our platform wdesk. I'd like to have a discussion with the person I should be speaking with at this time and circle back with you on our key findings, would that be okay with you?"
Happy with our current process of SharePoint and MS Office.
What is "MS Office and Sharepoint are good traditional tools that have been used for many years in reporting processes. Modern platforms such as Wdesk streamline reporting processes such as yours. Are you open to seeing why 4300+ of your peers have drastically reduced the manual effort associated w/ reporting?"
I'm not looking for a new software and this isn't a priority for me right now.
What is "Understood, I'm not asking you to buy anything today. My ask would be to connect briefly and show you how we're producing X results (value) for your peers and if at that point you still feel the same way, we thank each other for the education and our time."
Nothing is shaking my confidence. Nothing gives me concern. I don't have any headaches.
What is "That's fair, I'm not calling to get you into a sales process and I wouldn't expect you meet with my team for no reason, but my job is to educate companies on modernized reporting practices and show you why over 4300 of your peers are leveraging our platform Wdesk for financial reporting. (now be silent!)"
NWTAITL
What is "Nothing Witty to Add in Tag Line"