Creating a Customer Journey to the Sale

In today's B2B sales world the typical buyer engages with a sales representative after they are already 55% through their buying process. Gone are the days where the B2B sales representative possessed all the information and "educated" the buyer on their product or services features + benefits and how they solved the customer's problem. The modern B2B sales rep needs to rethink their approach and skills needed to successfully close business in today's market.

Create Connections With Value

In today's buying world, to succeed, the modern B2B sales rep needs to do a lot more than inform; they need to be able to develop a story and craft the buying vision for the customer. Simply put, the sales rep needs to be able to create the customer's journey for them and guide them down the path to the actual purchase decision.

Like any good journey there needs to be a starting point, a direction and finish to the customer journey. In today's market the successful starting point is not usually your old age "cold calling" a high quantity of prospects. Even companies that develop a "sales development" function separate from their account reps realize that quantity over quality in lead generation doesn't cut it any more.

Rather today's B2B sales reps needs to establish themselves as a source of value added information designed to help customers not just sell them. Whatever your product or service is, become an expert in the issues + interests of your target customers and develop real connections with them. Show them valuable content that will help them with their business challenges and then you can differentiate yourself as the expert to help them solve those problems. Offer up this content without any hidden quid pro quos. Add value to their day without expecting anything immediately in return.

Creating the Buying Vision

Once you establish yourself as a thought leader within your customer's interest, you can start to help create a buying vision for them to solve their problems. You can use peer case histories to show how other companies have solved similar problems that your prospect has experienced. You can use third party studies or research to show the extent of the issues and potential solutions. You need to help them envision the "end result"; what could be possible with your company's products + services help. Sometimes it's also necessary to demonstrate the cost of not taking action to solve their problem in order to create a sense of urgency and create next steps.

Build a Business Case

Now that your prospect can start to see the vision of their purchase and the ultimate solution, you need to help them by building a business case for the purchase. Realize that your prospect will most likely have other colleagues involved in the final decision making process. In fact, today there is an average of 5 people involved in the decision making process for B2B purchases. Understand who they are and what role they play. Who is the project champion and who is the executive decision maker? Most likely these will be different people involved in the decision making process and you need to treat them differently.

In any manner you need to help your prospect create a fact based business case to support their decision. Again referrals and actual customer success stories will play a significant role here as proof of concept. Approaching the new B2B buyer with this overall mindset will improve your sales results past the traditional and dated "always be closing" mentality.