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101 Sales Strategy Tips for B2B Sales Managers

B2B sales managers are tasked with substantial responsibility. While the specific duties of a sales manager may vary based on factors such as the size of the company, the size of the sales organization, budget, and other variables, sales managers handle a spectrum of duties ranging from direct sales rep management to territory planning, crafting the company’s sales strategy (and gaining buy-in from both higher-ups and direct reports), managing change, implementing and overseeing incentive programs, researching and adopting the right technologies to support sales, sales development, and sales enablement functions, and more.

Even under the B32B sales strategy umbrella, there are myriad options and considerations for which sales leaders are tasked with analyzing and smart decision-making. Above all, the blame for an under-performing sales team often falls squarely on the shoulders of sales management. That’s why creating the right strategy, understanding how the digital world is impacting B2B sales, coaching and mentoring sales reps to exceed expectations, performing competitive analysis, and other best practices are key to B2B sales success for today’s high-paced sales organizations.

We’ve compiled this list of 101 sales strategy tips for B2B sales managers to help you achieve those goals and lead your sales team to producing better results than anyone thought possible. Whether you’re thinking about shortcomings in sales development, a need to foster better marketing-sales alignment, contemplating how social Selling fits into B2B sales, or another pressing strategic challenge, we’ve rounded up 101 thought-provoking, informative tips from some of the best and brightest minds in sales, leadership, and marketing to empower you to create an effective sales strategy that boosts results and grows your company.

Use these links to jump to a specific section:

  • Analyzing and Defeating the Competition (Tips 1-6)
  • Targeting and Selling to Your Ideal Customer (Tips 7-18)
  • Refining Your B2B Sales Strategy (Tips 19-36)
  • Sales Enablement (Tips 37-52)
  • Strategic B2B Sales Leadership (Tips 53-66)
  • Setting Sales and Sales Development Up for Success (Tips 67-75)
  • Sales Data, Technology, and Automation (Tips 76-93)
  • Social Selling Strategy (Tips 94-101)

Analyzing and Defeating the Competition

  1. Conduct a competitive analysis via social media. “Social media is often used for researching customers. B2B companies especially should use this tool to find out more about their competition.

    “The leading social media network for B2B companies is LinkedIn. It’s quickly become a hub for professionals in this industry. Follow the major influencers in your niche to learn what they’re doing. The more data you can gather, the better.

    “You don’t necessarily have to copy what others are doing, but you can quickly find out what is and isn’t working for them.” – AJ Agrawal, 5 Tips for Developing Your B2B Sales, Entrepreneur; Twitter: @ajagrawal24

  2. Don’t compete on price alone. “What about the customer that says, “We can always find other suppliers…”  Fundamentally, they’re playing a short game.  As suppliers choose not to play that game, dropping out of competing for business, the only ones that are left are the bad ones.  Those that compete only on price, continually cutting their investments in R&D, sales/marketing, product quality, investments in their plants.  Overtime, the number of alternative suppliers dwindles to a few–each of which since they compete only on low price, becomes very risky.  Eventually there own viability becomes questioned, or the risk to the customer skyrockets.  Sure, it works for a few years, but long term viability comes into question–first for the supplier, then to the customer.

    “We’ve seen examples in many industries where customers have so squeezed their supply chains that they ultimately fail, causing the customer to fail.

    “Our pricing and profit margins exist for a reason.  The core is to continue to allow us to grow and innovate by helping our customers grow and innovate.

    “We need to defend our pricing vigorously, not just for what it means to us, but for what it really means in supporting and growing our customers!

    “We need to make sure our customers understand this, that they understand our strategies in investing and growing so they may, in turn grow.” – David Brock, Customers Should Care About Your Profitability!, Partners in Excellence; Twitter: @davidabrock

  3. Rather than compete on price, demonstrate ROI. “Many B2B companies still make the mistake of trying to compete on price. This is a bad move. You shouldn’t try to be cheaper than your competitors; you should try to show your buyers why your solution is the best value by demonstrating an ROI to them to show how much money your solution will help them save (or make). Add an ROI demonstration to your sales process and you will see more deals close.” – Gregg Schwartz, 3 Things to Change in Your Sales Process This Year, AllBusiness.com; Twitter: @manageyourleads
  4. Stop focusing so much on your competition and instead focus on your customers. “Stop fixating on your competition – you are taking your eye of the ball when you do. Focus instead on your customer or what is in front of you. Focus on the bigger game. Know your ultimate result, because competition is everywhere today and the rules have changed. The courier company’s competition is not another courier company. It is Uber. The photocopier guys competition is not the other photocopier guy sitting in his Porsche around the corner, it’s a little word called ‘maybe’. The entrepreneur’s competition is not another entrepreneur, it is themselves.” – Bernadette McClelland, At Last! The Real Rules of the Game…, Bernadette McClelland; Twitter: @b_mcclelland
  5. Approach competitive analysis from a customer’s perspective. “Although it might sound unreasonable, it is an excellent research and observation exercise regarding the competition as it provides us with first-hand knowledge and closely, what they offer and how they offer it.

    “Don’t forget to inquire about prices, offers, characteristics and main benefits of the product, in addition to important aspects such as waiting time, client support and the maturity of the sales process.

    “Be critical of this exercise, accept the disadvantages you have before your competition and look for ways to overcome these disadvantages, compare results and try new roads.” – 5 Tips to Do a Complete Competitor Research, Carvajal Medios B2B

  6. Use your unique value proposition (UVP) to differentiate your company, products, and services from the competition. “Create your Unique Value Proposition (UVP). A UVP communicates what it is that your company, products or services do that your competition doesn’t do, can’t do or won’t do. Define what makes you different, and therefore, better.” – John Boyens, 5 Keys to Staying Ahead of your Competition, Boyens Group; Twitter: @JohnBoyens
  7. Targeting and Selling to Your Ideal Customer

  8. Create an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and keep a narrow focus. “Even if you’ve researched the market ahead of building a product, developed an ideal customer profile (ICP), the challenge arrives when you take the product to market. A unexpected surge of interest from a customer type raises the question, ‘Should we serve that market segment too?’ ‘Was our initial research correct?’ Inbound demand from a Fortune 500 precipitates excitement about winning an exceptional logo. Will that logo lead to inbound interest from others? Managing that doubt is difficult.

    “Nevertheless, the hidden costs of non-ICP customers are real. Changing a product roadmap to suit the needs of one big customer divides an already small engineering team. Managing a marketing message to several distinct customer bases scatters the brand. Higher customer success costs and churn rates from supporting non-ideal customers. Internally, questions arise about priorities. Having two ICPs creates interference across every department.” – Tomasz Tunguz, One of the Hardest Things to Do in Sales, TomTunguz.com; Twitter: @ttunguz

  9. Create value for every member of the buying team at each step in the buying journey. “Think about it for a moment. The key number in sales (revenue) depends on a decision we don’t make in sales. Whatever we do or don’t do, whatever we automate internally or not, buyers make buying decisions. However, all our efforts in sales enablement are focused on empowering salespeople to influence this buying decision. That requires navigating the dynamics throughout the customer’s journey, and it requires creating value at each stage of the customer’s journey for the relevant members of the buying team.” – Tamara Schenk, Navigating the Dynamics of the Customer’s Journey, CSO Insights; Twitter: @CSOInsights
  10. Create a business case for buying. “Most companies provide potential customers with a list of features, followed by a price quote that compares favorably with what other companies charge for similar features.

    “This is crazy.

    “Selling the lowest ‘price per feature’ propels you into a price war with your competitors. More important, customers don’t care about features; they only care about what buying a product will mean to them.

    “Thus, rather than tout ‘price per feature,’ only discuss a feature in the context of how it either saves money or makes money, preferably in as specific a way as possible.

    • Wrong: ‘We will sell you A, B, and C for 10% less than the competition.’
    • Right: ‘We can show you this module can reduce your operational costs by 10%.’” – Geoffrey James, 5 Proven Sales Secrets You Need to Know in 2017, Inc.com; Twitter: @Sales_Source
  11. If price complaints are common, you’re not offering enough value. “You will get haters when you run any business, but if people complain about your prices, it’s because you are not showing enough value. Dropping your prices should be the last thing you do to be competitive. Your margins are probably already tight enough and the last thing you want to do is engage in price wars. Using price as your selling point is an indication that you need to get back to developing what makes your product a unique proposition.

    “For any product or service, there is only one business that’s the cheapest. While your buyers may shop the lowest price, it is value that they really want. When value exceeds price, price is no longer the issue.” – Grant Cardone, When Value Exceeds Price…, Grant Cardone; Twitter: @GrantCardone

  12. Create opportunities by telling stories with contrast. “We all dream of the situation where the prospect has already recognized and wants to solve the problem that your solution addresses. In this selling environment, you don’t need a solid sales strategy and message. But too often, you are not in a great selling environment and you need to work the prospect from every angle. You need to create opportunities. And to help prospects see the value of your offering, you need to tell stories with contrast. You need to tell both the ‘before’ and ‘after’ story – and it’s the contrast between the two that creates a powerful perception of value. The bigger the contrast you create between the ‘pain’ the customer experienced before your solution and the ‘gain’ the customer experienced with your solution, the greater the perceived value.” – The Most Effective Sales Strategy is a Great Message, Corporate Visions; Twitter: @corpv
  13. Create anchors. “When potential customers look at the price of a product or service, how will they know if it is fair or unfair? Their brains will automatically contrast the price with something else. Perhaps what they thought it would cost, what they paid last time, what a competitor quoted them or something else entirely. The studies which have analyzed this phenomenon all come to the same conclusion: the anchor the brain uses as its starting point is highly influential. Here’s why:

    “When the brain forms an anchor it creates a bias that shapes how it perceives subsequent information. This is why you need to address price before you reveal it by creating a point of comparison. So, if you are entering into a negotiation you should always strive to create the anchor. However, if the other party does so first and presents a low anchor, you should adamantly reject it and immediately refocus the conversation on a new, more favorable anchor.” – Dave Kerpen, The Science of Selling: 5 Proven Sales Strategies, Inc.com; Twitter: @DaveKerpen

  14. Clone your high-value customers with a clearly defined sales process. “Cloning your high-value customers is the foundation of your growth engine. Developing a sales process allows you to target these ideal customers and get the same ones time and time again.” – Nick Frost, The Benefits of Building a Repeatable Sales Process, MatterMark; Twitter: @Mattermark
  15. Go beyond simple demographic data to define your ideal customer. “Market segmentation has traditionally been based on demographic factors such as company size, sector and location. But these simple characteristics are hopelessly inadequate predictors of which specific organisationsyou should focus your marketing and sales energies on.

    “That’s because in any complex B2B sales environment, there will be a set of specific unique-to-you structural, behavioural and situational characteristics that are much more reliable indicators of the long-term potential of any given organisation, and of your chances of doing business with them either now or in the future.

    “I’m not suggesting that you should ignore demographics – but I’m urging you not to stop there when it comes to targeting your marketing efforts or assessing the attractiveness of your potential sales opportunities.” – Bob Apollo, Identifying Your Ideal Customers, Inflexion-Point; Twitter: @bobapollo

  16. It’s not a matter of when to introduce price in the buying process, but whether you present price in the context of value. “If you haven’t established that the intended outcome is urgent, that it’s tied to a critical business objective or milestone, it’s difficult to understand if your price is reasonable or justified.

    “If you pitch price while reinforcing a quantified value, you’ve done the math in advance for the prospect.  You make it difficult to argue that achieving the outcome isn’t worth paying a fraction of that for it.

    “Some use price at the very front of the sales process as a filtering mechanism.  If they freak out about your proposed number without understanding what they are buying, is that really an objection to price?  Or is it a lack of understanding of why or how they need what you’re selling in the first place?

    “Along those lines, it’s never too early to introduce price as long as it’s in the context of value.  And for that, the sooner the better.” – Matt Heinz, When do you introduce price in the sales process?, LinkedIn; Twitter: @HeinzMarketing

  17. Don’t just sell; collaborate with buyers. “Selling is hard work. Ironically, it only makes it harder if you don’t collaborate with the buyer. The extra work you put into each deal, to engage and collaborate with the buyer to help them define and choose the best solution for their requirements, ultimately will increase your conversion rate. (You’ll win more orders!) And, while that is extra work, hitting your number is a lot easier than taking the ‘easy’ path and not getting the order. After all, chasing quota from behind is no place to be.” – Andy Paul, Collaboration Is Easier Than Selling, The Sales Fix; Twitter: @ZeroTimeSelling
  18. Understand your customers’ problems and care about actually solving them. “At the end of the day, it’s not just about price and product. There’s a reason that people will answer your call or call you back. You really have to care about solving an enterprise’s problem. When you put their challenges at the center of your focus and provide real solutions, you’ll start to develop aligning interests. You have to take not only an interest in their business and problems, but also in the people. As you truly look out for your clients’ best interests — like you would for friends or family — you’ll eventually end up solving your own challenge as well: achieving your sales goals.” – Warren Wick, 3 Keys to Navigate the Unique Challenges of Enterprise Selling, Salesforce, Quotable; Twitter: @Quotable
  19. Always research sales prospects. “This is a no-brainer. If you don’t do research, you’ll run into the following problems:
    • You won’t know whether the prospect is a good fit
    • You won’t be able to guess what your prospect’s top priorities are or tailor your pitch accordingly
    • You’ll have to ask your prospect to provide you basic information you could have found yourself

    “The result? You won’t be able to ‘hook’ your prospect, you’ll waste their time, and you’ll make them think (rightly so) that you couldn’t be bothered to do a five-second LinkedIn search. Ultimately, they won’t trust that you care what’s right for their business, and so they won’t buy.

    “You should always enter a call with at least one assumption or conclusion about your prospect’s business you gleaned from your research that you can have them confirm or deny. Not only does this build your credibility and demonstrate the effort you made, it’s also a good benchmark to determine how much research is necessary. You don’t need to know your prospect’s birthday, but you should have a sense of why they would want to talk to you or how their business operates.” – Leslie Ye, 8 Fatal Sales Prospecting Mistakes You Might Be Making, Hubspot; Twitter: @lesliezye

  20. Refining Your B2B Sales Strategy

  21. Leverage Big Data, particularly when selling to millennials. “The most important thing to remember when selling to millennials is that they value technology, but not just for the communication purposes previously mentioned. Rather, this generation likes to evaluate data and statistics to help make sound, well-informed purchasing decisions. Often, Generation Y is dismissed due to their tendency to be less traditional than say, the Baby Boomers; however this mustn’t be mistaken for naiveté.  Besides recommendations from friends and family members, the most influential element in a millennial’s buying decision is data analytics.” – Tips on How B2B Salespeople Can Successfully Sell to Millennials, Hoovers; Twitter: @Hoovers
  22. Conduct a risk assessment on every sales opportunity. “Every sales opportunity – no matter how cast-iron – has its share of risks, and most deals have many more risk factors than are usually acknowledged. Sales people tend to be predisposed to listen to good news, and to avoid seeking out bad news for fear of what they might discover.

    “This is why thoughtfully designed checklists have become such an important element of the modern sales process – they force sales people to assess factors that have been proven to impact their chances of sales success. They make it harder to miss the obvious. As Atul Gawande points out in The Checklist Manifesto, they serve to systematically eliminate errors of ignorance and ineptitude.” – Bob Apollo, Why Every Sales Opportunity Needs a Regular Risk Assessment, Membrain; Twitter: @bobapollo

  23. Don’t underestimate the value of relationship-building in the digital age. “Customers don’t buy your technology, your service, or your products. They buy because of the impact your team has on their businesses. People do business with people, not with technology. But too many reps forget it’s the quality of relationships, and not the quantity of connections, that really counts. The art of conversation is your team’s competitive advantage. Conversation is the key to problem-solving and relationship-building, which are critical in sales. These have also become unique skill sets in the digital world.

    “So, let your competitors believe the myth about buyers not needing salespeople. While they’re waiting for the phone to ring or for LinkedIn connections to come through—or cold calling people who don’t want to talk to them—your sales reps will be building trusted relationships, uncovering real needs, getting referrals, and crafting solutions in collaboration with clients. That’s true salesmanship.” – Joanne Black, What Is the Most Effective of Account-Based Sales Strategies?, No More Cold Calling; Twitter: @ReferralSales

  24. Account-based everything places emphasis on an organization-wide commitment to the activities necessary to land and retain target accounts, facilitating cross-functional alignment that fosters success. “Like everyone else, we started with Account-Based Marketing. The analysts began researching ABM programs and we identified a significant issue – organizations that struggled with account-based programs lacked cross-functional alignment across marketing, sales, sales dev, and customer success. There’s an organization-wide commitment to mobilize efforts against a key set of target accounts. So we decided to create a new category – Account-Based Everything (ABE). It’s not just marketing, it’s everything.” – Craig Rosenberg, as quoted in TOPO Summit, Craig Rosenberg and Account Based Everything, Green Leads, Smashmouth B2B Blog: Sales & Marketing Demand Gen; Twitter: @funnelholic
  25. Don’t make the mistake of treating account-based marketing as a marketing-only approach. “Actually, it’s for sales, too.

    “While it’s been dubbed ‘account-based marketing,’ it applies just as much to your sales team as it does to your marketing team. When sales works in a lead-based system, each lead is an isolated entity, separate from his/her company and his/her interactions with their coworkers during the buying process.

    “An account-based sales approach looks at a company/account holistically. Salespeople tailor their outreach to specific personas in that buying center, and they try to engage as many personas as possible across that account.” – Lauren Frye, 7 Myths about Account-Based Marketing for the Unconvinced, Bizible; Twitter: @LaurenMFrye

  26. More options and more information aren’t always a good thing. Make it simpler for customers to buy. “Suppliers have of course been working on simplifying sales since the dawn of selling—and the majority in our surveys assume they’re succeeding. Unfortunately, the very tactics they think will increase ease of purchase often do the opposite. Our research finds that the vast majority of sales professionals believe that giving customers more information helps them make better decisions; that they must flexibly respond to a customer’s direction (even when they disagree with it); and that it’s “extremely important” to help customers consider all possible alternatives. Sellers are striving to be more responsive than ever—taking the customer’s lead and providing whatever support is requested. They ensure that customers have all the data, cases, and testimonials they might need to guide their decision making, and they lay out a suite of options, continually adjusting the offering as customer demand evolves. This approach seems like the right one, and it’s in keeping with suppliers’ desire to be more customer-centric. Yet it drives an 18% decrease in purchase ease, according to our survey of more than 600 B2B buyers. Piling on more information and options just makes things harder.” – Nicholas Toman, Brent Adamson, and Cristina Gomez, The New Sales Imperative, Harvard Business Review; Twitter: @HarvardBiz
  27. Sell to the C-suite to gain momentum for the sale, but do it by providing context and anticipating implications for every department. “Unlike buyers, who typically want specs, execs care most about outcomes. Sales has to lay out the larger context of the rollout, such as what it will look like and how different departments are likely to react. This is a time for realistic appraisals, not sunny optimism. Execs don’t want to be surprised by pushback from departments that see the solution as a threat to their way of doing things. Do internal research to see what problems customers had in rollout and how they overcame resistance to change. Context is also about what comes after the solution is in place. Think about how the solution changes the dynamics of the buyer’s business relationships. It takes experience and social selling research skills to make educated projections about the implications this far ahead. Aberdeen refers to this process of thinking all the way through to the impacts on the customer’s customers as B2B2C.

    “There’s no question that selling to the C-suite is the smartest way to gain consensus and momentum for the sale. Top level execs know it as well, which means they are harder to reach and harder to convince.” – Jamie Shanks, Winning Over the C-Suite with a 3-Front Sales Strategy, SalesforLife; Twitter: @MySales4Life

  28. Don’t slow down the buying process. “In today’s fast-paced, competitive business world, it is all about velocity.

    “It might come as a big surprise to many sellers to find out that they are slowing down the purchasing decision a buyer needs to make. I imagine right now some of you are saying, heck no, I don’t slow the process down, buyers move slowly. In truth, many salespeople are their own worst enemy.

    “If you sell, you have one job to do. Contrary to what you might think, it isn’t to sell something.

    “Selling is about helping customers solve their business problems and make buying decisions. I want you to think about delivering value in a different way. Think of adding value as providing information quickly, in order to move buyers one step closer to a purchasing decision. If a core issue has been identified within an organization that needs to be addressed, there is executive support for the initiative, budget has been allocated and an implementation timeline has been put in place, then buyers typically do want to move quickly. Make it easy for them to get what they need.” – Barbara Giamonco, Sales Acceleration Is An Inside Job, Barb Giamonco; Twitter: @barbaragiamonco

  29. Understand how the digital shift is impacting the B2B buyer journey. “The customer experience for B2B and B2C customers may be looking ever more similar, with more and more B2B customer journeys beginning with online research and even social interaction with peers. But the revenue from B2B digital commerce remains low.

    “That’s the implication of a recent report from Accenture Interactive (‘Channel Shift: Measuring B2B Efforts to Shift Customers Online’), which found that half of the 50 senior digital commerce professionals surveyed reported online sales as responsible for less than 10 percent of their revenues.  Of course, to some extent that’s a glass-half-empty view: half of those surveyed reported healthier online revenues: ‘Fifty-five percent of ‘digital-first’ B2B organizations (those that began focusing on eCommerce five or more years ago) report that more than half of their customers currently complete transactions online, compared to only 22 percent completion for ‘lagging’ firms that began focusing on eCommerce less than three years ago.’

    “The opportunity to expand digital B2B sales is nevertheless clearly huge.  What are the obstacles standing in the way of buyers resistant to online commerce? According to the report, there are three main ones:

    • Long-term customers are the main hold-out, with around 80 percent of mid-maturity and lagging eCommerce sellers reporting resistance to change. Understandably, this is much less of an issue for digital first sellers, who report only 43 percent of customers reluctant to complete purchases online.
    • But sales teams themselves are also a problem. Perhaps reflecting the perceived resistance of customers, 50 percent of mid-maturity and over 60 percent of lagging sellers are hesitant to drive customers online.
    • Finally, there’s a lack of executive push, with some management resistant to driving online commerce.” – Kim Davis, B2B: Glass Half Empty on Digital Commerce, DMN; Twitter: @dmnews
  30. With increasingly disparate buying committees slowing down the buying process, sales should focus on finding a ‘mobilizer’ within the buying committee who can drive the group forward to the best course of action. “You really should think about breaking the purchase down, from the customer’s standpoint, into three distinct phases: a Problem Phase, a Solution Phase and a Vendor Selection Phase. When you break it down that way, it helps you think about the points of agreement you need to create among the key stakeholders. It turns out that this is a really hard thing for most customers to do, let alone for a vendor to try and influence. Within a buying committee — whether you’re a marketer, in IT or in finance — each buyer views the problem differently. And finding a common course of action to take is never going to happen in that state.

    “The big question is: How do I help these committees understand the route of the problem? Our research has shown that it’s critical to find that individual, or the ‘Mobilizer,’ that can help tie these people together around this common course of action. We must be careful not to confuse this individual as a ‘vendor champion.’ This individual is not necessarily championing or advocating for a solution, but championing for a course of action the business should take. They aren’t talking about vendors; they’re talking about a course of action. That’s what gets the attention of the business stakeholders. You have to be really careful when engaging with these Mobilizers and work with them to give them answers that are relevant to their business — not your solution.” – Nick Toman, as quoted by Brian Anderson in #B2BMX Event Preview: The Challenger Customer Author On Consensus Among B2B Buyers, Demand Gen Report; Twitter: @dg_report

  31. A consistent, repeatable sales process will reap great rewards. “Sales reps are goal-oriented people. Quotas, targets, deals—these are the numbers that matter and they want to hit. Every rep will have their own special craft and go-to techniques for closing deals. While there is nothing wrong with having techniques that work just for you, your company’s success cannot be beholden to individual inspiration.

    “Instead you need a repeatable process that will work team-wide, for every rep, every time. This isn’t something that comes easy, but with a willingness to analyze your internal processes and coach your team to better workflow, you can build a consistent, efficient, repeatable sales process that becomes the engine for your growth.” – Nick Frost, The Benefits of Building a Repeatable Sales Process, Mattermark; Twitter: @Mattermark

  32. Sell solutions, not products and services. “Today it is almost impossible to meet a product salesperson in the business-to-business sector. Everyone sells ‘solutions’ in the hope they can charge a premium or perform some miracle that will instantly differentiate them from their competitors.

    “And management—often ignorant of the subtle differences between selling products or services and selling solutions—becomes frustrated when they find the expected boom in sales doesn’t materialise; that their salespeople continue to face pressure for lower prices, better service delivery and a wider range of offerings.

    “The challenge is understanding what selling a solution requires. The real starting point for a truly solutions-selling orientation is at corporate philosophy and culture.” – Sue Barrett, How selling a solution is different from selling a product, Smart Company; Twitter: @SueBarrett

  33. Conveying economic utility impacts willingness to pay (WTP), which enables your sales team to overcome competitive pricing challenges. “In business to business sales, utility is the unquestioned number one factor that determines willingness to pay, because it is the fundamental reason that customers spend and invest, and it is often the factor over which you have the most objective and tangible control.

    “In economic terms, an asset is worth the present value of its differential cash flows. In plain English, that means that business buyers pay dollars in the expectation of getting more dollars in return, or preventing a greater loss.

    “The expectation of future cash flows is based on how the buyer uses what you sell to either increase cash inflows or reduce outflows. In sales terms, that means that your effectiveness depends on a) an intimate knowledge of how your customer can increase revenues, cut costs, or reduce asset investment, and b) being able to quantify and gain agreement in measurable financial terms.” – Jack Malcolm, High-Margin Selling: What You Must Know and How to Learn It, Jack Malcolm; Twitter: @jackmalcolm

  34. Outbound is the lifeblood of B2B selling. “For professional B2B selling, deals happen based on trust. If you work backwards for how deals are made, you can see a pattern:
    1. A signed deal happened, but before that
    2. A negotiation occurred, but before that
    3. A conversation happened, but before that
    4. An appointment was scheduled, but before that
    5. You got a referral or attention in a personal way, but before that
    6. You reached out to someone via networking

    “The outbound selling approach works because you are human and interacting in a personal way. However, it is a lot of work that also requires being organized, efficient and consistent. It’s building relationships, remaining professional and increasing trust.

    “Ironically, we pay attention to someone addressing us personally. It breaks through the enormous amount of noise.

    “The question then becomes whether you will do the outbound selling or partner with someone that will execute day in and day out.” – Don Dalrymple, You Have Limited Options for Selling, Don Dalrymple; Twitter: @DonDalrymple

  35. Skip straight to the decision-makers. “Most businesses put their buyers and purchasing managers on the frontlines of buying situations — but they’re not actually qualified to make any buying decisions. That’s why the most successful B2B salespeople skip right over those folks, and straight to the real decision makers.

    “Don’t waste your time developing relationships with buyers or purchasing managers, no matter how convenient or comfortable it may feel. They simply don’t have the budget — or the power — to make an actual investment in your product or service. Instead, sell only to high-level decision makers who have the power and budget to actually tell you ‘yes’.” – Marc Wayshak, 8 Insider Tips for Closing More B2B Sales, Hubspot; Twitter: @MarcWayshak

  36. Be able to identify the triggers that motivate your target buyers to purchase. “Understand the buyer’s “compelling events”. By this, I mean the factors that are most likely to lead to a sale.  What are the triggers that can motivate the buyer to purchase now? What are the consequences if they decide not to change? How can we put our offer(s) in front of the prospect when the motivations and/or consequences are greatest?” – Christopher Ryan, Six Ways Marketing Can Shrink the Sales Cycle, CustomerThink; Twitter: @CRyanFusionMkt
  37. Know when to stop selling. “Some customers love the experience of doing business with your company; unfortunately, others have encountered problems with the experience. But aren’t all customers fair game for a cross-selling or upselling pitch?

    “Not so fast. Think hard before blindly committing to another sales pitch. In particular, stop wasting time and energy selling to customers who are detractors of your company.

    “Instead, spend that time fixing those relationships. Turn around the situation so that these detractors become at worst neutral, and ideally real promoters. Only then will you have decent odds of winning new business.” – Mark Kovac, Good Sales Teams Know When to Stop Selling, Harvard Business Review; Twitter: @HarvardBiz

  38. Great storytelling builds rapport. “As a sales professional, your ability to connect with your prospect is paramount. To do so you’ll need top-tier communication skills to help you build rapport. People buy from people, and you need to help your prospects believe in you and your product. Studies have shown that emotion frequently proceeds logic when making purchase decisions. A true salesperson can generate enthusiasm for a product through great storytelling, connecting a product to an emotional need by the prospect.” – Top Skills Every Sales Professional Should Have, Sales Logic; Twitter: @saleslogicjobs
  39. Sales Enablement

  40. To meet the needs of B2B buyers in the digital age, a sales content strategy is crucial. “Sales content strategy is needed to address the new requirements borne of digital-era buyers who self-educate through online content. In response to this reality, B2B selling organizations are shifting to become more buyer-centered, relevant and useful.

    “Leading organizations realize that ‘how you sell’ is often a key differentiator and value creator for buyers. This means shifting from the traditional, product-feature-benefit pitch, to a problem-cause-value-centered conversation. It means being useful, by bringing unique insights to buyers.

    “Content is the vehicle for this shift. It’s also the currency by which sales professionals acquire B2B buyer attention. It both enables and leverages selling activities. This means sales content strategy must shift from a promotional orientation, to an educational purpose. The ultimate purpose is to have content lead buyers to adopt the vendor’s solution for a successful sale.” – Jim Burns, The Ultimate Guide for Developing Your B2B Sales Content Strategy, Marketing Insider Group; Twitter: @BrennerMichael

  41. Customer-facing content not strategically mapped in context throughout the buyer’s journey will fall short. A customer-core enablement framework should be a sales force’s strategic imperative and a top priority for sales managers. “Content must become a sales force’s strategic imperative and a number one priority on every sales leader’s agenda.

    “Customer-facing content is an element that can impact the relationship with prospects and customers quite significantly. To provide highly effective content, a customer-core strategy is mandatory, and that requires a customer-core enablement framework to be able to tailor content services accordingly.

    “Highly effective customer-facing content that covers the entire customer’s journey is a must-have ingredient to remain successful in an ever-changing, buyer-driven world.” – Tamara Schenk, Why Content Has To Be A Strategic Imperative: Content Impacts Your Customer Relationships, LinkedIn; Twitter: @tamaraschenk

  42. A well-defined sales process serves as the foundation for sales enablement development. “TOPO’s research has found that companies with a well-defined and standardized sales process deliver faster onboarding and ramp times. Their sales reps know what to do, when to do it and the reasons why.

    “What was more significant is what TOPO found at the highest growth organizations. For the highest growth organizations, the sales process is the foundation for their success. They tie their sales enablement activities including skills development, content and technology to the context of their sales process. For example, instead of delivering horizontal sales training where reps must apply what they learned afterwards on their own, they deliver training within the context of specific sales stages and plays so that reps can immediately apply and perfect those skills.

    “The first step in delivering world-class sales enablement is to build a well-defined sales process. Once that is complete, sales enablement infrastructure can be created.” – Robert Koehler, Sales Enablement Best Practices: Sales Process is the Foundation, TOPO; Twitter: @topohq

  43. Sales enablement isn’t just about sales-marketing alignment anymore. “Sales needs to turn into a full-collaboration machine that extends to all arms of the organization from Customer Success, Support, Marketing, Engineering, Product and Business Operations.

    “As the sales process gets more complex, Sales is going to need to partner with all departments in order to move deals forward. Sales needs Customer Success on the post-Sales side. Sales needs Support to help prospects out during their product trial. Sales needs alignment with Marketing to provide relevant content throughout the buyer’s journey. To foster collaboration beyond the sales floor, here’s are four steps to follow:

    • Hire or train your Sales team to be collaborators within and outside of the sales floor
    • Make time for the work that matters
    • Invest in tools that improve collaboration and productivity across an organization
    • Don’t be afraid to have transparent meetings” – Tina Nguyen, Sales Cannot Afford to be the Jack of All Trades, ToutApp; Twitter: @toutapp
  44. Marketing and sales must work closely together in the final stage of the buyer’s journey. “At the final stage of the journey is where information and relationships matter most. In order for marketers to best nurture prospects who are at the end of the buyer journey they must work closely with sales.

    “Competitive information needs to be available for sales teams in the form of sales collateral that answers very specific questions. Sales one sheeters are the marketer’s magic pill for getting the sales opportunity through the funnel. Feature comparisons between competitors, economic impact calculations, and product customization capabilities are important sets of information which marketers can provide the sales team.

    “This stage of the buyer journey highlights the importance of sales and marketing alignment.

    “Information is just one piece of the puzzle. Creating ways for sales and prospects to meet in person is also highly important, especially for large deal sizes. Trust matters not only on a brand level but also on a relationship level.

    “These relationships include existing customers, prospects and the account executives. Marketing’s role is to build these relationships through field marketing and events. While today’s marketing departments are heavily focused on digital and one-to-many messaging, the end of the customer journey is characterized by face-to-face engagement and one-to-one messaging. This is best done with events, dinners, in person product demos, and happy hours organized by sales.” – Andrew Nguyen, A Complete Guide To The Buyer Journey, Bizible; Twitter: @bizible

  45. Allow the lines of marketing and sales to blur in order to meet the demands of today’s B2B buyers. “Five years into the age of the customer and the modern B2B buyer has high expectations. They’re more knowledgeable, independent and self-directed than ever. They no longer rely on your sales people for product, pricing and other information. And they don’t want to be told what they already know. As I explore in our recently published report, B2B Buyers Mandate A New Charter For Marketing And Sales, the empowered B2B buyer is neither concerned with how your organization is structured and who’s responsible for the content on your website, nor are they interested in talking to a sales rep simply because they downloaded a white paper. Your buyers want contextual interactions with both human and digital assets across a holistic but non-linear journey. And, by in large, they want their experiences with sales people to be high value or frictionless. Think of a 2 or 5-star hotel experience – each has its merits – but 3 and 4-star hotels often disappoint.

    “So the question remains…how prepared is your go-to-market organization to meet the needs of today’s B2B buyers? And what are you going to do if they are not? Start by allowing the lines between marketing and sales to blur to better serve your customers. Identify a couple of buyer-centric initiatives like social selling or account-based marketing and align marketing and sales compensation in more meaningful ways. Be o



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101 Sales Strategy Tips for B2B Sales Managers

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