Paul M. Caffrey (00:00.942)
I'm delighted to be joined by Cait Kennedy, co -founder of Spoons. Cait, how's it going? How are you?
Cait (00:06.519)
It's going well, thanks. A beautiful day here in Berlin. Hope you're doing well too.
Paul M. Caffrey (00:11.214)
Yeah, I'm doing super well and I am very excited for this rapid fire episode. We're going to shoot through five questions that are going to help sellers sell more. But first, I want to ask you, what is your number one prospecting tip, Cait
Cait (00:27.255)
Ooh, you're starting off with a really good one. You're going to notice a theme with a lot of what I talk about, but you've got to talk about your prospects problems because they don't care about your product. They don't care about your solution. It's abstract to them and they're getting hit up by dozens of messages. The only way you can stand out is that you be relatable. And the only way you can do that is by actually showing that you understand what is keeping them awake at night.
Paul M. Caffrey (00:52.686)
So there you go. Be relatable, understand their problems, talk about their problems. So lead with their problems in your outreach.
Cait (01:00.791)
a thousand percent. Yeah. Should always be, this is something that I saw about you and this is a problem that it can often present. Is this something that you're thinking about in terms of a way to solve it? The thing is when we all look at our own inboxes, we know almost everyone is following the spray and pray approach. Guess what? That doesn't work in today's market. Reply rates are down by like 77 % over the last 10 years. It's because it's too easy to automate. What no one is doing is showing that you've done your homework. You understand what they're going through.
and then you've got a little bit of insight about how you can make their world less bleak.
Paul M. Caffrey (01:34.862)
Really like that. What's your number one sales tip Cait?
Cait (01:39.607)
Number one sales tip, gosh, again, it's just so similar where you have to just think about one, do your homework for the love of God before a call. I cannot stress this enough. A lot of sales reps will hop on and just immediately, you know, start like, tell me about your company. You can find that out by looking at their website, doing a little like quick Google search beforehand. That's going to tremendously increase your perceived credibility and the buyer's eyes. So do your homework, have an informed opinion again about what's happening.
problems that could present and already have insight in mind about how you can solve it. This way, you're going to stand out from the crowd and you don't need to waste 15 precious minutes talking about the basics and you can really get to what matters most. And that's understanding how you can make that problem go away.
Paul M. Caffrey (02:26.862)
Excellent. And when it comes to getting promoted and advancing your career, what advice would you give someone who's on the hunt for a better role?
Cait (02:34.807)
Make your job, make your boss's job easier. I think we very often believe that promotions are somewhat entitled, but that's just not the case. Keep in mind your boss is a human being. They're stressed, they're overwhelmed when they're considering you for a promotion. They're thinking, is this going to make my life more or less stressful? If you can continually demonstrate that you're reliable, that you're hardworking, that you can proactively communicate, and I really want to stress that one, that increases the likelihood that they're going to think, hey, if I move this person up,
to be a load off my shoulders rather than it's a risk because no one wants to stick their neck out on the line even if they like you a lot personally.
Paul M. Caffrey (03:13.55)
So true. And what else do you think people can do in that situation?
Cait (03:19.913)
So I have to admit, I have a very, and this is controversial, a very cliche American view on this, which is work harder than your peers. If you continually stand out as being the person that gets stuff done, that is really valued by the people above you. I think we all know that some people, you know, clock in and clock out, and if they get the work done in time, good, if they don't, fine. But if you're that person that gets it done no matter what, even when it's uncomfortable,
That is again what your boss is going to think. This is someone I can trust, someone I can rely on, and it's going to make my life easier if I promote them.
Paul M. Caffrey (03:58.35)
Really, really like that because it's about outcomes as opposed to the work itself, whether that's fast or slow. Getting it there is so, so crucial. What sales book or book in general do you recommend people read to improve how they sell?
Cait (04:16.407)
So my favorite sales book at the moment is called Problem Prospecting. It's by Richard Smith, Mark Ackert, and Stuart Tyler. By the way, if you don't follow any of them on LinkedIn, I recommend doing that right now. They know their stuff, really, really great. But that book is just absolutely game changing. Again, I think you might notice that understanding prospects problems and speaking to that specifically is something that's really cool.
really close to my heart and this book just does an excellent job at explaining it very very very well.
Paul M. Caffrey (04:47.854)
Great one to check out there. So guys, and when we think about preparation, particularly when it comes to prospects and comes to sales, what does doing the work before the work look like in your world case?
Cait (05:01.815)
Always do the research about what's happening in an account. So you want to look at it from a few different angles. One, just generally have an idea about what type of counter we're speaking about generally. So here you're thinking more sort of from a graphics. Then you want to take a look at this person's role and what is the likely organizational chart. If you happen to have sales nav, LinkedIn is a really great way to do this because you can take a look at who else is in their organization, who is their likely boss.
This already gives you an indication of the level of responsibility that they hold, their own objectives and their own KPIs. Next, you want to look at what's happening in the account in terms of recent events, such as, you know, are, did they just raise funding? And if so, where are they going to be allocating it? Did they recently launch a product? Are they accelerating or maybe investing more in research and development, whatever it could be. And then think, all right, I know who I'm speaking to.
I know their own objectives. I also have thought about their boss's objectives because they're going to care a lot about that. How are they likely responsible for this bigger company goal? And then what are the likely things that could stand in their way, potentially trip them up from reaching that goal? Because at the end, we all want to look good in our company's eyes. And if you're able to think about what can maybe make them look bad in that scenario, what are the problems that could be coming up?
That's a really great way to get started. And if you do that before the call, you're going to have a way more powerful discussion than if you're kind of thinking about it during.
Paul M. Caffrey (06:31.086)
Cait, lots of great advice. Thanks so much for sharing it. If people want to find out more about you and spoons, how can they go about that?
Cait (06:39.479)
Yeah, go to getspoons .io and you can also find me on LinkedIn.
Paul M. Caffrey (06:43.758)
Perfect. Thanks so much, Cait. Shout again soon.
Cait (06:46.231)
Thanks, Paul.
