Controversial in practice: These are the advantages and disadvantages of the interview guide
Controversial in practice: These are the advantages and disadvantages of the interview guide
Advantages and disadvantages of discussion guidelines - and how sales teams can resolve the conflict
It's Friday early afternoon, which, according to experience in your sales department, is one of the best times to get the decision makers on your leads directly on the phone. So open the drawer, prepare the cold call guide and dial the first number: everything is ready for a standard cold call. After the greeting, your team always delivers the same intro and, if it comes to that at all, the pitch follows a standard pattern - without reference to the (already lacking) research on the other person or the previous course of the conversation. If the lead participates up to this point, they are rewarded with a short interrogation on the problem-solution fit: guaranteed to be read off and without any added value for the other party.
The no-show rate at the follow-up appointment does not lie. This worst practice probably sums up the most popular disadvantages of a conversation guide. A lack of individuality and zero incentive for the salespeople's personal commitment are the main points of criticism. But what are the real pros and cons of interview guidelines? Don't the advantages outweigh the disadvantages of interview guides? And can't some shortcomings be avoided? Judge for yourself, but please only after reading this article!
Interview guidelines: good idea, bad implementation?
Sales leaders agree that stable processes offer great potential for increasing sales performance. This not only means that leads need a certain maturity when they are passed on from the SDR to the account executive. The conversations themselves should also share common patterns. And precisely those that stand for success:
- Consistent discussion structure with a focus on results
- Individual conversation that entertains and offers added value
- Reliable information gathering and documentation
- Manageable effort for preparation and follow-up
Many sales organizations are faced with the question of whether discussion guides are the right tool for structuring sales conversations accordingly. They ask themselves the question: What are the advantages and disadvantages of conversation guidelines?
The basic idea is that the guideline guides employees through the meeting and offers them orientation. It not only ensures a coherent agenda, but also provides marketing messages with suggestions for successful formulations. The structure simplifies the documentation of the meeting, which in turn creates transparency for monitoring success. All in all, this promises considerable advantages. However, if the tool is not used correctly, it can also have negative consequences. We take a closer look at the advantages and disadvantages of interview guidelines.
Discussion guide: Disadvantages for the sales department
Bad experiences leave their mark - even on the discussion guide. Whether it's unfortunate communication during past implementation attempts or an incorrect personal understanding of how to use the tool: Criticism of discussion guides mainly relates to the following disadvantages.
- Salespeople are not robots: this disadvantage stems from the idea that employees have to bluntly read out the interview guidelines. Who wouldn't feel degraded by that? After all, their own creativity, personal intuition for the other person and valuable expertise play no role. This also has an effect on the other person: Interviewees quickly lose interest because they are not really addressed on either a personal or professional level.
- Sales is not telemarketing: a conversation according to a plan evokes thoughts of telemarketing, which is all about closing the deal quickly: just don't take too many detours in the conversation, either close the deal immediately or tick off the lead. But solution selling in B2B sales is different. The products require an individual approach to the interested party's situation. Your opponents interpret the conversation guidelines as a disadvantage because they stand in the way of this individual approach.
- Talented salespeople don't need a conversation guide: Salespeople trust themselves first and foremost - and rightly so. They are self-confident and work autonomously. After all, their personality is an important asset. Accordingly, every salesperson finds their own way to bring this to the fore - for example when dealing with difficult customer types. On the other hand, those who do not have sales in their blood will not be successful even with a guide: disadvantage number 3 of sales guides.
Working with an interview guide is a change and every change process encounters resistance. But before the conversation guide is used, there is another point that makes the disadvantages of conversation guides for salespeople seem more important than the advantages: Even more effort for supporting activities, even less time for customers and leads. After all, a conversation guide is not created overnight. It is a time-consuming process that involves recording, editing and structuring the content of the conversation. And this is repeated time and time again, as products, marketing messages and target groups are constantly changing. The advantages must far outweigh the disadvantages of conversation guides for the investment to be worthwhile.
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Discussion guide: Advantages for the sales department
Structure does not always have to be restrictive and limit your own creative options. Starting the meeting with a consistent agenda can also provide security. If you know what is on the agenda and which points still need to be addressed, you have more control and can act more confidently - and respond to the other person individually. This is just one example of how the frequently cited disadvantages of discussion guidelines can be turned into advantages.
- More discussion about the conversations: What is the best conversation starter for a specific situation? What pretexts and objections can I expect? Creating a guideline forces the team to really think through these aspects. A workshop promotes exchange and provides new insights.
- Making use of experience: By systematically using suitable tools for call documentation, you can initiate a continuous improvement process: Make a note of promising conversation starters for cold calling in the guide, document the success in order to harness empirical values. In this way, you will gradually build up a reservoir of best practice - and your entire sales team will benefit. This is a clear advantage of the call guide.
- Anticipate situations and refute objections: The most important objections are repeated over and over again and are key points in the conversation. The better they are reflected in the discussion guide, the more of an advantage the sales team has. The guide provides the arguments, while the sales force can concentrate on putting them into words in an appealing way.
- Listen better and respond more creatively : One clear advantage of the conversation guide is that it allows you to concentrate fully on your counterpart. A fixed structure and less thinking about responses or product features bring more focus. This automatically fulfills the most important prerequisite for sales success: customer focus. You have your head free to record and really understand the leads' pain points.
- Making sales processes scalable: Building up the necessary expertise in the team is crucial for sales success. Sharing this and raising new employees to the necessary level is what makes consistent growth possible in the first place. If you have the concentrated knowledge of a guide on your side, you can make calls with real leads earlier and contribute to the team's success with the first sense of achievement. This makes conversation guides one of the central elements of effective onboarding programs.
Takeaway
The correct use of conversation guidelines in sales shows parallels to a well-trained professional team: by intensively training conversation starters, sales techniques and reactions, you lay the foundation for sales success. In practice, you now automatically fall back on these foundations and can focus your sales strategy entirely on the customer. In this way, you can balance the advantages and disadvantages in your favor.
The advantage of discussion guidelines: how to plan for success
The advantages are undeniable, but the disadvantages of interview guidelines can be refuted. The right approach to implementation turns the attitude of sales staff around. The fear of being patronized is replaced by appreciation for the new support. With one exception: yes, setting up a really good discussion guide ties up capacity. But experienced salespeople know that you have to go the extra mile to be successful!
With their advantages, discussion guidelines ensure that the team can use its energy in a targeted manner. Not every salesperson has to laboriously identify the best response to an objection for themselves. Instead of being left alone with the trial-and-error process, the team supports each other. Everyone benefits from the insights of the others, as they are reflected in the discussion guide. Such a discussion guide is also an advantage when onboarding young talent. After all, the know-how is not packaged in an unwieldy way; the guide makes the bundled knowledge directly usable in the interview.
