The media is abuzz with articles telling us how to improve B2B sales, but at the same time, we also see headlines like “The end of B2B sales.” Who’s right?
What’s clear is that there’s no more room for traditional B2B sales. In a recent survey, 43% of B2B buyers said they would prefer a buying experience that had no reps involved at all. Yet, sales reps are stubbornly advised to “present your product better,” “ask open ended questions,” and “sweeten the deal.”
You’re trying to make the customer fit your product’s mold rather than making your business and services fit the customer’s mold. In a world with countless competitors, the customer no longer needs to adhere to your process. The tables have turned, and sales teams are realizing they need to get the customer exactly what they need, when they need it and in a way that fits their buying process.
Putting the customer first was always the domain of B2C. But why? The person on the other end of a B2B call is a human, too.
In this sense, B2B is actually becoming a lot more like B2C. We can’t continue using cookie-cutter solutions that hardly change whether you’re selling enterprise software for health tech or retail solutions. Each business should figure out what is best for their clients and trust the direction that leads them in.
For a financial services company, the solution might be putting all their products on a virtual marketplace and minimizing customer contact with reps. For a retail solution, it may be getting on the phone with a shop owner and customizing the tools to their particular model.
So what is the common factor here? Optimizing your unique path to better connect with customers requires having a cross-discipline team that’s focused solely on that objective and sees the client as their guiding star. We call that RevOps.
How tunnel vision in sales ops left the client behind
Back around 2010, the thinking was, generally: “Let’s bring tech into our business and make it more efficient.” The problem was, many companies used that tech to improve their existing processes, rather than craft better ones.