B2B Sales Mistakes and How To Avoid Them

What Sales Blindspots Are You Missing

The healthcare sales landscape is changing.

Most of the fundamentals remain but to really deliver a powerful sales strategy you need to understand what some of the core and costly failures have been in recent times.

Making sales is reliant on an effective system so this article is designed to help you identify blindspots in your sales process to ensure you are primed for accelerated growth.

Not Understanding The Customer’s Needs

Don’t sell the product, sell the solution. You’ve heard this before yet it remains the most common mistake. You’re obsessed with your product because it is what you’ve created. You need to be obsessed with being the solution your customer needs. That means selling solutions to their problems. This could mean ignoring 80% of your solution and selling the 20% of it that is exactly what your customer needs.

Not Understanding The Customer's Systems

In healthcare, if you understand your market you’ll understand that organizations are often forced to do things in a certain way to comply with regulations or because they’ve created standard operating procedures they are reluctant to break.

If you aim to move them away from this reticence to alter their existing systems you have a better chance of achieving this once they are already a customer. Play on their terms to start off with then show them the value of your approach 1–2 years down the line once the relationship has been established.

Not Understanding Customer Incentives

You have to play the game you are a part of. If you don’t understand the incentive structures your customers operate under then even the best product and pitch won’t be enough to close the sale. Act ethically but intelligently to ensure you adapt your offering to the customer within the context of their incentive structures. By showing you understand how they operate you build trust and can close the sale with mutual respect for the process. Don’t come in underprepared.

Failure To Create A Sales Pipeline

Behind every good sales team is a pipeline of highly qualified leads that have a clear need for your solution. Shooting in the dark trying to identify leads is both time-consuming and like operating with the anchor down.

If your messaging is inconsistent and you don’t have clarity in who you are, what you do and what your overarching story is then you’ll lose the fleeting attention of the customer and struggle to make sales.

You want every sales call to start with the customer thinking ‘I want this product’ not ‘Do I want this product’.

Ignoring The Decision Making Hierarchy

Who is the entry contact? Who will the communication be escalated to? What level of decision-making do they have? Make sure you know the answer to these questions before you even craft your sales proposal. You need to know who you are crafting your approach for. Once you have the hierarchy of decision-makers understood you can begin to shape your pitch to ensure an efficient sale.

Pricing Mistakes

Know your worth! Sales start once you’ve got a clear understanding of how much you need to charge to operate effectively. You also need to be clear of the general market pricing and what the customer expects. Saying all this, remain flexible in pricing conversations. A negotiation is likely so don't be so fixed with a single price that you hurt yourself by not closing enough deals and securing the long-term interests of your business.

Overselling

Nobody likes being sold to. It’s human nature. You want to feel transactional. This is why overselling can kill deals. Being too pushy and quick to make a close is dangerous and can sour the conversation. Having a process is wise to ensure confidence and trust are established but ensure it is flexible. The deal doesn’t have to be closed in the first meeting.

Use AI In Your Sales Process

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