Developing Your B2B Sales Skills
Unique Skills for Business to Business Selling
One of my most common questions from my clients involves “what sales books should I read?” or “Do you have a List of Recommended Sales Books?”
So today I’m sharing what I consider to the B2B Sales Books which are all considered “Game Changers.”
Okay, someone is probably asking “what makes these books Game Changers” which is a great qualifying question (Very good if you asked this question to yourself).
While working with a client recently we got into a discussion about selling to really big accounts – like a Fortune 500 type of account. The focus of the discussion was about the differences in the mindsets of the large corporate type accounts versus the smaller regional or local business account (more likely to be an Entrepreneurial Type of Account).
Basically their are two types of mindsets – the Corporate Mindset and the Entrepreneur Mindset. These two mindsets are polar opposites when it comes to most priorities.
Yet, there is one significant factor regarding the Corporate Mindsets that will impact you – particularly if you are selling for a smaller business. The large Corporate Culture’s primary driving influence is safety and security.
Now don’t get ahead of me here, I’m not talking about the Safety Department or the Guards around the building. No, I’m talking about the mental mindset or agendas of the Corporate Decision Makers. These decision makers will only make a decision when they feel they are making a “Safe Choice” and this includes their vendors or suppliers.
Since I am a total proponent for the Questioning Model in Sales, how do you use this model to learn the Information you need to successfully make the B2B sales?
Obviously, you use questions during your discovery process as you want the prospect or customer doing most of the talking. Their answering questions allows you to learn about what is going on within their organization.
Note: even the very best b2b sales superstar is NOT an insider for the prospect or customer company. While it is important to have a coach or champion who wants you to win the account, not all the time will you have this person in place. And, sometimes (this has definitely happened to me) your inside champion leaves or is promoted away from your target area.
Now what do you do?
You plan your questions carefully to uncover the answers to several important pieces of information.
I was having a long dialogue with several clients during the past two weeks and the subject of Trade Shows came up. Seems there is concern over the return on investment with participating in trade shows.
So I did a little research to check out what the experts were saying about Trade Shows and got some interesting information.
So, first, trade shows are still considered a valuable investment due to three factors…
Recently I have seen an increase of the number of requests for “the single best question to ask a customer or prospect” when engaged in b2b selling.
Truthfully, I really do not believe there is one single question that covers everything as sales situations will vary in circumstances.
Yet, there is one question that I always have ready to use with any customer or prospect I’m calling on. Sometimes I refer to this question as the million dollar sales question since it has the ability to open the door of an objective conversation with the customer or prospect.
The question to use is…
Been doing some observation work with several b2b sales people and have noticed one thing. Most of the sales people need to ramp up their ability to really listen to their customers.
Again the signs are there for us to learn. Our customers and clients actually want us to listen and comprehend and understand what they want and need. It is our job to deliver these results by listening aggressively.
The truth is most b2b sales people are trained or have behavioral styles which are very adept at presenting and talking. Sometimes they can even ask questions after being trained on the Questioning Model of B2B Selling.
However, the question remains – are they really listening to what is being said by the customer?
Often listening is the one skill sales people take for granted. Their expectations are limited to believing they are naturally good at listening. Therefore, there is very little time and effort applied to learning exactly how to actively listen.
How about some b2b sales tips regarding the reasons to learn the skill of listening?
Okay, how many of you were terrorized by the title of the post?
I will venture a guess – all of your who enjoy the comfortable path of no possible conflict with a customer or prospect.
This is same attitude which has helped to create the commodity pricing environment we all hate – or should hate since our margins are squeezed big time.
What I’m talking about is directly related to the impact of the great recession of 2008-2009. Buyers and sales people alike got scared of making a mistake and the old comfort zone has taken center stage in our b2b sales world.
Yet, some new research on highly successful b2b sales people has come out. In fact, the July-August edition of the Harvard Business Review is dedicated to sharing information about this new research on high performing b2b sales people.
It seems these high performers are doing something different.
Recently I have observed several sales people doing customer calls and noticed a glaring deficiency in their skill sets.
Quite simply it is the ability to engage their customer with their storytelling skills or in their case a total lack of story telling skills.
The ability to capture the imagination of the customer and quickly engage or engross them into your story will give you a huge competitive advantage over the feature and benefit legions calling on your customer.
Talk about special situations, selling the first time buyer is one of your biggest challenges as a b2b sales professional. In fact, this is probably one of the more complex situations you will encounter.
Let me add to the complexity of a first time sale. The higher the price, complexity of installation, and possible political risk adds to the difficulties for first time buyer.
Face it, when a buyer has no experience in making these first time buying decisions – what do they use as a point of reference? That’s right, they have NO point of reference and there is a major factor in play – the unknown.
Really? Nice Voice Mails Get Deleted!
Welcome to the new world of the busy executives and decision makers. Anything not related to what they need or gets their interest is in automatic delete mode.
Most B2B Sales People call a targeted prospect and leave the following voice mail…