Is your sales B2B, B2C or is it … Human to Human?

“It’s amazing what doors you can open if you reach out to people with a smile, a friendly attitude and a desire to make a positive impact” – Richard Branson

2016 was indeed the year of change: The newest marketing and sales trend was to engage, nurture and communicate: to empower customers to educate themselves on everything that a brand represents, prior to a purchase.

Transition was made in such a way that we now see the customer as being a person with needs, rather than a buyer.

And this happens in both, Business to Business and Business to Consumer sales. We are no longer looking at these two, but rather we are looking at humans.

We discuss and interact with humans.

And why do I think this is important?

Businesses don’t have emotions. People in charge of business usually do: they want to be part of something, to grow, to see the future of the product and how this can help them.

Humans want to understand and they want to feel.

So how do you put this information in your sales process? How are you, a B2B or B2C consultant to work with humans?

Well, this is the easy part: you’re also human. You have needs and you can understand someone else’s needs and concerns. You can relate to the other person and provide services in such a way you grow your relationship. You can build something on top of your sales discussions.

"Don't find Customers for your Products, find Products for your Customers..." - Seth Godin

So, what can you do to educate the customer in such way that they will understand the future gains and benefits of purchasing your products/services?

• Inform: Help them with answers for all their questions. RFXs, in tech, are a common way to answer these and it also shows the customer that you are willing to help them understand.
• Demonstrate: Offer them a demo of your solution – a demo that will show them how easy it is to use your products/services and where they fit.
• Prove: Work with them on offering a Proof of Concept or even a Pilot – this is usually the best option for a customer to see how the solution fits their business environment.
• Help: Don’t restrain from offering them workshops and options to learn more on your products/services – this will show the customer that you are willing to go through this journey with them. Workshops help customers better understand what you do and where the solution fits.
• Offer references: Provide them references from your current customer base – this way they can see some success stories and know how this worked with others. Use Cases and Case Studies also help a lot in this matter.
• Meet: Meet with the customer and educate their business – All departments should be educated, but also the Decision-Making People. They’re all humans.
• Teach: Offer training options to customers, and let them bring the knowledge within their company. Once an idea is introduced to their management and people, then the idea can grow and soon they may want to purchase the products / services
• Partner: Partner with them to provide the right product. All customers should be important to you as each of them can then become part or reference of a bigger project.
• Implement: On this part, you're helping the customer, through your partners, or directly, to create the integration with your products/services they need. Throughout this stage, shadowing is very important, since, through this, the customer, will see how everything comes into place and realize the future possibilities of your products/services.
• Grow: Help them to grow the project as much as possible, through the right account management, offer support on new projects and work with them to see where else can the Solution be implemented.