The obvious short-cut. Really?
Industry experts (persons that have connections and long-term relationships with people in your target industry) can bring you few meetings relatively fast. That is for sure.
Problem #1 is that 80% of those meetings are not ideal. They introduce you to companies and people THEY know. That is not automatically the set of companies and persons you should speak and sell to.
Problem #2 is that industry experts do not have unlimited access to your target market. They can’t systematically scale your business after the first wave of meetings.
What you want is not a relationship-based but a value-based sales strategy that systematically provides you with repeatable sales leads and predictable revenues from the right set of customers.
Here’s my take how to develop such a sales strategy from scratch.
Six unpleasant questions
Before you can build a predictable sales process you need to seek answers on those 6 (maybe painful) questions:
1. Is your offer valuable?
Value is the difference between the anticipated price and the actual price tag. What big promise about the value that you bring can you make (not features and benefits)?
2. How relevant is your offer?
What known needs and desired end results does your sales messaging speak to?
3. What is the right target group segment?
Who is most likely to perceive the most relevant value from your offer and is therefore most likely to buy from you?
What are their triggering events that create “windows of opportunity” where they are far more likely to act…?
6 STEPS GO-TO-MARKET CHECKLIST FOR "B2B GERMANY"
Applicable For Software And Services Companies That Want To Successfully Work The German Speaking Market.
4. How credible can you articulate your promise?
Do you have credible messengers (e.g. your CEO who is an industry expert), a credible and known brand or some credible customers/testimonials to proof that your offer delivers what you promise?
If not, just be honest about it and be ultra specific and focused about your single value-add.
5. Do you sell sequential?
Does your sales process and related messages follow the same form and function of a normal, healthy human relationship? Do you perhaps ask for marriage at the first date?
6. Is your sales process scalable?
What worked once or twice is not a business model. Is the process learnable and applicable for others or does your process rely on very rare skills or experiences in your company?
A good test is asking yourself this question: Can I outsource parts of this process to become more scalable?
Building a transformation story
Dear business owners, please get this in your head:
People don’t buy products or services or features or benefits or certifications or…
People just buy transformations from their before- to their after-state. They pay you for getting “access to their desired after state”. Your product or service is just a vehicle for them to get there.
People don’t buy products or services or features or benefits or certifications or…
People just buy transformations from their before- to their after-state. They pay you for getting “access to their desired after state”.
All your sales messages need to articulate this transformation from the before to the after state.
Be careful when you heavily speak to their problems and pains and try to satisfy them with a product demo – these things doesn’t fit together. Speak to their known needs and desired end results. Build a compelling transformation story all along your sales messages.
Analyze your existing customer success stories (written or not) and review them from a customer’s perspective to build your transformation story:
- What did they ask for initially?
- What did they buy finally?
- What was their before-state?
- Where are they now?
- What did they achieve?
What if you don’t have existing customer? Talk to your leads and prospects and ask them.
The articulation of the transformation story starts with your blog articles, your Google/FB/LinkedIn ads, your cold call scripts, your cold email templates, etc. and ends with your quotes/proposals, contracts, and any touch point in your sales process.
Creating a seamless and logical transition to the core offer
“Hello! You landed on my website, here’s what I want to sell to you!”. False! Asking the wrong questions too early does hurt the relationship!
Sales mistake #1: ASK FOR A TOO GREAT COMMITMENT TOO EARLY.
Follow the principles of a healthy human relationship. Provide value before you ask for micro (!) commitments (ask for some time or some little money). Build a relationship.
If you sell high ticket offers create smaller entry offers upfront that lead them seamlessly to your core offer and above (up-selling, cross-selling).
A good way to do this is by splintering off some value chunks from your core offer. An entry point offer is specifically valuable on its own but somehow incomplete and therefore leads to the core offer.
Don’t forget, people do still have emotions! 😉
With all that AI discussions today we tend to believe that in the B2B world buyers only care about ROI, TCO and Time-To-Market. No, not only! In B2C we all understand it but also in B2B ultimately we sell to humans (H2H) and not to companies.
People buy things for emotional and not rational reasons. Once sold, they satisfy and justify an emotional decision with logic.
People buy things for emotional and not rational reasons. Once sold, they satisfy and justify an emotional decision with logic.
Don’t ignore your buyer’s personal benefits for their own status and feelings. How can you improve his/her average day?
