Secrets of Closing the Sale? Become the Buyer’s Guide
Gone are the days of product pitching and jumping right to functions and features. The secret to closing more sales today is becoming a Buyer’s Guide — a seller who takes a consultative approach to support the prospect through every step of the B2B buyer journey.
More than 7 out of 10 B2B buyers say that their last purchase was very complex or difficult. That’s not surprising – the buying landscape has become flooded with vendors offering various benefits, and the requirements for buying solutions internally are always changing. Add to that the average enterprise sale takes six to 10 decision makers to gain approval and it’s no wonder why so many opportunities end in no-decision.
These new buying dynamics mean salespeople today need to shift their attention to creating Internal Sellers – buyers who are capable of retelling your solution’s story internally to gain consensus and knock down objections.
But once you create an Internal Seller, what happens next? As a salesperson, your job is to enable your Internal Seller by arming them with confidence-inspiring details and information they can use to complete the necessary steps of their buying process. We call this being the Buyer’s Guide – and we believe it’s the best kept secret of closing sales.
Buying B2B solutions is hard, Buyer’s Guides make it easy
A common misconception in the B2B sales world is that buyers know what they need and how to navigate their own buying process. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Maybe you have a buyer who is new to the organization, afraid to ask questions, lacks a strong relationship with their colleagues, or unaware of how much the B2B landscape has changed since they last purchased a solution.
Any one of these shortcomings can present significant challenges to your prospect when they are looking to complete buying jobs. A recent B2B Buyer Journey study by Gartner revealed that B2B buyers favor vendors who provide information that eases the purchase process. In fact, customers who perceive the information they receive from vendors to be helpful in obtaining internal approval are 2.8 times more likely to experience purchase ease and three times more likely to buy a bigger deal. Buyers need help knowing what to do and how to do it.
So, how do you become a Buyer’s Guide? The answer can be found by uncovering little known buyer secrets that drive most purchase decisions today.
Unlocking 7 Secrets of Closing the Sale
A Buyer’s Guide helps the decision makers and stakeholders navigate the process of evaluating vendor solutions and complete the steps necessary to make an informed decision. We want you to put yourself in their shoes and identify what information they need to justify a purchase decision.
Here we uncover 7 buyer truths – or secrets – that will help you become a more effective and trustworthy Buyer’s Guide.
Secret #1: Your buyer doesn’t understand your sales process
Coaching the buyer on how the sales process works and what steps will occur will set the right expectations and help them prepare questions, requirements and align internal schedules. Some buyers don’t know how the B2B sales process works and they need your help telling them the steps involved.
As an added benefit, this gives you the chance to take the lead in setting a plan and process instead of the other way around.
Pro Tip: Don’t expect your buyer to admit they don’t know something – no one likes to appear uninformed. Instead, assume that they don’t know and ask for forgiveness if anything you share is repetitive.
Secret #2: Your buyer doesn’t know who else to get involved, or when
It may seem hard to believe, but oftentimes your buyer doesn’t understand their sales process.
Many buyers won't realize the impact on other departments and they fail to educate their peers which puts your proposal at risk. Did they invite IT, Security, Data Analytics, Legal, Procurement or DevOps to review your solution too? Do they understand the benefits to those groups, or potential roadblocks? Did they bring them in early enough in the process for material feedback or requirements?
It's your job as their guide to make sure they know the touchpoints that your solution has with other departments and to help them engage these other business units at the appropriate times. This is an important part of the consensus building process.
Secret #3: Your buyer doesn’t like surprises
As a Buyer’s Guide, it's your job to make sure that you protect your buyer from any surprises. As you develop your sponsor(s) into Internal Sellers, you want to make sure that they don’t get surprised by elements of your proposal.
Did you share how long lead times are?
Did you highlight the minimum length of the contract?
Did you mention that you have to get access to the database or require firewall port access?
Are there legal or compliance considerations?
You want to build a protective bubble around your buyers to make sure that they remain confident in your solution and your ability to help them avoid internal conflicts.
There’s a tendency amongst sellers to save landmine topics for later discussions for fear of losing the prospect too early. But saving these gotcha conversations creates unwanted surprises and erodes trust with your buyers. Getting the “ugly” questions and topics out of the way early and delivered with confidence only strengthens your opportunity for closing the sale and gives you a more accurate win forecast.
Secret #4: Your buyers have many different motivations
A Buyer’s Guide understands there are different types of information that various teams, personas, and roles need to review before making a decision. With most enterprise purchases requiring up to 12 people to review, sellers cannot expect the same story to resonate with all stakeholders. Some will view your solution from a user’s perspective, some from an integration or technical perspective, some from security, ease of supporting, likelihood of vendor lock-in or other criteria that relate specifically to their role in the business.
Your role as a Buyer’s Guide is to help your Internal Seller map out the story for each stakeholder, along with the potential objections, so your buyer feels confident in those discussions. You will need to change the stack ranking of your selling points based on the unique perspective of the different personas. If you can be there to support your Internal Seller in those discussions, great. But if not, provide your Internal Seller with benefit statements, considerations and case studies by persona.
Don’t overlook the personal motivators too. These are usually kept hidden, but make no mistake - they are often more powerful than professional motivators. Is your buyer new to the organization and cautious about making a mistake? Or are they change agents that want to make their mark? What kind of relationship do they have with their boss or the executive team? Are they risk-adverse or eager to make things better?
Pro Tip: Use LinkedIn to get a better understanding of your buyer and the persona they create for themselves in the world. Are they comfortable with public speaking? Are they a thought leader in their field? Do they actively post and share new ideas with their own POV? Do they have a large professional network of people they recommend or receive recommendations from? These are signals of the kind of buyer you have and what will motivate them.
Secret #5: Your buyer does not have all the buying criteria they need
Each decision maker has a set of strategic goals they need to reach and they view your solution and the cost of the proposal through a lens that filters all information back to the goals they have to achieve. Decision makers evaluate your ability to reduce cost and remove risks AND they also evaluate your ability to help them innovate, win market share, beat competition and get to market faster.
You need to understand the criteria they already have identified and then you need to work on getting additional criteria added to their list. If you allow them to set the criteria with no input from you, the solution they seek will clearly not be a perfect match with your solution and the price pressure will force a low margin win for whichever vendor makes the sale.
Secret #6: Your buyer sweats the small stuff
If a buyer is stressed or worried about a loose detail of the meeting, their time being wasted or who is going to pick up the check, they are not going to be fully engaged with you, your content or the stories you want to tell. Put them at ease so they can focus on your message.
As a Buyer’s Guide it is your job to be the prospect’s comfort ambassador. A comfort ambassador is someone who covers the details – big and small – and removes any friction that can cause unease in their mind.
Examples:
Honoring the clock for time scheduled and establishing at the start of the meeting/Zoom that you will make sure things end on time.
Handling the introductions and agenda for the meeting and ensuring that everyone agrees the agenda suits the goals of the meeting.
Inviting questions and offering sample questions that you expect to hear. Too many sellers ask for questions but they don’t impart a genuine interest in hearing from the attendees or they haven’t left enough time on the clock so everyone knows that questions will take the meeting overtime and as a result, folks don’t offer their questions.
Thanking anyone that does ask a question, even if it was a critical question that challenged your solution. Showing respect to a tough buyer puts everyone on the call at ease that you are not going to get defensive.
At lunch meetings, make sure you lead the party into the hostess and take control of the process of getting a table. DItto for the check when it arrives, announce early to the server that you will handle the check so all attendees can rest easy knowing there is no ambiguity.
Secret #7: Your buyer deserves the truth
Delivering bad news in a timely manner earns trust. Saying “I don’t know” earns trust. Respecting their right to say “no’ earns trust too. You must remember that your contacts put their job and reputation on the line anytime they recommend a new solution. We have to take that responsibility very seriously. Do not overpromise. Do not inflate your solution’s capabilities.
Your job is to help them make an informed decision but you must recognize that not every sales opportunity will end up as a win.
Closing the sale today requires a consultative approach
Becoming a Buyer’s Guide reflects the change that needs to happen for modern sellers. Rather than push product and bombard prospects with features and benefits (aka classic selling methodology), a Buyer’s Guide takes a consultative approach that supports the prospect through every step of the B2B buyer journey.
Does your B2B sales organization have the skills to become Buyer’s Guides? Check out our custom Sales Assessments, Messaging Playbooks and Sales Training services.