“A business unit needs to decide what need it aims to satisfy in what group of people and with what value proposition that distinguishes the business from its competitors.” – Philip Kotler
The world of B2B sales is complex, difficult, and in our hyper-competitive global marketplace, it grows more challenging every day.
Every industry is undergoing transformation in some form, with many aggressive competitors chasing the same deals, and an overwhelming number of communications channels bombarding prospects with messages.
Each company has overloaded buyers, scarce resources, internal politics, and complex buying processes.
To make matters worse, the further up the enterprise food chain you go, the more challenging it becomes…resulting in longer and more complex sales cycles.
Bottom line: It is not easy to be a B2B buyer, or seller, in any market.
Unfortunately, because of this complexity many deals result in “no decision” – where the buyer ends up choosing to do nothing, rather than trust any seller or potential solution to satisfy their need.
It does not have to be this way.
While there is no single “silver bullet to growth“, there is a proven strategy smart sellers can use to increase their odds of converting B2B prospects to closed-won clients.
Even though this strategic approach is not difficult, the vast majority of B2B go-to-market organizations do not do it.
Why?
Because it requires them to think.
The Complexity of B2B Sales
Here are a few statistics I have heard over the last 12 months that illustrate how challenging and complex today’s B2B sales environment really is:
- 90% of B2B web searchers have not selected a brand before starting their search. (Status Labs)
- 57% of the average buyers journey is completed before there is ANY contact with a seller. (Gartner, CEB – Corporate Executive Board)
- 74.6% of B2B sales cycles to new customers take at least 4 months to close, with almost half (46.4%) taking 7 months or more. 12-15 months is not unheard of for complex solutions. (Marketing Charts)
- 10.2 people are now involved in the average enterprise buying decision. This is your “buying committee.” (CEB) – If you look at the deals at the end of your pipeline, how many members have you identified for each?
- 40% of buyer journeys result in no decision. (CEB)
This is not a pretty picture if you are involved with B2B marketing or sales.
How do you navigate through this?
The answer is with better clarity and insight about your offering, and your buyers.
Clarity and Insight Lead to Better Messaging
There are three important insights you need to get started.
- First, you need absolute clarity on your offering – the products and/or services you sell. What are the benefits? The strengths/weaknesses of your solution versus alternatives? What results will your offering deliver? This is your value proposition.
- The next question to be answered is, what types of organization is ideally suited to be your next client? Will your solution work for any size company in any industry in any geography, or is it more targeted? Define your answer in the form of an Ideal Client Profile (often called ICP in biz dev circles!)
- Finally, get clarity on who your typical buyer is (or more often, the members of the buying group)? Begin to develop a “persona” profile for each, highlighting their typical demographics. You should also begin to think about how you could make the value proposition of your offering more relevant to each persona.
With these insights in hand, you can now begin to think about your messaging.
Consider the Buyers Point of View
Why is messaging so important? Because messaging is where we tailor the value proposition of our offering to something each individual buyer actually cares about, and is motivating enough for them to take action.
Until we do this, there is likely not going to be any sale.
A great way to begin thinking about this is to answer the following question: What is the buyer’s job to be done?
Ask this for each persona you have identified in your typical sales cycle. Then you can begin to think about their challenges. Their fears. Their concerns. What is preventing them from doing their job?
This will point you in the right direction.
Can you identify the specific pain, problem, or potential opportunity that your product or service will solve for them?
Sales happen when you can clearly demonstrate how your offering uniquely:
- Removes or reduces pain
- Fixes a problem
- Creates new capability or opportunity
Once you understand the “job to be done” by your buyer and the client organization, then you can begin to shape your offering to win.
With this deep understanding of your buyer, you can position your product/service, and develop the appropriate messaging to communicate the unique benefits you deliver.
Without it, you are competing with every other loud voice in your market.
The Only Solution
Always remember that in every deal you are first competing against the opportunity cost of the buyer doing nothing at all.
Many organizations and decision makers arrive at a “no decision” outcome because the “pain of the same” appears easier, less expensive, less risky, or less disruptive than making a change.
You will lose to the status quo, the dreaded “no decision”, every single time if you do not clearly demonstrate the unique benefits of your products and/or services, and inspire them to take action.
As sellers, we have to show buyers that our solution will uniquely remove their pain, solve their problem, or deliver new value to the organization.
Unless you connect the dots between your offering’s value proposition and the buyer’s “job to be done,” and convince them that your solution is their only solution; you will likely not be successful.
Developing clarity on your value proposition, ideal client, and buyer’s “job to be done” are your secret strategy to developing effective messaging and greater B2B sales success.
-Onward