The Seismic Shift Of B2B Sales

The following is an edited excerpt from the book, The Sales EDGE, by Gene McNaughton.

The world of B2B sales has never been more difficult or complex.

Why? Because commoditization of just about every product and service type is increasing at a rapid pace. Internet service, contracting, cell phones, Google, social media, and video streaming services make access to information faster than ever before, and it is increasing at lightning speeds.

The Buying Process Now Begins With You

Where consumers and businesses used to rely solely on sellers for their product and service information, the increased availability of internet research has made product information and pricing information easily accessible to potential buyers around the world.

Whether your prospect is based in Cleveland, Sacramento, London, or Shanghai, with just a few clicks, they can learn anything they need to know before they even consider engaging a vendor or salesperson. In most business-to-business selling scenarios, prospective buyers will have already been to company websites, learned about products, studied spec sheets, read through pricing, and created a shortlist of providers they want to meet.

Research proves that they’re likely more than halfway through the decision process — before they even bring you in!

Then, if they are good, they will pit you against your competitor to drive down price: “We really like you, but your competitor is 20 percent less expensive. Now if you can match that, we will choose you.”

That’s a common road to ongoing eroding margins and is not a path any of us want to be on.

Think about it — every dollar you give away in discounts cuts into any profit margin you will be getting. If you are a seller whose commissions are based on margin (and all compensation structures should be this way), you could be robbing yourself of income.

The accelerated rate of perceived commoditization, which we’ll discuss more in later chapters, in virtually all industries has made it even more challenging to gain access to the people you need to meet with.

Your access is becoming increasingly restricted because your website, your competitors’ websites, and third-party resources are attempting (and, as you will see from the buyer’s interviews, mandated) to do your job.

If your company isn’t on a buyer’s short list, it’s an uphill battle to even be able to have a conversation with the right people. In some cases, due to past experiences with pushy sales tactics, the people you’re targeting would rather get a root canal than talk to a salesperson — at least until they absolutely must.

This is a monumental hurdle for you and your salespeople. It is the number one issue that every one of my clients struggles with. Based on historic human behavior, this “wave” is just the beginning.

Old Strategies, New Battlefield

If you think about it, the good old days seem really good now. Before the internet, buyers and procurement people would have to start their process by calling in salespeople, opening a dialogue, having multiple meetings, listening to pitches, and collecting research. It was only then that they would begin to narrow the field. If you were decent, you had a shot! Now, that’s just not the case.

The taxing complexities of these shifting trends are the main reason salespeople are having increasing difficulty in landing mid and large-sized accounts. Traditional (old-school) techniques have become less effective. In fact, as you will see in the client interviews placed throughout the book, companies whose sales teams apply these outdated, 1990s selling processes and sales techniques are seeing their sales decrease, margins decline, and long-term clients leave.

Now, more than ever, it is an absolute imperative that, if you want to compete and win, you must adjust your selling messages, techniques, methods, and style to match the emerging trends of the new buying process.

If a salesperson falls back on the routine of selling on price, quality, and service, they’ll soon be pushed into a commoditization situation where their only competitive difference is price. If you are the higher price, and you haven’t convinced them of your competitive advantage, well — you know what will happen. It becomes a zero-sum game. Whoever can do the job for the cheapest price usually wins the deal.

The “Safer Decision” Movement

Another challenge that salespeople face is the increased buying trend toward believing that “safer decisions are better decisions.” Every company wants to reduce risk, especially when spending money. They bring more people into the decision process and make buying decisions by committee. There can be between five to eight decision makers in most mid- to large-sized opportunities.

My firm’s experience has shown this to be true with most of the clients we’re consulting. One of our clients in the accounting/professional services business has faced situations where there were twelve people on a decision-making committee.

The goal in these situations is to understand the committee’s objective. The questions these decision voters must answer are simple: “Is the pain of our current situation greater than the perceived pain of change?” And, if it is, they ask, “Which company can we trust to give us the most certainty in eliminating that pain and helping us achieve our desired result?”

It’s easy to understand the perception that safer is better. Nobody is going to lose their job by making the safe decision. In business, however, anticipation of this decision-making mindset is power. We see this every day as we are quarterbacking deals for some of the largest companies in the world.

This is why your sales strategy, process, and pitch need to be sharper than ever.

Here’s why decisions made by committees are so challenging: each one of those decision makers has their own agenda, their own needs, their own priorities, and their own worldview.

While the goal of the committee may be clear, each person is coming up with different answers to the questions they’re asking:

• How can you help me and my company/division do what we need to do — and make me look good?
• Can I trust you to do what you say?
• How can you make my life easier?
• What makes you different?
• Can I see myself working with this person/team/company and enjoying it?

Procurement has an agenda of creating the most favorable pricing. Finance may have spreadsheets and long-term cost analysis. Each vice president/director must do what’s best to achieve their divisional outcomes. The division manager, whose team will actually use your product or service every day, is likely understaffed and may not even want to change. Their concerns are entirely different:

• Does it work?
• Will it help me/my team do our jobs even better?
• Will this solution save us time?
• Will this solution help us get more done?
• Will this solution make my work life better?

The challenge is that, while all these different committee members have the same broad goal of solving problems and driving corporate growth, they usually have vastly different ideas of the best way to accomplish that. In some cases, they are overly concerned about how working with you may disrupt their lives. To win, you must be prepared to deal with multiple influencers who each have different agendas.

Where Does This Leave You?

You obviously picked this book up for a reason. Somewhere in your mind you believe that you and/or your team could and should be selling at a higher level of effectiveness. But how do you find out the real truth?

Step back and think about your sales team for a minute. If an outsider, such as someone from my team, were to come to your office and request a one-on-one interview with five of your salespeople to discuss their selling processes and sales techniques, what would we hear? What responses would we get if my team role-played common selling scenarios like the following:

• We just met, and I asked about your company. How do you describe your company and what you do?
• You just called me, and I picked up the phone. What do you say?
• You just called me and got my voicemail. What would you say?
• What do you say on your second, third, and fourth voicemail? How often do you attempt a third or fourth voicemail? How many voicemails do you leave before you stop calling?
• We sit down for our scheduled meeting. What do you normally do or say?
• You are finally ready to deliver a proposal to me. How do you normally do that?
• Describe how you would respond to potential clients who say the following:
• “We are in good shape with our existing provider.”
• “I need to think about it.”
• “Your price is higher than we planned to spend.”
• “Thanks, this has been helpful. We will get back to you.”

Now, would you be willing to bet that all responses will be similar and highly-effective? Would you hear something you’re proud of? If your answer is “no” or “not even close,” your team is literally flushing money and profit down the toilet.

If this is the case, don’t feel bad — you are in the same situation as 90 percent of all companies across the market.

Rather than just give you advice on how to do an internal sales process audit, Chapter 4 will walk you through the steps to self-evaluate your team. Then, later in Chapter 4 you’ll learn exactly how we perform an “audit” for the companies that hire us.

The road to the future does not look bright unless you adapt and develop a more strategic, modern set of sales processes and methodologies. I’ll walk you through every single step required to excel in today’s B2B sales environment. If you’ve read through this chapter and seen a reflection of your experience in the words, you need to keep reading.

Your company’s success depends on your willingness to make a change, and I can show you how to do that.

For more on how to excel in today’s B2B sales environment, check out The Sales EDGE by Gene McNaughton.