I have done multiple projects with companies who are thoroughly convinced their B2B sales team lacked the “killer instinct” to close sales. I've heard all kinds of ridiculous statements such as “we need closers”, or “we’re not fast enough”.
Over and over again, I've listened to business owners and management directly point the finger at their salespeople. Well, here are five reasons why it’s not your sales team – it’s you the business owner, your management team and your company’s outdated and antiquated approach to selling in B2B markets.
1. You Ignore Marketing or Don’t Understand its Importance
Marketing for you is something you do when you have the time, and unfortunately, that’s almost never. Maybe you update your webpage once a year – or better yet, update that printed product catalog once a year.
Or, maybe you dabble in some form of advertising every once in a while by using an outdated and antiquated strategy of placing a random advertisement in a B2B industry trade publication. But, randomly placing advertisements isn't a marketing strategy and advertising itself isn't marketing. Advertising is one piece of the marketing pie.
While you’re still focused on printed catalogs, your competitors are reaching their customers in real-time, generating qualified leads that are going directly to their website and ones that are immediately handled by a sales team with the tools and the training to respond immediately and close on sales opportunities.
You may think you know what you’re doing when it comes to marketing based on some strategy that worked 5, 10 or even 15 years ago. But, marketing is never static, never stationary and that’s because your customers and the B2B market you sell into is never the same.
Either you upgrade your marketing knowledge, get a real marketing department and generate more qualified leads while reducing your costs of customer acquisition, or your competitors will continue to beat you to the punch. It’s that simple.
2. You Rely Upon One Lead Generation Method
Hey, I’m all for cold-calling. It has and always will be an important B2B lead generator. However, it can’t be your only lead generator. Think about it for a moment. If all you’re relying upon are salespeople randomly calling cold contacts as a means to generate leads, then you’re missing out on an entire market, one full of customers who are looking for your products. In fact, there are two types of cold-calls.
There are extremely cold calls where a customer has never heard of your company before and then there are warm calls, where the customer has heard of your company before. If all your salespeople are calling extremely cold contacts, then that’s the surest indication your marketing is a complete failure.
B2B cold-calling will always be a viable lead generator. It’s an essential portion of business development. However, there is a finite number of calls that a salesperson can make. There is a finite number of qualified leads a salesperson can generate. In the end, if your salesperson spends too much time cold-calling just to get his or her foot in the door, then how much time is he or she spending actually selling anything?
Relationship Between Sales and Marketing
3. Your Competitor is Faster Because Their Salespeople Have Better Tools
Here’s the biggest difference I see between a B2B company that wins business versus one that rarely comes out ahead. The one that continually wins business is faster than the other. They are faster at reaching customers, faster at generating opportunities, faster at closing opportunities, and most importantly, faster at positioning themselves as the incumbent, irreplaceable supplier. Now, what are they doing that your company isn’t?
While you mess around with outdated and antiquated manual sales reporting structures and mechanisms like word documents and excel sheets, your competitor has armed their sales team with a customer resource management (CRM) software linked to their mobile phone, handheld computer and or laptop.
When your salespeople visit a customer, they produce a trip report on a word document and then send it back to the office that week. Your competitor’s sales team produces a real-time report that is transferred to the home office instantaneously so that every product manager and marketer has a head start on providing that salesperson with all the information they need to get back to the customer the same day. Your team responds in weeks – while your competitor’s team responds in minutes or hours.
While your sales team has to make numerous calls back to the office to see what inventory is available, and hope and pray that the excel sheet is accurate, or that they actually get someone on the phone that has answers, your competitor’s salespeople simply pull up their information on their mobile device, give the customer a deal that can’t turn down and walk out with an order. Now, who is winning here?
4. You Haven’t Trained Your Salespeople in B2B Negotiation
Negotiation in B2B markets is different from negotiating in B2C (business-to-consumer) markets and B2G (business-to-government) markets. It’s different from selling real-estate, penny stocks, investments, insurance and used cars. However, to you as a business owner, sales are all the same because you don’t understand what sales is. That’s why you keep complaining that you don’t have any “closers”. A B2B market and negotiation isn’t Glengarry Glen Ross or the Boiler Room.
Your salespeople are selling industrial finished goods, not penny stocks, bad real-estate, useless insurance and a lemon. Your salespeople are selling to intelligent, tech-savvy customers whose business acumen is above reproach and whose business knowledge and experience is beyond that of any peddler off the street. Get with the times and use the right B2B sales negotiation training for the right application.
Sales Negotiation: Defend Price, Customer Scare Tactics & Managing Concessions
5. You Have an Antiquated Product Offering and No Value Assertion
There’s a reason why your salespeople keep telling you what your customers already know. Your product and services aren’t getting the job done. It’s as simple as that. They’re outdated, antiquated and not sellable. Your competitor’s products are better and their services are more proactive. That’s all there is to it.
You have chosen to ignore your “voice of the customer” (VOC) and have instead chosen to blame your sales. Your VOC data is critical to improving your marketing, upgrading your products, improving your sales team’s tools, adjusting your B2B sales negotiation strategies and better defining your value assertion.
Your Value Chain Defines Your Value Assertion: B2B Marketing Essentials
Unfortunately, far too many companies think it’s just a salesperson that’s complaining or making excuses. That’s fine if that salesperson is the exception to the rule. But, if your entire team is suffering, and they keep telling you the same thing but you choose to ignore it, then it’s your fault – not theirs.
One golden rule to remember: You are your record. If your company is losing to its competition, then it starts with you the owner and your management team and ends with your sales team.
Give your sales team the tools to succeed. Understand who they are up against and make it a point to look at how your company generates leads, secures qualified leads and what tools you've empowered your sales team with in order to win business. After all, there's a reason why you keep coming up short.