FundingStrat

 

What is ANUM?

 

ANUM was a sales qualification framework developed by Ken Krogue in 2012 at InsideSales in response to new developments rising from the use of the age-tested BANT framework initially created at IBM in the 1960’s.

 

After the economic crash of 2008 and the internet/social media driving more relevant information and education into buyers’ hands – many sales reps started to receive feedback from their prospects that BANT may have been putting the cart before the horse and making buyers feel “pressured.”

 

Some even equating prioritizing the B for Budget first to asking the prospect for his/her W2 on the first date.  Usually doesn’t go over well.

 

ANUM  aims to reprioritize key talking points to drive a more effective sales conversation.

 

ANUM stands for:

 

Authority – Is the lead the decision-maker for purchasing your product or service?

 

Need – What are the lead’s needs and can your product or service can solve/meet them?

 

Urgency – Is this lead going to make up their mind soon, or will it be a drawn-out process?

 

Money – Do they have the money to buy your product or service?

 

 

Here are examples of ANUM questions that have routinely been used:

Keep on Reading!

 

Recap:

On our Sales Process map, if each Stage is a mile marker on the highway to Funding, the roadways in between the markers are the Phases.

 

Here are all the Phases:

 

• Phase 1 – The Prospecting Phase

 

• Phase 2 – The Consulting Phase

 

• Phase 3 – The Application Sending Phase

 

• Phase 4 – The Application Reeling-in Phase

 

• Phase 5 – The Submitting Phase

 

• Phase 6 – The Closing Phase

 

• Phase 7 – The Contracting Phase

 

• Phase 8 – The Contract Reeling-in Phase

 

• Phase 9 – The Closing Stip Reeling-in Phase

 

• Phase 10 – The Funding Phase

 

Each one of these Phases has specific steps to complete to get to the next Stage, and there are Key Steps to take in each Stage to accelerate your sales cycles and closings.

Keep on Reading!

 

In Storyt(S)elling we highlighted Kindra Hall’s message from Broker Fair 2019: the power of storytelling in sales.

 

Storytelling in sales helps Funding Pros capture the attention and resonate with customers as well as humanize transactions between us.

 

Effective storytelling does this by inducing an emotional response in the listener.

 

A great story, well placed in the Sales Process, will induce three key biochemicals in the prospect to elicit the most receptive emotional response:

 

Cortisol– is the stress hormone released in response to a perceived threat.

 

It causes our fight or flight reaction, especially if there is a perceived danger, risk and potential reward.

 

Cortisol sharpens your focus and dials in your attention to whatever is causing this emotional tension.  It is valuable to the storyteller, because it grabs attention and cuts away distraction.

 

Oxytocin– is the ultimate empathy hormone.  In many scientific circles it is also known as the “love hormone.”

 

It is released when we are bonding with others that we like or love.  It is strongest in new mothers directly following birth, and will even generate a protective response if there is enough connection there.  This hormone, unlike cortisol, feels good.

 

Cortisol might hook us into the story, its oxytocin that keeps us there.  It is very valuable to the storyteller because, as long as the story has at least one character we can identify with, we will empathize and bond with this character, thus bond to the story, and the one telling it.

 

Dopamine– is one of the most important neurotransmitters, which releases the pleasurable feelings of satisfaction as part of the brain’s reward system.

 

Now that we feel bonded to the character in the story, and we subconsciously feel our fate is intertwined with theirs, if there is a positive resolution to the story, we will feel satisfied and rewarded as if we arrived at the positive outcome ourselves.

 

This is extremely valuable to the storyteller because he has satisfied us and shifted the audience into an emotional state of optimism charged to take action (and overcome risks) on their own perceived rewards/outcomes.

 

So what’s a great sales story look like?

Keep on Reading!

 

IQ stands for Intelligence Quotient.

 

The Intelligence Quotient (IQ) Test was developed by Alfred Binet in 1904 to best evaluate the “intelligence” of students.

 

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines intelligence as:

 

(1): the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations

 

 

(2): the ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one’s environment or to think abstractly as measured by objective criteria 

(such as tests)

 

 

A higher IQ would translate to a higher probability of the student doing well in school.

 

 

Doing well, according to our school system, is primarily based around attention, memory and problem solving.

 

 

A higher IQ has been used for decades as a predictive measure of how proficient someone could also be in the workforce.

 

 

So a higher IQ makes for a great Funding Pro?

 

Keep on Reading!

 

When to use it?

 

After deploying the Utility Close and the merchant asking for you to repeat the terms (you’ve already described.)

 

What does it sound like?

 

Describe the terms again and then shut up (until the merchant jumps back in).

 

So, basically, silence.

 

How it works?

 

You are describing the terms of the product once again, slower this time, so all can be completely heard, understood and processed.

 

Then you are deliberately stopping to talk, in anticipation of a favorable response from the buyer.

 

There is an old saying in sales that goes “he who speaks first loses.”

 

Now, there is value in this old saying, but it is a bit outdated for us because if we are truly Funding Pros, and advising them through their Key Business Outcomes, no one loses.

 

Only win-wins all the way around.  To update this old trope, “he who jumps in to break the silence with sound first is the most eager to make a deal at that time.”

 

Why it works?

Keep on Reading!