Anyone who buys or sells anything has consciously or unconsciously picked up that COVID-19 brought with it a new set of buyer expectations to be willing to start, or stick it out through a sales journey to ultimately sign on a dotted line.
If your business development and sales strategies are similar to two years ago, chances are they are S-T-A-L-E, which means you may be unintentionally repelling potential buyers.
Are You Putting Up Or Removing Buyer Obstacles?
âI was selling enterprise software to a diverse, multi-stakeholder audience when COVID-19 converged, and almost overnight, buyers started reshaping how and when they wanted to be contacted, research and validate their potential partners and solutions, and make decisions.
As the cues went out, it was painful to observe sellers that werenât paying attention and kept doing the same olâ. But for those who tuned in to see where buyers were hanging out, hear their voices (and see their actions), collaborate with industry peers, and were willing to experiment with new methods, it became an amazing opportunity to translate old school tactics into a new lower-friction customer journey and buying experience that removed obstacles to getting to a yes.
Still clinging to an argument, âwell, in person is backâ (for now?) I submit that if modern buyers have a comfort level to watch a virtual home tour and then make the largest financial investment of their life without stepping foot inside of a home, modern buyers donât need (or want) to lay eyes on someone from your company to research, validate, or get well into their buying process before ever engaging your sales team about buying your product, service, or solution. Further yet, insisting that they navigate the process on your terms may just be grounds for early disqualification.
7 Signs Your Enterprise Business Development And Sales Strategy (And Results) Are Begging For An Upgrade
1. Most of your sales cycles end with the customer doing nothing or picking a cheaper version of your offering from a competitor.
2. Prospects arenât selected with careful research and segmentation to avoid spending effort with low-probability opportunities.
3. Dark social that equates to a dark funnel isnât your holy grail so your C-suite AND sales execs arenât embedded in and active in virtual peer networks and communities to garner real-time customer insights, build relationships, deliver teaching insights to educate your audience, foster demand and credibility, or achieve scalibility through the virality of your message.
4. Marketing efforts are focused on traditional lead gen using unwanted spammy tactics and vanity metrics rather than educating your buyers, creating demand for your offering, and forming high intent buyers that are ready for active sales engagement.
5. Buyers arenât able to tap third-party validation and review resources that substantiate the credibility and results of your offering, on top of the peer referral where your buyer likely found you originally.
6. Marketing efforts lack prevalent, quality content to educate your buyers in a variety of formats, disseminated where they natively hang out, and without the gate of an annoying web form that buyers avoid to spare themselves spammy lead gen emails, calls, and LinkedIn messages.
7. Buying your product is a hassle, without an easy way to do their homework and then book an appointment or convert at your website when they are ready to engage you in the buying process.
Whatâs your experience been with modernizing the business development and sales process and engaging modern buyers? I would love to get your perspective.
Iâm Lynn Holland, an 18-year business development, sales, & marketing executive who loves creating low-friction sales journeys to help enterprise buyers leverage solutions that drives their outcomes.
For more insights and ideas for engaging modern buyers and getting to a yes, like and follow me on LinkedIn.