The pandemic has left even more salespeople with deals stuck in the pipeline, those deals that go so far and then… nowhere? Salespeople miss out on a chance at hitting target and buyers miss out on the positive difference your solution could make to their business.
Unfortunately, this is a familiar scene for salespeople right now
Monday morning. De-brief time. Your manager is asking about that deal, the deal you’ve invested all your recent time and effort into, the same deal that hasn’t progressed, the same deal stuck somewhere between you and your buyer…
What do most salespeople do when they realise weeks have past and ‘that’ deal hasn’t got any closer to a sign on the line?
Typically, they will re-trace the steps of their journey, something like this:
Logical? Yes. Effective? Not usually.
***The first quarter of 2020 recorded the lowest deal volume in seven years.
Sales people urgently need to change their approach. This change needs to start with a shift in perspective and an understanding of the buyer’s experience.
Change perspective to close more deals
Buying was tough even before the pandemic with the average number of deals closed declining year on year. Right now, buyers and their clients are facing revenue challenges like never before, and they’re exhausted by the sheer effort required to manage the chaos of an uncertain and everchanging environment.
As a result, buyers are now more risk averse, more protective of their reputation, slower to make a decision and more sensitive to a salespeople’s motivations. Any interactions they have with salespeople must instil them with trust. A **B2B buyer survey conducted just before the pandemic found that 23% of buyers said they needed to have more confidence in the buying decisions they were making. This need to feel confident in the solution, has only increased, meaning the risk associated with buying your solution has to be clearly outweighed by an inclusive (speaks to all decision makers) results focused proposal.
It’s time to step into the buyer’s shoes!
Salespeople must change their lens; they need to go back to the beginning and see things through the eyes of their buyers.
Salespeople must take a wider view, buyers aren’t operating in isolation; they are experiencing the constraints of their own business, which post pandemic, has a more complicated decision-making process than ever before.
Salespeople must revisit the methods they use to lead their buyers to ‘Yes’
These 3 areas should be immediately examined:
Your client needs to be 100% bought in. They need to believe in the personal value to them of your solution. If you can’t achieve this, any yes will be short-lived.
Your client needs you to lead them through their sell-on journey, they need your proactive help in navigating and teaching the stakeholder group why your solution is the right one.
Your client needs your experience and input, they need fail safe methods that will make the process of selling on easier. The tools you support them with, must help to break down the daunting task of selling your solution into their business. They need methods that focus and organise the steps they need to take.
Closing is still achievable, but the biggest mistake that a salesperson can make is to resist changing their perspective, assume their client is personally bought in and leave them to navigate the buying journey alone.
Training to close more deals: On 30th September 2021, we are running a course on how to close more opportunities. Find out more our training to closing more deals here.
It’s really hard to generate new business right now so the pressure to close existing opportunities is huge. Unfortunately, the sign off process has also got much harder for our clients. This is changing what ‘closing’ looks like. We need a new approach.
In this brand-new, virtual workshop, Flume draw on up-to-the-minute research into buyer and seller behaviour to share new tips and tools for moving your opportunities towards ‘closed won’.
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Selling in a tough climate – 5 key takeaways
14th March 2023
The sales funnel is dead. Long live the sales ‘nail’!
7th March 2023
Preboarding | Onboarding | Everboarding
13th February 2023
Selling in a tough climate – the challenges
31st January 2023
Sales 2023 : Three big questions
30th January 2023
Flume’s trends and predictions for the events industry
30th January 2023
5 Steps to Power your 2023 Pipeline
14th December 2022
5 Key recession-busting sales behaviours
13th December 2022
Sales Innovation Expo 2022 Trends
30th November 2022
How to align your customer success team with your sales process
2nd November 2022
Sales velocity: How to increase average order value in sales
17th October 2022
Sales velocity: Increasing the number of sales opportunities
17th October 2022
28 Sales Acronyms used daily
8th September 2022
Sales velocity: Speeding up the decision-making process
24th August 2022
Sales velocity: How to improve conversion rates
13th July 2022
Sales kick-off meetings: How to use the momentum to power long-term change
17th May 2022
Drive retention and performance through a sales academy
9th March 2022
Call AI: The sales coaching technology you need in 2022
22nd February 2022
Drive real results from sales training in 2022: Why the traditional model doesn’t work
2nd February 2022
Sales Engagement Summit – Hosted by Raoul
16th December 2021
How business development reps can give buyers the confidence to say yes
3rd December 2021
The biggest mistake sales development reps make (and three things you should do instead)
9th November 2021
Five myths you need to know about customer success teams
11th October 2021
The four levers you can pull to increase sales velocity and how to make an impact
1st September 2021
Outcome Based Selling
3rd August 2021
Why most sales training doesn’t work and what to do about it
1st July 2021
3 reasons why writing a proper proposal is worth your time
18th March 2021
How to win a sales pitch…
26th February 2021
Sales Professionals: Why you shouldn’t assume you’ve got remote selling nailed
15th January 2021
Is your sales team ready for 2021?
4th January 2021
Selling Virtual Events
26th November 2020
Why salespeople must be ‘long-term greedy’: A five-step approach to winning more sales
13th November 2020
Closing skills: Why the pandemic has made it even harder to close that deal and what to do about it.
1st November 2020
Post Covid: How to fill your B2B pipeline with customers who do want to speak to you?
5th October 2020
3 steps for monetising virtual events
15th July 2020
Storytelling
18th May 2020
5 tips for closing in the crisis
4th May 2020
Using audience insights to engage with customers
20th April 2020
Biggest challenge of leading a remote sales team
15th April 2020
“Clients don’t want to engage with me”
6th April 2020
The world has changed – what should I sell?
31st March 2020
Leading remote sales teams
30th March 2020
Selling in a crisis
25th March 2020
Proposal writing research: Why your proposal doesn’t work
17th March 2020
How to accelerate your sponsorship revenue
17th February 2020
How selling to the individual increases your chance of them buying by 2x
7th February 2020
New Year, new rules. How to deliver sales training that actually works!
2nd January 2020
Half of B2B sales people will miss their 2020 targets. It’s time to shift perspective.
18th November 2019
Questions that drive more sales
15th November 2019
How to speed up prospect decision making… PART TWO
21st October 2019
How to speed up prospect decision making – PART ONE
14th October 2019
The biggest mistake salespeople make… and how to avoid it
26th July 2019
You have the right to demand more ROI from your sales training (and here’s how you get it)
16th May 2019
How to grow customer accounts this year
22nd March 2019
5 big sales mistakes from this year
23rd December 2018
How to turn the marketing trust crisis into sales opportunity
5th October 2018
Why is it so hard to find great business development talent?
21st September 2018
It might be hot outside but you still need a SCARF.
12th July 2018
The Peter Principle: Great Salesperson, Crap Manager
25th June 2018
The ‘great deal graveyard’ and how to avoid it
8th June 2018
The secret to selling in today’s market: Old-school to New-school
22nd March 2018
Why people DON’T buy from people they like
28th February 2018
What salespeople can learn from Nike
5th February 2018
Why “yes” doesn’t mean YES
26th January 2018
Take charge of your sales career in 2022
15th January 2018
How sales and marketing must work together to deliver results: tips from the front line of B2B selling
20th July 2016
6 facts and stats B2B sales people cannot ignore
26th May 2016
The amazing power of stories and 5 ways to make them sell
15th October 2015
The trouble with Blitz Days and how to increase their effectiveness
7th October 2015