We must re-imagine new sales techniques and b2b strategies

“It’s time to reimagine sales, in a world where attention is scarce, it is essential to connect, convince and collaborate with customers”

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In a world of
Black Swans
Our clients expect us to provide them with unique and valuable insights into their challenges, help them navigate business disruption, educate them on new trends and opportunities in their industry, and collaborate with them to transform risks and threats into business opportunities. That’s his dream “My commercial, doesn’t waste my time, challenges me and always teaches me something new.” We necessarily have to rethink our sales organizations.

The simplest way I can think of to illustrate the impact of these customer expectations on B2B sales is to imagine that you are in your office waiting for the new commercial that has cost you so much to attract to your company, and you want to motivate it from day one. You have to choose that first welcome phrase very carefully because possibly what you say is going to be key in the future of your sales organization. Think about it, because with a single sentence you can achieve the emotional commitment of the new commercial, change the rules of the game in your sales team, and build a differentiated competitive story.

You have two options for the motivation of the sales team:

1. Motivate in economic terms, that is, to continue with the usual phrase. “Welcome to the team… This is your sales quota, as you know it impacts 30% on your salary and is the number with which we measure your contribution to the team. Compliance is important because it decides your professional future.”
2. Motivating in terms of purpose, that is, to get the new commercial to align with a higher sales purpose and be motivated to make a difference for their customers. It would go something like this: “Welcome to the team… I’m going to show you how you can make a difference in your customers, this is your sales quota and pay close attention to it because it is the number that will measure the impact you have on your customers”

Now think for a few moments: Which commercial will create a more differentiated customer experience?, Which commercial will ask better questions and bring more value to their customers?, Which commercial will be more innovative and attractive to the client in the context of current disruption?. With which commercial will the client be more willing to collaborate in the search for solutions to their business challenges?

Selling with purpose.

“A sense of purpose, the belief that one is making a contribution to a cause greater and more enduring than oneself, is an important factor in sales success.”

Lisa Earle McLeod – “Selling with noble purpose”

If there’s one thing I’ve proven, time and time again, in my years of sales, it’s that salespeople with a sense of purpose focused on bringing value to their customers are more innovative, harder trying, and more adaptable than quota-focused reps. So at Sun Microsystems, we always strive to get the entire sales organization aligned, empowered, and excited to make a difference for customers.

Selling with purpose is not just another sales tactic or technique, it is one of the most important resources an organization has to earn the trust of its customers and generate lasting differentiation. It’s a strategic shift in the way we approach sales. It’s the ingredient a sales force needs to take their performance to the next level.

When we lead sales with purpose and are clear and specific about what we exist to create value for the customer and help them in their business challenges, it activates a superior sales purpose throughout the organization that is the first step towards an unstoppable sales team.

The Great Disconnect

As Lisa McLeod points out very well in her book, the great disconnect when imagining the sales of the future, is that although the slogans continue to preach “the customer at the center of the strategy”, most organizations actually reinforce daily in their management models, processes and sales conversations the closing of the sale instead of providing value to the customer. Are your salespeople really focused on having an impact on the customer or are they more concerned with their sales quotas and internal processes?

There is a question that as a sales leader you can ask to align the commitment of your sales representatives with the creation of value for customers: “What benefits does it bring to the customer to do business with us? When you ask your salespeople: How can I help you close the order?, you are looking inward with a transactional mindset, when you ask: How can I help you have a greater impact on the customer?, you are looking outward with a mentality of impact on the customer.

Motivational phrases and messages for the sales team

As a leader, you make the difference, your motivation depends on you. Frequently remind your team that quarterly results are not the purpose of a sales force; They are proof of their effectiveness in that quarter and do not necessarily guarantee future success. To keep your team motivated and focused on the right behaviors with customers, you have to compensate the commercials that provide differential value to their customers, and reward the proposals with innovative solutions that are the result of commitment and collaboration with customers. In retrospective meetings, invite clients to tell first-hand their story of how different the relationship with your team has been and the impact the proposed solution had on their organization. These are the conversations that make success transparent and foster a winning culture based on creativity and innovation.

Conversations with insight

As we mentioned at the beginning, what clients value most in the face of the challenges of changes in their industry, is that we help them navigate uncertainty and provide unique perspectives that allow them to transform disruption into an opportunity for their business. To bring a unique perspective to our clients we are, by definition, looking to create something new, something that didn’t exist before. That means you can’t know from the start what your solution will be. So how do you get there?

Conversations with insight lead to differentiation of company solutions and generally challenge the thinking assumed by the customer, showing them new business perspectives and new ways of thinking. Insights are significant discoveries about business challenges, which we discover and that by solving them we can give the customer a competitive advantage. These unique perspectives come from asking ourselves the right questions: How to manage complexity and uncertainty?, How does disruption affect my sector and my business?, What are the best companies doing?, How to transform disruption into opportunity?, Where are the growth opportunities in my sector?, How to explore new opportunities and maintain quarterly results?, How to make agility a strategic competency of my company?

It’s about teaching customers new ways of thinking, helping them understand the disruption of their sector and how it impacts their business, showing them with evidence from other customers, what you can do to transform the threat into opportunity. The ability to deliver differentiating insights in a rational and emotional way requires a two-way dialogue and a collaborative process with the customer. Here are three simple steps to help you approach conversations with insights with your customers:

1. Connect with business concerns by sharing game-changing business insight. It’s about presenting a new perspective that connects your experience to customer challenges. What we’re trying to do is get a customer reaction like, “It’s interesting, I’ve never seen it this way.”
2. Once we have connected with a novel perspective that the client recognizes has an impact on their business, we open a constructive dialogue about the real cost of the status quo, and the impact of changes in their business, with the aim that the client comes to see disruption as an opportunity for their organization, Looking for validation like, “It makes sense, here’s what we need to do.”
3. At this point, the client is open to exploring and evaluating possible solutions collaboratively. It is now about leading conversations towards those solutions in which our strengths are relevant and providing experience from other clients, which validate and give credibility to our proposals. We look for validation like, “Okay with me, what would be the next steps?” This is the time to present the capabilities and services we offer as the best way to act on the opportunity.

In conversations with insight, as salespeople, we seek to challenge the customer and take them out of their comfort zone, while in relationship selling we focus on being accepted in their comfort zone, worrying more about their comfort than questioning their thinking.

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In conversations with insight we try to maintain a certain amount of constructive tension during the sale, while in relationship conversations we strive to resolve or relieve tension, not create it. They are complementary but opposing approaches.

Building a modern sales force is a journey, not a destination. Selling with insight is an adaptive challenge that requires new organizational and individual capabilities. In other words, it is not an update of the sales representative’s software, but a new operating system for the commercial organization. Sales teams will never give up their reliance on traditional sales and relationship skills, but they will need to complement this with an intelligent use of the data and insights that can be extracted from it to generate a personalized customer experience, teach their customers and bring them new perspectives and innovative solutions to their business challenges. Selling with insight is an adaptive challenge and requires organizational and individual capabilities.

Contrary to popular belief, insight selling is not the exclusive domain of a select few salespeople. It is above all a matter of a different mentality, which is none other than to focus on providing differential value to our customers. The necessary skills, knowledge, behaviors and tools can be learned in a few weeks, as evidenced by the hundreds of salespeople who have attended our “Accelerate Sales” program.

If you want to create a really differential sales experience for your customers, developing the sales capacity with insight of your team, our Online Accelerate Sales Program is designed for it. It’s time to explore as a team new ways to connect, convince and collaborate with customers and develop new skills.

Let’s talk !