Why Change Selling Blog

Introduction

The appetite for mergers in the SaaS business is hot, with dealmaking volumes predicted to grow at 13% in 2024. Yet between 70% and 90% of M&A transactions fail to meet their objectives.

Today, AI-powered buyers have equal or greater access to information than sales professionals. It's time for your company to shift away from discussing product features and solutions and instead focus on understanding the needs, struggling moments and desired outcomes of your customers. No one cares about them... except your product team.

Features, Benefits and solutions are Dead

My first article on this topic, buried features and benefits back in 2011. Yet, they are like a zombie apocalypse (a dreadful movie from the same year) and refuse to die, haunting the Website pages and .pdfs of B2B technology companies along with another artefact from the past, solutions, which my friend and colleague Bob Apollo wrote about recently.

Ditch the Pitch

Another 20th-century relic that I cringe upon hearing is "sales pitch". 

Today, we are laying sales-pitch to rest. The term "sales pitch" should be barred from the sales lexicon as it carries a connotation of manipulation and insincerity, reminiscent of sideshow spruikers or pitch-men of the 19th century, whose aim was to sell without regard for the customer's needs. Using the term "pitch" demeans the integrity of the sales profession, reducing it to a mere performance rather than a meaningful exchange of information and understanding. Today's buyers seek intelligent conversations with well-informed sales professionals who can provide valuable insights about the industry and share compelling stories of how they've helped others.

This shift in buyer expectations means we must ditch the outdated PowerPoint pitch and move towards authentic, value-driven interactions that prioritise customer needs and interests.

BANT

The BANT framework, long ingrained in sales culture, is outdated and inappropriate for prospect qualification.  I shudder to think of SDRs using BANT on a first call with a prospect trying to get a commitment for an initial meeting, yet it still happens. This article from Dave Kurlan, "Improper use of BANT will cause you to kill opportunities", clearly explains the problem with BANT and why it is neither an effective qualification tool nor a valuable sales methodology and deserves to be laid to rest along with the other villains.

To reach new B2B Buyers and connect via email is a low probability game, but the marginal cost of sending email is close to zero, so don't expect volume to decline.

Email is a science, with every element from the senders name to the signature analyzed and dissected for optimal performance. If you want to read the current research, follow this link to directly read the 2014 report.

This article is about the opening sentence and will be of interest to sales and marketing professionals.

The following is a true story. A few names have been changed to protect the identity of some of the people involved.

The following is a true story. A few names have been changed to protect the identity of some of the people involved. 

In the first instalment of this story, Scorched Earth, I described the situation leading to my being hired at MicroStrategy into an OEM sales role and the problems in overcoming relationships that my predecessor had soured. This episode is about the events leading up to my being given 30-day's notice of termination and reflects on the changing role of salespeople in B2B selling. 

The following is a true story. A few names have been changed to protect the identity of some of the people involved. 

In the first episode of this story, Scorched Earth, I described the situation leading to my being hired at MicroStrategy into an OEM sales role and the problems in overcoming relationships that my predecessor had soured.  

In the second episode, 'Defeat", I explored the changing fortunes of B2B sales professionals, and I described the events leading up to my being given 30 days' notice of termination. This article covers the 90-day lifecycle of the deal itself.

The B2B Buying Process - and how to influence it.

Buyer behavior has changed radically in the past 5 years; sales process unfortunately in most companies has not adapted and marketing has been slow to adapt.

I first noticed these changes 10 years ago, when buyers would come to meetings knowing more about the products and competitive approaches that I did. I began working on aligning buying and selling processes after meeting Dominic Rowsell, author of "Why Killer Products Don't Sell", on which much of this work is based. 

This article is the second in a series of articles on aligning marketing and sales with buying behavior and it will be of value to sales and marketing professionals who wish to adapt their process to align with buyer behavior. Last week's article "A Guide to Aligning Marketing & Sales Engagement with Buying Process" discussed buyer behavior and how it is affected by risk.

The beauty of this approach is that it's universal, simple and based on actual buyer behavior. When you understand each of the steps, you can ask buyers where they are in their buying process. Salespeople typically think that the sales opportunity is one or two steps in advance of where the buyer actually is in the buying cycle and this is a primary contributor to forecasting inaccuracy.

Adam Zais is a friend, business partner, new age thinker and practitioner of the new B2B sales and marketing model. We discussed the disruption and sea-change in the traditional sales profession caused by Internet-empower buyer behavior and changes occurring in B2B sales and sales in general in a recent blog article about a landmark OEM deal between NCR and MicroStrategy, under the Subheading of "The Disintermediation of B2B Sales Professionals"
 
This article gained positive comments from industry heavyweights and the essence of Adam's argument was echoed in the Corporate Executive Board's main blog last week, entitled "10 Trends Every Sales Exec Must Know For 2013" This is an important article and worth reading. We have further comments to make to bring the CEB points to life and include the original paragraph and our commentary. Points 2,3,4 are excerpts from the original.