360° Buyer Alignment – Do you master the 4 disciplines to be successful in hybrid sales?

In late 2020, Showpad conducted a study with participants from more than 400 B2B organizations, regarding the expected changes and challenges associated with COVID-19. From this came one of the following conclusions:

“The old way of B2B selling is over. What’s needed today is a new approach, what we call “modern selling.” Revenue teams realize that only focusing on efficiency isn’t the way to achieve revenue goals. What worked a few years ago is no longer the way to drive meaningful interactions that translate into revenue. In this new era, buyers expect personalized and meaningful interactions that are valuable. They expect a superior buyer experience. To deliver that experience it is critical teams are prepared with the right content, knowledge and skills to have the right conversation at the right time in a way today’s buyer expects.” Read more

Showpad's findings align nicely with our findings. Our analyses show however, that it is not just about what the customer expects, but about exceeding the customer's expectations, by having vision-enriching interactions. This requires first and foremost that the sales can, without introductory questions, relevantly substantiate the impact with the customer of a collaboration and tailor the 'pitch' to the customer's experience with your type of solutions as well as the willingness to buy. In doing so, the 4 disciplines must be seamlessly aligned and mutually reinforcing.

Where is the customer in the buying process? What are your actions to support those involved in the buying process? What content are you going to use in what format to facilitate this and how is this going to make your subsequent interactions easier? What do you require from the stakeholders and how will you create engagement? What other departments are involved? Why should the ultimate decision maker(s) themselves be involved in the conversations.

You can also apply these questions in the context of Team Selling: how are you going to ensure that the right colleagues are aligned and will take the right actions at the right time?

Showpad - Reducing friction is key to modern selling

“It’s getting your entire go-to-market team trained and prepared with the right knowledge and skills. Not only this, it’s also about removing many of the existing barriers – the friction – that exist in selling processes that slow deals or worse, drives them to your competitor.” Read more

Applying and rolling this out within your organization requires a different approach, depending if your activities lie primarily in project-based sales or recurring sales to the same customer portfolios, or a mix of both.

There are two vital elements to successfully applying this throughout the organization:

1. Make sure that the implementation is not seen as a revolution but as an evolution that, starting from the current situation, brings incremental improvements. This means less resistance, faster implementation and a higher adoption rate so that the results will not only be faster but also maximum.
2.  A common language needs to be implemented so that everyone means the same thing when using terms. Do simple terms like lead and success rate mean the same thing to everyone in the company? Allowing interpretation wastes a lot of time in unnecessary meetings and discussions. Moreover, it makes the interpretation of consolidated data, e.g. forecasts in CRM, almost impossible.

Showpad’s study mentions “Sales Readiness: Engaging and Empowering Your Sales Force to Thrive in a Remote-First World. The number 1 sales readiness challenge is not having enough training to be successful with remote selling.”