Saturday, 14 January 2012

Old business sales strategies don’t cut it.


Many of the regular #salestraining programs simply focus on single transactions. Getting to the one-hit position is it and then you move on. Such programs don’t take into account any of the relational issues that exist before and after the sale has gone through.  Savvy buyers don’t allow reps to strip away reservations one at a time before they will eventually be ground down to the point where they place an order. Buying for larger businesses, especially in today’s strained environment affects too much. There’s a far narrower margin for error before any adverse impact is felt.  The more traditional approaches are more effective in the world of retail when working with consumer or end-users. For B2B, it’s not going to work

As most of the sales training courses encourage reps to direct their activity towards a single transaction, the approach can be hugely detrimental when it comes to selling successfully in the B2B environment.

Buyers will very rarely commit to orders on the strength of a single meeting. They simply cannot afford to be impulsive in their purchasing decisions as there are so many internal customers to take into account and reputations can be hard to protect nowadays.

B2B selling is much more effective when it is relational-based and there is through preparation, courtship and follow-through in the normal business purchasing cycle. In this setting “closing the sale”…big mistake. Much more productive to take many, smaller steps over a longer period of time. 

A single sale feeds you for a week or so, build a relationship and you can dine for ages.

The Sales Controversy
@SalesControvrsy
www.complementary-solutions.com

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