The Internet has a much bigger impact on B2B sales than most of us realise. It is an evolution taking us off guard and bringing along a negative impact on our control and visibility. Hence, the B2B buying process has switched from a sales-driven to a buyer-driven process and requires the traditional sales cycle, pipeline, activities and who needs to be involved when, to be revamped. Companies need to look at Buyer Aligned Collaboration™ if they want to create breakthrough performance enhancements and stop the erosion. 5 important questions you must ask yourself:
- Do I know my customer?
The conversion from product to solution selling has been going on for over 15 years. Yet, a study from Mc Kinsey shows that 75% of all attempts fail. Many companies make the mistake to think that repackaging products with services makes a solution, but forget that services are products too. ‘Real solutions’ can only exist if the entire organisation understands the challenges the customer is faced with because of not having your solution in place. Do you know and can you quantify these challenges? Is your sales and marketing organsiation capable of explaining the impact of your solution and the changes in his way of working when using your solution (all of this of course without even mentioning your product)?
- Have I packaged differentiation in a way that is directly linked to customer impact?
Is sales capable of influencing decision criteria before the customer is asking for a demo or quote? And this in such a way, that it kills competition even before the real comparative battle begins?
- Do I take buyer experience into acount in my approach?
To what extend is your messaging adapted to your customers’ challenges in relation to their experience with your product? Challenges and buying critiera will be different for a customer who is unhappy with a similar solution in place, compared to someone having no experience what so ever in buying your type of solution.
- Are sales & marketing supporting one another along the entire buying cycle?
Is marketing measured on the amount of revenue they are generating? Is sales involved in the lead generation proces? Is marketing building lip loading deliverables for sales? It’s simply impossible to create a good operating sales & marketing organisiation without the prior way of working in place.
- Does management walk the talk?
It’s amazing to see how little time management is spending in the field, talking to prospects & customers as well as supporting the sales organisation. There is always plenty of work at the office as an excuse for not going into the field. Yet one has to set the priorities right. A couple of recent cases showed that it’s possible to free up management time up to 25%. A couple of tasks to evaluate: time spent with sales in the office, analysing reports, developing management reports and powerpoints or being part of the escalation path instead of managing it. The last one is by far having the biggest negative impact on field presence.
Take action before it’s too late and let me know what works best.
The way people buy has changed dramatically through Internet and globalization. Prospects are spending more time on the Web doing independent research, obtaining information from their peers and other third parties. Companies are therefore meeting prospective buyers earlier than ever. What are the implications for marketing and sales?