First Time Buyer in Complex Sale – Build Trust First

Several of my clients – and myself – have been involved in the complex sell with both good and bad results. One of the key variables regarding the “bad results” category is the number of first time buyers in this group. After doing some personal research on this topic, I discovered an interesting antidote for improving your success with first time buyers.

The key is to build massive amounts of trust before attempting to move forward in the sales process. The reason is the first time buyer has no experience to relate with during the process. They have to figure it out on their own. A daunting task for the uninformed and possibly risk averse corporate type.

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Sales Tips – Be a Low-Risk Provider

In the world of B2B sales you will find yourself selling to a group, team or committee rather than a single buyer. This is the true meaning on complex selling. Why is it complex? Because you are dealing with a number of people – each possessing their own personal agenda regarding the buying decision.

So here are sales tips that will get you a higher probability to increase sales in your territory. It is the key to selling to large or mid-size corporate structures.

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B2B Sales Require Multiple Calls

I’m almost embarrassed to use this sales tip, however, I keep running into sales people who really think they can make a large B2B sale with just one sales call. If you ever do run into someone who wants to buy a complex product or service on the first visit – well, you better start looking for the problem that is about to hit you in the face. I’ll bet you they can’t find anyone else to sell them anything due to lousy credit or something along those lines.

Here is the real story. When I first started in B2B sales, it would take a minimum of four touches to be successful. As time went on it moved to five touches and then seven became the magic number. Today, the magic number is somewhere around ten touches! So how do you manage making a minimum of ten calls to make one sale? (* point of reference here – we are talking about major sales to large accounts, we are not talking about a small personal item sale.)

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B2B Sales Success depends on the Advance

After working with sales people, I learned sales people do not always know what is truly important to monitor. Now I know a loaded statement when I see one and the above statement may be loaded. However, it is also very true. Most sales people are missing an important element to every sales call they make.

Now, before moving on I need to clarify a very assumptions. First, I’m talking about business to business selling which over 95% of successful sales opportunities require multiple calls. This is not a single call and get an answer sales environment. Second, each sales call needs an outcome to monitor the success rate of the sales process. And, finally, some preparation and thought is required for the multiple call process to work. Winging it is not an option in b2b sales.

So what is an sales ADVANCE?

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