How Your Modern B2B Buyers Want To Buy Now. And What You Can Do To Help Them.
My Point:
Ask any sales rep, sales leader, or business owner straight out how customer-focused they believe their selling is.
They will claim - probably with some conviction - that they’re 100% customer-focused.
But, unfortunately, the reality is very different.
Actually, most sales people are not focused on the Buyers’ needs and wants.
They are focused on selling to Buyers.
LinkedIn confirms it:
61% of sellers say they “always put the buyer first”.
But: Only 29% of buyers agree!
Source: LinkedIn “The State Of Sales Report 2022”
What’s Causing This Disconnect?
Because sellers are trained, incentivised and actively managed to sell, sell, sell.
You want proof?
Have you ever attended a sales cadence call, a pipeline review, or a sales forecast meeting?
If you have, you’ll find that all sorts of sales metrics are discussed and meticulously scrutinised.
Sales metrics, such as…
Pipeline quantity (how many deals are in the pipeline?)
Pipeline quality (how good are those deals?)
Deal velocity (how fast are they moving through the sales cycle?)
Sales forecast coverage (how many times more deals are in the pipeline than is needed to achieve the sales target or quota?)
Sales forecast accuracy (how predictable is the forecast?)
Sales quota attainment (how close is the rep to achieving their sales target or quota?)
Deal attribution (who created the sales lead, who contributed to generating it, and by how much?)
MQLs versus SALs (what percentage of sales leads were generated by Marketing vs were accepted by Sales?)
The list goes on...
Have You Noticed…?
Have you noticed the ONE COMMON THREAD that runs through all these metrics?
They’re all inward-looking! Businesses pay a lot of attention to their sales processes.
But not a lot to their Buyers’ buying process.
Here’s The Thing:
Today’s Buyers Hate Being Sold To!
They no longer tolerate being ambushed with unsolicited sales offers.
“In today's market, it's important for sellers to focus on the needs and wants of their Buyers, rather than just trying to push a product or service.
Hence, there’s now a huge advantage for those Sellers
who lead with Buyer-Focused Selling.”
- Peter Strohkorb -
Your Selling Needs An Urgent Upgrade!
Like all new ways of doing things, adapting your sales approach requires an adjustment.
Namely, it requires a shift away from pushing products, and instead a move towards engaging with prospects in a way that aligns with their buying journey.
The results speak for themselves.
“81% of top sales performers say they always put the buyer first!”
Source: LinkedIn “The State Of Sales Report 2022”
The image below illustrates the stages that modern B2B Buyers go through when making a purchase decision.
The blue fields illustrate the opportunities for a seller to influence the buyer’s decision making process in their favour. As you can see, once the Buyer has shortlisted their vendors, it is VERY difficult to sway the Buyer away from their shortlisted suppliers.
The Buyers Journey
What is now needed is a selling framework that aligns sellers’ actions with the Buyers’ buying journey to secure and accelerate the buyer’s buying decision in our favour.
The Buyer-Focused Sales Funnel
A Buyer-Focused Sales Funnel…
Views the sales process from the Buyer’s perspective
Opens the deal effectively by engaging qualified prospects into a business conversation, not a sales pitch
Fends off competitors, both effectively and innovatively
Has you be the last seller standing who wins the deal
Converts first-time Buyers into repeat customers
Turns repeat customers into advocates who refer new Buyers to you
Sounds good so far?
How Does It Work?
To guarantee success, there are ten Buyer-Focused Selling Competencies.
At Peter Strohkorb Sales Advisory, we work together with our clients to bring these competencies into their business and to apply them specifically to their buyers and to their products and services.
What Do I Need To Do?
All you need is to spend 1 hour per week to acquire ten modern selling competencies. They are all well-proven to be effective. Importantly, they are quick to learn and easy to deploy into your business.
At a cost that is less than you probably think.
The 10 Competencies Are…
The 10 Buyer-Focused Selling Competencies
1. Have a succinct Brand Promise.
This is not something esoteric or trivial.
You’ll need to develop a brand promise that clearly communicates what kind of customer experience your buyers can expect when they’re doing business with you.
2. Be very clear about what you’re selling.
Make it easy for your buyers to understand exactly what they are getting from you.
The 10 Buyer-Focused Selling Competencies
3. Have an effective and unique Value Proposition.
It needs to be one that truly differentiates your business from your competitors, makes you unique in the eyes of your buyers, and can be backed up with facts.
4. Understand who your Ideal Customers are.
Including their location, industry, title, pain points, goals and - critically - their personal motivations and ambitions.
5. Know where to find them.
Know where your ideal customers are, what they are paying attention to, either online or physically in-person.
6. Know to engage your potential Buyers effectively.
Create a “Lean-Forward Moment”, meaning literally make them lean forward and take an active interest in what you’re offering.
Initiate a meaningful business conversation instead of hitting them up with a sales pitch.
7. Learn to fend off your Competitors, subtly but effectively.
Achieve this by raising the one subject that your competitors will not want to touch: Buyer Risk.
8. Have an effective Sales Proposal Process.
Use our sales proposal PROCESS to gain an unfair advantage that makes you the last vendor standing, the one who wins the deal.9. Give your Buyers a great buying experience.
Make their buying experience so great pre, during and post-purchase that it turns them into repeat customers.
10. Implement a Referral Selling System.
Let’s face it: Referrals are the easiest and most effective way to finding new leads and new revenues.
So, turn your customers into advocates who refer new prospects to you.
But: Just asking for referrals is not going to cut it. It must not just be something you do, only when you think of it. You’ll need to implement a structure and proper metrics, so you can measure what you manage, and get the results. You need a referral selling system.
You can learn all ten Competencies in just a few weeks and at lower cost than you think.
Next:
Find out how buyer-focused your current selling is and how easily you can meet your Buyers’ expectations and win more business.
Click on the button below.
Request a free Funnel Mapping Session with Peter Strohkorb
About The Author
Peter Strohkorb has built an international reputation as a modern sales expert, specialising in Buyer Focused Selling with modern Sales Funnels that deliver a superior buyer experience, lift sales performance, enable repeat business and drive sustainable sales revenue growth.
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