According to many sales theories, there are four things you need to do as a sales manager to succeed with your customer and their buying teams:
- Ask the perfect question to trigger interest.
- Tell a great story to capture their attention.
- Convince and persuade to secure the sale.
- Avoid the customer’s procurement function to protect your margin.
However, this sales approach is no longer a guarantee of success.
Your customer has evolved greatly over the years. They are better informed, better prepared, and better trained in dealing with their supplier base and you as their sales manager.
This more emancipated customer no longer wants to be just convinced and persuaded to buy a product but thoroughly consulted on how you can help them address their individual business needs. They no longer just look for a quick fix to a short-term problem but seek out those suppliers and sales teams that help them holistically in serving their customers sustainably and profitably.
Moreover, your customer has changed how they buy by professionalizing their procurement processes. The act to procure goods and services from external suppliers is no longer just considered an administrative means to an end but oftentimes seen as their main competitive advantage and considered an opportunity for exponential value creation. It is the procurement function on your customer’s side that has been tasked to enable this value creation process by linking the best external supplier capability with internal business needs. In effect, the buyer has taken over the complete management of your customer’s buying journey. They are in many cases the main stakeholder and contact person to the suppliers, and that means to you.
As a salesperson, how can you then win with this more empowered, organized and well-trained customer?
Sales teams need to refocus their time and attention from persuasion and convincing, to consulting and supporting. The relationship with the customer no longer consists of a mere commercial negotiation step where tactical moves are the decisive factor of success or failure. 90-95% of the time you spend with the customer should be in the form of consulting on their business challenges. The sales process will hence start long before you sit down and talk price and volumes.
Understanding, anticipating and addressing your customer’s business needs will become the essential skill to master. The expectation is for you to steadily provide new ideas and competitive solutions to their challenges. Today’s customers look for suppliers that continuously improve their ways of working and that respond to changing business needs promptly.
This requires you as a sales manager to stay on top of your capabilities as a supplier and the market your customer is dealing with. Knowing how you can leverage your company’s strengths optimally and the external market opportunities that present themselves to the customer will be key. Addressing your weaknesses promptly and managing business threats to the customer pro-actively will be paramount to success.
These are the key characteristics your customers and especially their buyers are trained to look out for in the ideal suppliers they want to work with. It is these behaviors and hence a strategic, customer-centric mindset that is THE KEY TO SUCCESS to build winning and sustainable business relationships with your B2B customers and their procurement teams.
Modern sales teams need to move on from their old paradigms and habits. Sales managers need to step up from being just great storytellers to becoming great, strategic business partners to their customer and procurement teams. It is time to build winning business relationships.
Get in touch with us if you want to learn more about how you can build winning business relationships with your customer and their professional buyers.
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