B2B Sales - What to do in '22
As 2021 comes to a close, it’s time to review what’s new in 2022.??
The world has truly shifted to digital selling, and whatever that means to you, one thing is for certain – interrupting buyers and pitching at them is finished.??
The world is still on high alert and virtual sales channels are the ONLY point of access for salespeople to connect with disconnected buyers. The transition to digital-only sales has seen many organisations struggle to remain relevant, with just as many experienced salespeople questioning their role in the ‘new normal’ business landscape.?
Best practice sales execution requires a rethink of the vendor to customer relationship, as well as the end-to-end and omni-channel customer experience. More than just sales jargon, these practices are fundamental for engaging buyers who already seem to know it all.?
Get rid of commission & quotas??
Sales quotas and commission payments have always driven self-centred behaviour and resulted in a strong distrust of salespeople. Lots of vendors are waking up and moving to buyer-aligned measurements and rewards … and not before time.??
I recently interviewed the senior leaders at?monday.com?about their experience with no commissions and the feedback was not surprising to me: measure the right key performance indicators (KPIs) to drive the right behaviour and you will create genuine alignment with your buyers.??
Let’s be honest, sales quotas and commissions are completely at odds with customer success. If yours is a business that proclaims ‘customer centricity’ - while measuring and rewarding sales performance by revenue attainment - then you are being disingenuous and your business is now at risk.?
Seriously, revenue quotas and commission payments drive salespeople to be anything but customer centric. They have created the kind of quota-smashing lone wolfs and rainmakers that proudly treat the buyer as an adversary to be conquered.??
Business should never be a game of win/lose. We all know that horrible feeling of post-purchase dissonance (buyers regret), when you feel like you've been exploited or misled by a salesperson who has over-promised and under-delivered.??
If one side of?the?transaction is?the ‘losing side’?it’s?only a matter of time before the ‘winning side’ becomes a loser?too, especially with the amplification of negative chatter that we now see when businesses?don’t?deliver (think United Airlines). Can your business afford to take that risk in 2022?and beyond??
But sales people still need KPIs – don't they??
You?don’t?have to be overly imaginative to?identify?some effective?KPIs?that will drive the?RIGHT?behaviours.?
We must shift mindset, culture and KPIs to those that create real buyer alignment.?Reward the outcomes that make your business sustainable, and I’m not suggesting that this is an easy shift to make, but it’s absolutely a necessary shift.?
“The more important it is to meet your numbers the more important it is to stop concentrating on your numbers and start concentrating on the client’s numbers”?Mahan Khalsa?
Remove the vested interests
Vested interests can’t co-exist with customer success. Buyers consistently tell me that they avoid engaging with salespeople they know are rewarded by commission. Buyers are right not to trust the recommendation of a salesperson with a personal stake in selling a particular product.??
You better change how you measure, manage and reward your salespeople if you want to remove the vested interests that BLOCK the win/win!??
Start SOLVING, stop selling?
Being good at 'sales' no longer requires ANY of that old school smooth talking BS.
No persuading, manipulating, coercing, objection handling or ‘closing’ … in fact, there's no need for 'selling' at all in the future.
At the risk of over-simplifying, all you have do now is EDUCATE and solve problems. Of course, if you are going to be a great 'educator' then it follows that you must have deep domain expertise, knowledge and insights to share with your buyers. Drop the old sales training and Jedi-mind tricks, and just focus on becoming a specialist in your field and then you can educate your buyers all day, every day.
Focus on TRUST?
The?2021 Edelman Trust Barometer?revealed an epidemic of misinformation and mistrust of institutions and leaders, hence the rising tide of independent consumer and B2B review sites (G2 Crowd, Glassdoor, TrustPilot, Google and Amazon reviews etc).
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Modern buyers are seeking?"relationship first, business second".?Buyers need to know if you have both character and competence when they first meet you. Are you a person of high integrity (character) and are you good at what you do (competence)? Can you quickly demonstrate EMPATHY and authority?
The ability to empathise is the arguably the most misunderstood and overlooked element of the sales role, because empathy contributes to positive relationships and organisational cultures. It also drives TRUST and therefore results.?
Patience is King?
My own career history is littered with embarrassing examples of sales teams focused on maximising short-term revenue – with no regard for buyer interests. Salespeople often wreak of ‘commission breath’ and buyers can smell it when you’re focused on your own short-term self-interest. ?
Far too many vendors are still fixated on short-term revenue attainment when they should be focussing on the holy grail of lifetime customer value (LCV). That’s now very dangerous when the buyer expects to be taken on a long-term journey. Worse still, this old approach invariably creates a toxic dog-eat-dog culture inside the vendor’s own business which always DESTROYS value. ?
Leverage DATA or perish?
Old-school sales doctrines are obsessed with ‘closing’ however, in our current digital landscape ‘opening’ deals has become more important than conversion.?
You’ll never convert if you can’t OPEN.?
Generic messaging and blanket marketing simply won’t fly with the modern buyer. Openings must be tailored to a narrative that can be carried throughout the sales process. Every interaction must be personalised to the nth degree, but you can't personalise without some solid information.
Personalisation requires proficient use of data and analytics that offer results-driven insights into buyer tastes and preferences. Buyer intent data such as Bombora, 6Sense and tools like Datanyze, Zoominfo and Discoverorg are all designed to help you get more sophisticated about who, when, and how you engage your audience.?
In contrast to the old scattergun approach, modern salespeople must narrow their focus and personalise messaging, platform and timing to see results.?
Leaders MUST wake up
The trick with all of the above is convincing senior management that we now operate in the buyer-led world and the sales department is no longer immune to change.?
Old metrics and sales methodologies have no place in the global, digital, connected economies that we all operate in nowadays, and leaders need to be patient and trust that a short-term change in focus will create the right culture and business results in the medium to long-term.?
Embrace change - and watch what happens.?
TLDR:?2022 is the Year of Change in the sales department. We all have to do things very differently because buyers have evolved.?
Remember, buyers don’t care about YOUR quota or YOUR commissions (and they never did). Your buyers will never fully trust you if you are driven by self-interest and self serving KPIs, nor will they enjoy dealing with you if you push them. The time has come for these outdated business measurements and benchmarks to be replaced.?
Join me on?Tuesday 8 Feb?for a frank and robust discussion about setting your team up with the right goals for success in 2022.
By Graham Hawkins
Author of: "The Future of the Sales Profession"
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Lead, Special Projects - Education & Digitalization
2 年It has begun. Thanks to IMPACT, I’ve learned some skills that will sure make the right Impact.
National Architectural & Specification Manager @ 3monkeez Pty Ltd | Business Management
2 年Thanks for posting
Helping organisations manage workflows between on-premises and cloud
2 年Thought-provoking certainly but the question really needs to be asked to Sales leaders and Managers - they're the ones who structure pay and set KPI's and targets. They're the people calling the shots, not Sellers.
Part time swimming teacher and coach
2 年Graham Hawkins thank you for this thoughtful piece. 2 comments - (1) I sincerely believe we don't achieve what we don't measure. When you say get rid of quotas and commission I think what you mean is get rid of inappropriate KPIs and replace with meaningful short, medium, and long term KPIs that are in line with the company's overall objectives (2) I keep hearing that sellers have to understand and fulfill customer's needs. This is true; however the challenge is that customer's don't know what they want. With a car you can take it for a test drive and see if it is suitable - for many complex solutions and non tangible goods you cant actually take it for a test drive and then massive changes involved in implementing new systems in an organization mean that you can't imagine what it will be like and you cant undo it. You have to gain the trust of the prospect because the decision is a "faith" buy. Thank you for raising this important topic
Hate cold calling? Meeting the wrong people? Can't attract big customers? All of our customers agreed with at least one of these, but if you said no to all three, we won't be doing business together.
2 年Whey hey - welcome to the No Bonus, No Commission club Graham Hawkins! It's been an unnecessary poison chalice that salespeople have been bearing for too long. Interrupt and pitch is a disgrace that should have been out-lawed years ago, but my experience suggests you have to be very careful with Education. Don't expect to just rock up and find a class full of knowledge hungry kids for you to educate - it never works like that. What you get is a highly sceptical, disinterested, juvenile delinquent who is ready to tear you apart at the first sign of weakness. I wrote an article the other day about younger salespeople suffering from Premature Elaboration, but older salespeople are beginning to suffer from Premature Education. You have to grab a juvenile delinquents attention before they'll listen to you and buyers are no different (although I appreciate buyers won't like me saying comparing them to delinquents). Data is the way to determine who the buyer is and in what situation they're likely to be - but you still have to get their attention before educating them. It still requires salespeople to make a proactive approach. Omni-channel is the way to do that, but the phone (using a modern call where curiosity is the purpose rather than an old-fashioned cold call where 'selling' was the aim) is still the quickest and best channel to achieve this IMHO. I agree there's change coming - but I'm not sure senior management in older listed companies see the necessity to do so in their life-times. Younger companies seem happier to embrace your ideas - Atlassian would be one and, as you say, Monday.com would be another. Buyers are driving this change with their behaviours - technology is the enabler of change and the pandemic has turbo-charged it..which makes 2022 a rather exciting year (if you're prepared). Thanks to articles like this - hopefully more of us will be.