Don’t Forget the Basics: How to Sell B2B
Are you excited about 2024? Keen to get started on trying a bunch of new things to build your B2B sales?
One of the things that we all do when fired up about new adventures, is that we can forget the basics. If we get the basics right, everything works better. Now is a great time to take stock and remind ourselves of the very basics of B2B selling, so that we have an awesome launch pad to grow from.
So what are the basics?
What Challenge are you Solving?
First and foremost, we need to remember that we are solving a challenge for our customers. Remind yourself of what your customer’s challenge is, and how you are solving it. That is the whole reason your business and your product exists.
Review your language and check that you are speaking with your customers in this way, to understand and solve the things that are their biggest issues.
It’s about them, not you
This leads us to remember – it is about your customer, not you. Remember one of the most important things a salesperson can do is listen. If you find yourself talking more than your customer in a meeting, take a breath. Sales is a conversation – give space to your customer to share their story – and listen. What can you do that no one else can, that will really help them to solve their challenge?
Questions not Statements
One of the best ways to ensure we stay in solution mode and keep ourselves focused on what our customers need is by asking questions. Questions help us to direct the conversation where we want it to go. More importantly, they help us to learn what is really going on for them.
We need to our customer to feel comfortable to share what their challenges are, with space to talk about them. Try not to jump in with solutions too soon. There might be more information you need to be able to provide a really great solution for them.
Remember: Questions draw people to us, statements push them away.
When planning for a sales meeting or a networking event, rather than thinking about what you are going to say, think about what questions you are going go ask.
Steps in the B2B Sales Process
One of the reasons we jump to solution too soon is because we forget some of the basics of the B2B Sales Process.
Sales is not always linear, but like anything, when we are starting out it is really helpful to have a simple process to follow. This helps us to know what to do next at any point in the sales cycle and keeps us focused on moving things forward.
A classic mistake people make when they get too excited, for example, is that they forget to qualify properly. There is nothing more frustrating than spending weeks or months working on an opportunity, to realise that you didn’t qualify them properly for budget – and that they never had enough money to buy what it is you are selling.
Reviewing the basic steps of the sales process every now and then keeps you on track.
Activity levels – how many calls have you made?
I always say – even a really bad salesperson who has a high level of activity will make some sales. On one level sales is a numbers game – if you make more calls, and do more meetings – more things will happen.
Make sure you allocate time to get those calls done and to book in those meetings. The easiest thing you can do to boost your sales is just to do more.
There is of course a limit to how much you can do in the time you have. So allocating a day a week – or a specific amount of time each month, to focus on outbound calls and outbound activity is a good idea.
Remember, activity and calls includes follow up – so calling around those people you spoke to at the end of 2023 is a great way to get started.
Keeping Track – stay on Target
I often see super enthusiastic people rush off and run around doing lots of stuff – especially at the beginning of a new year with all that sparkly fresh time ahead of us.
As we said, high levels of activity are great and important.
But even better, let’s make that activity work for us. I recommend spending an hour a week reviewing your pipeline and sales forecast. How are you tracking compared to where you thought you should be? Do you know what stage each of your deals are at? Do you need to adjust timing on anything? What’s slipped? What can you pull forward? Who do you need to meet to get things moving?
Having a simple system to keep track of where you are up to with each deal ensures you can be clear on what your priorities are and know what to do next
So let’s review those basics of B2B sales:
· What challenge are you solving?
· It’s about them, not you
· Questions not Statements
· Steps in the B2B Sales Process
· Activity Levels
· Keeping Track
Our free B2B Sales tools are there to help – you can check them out here.
Join our webinar on 22nd Jan
