Empower your business with b2b sales forecasting for Customer service

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- The world of selling to businesses is truly distinct from the world of selling to consumers. In the B2B space, or selling to businesses there are a number of specific nuances that help top performers stand out in a absolutely critical way, whereas those changes would have no effect in selling to consumers. I almost think of them as secrets, as that little secret sauce that leads those top sales performers to massive B2B sales success. And so in this video I'm going to show you the seven insider secrets to B2B sales success. Check it out. (upbeat music) Number one, map out the entire sale. This is so important in the B2B selling space, because if you don't know how your entire sales process is going to work, you're going to be winging it, you're going to be all over the place. And the data shows that today's prospects, in the B2B space, are so much savvier than they were just a few years ago. These are people that have multiple degrees oftentimes, and they're getting sold to all the time. So if you don't have a very clearly mapped out sales process you're going to be haphazard, you're going to be bouncing around here, you're going to be going there, and it's going to ultimately lead to much lower results. So, make sure that you really have your entire sales process, from how you're engaging prospects, how you're getting in front of them all the way through to how you're closing and ultimately onboarding those prospects. Make sure that that whole process is clear so that way you're not winging it. You're not just bouncing around all over the place. Number two, attack your entry point. We want to make sure that we know exactly how we're going to enter into a prospective company. And this is very specific to the B2B space. Because of course when you're selling to consumers there's only one or two consumers in a family realistically. But when you're talking about a large enterprise or even a small business, there are oftentimes a lot of different key actors that you can go into that company by starting that conversation with, or engaging in a conversation. And so we need to be very clear about who we're going to be starting with. And that comes down to very clearly clarifying who is your ideal prospect? What's their title? What are the challenges that they face? What industries are they in? And attack that entry point. Get very clear on who that person is and go all in and focus every single time at the prospect organization. Make sure that you're going in at the right entry point. Certainly not too low, and also not so high that they're not even going to be relevant in the conversation. You wanna make sure that you're selling typically at that kind of highest relevant level, and that's where you wanna enter, and that's where you want to attack. Number three, provide real value. This is a huge distinction from today's world of selling to even just a few years ago. Nowadays prospects really expect sales people in the B2B space to provide real value in the selling conversation. It's not enough to just have a great product or service. And it's not enough to just ask a couple of good questions. We need to be establishing authority and expertise. And the best way to particularly be providing value upfront is by providing prospects with insight. You as a sales person, with your experience, having seen a number of different prospective company's in this particular space, have really an amazing bird's eye view of what's going on in the lives of your prospects. And in the lives of the folks that you're actually selling to. So what we want to make sure that we do is we're providing insight upfront and ultimately using that insight to engage people in conversations. And that's where we start to ask those questions to make sure that they're ultimately a fit and that they're really an organization where we can help solve the problems that they have. Number four, don't try to close. This may go counter to a lot of what we've heard over the years, and over our careers, but in the B2B space prospects are savvy. They've been sold to many, many times. And quite frankly they've probably been sold to a number of times just this past week. And so if we're using some cheesy, transparent closing technique, they're going to see that from a mile away. And so the high pressure closing techniques simply don't work anymore. Particularly in the B2B space. And so what we need to do is first establish our expertise, engage prospects in conversations and really understand what are those key challenges that they're facing? And then simply present a solution to those challenges. And then be focused on the next steps afterwards. There's no hardcore arm wrestling closing technique, but instead we're just showing that we have the right solution and letting that conversation take care of itself. Drop the hardcore close. Instead follow the right sales process to get you ultimately to that close. Number five, know their challenges. This is so important in the B2B space. Again, buyers expect that you understand them. That you understand what's going on. And so this is really a two part concept. One is that when we engage prospects in conversations we need to show that we have some expertise. That we have some insight into what's going on in their world. But we also don't want to over assume that we know everything that's going on in their world. That's silly, of course you don't know everything that's going on in their world. You need to start to ask some questions to find out what are those core challenges? What's most important to them? So we start the conversation, we engage them in the conversation by sharing some of the challenges that we're seeing happening right now in their industry. And then we're basically saying, which of those issues ring true most to you? And then they start to share those challenges and that's where we start to dig more deeply. To find out what's really going on. That's where we use our doctor's-like approach to understand exactly what are the key issues that are affecting their business. And then ultimately we're going to present a solution geared directly to only those challenges. Number six, know everyone involved. The latest data shows that the typical B2B, particularly enterprise-level sale has about seven key decision-makers. And so we can't just expect that even if you're selling to the CEO of a company that that person is going to just be able to pull the trigger, make the decision, and move on. It's not that simple anymore. Most even high-level executives are trying to get consensus around the decisions they make. They're trying to build that consensus so that way all the key people are onboard, so that way when they move forward, they know that things are actually going to happen. And it's not just leadership by directive, by force. That's not how business works. So we need to understand every single person involved in that decision. And so we have to get really good at understanding what is that entire decision-making process? And who are all of those people and how is making a decision going to affect their jobs, their worlds. Number seven, always have clear next steps. This is so important. That we are not walking away from any selling interaction without a very clear next step. And let me be clear on what a clear next step is not. It is not a clear next step to have it at the end of a sales meeting, for the prospect to say, "Hey, you know what, why don't you follow up with me "in two weeks?" And then you say, "Okay, sure. "I'll follow up with you Wednesday in two weeks. "How does that sound?" And they say, "Great." That is not a clear next step. A clear next step is that you get a scheduled call or a scheduled face-to-face meeting or a scheduled Zoom meeting on the books, in the calendar, a calendar invite goes out from you and they positively reply to that calendar invite. That is a clear next step. At the end of every interaction with a prospect we want to make sure that we budget a little bit of time in that conversation to establishing clear next steps. So that way we never have that wishy-washy kind of well, I think they're expecting me to call them or they're gonna call us, or they're gonna shoot us an email. None of that! There's always a very crystal clear next step and it is scheduled in the calendar. So, there are the seven insider secrets to B2B sales success. And if you enjoyed this video then I have an awesome free training on the data-driven approach to help you crush your sales goals. Just click right here to get registered instantly. Seriously, just click right here. This is an in-depth training that will help you close more deals at higher prices, all while generating more meetings. Also if you got some value please like this video below on YouTube and be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel by clicking my face, which should be right about here to get access to a new video, just like this one, each week.