Let’s take a moment of silence for all those emails and Calendly invites your prospects are ignoring.
Sad, but who can blame them? Buyers are getting spammed left and right.
And that’s unfortunate, because for most big B2B purchases—mind-numbingly complex as they are—buyers could really use the help of a competent, prepared sales rep.
Unfortunately, many sales organizations are fighting attrition while scrambling to catch up in a universe that changed very quickly (and was pushed into a black hole by COVID). So they’re stuck using brute force sales tactics: chasing, cold-calling, spamming. The things that interrupt buyers instead of meeting them when and where they’re ready.
Sellers are also set up to work through a linear sales funnel (need and solution agreed to, requirements identified, offerings compared) when it’s becoming much more complex. Sales teams rely heavily on scripts to move deals forward, but that doesn’t match how buyers move through the journey today.
We call these outdated tactics ‘static selling.’ B2B buyers hate them.
But do you really have any choice? (Yes, of course you do, we’re too nice to bring it up otherwise).
Collaborative selling is the answer
If static selling is a one-way sales pitch, collaborative selling is a conversation driven largely by buyers’ needs. It respects their time and their journey. And buyers love it. We call it Modern Selling.
So why isn’t everyone doing Modern Selling? Most organizations aren’t built to support collaborative selling. Buyers want experiences that make their jobs easier—that requires digital tools and a highly prepared and nimble salesforce.
How to make selling modern?
What’s better than doubling down on hustle culture? Glad you asked. Here’s what: Setting sales up with the right tools, insight, coaching and feedback loops to support a selling style that works for the new reality of B2B selling.
And it doesn’t mean just throwing training and technology at the problem. Sellers don’t need mass training and time-intensive modules; they need more effective development, like real-life scenarios, on-the-spot feedback and microlearnings they can easily absorb. They also need intuitive tools they’ll actually use, not disjointed systems that are difficult to navigate.
The next step for most B2B sales organizations will move forward on the backs of data and integration. Beyond just a content play, sales enablement platforms are evolving to support the full revenue engine, integrating the tools sellers need—like deal rooms, content, training modules, and feedback loops—into an end-to-end platform.
Missed opportunities
There’s another way static selling lets down your sellers. The approach was built around a straightforward sales funnel, with a well-established rhythm and clear milestones. But that’s changing. The buying journey keeps getting hairier for buyers, turning the traditional sales funnel into more of a labyrinth. There are players popping in and out: IT, information security, procurement, finance, end users from various departments. Requirements change along the way and buyers may be open to buying more solutions or service enhancements—and they may not tell you.
For sellers, this means it’s easy to miss an opportunity to engage.
But there are ways to orchestrate the buying experience to pick up clues, like a burst of activity around content you’ve shared in a sales enablement platform. You can see what that looks like —and why it makes all the difference for your sales organization—in our ebook: Woo, Don’t Pursue. And discover how to make it easier for buyers to buy from you..
Moving from static selling to a more collaborative, dynamic approach that brings buyers to you isn’t like flipping a switch: it requires disrupting old processes and investing in data and technology. But it’s also how you transcend the frustrations and squandered opportunities of selling B2B the old way. Get in touch if you have questions!
