Recent Changes in Buyer Behavior
More Pressure.
The combination of the buyer changes above has put great pressure on sales organizations and individual salespeople. To start, sellers have to battle misconceptions and misinformation that buyers may have formed through doing their own research. The formation of these ideas and assumptions can make it challenging to identify true root cause issues that may be preventing the customer from achieving success.
When it comes to getting time with these buyers, sellers must work harder to earn the right to a conversation with skeptical, time-pressured stakeholders. There are more stakeholders to manage and building consensus among them is often what is needed to move a deal forward. In fact, according to Harvard Business Review, “… the number of people involved in B2B solutions purchases has climbed from an average of 5.4 two years ago to 6.8 today.” In complex selling situations, achieving consensus may mean drawing on an internal team who must sell cohesively in front of the stakeholders. Each player must drive value in the buying experience itself, not just in the solution or product.
Selling organizations struggling with these challenges often see verbal commitments that never end up truly closing as deals increasingly get tripped up at the finish line by new stakeholders, disagreement on needs, and risk aversion. There is an increased likelihood of losing to status quo and longer sales cycles.
Build Modern Selling Capabilities.
While buyers are savvy, busy, pressured, risk averse, and more demanding, they still need guidance to make the best business and personal decisions. Even though customers have unprecedented access to knowledge, they face the difficulty of sorting through what matters most and finding the value among all of the options. More information doesn’t always translate into accurate, clearer understanding; customers still need sellers to accurately diagnose their unique situations and identify the best solutions to make an informed buying decision that drives the results that they need.
To be truly and wholly effective and differentiated in the eyes of today’s buyers, sellers need to create value in the buying experience itself — that means helping customers to better understand the true nature of a business issue and how best to address it. It is not about manipulating or controlling the customer; it’s about building credibility, fostering trust, and creating value for the customer and, in turn, creating opportunities for you as the seller.
Successful selling strategies today are not achieved through one tactic or approach. Rather, it requires a broad set of selling capabilities that are constantly put into practice and refined.
Build Agility. Drive Continuous Improvement.
To keep pace with changes in buyer behavior and remain ahead of the competition, successful sales organizations must remain agile and strive for continuous improvement, never resting on the previous year or quarter’s success. For the largest global sales organizations, continuous skill building at scale is not an easy task. Identifying the right skills, the right people, the right sustainment path, and the right metrics to measure takes planning and expertise.