When to Bring in a Subject-Matter Expert

In some ways, salespeople are knowledge shapeshifters. They learn about a product, its features, benefits, and values, and sell that product. Then they learn about a different product and sell that one. If they’re lucky, they sell products they believe in. If they’re luckier, they get to keep selling those products. But salespeople aren’t generally software engineers, medical professionals, or hotel developers. And sometimes, however deeply they’ve educated themselves in what they’re selling, they need to call upon a subject-matter expert (SME) during the sales process. If you’re a salesperson, this might have been you—or it might be sometime soon.

My conversation with Mike Valade, Maestro’s chief client officer, surprised me. I learned that a knowledge barrier is not the only situation that calls for the enlistment of an SME. So, how do you know when it’s time to enlist someone from your organization who can speak to the more technical aspects of the product or solution you’re trying to sell?

GO TEAM (SELLING)!

In addition to arming your side of the table with technical know-how, grabbing an SME from your team can just be another way to practice “team selling,” something that Maestro recommends. Why? Simple: “You close more deals…”

What does this look like? When you’re tapping the expertise of an SME in order to cook up some team-selling magic, they may be brought in early, possibly even on a demo. “Now there’s another internal person that’s on there,” says Mike. He’s found this helpful to facilitate a smooth sales process.

THE ACCELERATOR

Sometimes, a subject-matter expert is there less to share product knowledge you couldn’t have relayed without them and more to act as an accelerator. “Maybe I’m bringing them in as a reason for them to move the deal to the next step…I want to keep the momentum in this deal. The best way for me to keep the momentum is to offer up a subject matter expert.”

Maestro’s saying is, “A deal at rest dies.” It’s important to give yourself access to a variety of touchpoints to keep in continuous contact with your prospect, and sometimes that means switching up the cast of characters a bit. Another half hour of just you and your prospect may not warrant another call at this point in the process. Bringing in an expert can.

THE APPLES-TO-APPLES APPROACH

Sometimes it’s actually the prospect’s tech specialists you’re trying to get a meeting with. Gaining communication with that side of their business can mean traveling farther down the funnel, making deeper connections, and mitigating risks that can pop up later on. Also, they might be people whose buy-in you’ll need at some point during the process in order to close the deal. “This is how we get them on board early…” says Mike.

Bringing in the tech team on your side can help justify your request for a meeting with theirs. Saying something like, “The next step is for us to ____. We’ll need the ____manager to come to this meeting. Our ____ expert will run them through ____.”

This, in turn, affords you additional links at a prospect company, expanding your network inside the organization. Mike calls this being “multi-threaded in that organization. I have multiple people I can contact.” Remember Matt Green’s advice from our blog about what to do when your champion leaves? Of course you do. That’s why you understand why being multi-threaded is so important.

A subset of the apple-to-apples approach is…

THE TESTER

We talk a lot about microconversions at Maestro, small litmus test-y interactions, gestures, or suggestions that give us a sense of the health of our deal. “If they’re not willing to bring on more people,” says Mike, “or if they’re not willing to meet with my subject-matter expert, even if they don’t have to bring on more people, then that’s…a red flag early in this process. They say they need this thing, but maybe the desire or the cost of inaction isn’t that great, or there are other priorities that I haven’t uncovered…”

This doesn’t necessarily mean game over. But it does give you a read on where things stand and can even prompt you to uncover information you may not otherwise have reached, which can end up helping the deal in the long run.  

THE PLAIN-OLD EXPERT

And then there’s the obvious: sometimes you need a subject matter expert because you simply do not have the specialized background needed to fully communicate a product’s features, benefits, and values. Maybe you’re selling a new kind of lab-inventorying solution to people who distribute funds to scientists. If you have a scientist on your team, they may be able to provide a lot more expert knowledge—not to mention credibility—to a sales process with a prospective client.

SMES ARE SALESPEOPLE, TOO

Something Mike feels strongly about is that “Subject matter experts should go through sales training.” When you bring in an SME, you’re still bringing a member of your team into a selling situation, which means they could enhance your deal, but they could also impair it. Two of the pitfalls Mike warns against for SMEs are talking too much and not asking the prospect enough questions.

Don’t forget to keep an SME up to date the same way you would (or should) any other team member: “all the information that a subject-matter expert needs ahead of time should be in your CRM, and when you do something…they should get a notification. They need to have the information. Almost all the time, these people have no information…” Not just that, “they should have a pre-meeting, and it should be a run-of-the-show meeting where it’s, ‘Hey, here are the things that I’m going to ask. Here’s what I want you to dig deeper on, because this is what we’ve talked about before. I don’t want you to touch on these things, because that’s going to take us in a bad direction.” Mike even suggests training your SME in what vocabulary the prospect uses. Something as seemingly minute as calling engineers technicians or vice versa can impact the vibe of a meeting and your relationship with your prospect.  

Don’t treat your SME as a guest speaker. Make sure they come off as both knowledgeable and asan integral part of your team. If you’re going to bring in an SME—for any of the reasons we’ve talked about—bring in an SME who has practiced with you, knows exactly when to jump in, what to say, and what not to say. SMEs: they’re just like you!

Do you want your SMEs trained in sales right now? You can find Maestro’s self-paced training here. Several are currently available for FREE!