How to succeed in B2B sales

If you want to know how to succeed in B2B sales, then keep reading because it’s not what you think.

Entrepreneurs inexperienced in B2B sales (selling to businesses), regardless of what they’re selling, tend to approach sales in a rational, proposal-driven approach, treating it like a numbers game and focussing on the product or service they’re selling.

I’ve been coaching my clients to place more focus on the buyers. As this HBR article shows, when you’re selling B2B, a sale has little to do with your widget (product or service) and more to do with how you make the buyers feel.

Let me repeat this as the majority of people think sales doesn’t work for them because they think their product or service is different.

Assuming your product or service is excellent, a sale has little to do with your widget (product or service), and more to do with how you make the buyers feel.

Researchers surveyed 4,000 individual customer B2B buyers and evaluated over 70 supplier attributes that play a key part in the customer’s perception of value, i.e. what makes a buyer buy. Here are the top 3 attributes that impacts a buyer’s decision.

3 factors predict buyer behaviour

1. How you benefit the company

How do you help your customers achieve their objectives, like getting more customers and making more money?

2. How you can help the buyer

How are you making the individual buyer’s life easier, like improving their productivity or reducing their stress?

3. How do you boost the buyer’s self-worth

How are you making them look good to their peers? According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, we are motivated by the need to look and feel important amongst peers.