The biggest problem facing B2B sales is that the very tactics that are designed to simplify the process – such as giving buyers as much information as they want about a product – are also the very same tactics that make it harder to close the deal. As a result, it’s time to re-think B2B sales. That’s the conclusion of a fascinating piece – “The New B2B Sales Imperative – that appears in the March-April 2017 issue of Harvard Business Review.
A team of researchers from consulting firm CEB (Nicholas Toman, Brent Adamson and Cristina Gomez) examined the B2B sales process and what they came up with is that it’s essentially broken. There’s a disconnect between buyers and sellers: buyers think that sellers have all the power, and sellers think that buyers have all the power. The number of people involved in the B2B sales process, too, continues to grow. Just two years ago, there was an average of 5.4 people involved in making a B2B purchase. Now, that average is up to 6.8. That means that there are more decision-makers to placate, and that just complicates the process. People are just too risk-averse.
At the same time, there’s just too much information out there for buyers. That results in what the researchers refer to as “unproductive open-ended learning loops.” Put another way, B2B buyers never know when to stop the research process, since there’s so much information out there. There are white papers, case studies and lots of options to consider — all of it available online 24/7.
And, finally, there are just too many vendors out there offering similar products. That leads to a situation where “more isn’t always better.” This is the whole paradox of choice that Barry Schwartz wrote about nearly a decade ago. It’s the same problem that consumers face when they go to a supermarket and see shelves full of competing products, all of them very similar. Often, they’ll just go with what they know rather than try out a new brand.
So how do you solve this problem? The CEB researchers call their solution the “new sales imperative.” What it means is making buying easier by making selling easier.
The starting point is focusing on a proactive, prescriptive approach that lowers the number of choices that buyers have to make, provides a clear recommendation of which choice is best for them, and gives a specific rationale for making the purchase that can be explained to the 6.8 decision-makers involved in the purchase. B2B salespersons should focus on clear, concise explanations to the questions they most often encounter.
The prescriptive selling approach is all about “designing prescriptions” that meet the specific needs of the company, rather than coming up with an endless set of new alternatives and options to consider. Too often, the B2B sales team will try to be as flexible as possible, coming up with all kinds of new options. But that just needlessly complicates the sales process.
The new sales imperative argues for a streamlined approach to B2B sales. Instead of endless, unproductive loops, it promises to create very efficient buyer journeys where barriers are easily identified and it’s possible to outline very specific prescriptions that will solve the problems of buyers. That should result in more B2B sales.
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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.