Stop Selling, Start Sense Making!

Seemingly a new jargon "Sense Making" has been in existence since 1961.

But it is super relevant today than ever before. Why?

89% of buyers agree the information they find is high quality, but 55% say it's overwhelming.

Today's B2B buyers have access to more information than ever before when researching purchases - blogs, review sites, white papers, and so much more.

added to the above comes another major challenge which is more inter personal.

Skepticism Penalty:

There's a template to being a sales guy and in the information driven world this template is a recipe to failure.

• Information Overload: Sharing too much content can overwhelm potential customers, making it hard for them to understand the main points.
• Self-Serving Communication: Only talking about how great your product or company is can seem fake and selfish, not really helping the customer with what they need.
• Negative Competitor Comparisons: Speaking badly about competitors is not right and doesn't work well. It shows a lack of confidence and professionalism, making the salesperson look bad, loose trust.
• Aggressive Follow-Up: Repeatedly and forcefully following up with customers can annoy them, driving them away instead of building a real connection.

"Sellers pay a “skepticism” penalty just for being a seller."

Here is the McKinsey sense making template to the rescue:

In the below three steps I feel the third one "Collaborate in customer learning" as the most important of all.

In conclusion, I'd like to take one point from each step of the "Sense Making" process:

• Connect customers to information they are unlikely to encounter on their own.
• Proactively provide information about issues customers are likely to face in buying process
• Help customers identify questions they didn't think to ask.

Additional Point - Hyper Personalisation:

Combining Hyper Personalization with "Sense Making" can center the sales process around the customer's specific needs. A one-size-fits-all approach does not effectively address the diverse requirements of different customers.

Hyper personalization gives a deep insight into what each customer is like, and sense making turns this into helpful sales chats that can increase sales. Combined, they help build stronger trust and growth.

Source: Gartner for Sales - The Sense Making Seller