supported by research Who wouldn’t benefit from a collection of highly effective sales strategies? This collection of the most effective B2B sales strategies, supported by research, is the only resource you need if you really want to improve how you sell.
What distinguishes these sales methods as “the best”?
The short answer is that these methods don’t come from personal experience, folklore that hasn’t been looked at, or any so-called “best practices.”
Our research with B2B DecisionLabs makes it abundantly clear that the most counterintuitive response is frequently the correct one. When you choose to follow best practices, you might use the most common approach, but it might not be the most effective one.
Additionally, “lagging practices” are by definition best practices. It may take years to identify a practice as a best practice before it becomes standard.
In contrast, science is objective and timeless. It only cares about the buyers and how they act. The science doesn’t lie. Even though these methods of selling seem strange and counterintuitive, behavioral research studies have proven that they are the most effective way to sell to B2B decision-makers.
So, without further ado, here are five science-backed sales + write for us strategies that are surprisingly effective and persuasive.
1. sell to your buyer’s situation, not their disposition. Over the past decade, the B2B buying process has become increasingly complex. In 2015, each purchase decision required approval from five to six people on average. “The typical buying group for a complex B2B solution involves six to ten decision-makers,” as stated by Gartner today.
To put it another way, you are not just selling to one person; rather, you are influencing consensus among a variety of stakeholders. Despite not having the same title or demographic information, these stakeholders do share one thing in common: their circumstance.
Individuals don’t buy from you as a result of what their identity is, their socioeconomics, or their work qualities. They are more concerned with determining whether their current circumstance is jeopardizing their business objectives.
The genuine drivers behind ways of behaving and conduct change are the difficulties inside your purchaser’s circumstance, not their expert attitude.
Your customers are asking important questions about their current circumstances. We collectively refer to this set of situation-specific inquiries as the Customer Deciding Journey.
The Customer Deciding Journey depicts the thoughts and actions of your customers as they consider whether or not to make a purchase from you. You can tailor your selling to the situation and win when you understand their underlying motivations and behaviors in each conversation.
Avoid focusing on the persona, position, or title. Start selling to the situation of your buyer instead. Assist your possibilities and clients with understanding whether their ongoing methodology is endangering their business objectives. Then, tailor your sales strategies to each stage of the customer decision-making process.
2. disturb your possibility’s the norm
Numerous salespeople expect that the deals interaction is straight — a bunch of repeatable advances that each prospect goes through during the deals cycle. Additionally, at some point, the prospect will choose between you and your rival.
The truth is that those are only two of many possible outcomes. Your customers have a third choice: no response.
According to studies, competitors lose at least 40% of deals in the pipeline to “no decision.” This is due to what’s known as “Status Quo Bias,” or your prospect’s natural reluctance to change their current behavior.
You are fighting inertia as an outsider, your buyer’s natural tendency to remain in their current situation. You must disrupt your prospect’s status quo, drive the need for change, and develop a buying vision that sets you apart from your rivals in order to convince them to change and choose you.
But keep in mind that you can’t just start touting the advantages and features of your solutions. If your prospect doesn’t first recognize the need for change, they won’t be interested in your solution.
Instead, concentrate on establishing that your prospect’s current situation prevents them from achieving their most important business objectives and instilling an urgent need for change.
3. introduce unconsidered requirements If you base your strategy on what your prospects tell you about their requirements, whether through discovery questions or voice of the customer research, you are more likely to connect the particular capabilities of your solution to those identified requirements.
The problem is that your rivals are responding to the same information from their customers and prospects. As a result, you end up sending messages that are generic and won’t set you apart.
Prospects see no difference between your choices and those of your rivals when they read and hear messages that are similar to yours. The buyer chooses to maintain the status quo because there is no compelling need for change.
Your buyer will mistake you for a tape recorder if you tell them about problems they already know about. Introduce prospects to Unconsidered Needs—unmet or unidentified issues or missed opportunities that are hindering their business—in order to incite change and overcome Status Quo Bias.
B2B DecisionLabs found that introducing an Unconsidered Need at the beginning of a provocative message increases your persuasive impact by 10%.
Study Unconsidered Requirements in this brief video:
Play no 20 questions. Instead, help your prospects understand what is preventing them from achieving their business objectives.
4. tell client stories with contrast
Unconsidered Requirements are intense devices to show your possibilities the requirement for change. But what follows? How can a buying vision that is connected to your solution be developed?
In your sales conversations, you need to emphasize the gap between the “before” story, or the current flawed approach, and the “after” story, or the new improved method, in order to effectively convey value. Your customer feels compelled to take action because of this contrast.
When attempting to justify the purchase decision to executives, the same general principle applies. They feel a greater sense of urgency to make a decision right away when you: 1) identify missing gaps or opportunities that affect their highest-level strategic goals; and 2) justify the business impact of the decision by telling a customer story with contrast.
Financial evidence should be included in customer stories to support the buying vision. However, don’t be afraid to connect that data to your feelings. Talking about people who were affected by the difficult work environment is one way to accomplish this. Then talk about how your solution made their lives easier, better, or less stressful.
5. Avoid falling into the parity trap when talking about sales. When you’re trying to sell your value proposition to potential customers, consider how much overlap there is between what you can offer and what your rivals can offer.
The majority of B2B salespeople acknowledge that overlap is 70% or higher. Numerous businesses can effectively perform the task with comparable capabilities and prices in competitive markets. Additionally, buyers are more likely to conduct a price-versus-price bake-off if they do not perceive sufficient differentiation between you and other options.