B2B selling is a competitive industry where only the successful entrepreneurs survive. It’s one where you are only as good as your last month. It can make it one of the hardest sectors to make a living in. But you do have control over your career. The actions you take will influence whether you sink or swim.
Here are some of the things you are doing that could be destroying your B2B sales career.
Promising Too Much
You are ambitious and you want to become the star, but at the same time, you need to make sure that you can actually deliver on your promises. If you over promise and under deliver, you are going to gain a reputation as someone who always disappoints.
Don’t promise too much or you are going to find yourself with the tag of the most unreliable B2B seller within the company.
Switch things around by under promising and over delivering. And if you can’t deliver on a promise tell the relevant person as soon as possible to reduce the disappointment.
Being Complacent
Complacency tends to happen when you start to feel comfortable. You may have been with the same company for ten years or you could be coming off your third consecutive month of increasing sales. Complacency hits when you stop learning new marketing strategies, such as using an Instagram growth service, and when, in many cases, you stop caring.
This is an evolving industry and if you aren’t constantly trying to improve your lot you are going to fall behind your hungrier coworkers. In the worst case scenario, this could even lose you your job.
Fearing Change
As already mentioned, B2B selling is an industry that’s constantly evolving and changing. This is no place for people who enjoy the same thing month after month and year after year. It’s like the medical industry in that six months out of the game and most of what you know is irrelevant.
One big change, for example, is that 67% of businesses make a decision before contacting a vendor.
Things are changing faster than ever before and you need to be receptive to change. Successful B2B sellers can adapt to the changing market and the changing workplace.
It doesn’t matter whether you think these changes are good or even needed. The fact is that they are here and you need to react in the right way to them.
Your Ego Can’t Fit Through the Door
Success is great, and it’s great to be proud of your success. But when you inflict your success on others it’s time to make a change. Success is always great and it can improve your career, but once you let your successes become who you are it can rub a lot of people the wrong way.
Part of getting on with a B2B selling career is knowing the right people and having strong relationships with your team. If your team hates you, forget about ever earning that promotion. Celebrate your successes, but don’t feel as if you have to shove them in other people’s faces.
When it comes to success, it’s better to give than to receive. Spend most of your time praising others for their successes, rather than basking in your own success.
Not Having the Big Picture Concept in Mind
The big picture is everything in business. It doesn’t matter what industry you happen to be in. Without looking at the big picture, you are effectively spinning your wheels. Smart people always have one eye ahead of them and where they are going.
It’s good to keep your head down and focus on a specific task, but there’s little point in doing this if you don’t know where you are going and why.
So why does this matter to the average B2B seller?
It helps you to understand where the business is going and what the business expects of you. It’s a constant guessing game to understand what your managers want, and more importantly what your leads want. By keeping an eye on the big picture, you will ultimately have a better conversion rate.
Conclusion
Your B2B business career requires you to constantly improve and constantly keep your standards high. To enjoy a long career, it’s about being able to evolve and adapt with the times. Those are the traits that will lead to a long and successful career in B2B sales.
Dane
Dane Cobain is a published author, freelance writer, book blogger, poet and (occasional) musician from High Wycombe, UK. Before going freelance, he worked as a social media marker, now specialising in writing about publishing, technology and marketing.