Developing Your B2B Sales Skills
Unique Skills for Business to Business Selling
Your b2b sales tip today is to avoid arguing with customers.
I should be able to stop with the opening sentence, however, I have found many b2b sales people who feel being “right” is more important than customer relations. And, my response to this is simple – baloney!
There is a “right” and wrong way to deal with arguments with customers. Let me begin with the wrong way.
Recently I learned a few things about what customers truly want from their B2B sales people. Some of the things they spoke about were just common sense items to me while a couple of factors opened my eyes to some possibilities.
So what are the seven things your customers want? These are the seven most important things for a good sales relationship to happen according to the customers.
Here they are…
Recently I noted several NFL quarterbacks losing their jobs as well as a couple of college quarterbacks losing their scholarships. Each time the reason was “they didn’t have the it factor for winning.”
At first I found this a strange statement, then I looked into this interesting reasoning for success on a football field. Then I began to think about b2b sales people and do they need an “it” factor to be successful?
I believe the answer is “yes” to this question. B2B sales people need to have an internal “it” factor to keep driving their personal and sales team success.
Often I’m asked about this thing called an elevator speech. And, a lot of sales people have no clue what it is, why you need one or how to create one.
So, today, I thought I would take a moment to share what I know about the famous “elevator speech” and how and when to use it. Especially since I find most b2b sales people answer the “what do you do?” question with the self-defeating and end of conversation – “I’m a Sales Person with XYZ Company.” Tall about a show shopper.
Okay, here are the answers you are looking for regarding the what, when and how to build your elevator speech…
While taking some time off, I was reflecting upon the issues that hinder success in b2b sales. My thoughts ran the gambit of possible issues including hiring and selection of high quality b2b sales people – sales training and development using the right processes for your industry – quality of sales leadership – the rules, policies and structure of an organization – and finally compensation or incentive programs.
In the long run, I narrowed it down to five major pitfalls to b2b sales success
One of the most interesting challenges I deal with when developing a major account or national account sales team is overcoming the Presentation Model of selling. Seems to be ingrained in the DNA of b2b sales people to use presentations as the golden key to getting the business.
And, up until the mid 1980’s every sales training and development course would discuss the need for a written and rehearsed – structured – sales presentation if you wanted to win a sale.
Then in the mid 1980 a consultant – actually a researcher – by the name of Neil Rackham turned the sales world upside down with his radical sales book – “S.P.I.N Selling.” In his book he used research to show the non-believers that questions win more business, especially in the large sales category. He later wrote a companion book entitled “Major Account Sales Strategies,” which provided detailed information in how to win major account sales – using the Questioning Model for Sales Success.
Earlier I wrote about the importance of emotional wins and three ways to build on an emotional win. This tip will cover two primary mistakes used by sales people to lose a emotional win advantage and the sale.
If you are not familiar with the concept of emotional wins on the part of decision makers, go back to the post under “Influencing the Sale” and how emotional wins get the business.
There are two primary mistakes b2b sales people keeping them from winning business. These are…