Management Perspectives

Selling today is changing faster than ever. With all the world’s information at their fingertips, prospects have developed new buying habits. Yet, sellers have not adapted. In fact, most B2B sales organisations are unprepared and ill-equipped to sell today. They are still selling as if they had control of the sale and are a necessary component of the sale. Their influence and impact are on the decline. They must improve and the way to start is by dispelling these five sales myths we are seeing today.

MYTH 1: We must educate our prospects
REALITY: We often go way too far, turning off our prospect’s brains

You have less time than ever with a prospect. Before the internet, you were contacted early in the sale process for information. Today, the prospect is keeping you at arm’s length for up to 80 per cent or more of the purchase journey.

We know that too much information just weighs down the brain. It drives confusion and creates more buying anxiety. So why are we wasting our time educating the prospect?
They have done their research. They understand what they are buying. What they need from a salesperson is to understand why they need it. Sellers must use their precious time to understand the prospect’s priority and align their solution to it. You cannot achieve that while talking about what it is.

Sellers who feel the need to educate underperform compared to their peers. Yet, even when faced with the evidence, too many cling to the belief that their role is to educate a prospect. We must erase this myth from the sales organisation.

MYTH 2: Price is the deciding factor
REALITY: Prospects buy on price when they cannot tell the difference between your solution and another

We tend to think that prospects want to save a lot of money, so they buy the least expensive solution. This is not always the case. Prospects use price as a decider when they believe all the options are the same.

Think about the prospect who believes that one solution will solve a priority of theirs, and another won’t. In this case, price is not a factor, let alone the decider. But left alone, prospects will not reach this conclusion. It is up to the seller to help them understand how their solution will really solve the priority.

MYTH 3: Prospects buy based on fixing pain points
REALITY: Prospects live with pain. They act on threats

Sellers have been taught for decades to search for prospects’ pain points. It is common for sales training to teach this. But pain points don’t really sell. In fact, they often lead the seller into traps, blind spots, and dead ends.

The truth is that prospects live with a lot of their pain points. But they do not have time for all of them. Selling to a pain point can put you on the short list of good ideas they would like to take action on, but it cannot move you to the top where action happens.

The biggest threats they face is what motivates them. These threats move items to the top of the list. Sellers must seek to understand these threats and align their solution with them. Pain points alone are not enough.

MYTH 4: Companies that sell what we sell are our competition
REALITY: You are up against a much greater competitor: doing nothing at all

Think about the prospects list again; the one full of solutions to solve pain points. It is full of great ideas. You might even be on it. But in an accelerating world, where attention and resources are scarce, you are not competing in a like-for-like way anymore.

Today, a graphic designer can lose work because an IT problem is more pressing. An office supplies seller can lose a deal because the prospect decides to make a new hire.

If you are getting prospects’ attention, but deals seem to lose steam and go nowhere, it is because you are not helping them understand the threat you are solving. Your biggest competition is not the other company down the road. You are competing against every other good or great idea they have. Your toughest competition is the prospect taking no action. You made the list, but you cannot make it to the top.

MYTH 5: Great service grows relationships and account value
REALITY: Great service only sustains your status and revenue

When companies attempt to grow their © Shutterstock.com existing accounts, they often run into a wall.
The managers and sellers put their heads together to make a plan. Then, they talk to the prospect about how great their service or their relationship has been. Later, they are confused why the revenue growth falls well short of the targets they set.

The truth is that great service does help renew the relationship. It is obvious to see why, if you have performed well, would they buy the same thing again. But what is not obvious is that you cannot grow the relationship with service alone.

To the prospect, they are getting what they are paying for. Rarely, if ever, does a customer knock on your door or send you an email asking if they can pay more for what they are getting now.

Instead, this work is for the seller to do. Sales organisations must accept the responsibility of actively growing their accounts by finding new opportunities within their customer organisations.

Do not let these myths live on. If you hear these within your sales organisation, confront them head on and help your team understand that the world in which they are selling has changed.

The role of the seller is to find real decision-makers in their prospect organisations. This often means talking to folks two or more levels above where they sell today. Sellers must then discover the real priorities of the organisation— the ones at the top of the list. Sellers must help prospects understand how the solution will solve the priority. Once the sale is made, the seller has just begun. They must work relentlessly to maximise the value they are providing to the organisation in order to grow the revenue.