5 key pillars to build to avoid poor B2B sales results

I have a confession to make. Almost 20 years ago, I was working at Vodafone UK as a product manager for the development and deployment of B2B solutions. It was the time of the explosion in high value-added mobile solutions.

In this role, I had a lot of interaction with the sales teams. And I couldn't help thinking "We're developing innovative solutions, these sales people are having the good life even if they don't have any expertise at the end of the day. Do we really need them?" I also believed in the famous "build it, they'll come".

Then I set up my own business and had to start selling. Like many professionals, I had no formal sales experience and, I must admit, no understanding of the human dynamics at the heart of a sales process. So presentations. Demos. Propals. Customers saying "that's interesting". And then nothing... That's when it hit me. And I realised that B2B sales was a complex dynamic. Frustrated with the 'show up and throw up' approach, where I'd arrive and give demos or presentations followed by a "What do you think?", I said to myself that there had to be a more effective approach. After a great deal of training and reflection, I realised that B2B sales was one of the most complicated activities, going against a lot of what we take for granted. It's a complex and fascinating business because it's based predominantly on people, our psychological biases and our emotions.

Indeed, one of the many problems of B2B sales is that the decisions we make are emotional. And that we nationalise afterwards. However, the majority of organisations and therefore salespeople, those whose job it is to sell or those for whom selling is just one part of their responsibilities (what I call NSPs, Non Selling Professionals such as consultants who deliver and sell, Customer Success Managers or freelancers) think that the people they talk to are rational, Cartesian people. It's not their fault, it's a false truth that we've been hearing for centuries. Especially in France, a country where mathematics, physics and other 'hard' sciences reign supreme.

In my recent experience as VP Sales for VC-backed organisations, before launching my own business in which I help organisations such as those that are members of Finance Innovation, I naturally had many opportunities to see pitches and other presentations by innovative companies. And I couldn't help but be sceptical when I saw founders and sales people talking about technology, machine learning, AI, data science, Saas and other aspects that are the variables that decision-makers use to rationalise their decisions. Not to make their decisions. Do you know many managers who get up in the morning and say to themselves: "I really need a SaaS solution to manage my unstructured data and a dashboard for (insert technical term here)"? No? Well, neither do I.

In addition to a semantics that is not aligned with buyers' issues, many salespeople have unequal relationships with their prospects, I would even say more of a 'master-servant' relationship. Prospects control the sales process through a whole range of mechanisms that would take too long to explain in this short article.

Salespeople in many organisations are sorely lacking a real methodology based on 5 fundamental pillars, the 5Cs, which they can implement systematically and which will enable them to establish a relationship of equals between themselves and the prospect throughout the process, a relationship of trusted advisor.

5 pillars to build for robust sales results

1- Communication

As mentioned, we live in a Cartesian country. We believe that what's important is maths, physics and science. At school, in primary, secondary and university, there is no focus on what the British call "soft skills". Good communication, a sine qua non for developing this relationship of equals, does not come naturally. There are two important aspects, what the Anglo-Saxons call "nature and nurture". From a "nature" point of view, it is first of all necessary to know our own communication style and to decode that of the person we are talking to. So that we can adapt to them and not impose our own. From a nurture point of view, it's also important to have a mindset that allows us to focus on the emotional needs of our prospects. The sales meeting must also be an opportunity for the prospect to fulfil his emotional needs, and not for the sales rep to fulfil his by talking about his superb product, the many references, etc... So we need to put our egos aside, which is neither natural nor easy. And yet, how often do we see a sales person talking twice as much as a prospect?

2- Curiosity

We are naturally self-centred. It's a fact of life and it's only getting worse. In fact, numerous studies show that empathy is a quality that has been in free fall for several years. It's not natural to take an interest in other people rather than get quick gratification, and to ask questions to understand their context. At the risk of taking the easy way out, I point the finger at social networks... And let's not talk about our culture, which tells us that "curiosity is a bad habit". When it is crucial to the role of salesperson. This lack of curiosity is a huge problem for managers: how many of those I talk to share their frustration with me: "They don't try to understand their prospects". Salespeople therefore need to be provided with a real question strategy that goes beyond basic frameworks such as BANT. Organisations and their managers also need to review their approach to the professional development of their teams. By training their sales people on their products, benefits, etc., aren't they, at the risk of being very direct, turning their sales force into a product brochure?

3- Control

Sales processes are too often controlled by prospects. How many meetings end with phrases like "we need to think about it" or "send me the presentation, we need to study this". Followed by a prospect who disappears and no longer responds to emails. Yet hadn't he declared the presentation "very interesting"? Could it be that prospects are lying to salespeople who are telling the truth (I know, shocking isn't it?). Do you know how long it takes humans to make a decision? Very often, when the prospect says "we need to think about it", isn't it the sales person who is thinking, whereas for the prospect it's all thought out? Taking control of a sales conversation, in an empathetic and respectful way, is not easy, but there are ways of doing things that enable the sales person to develop this relationship of trusted advisor. Another important dimension of control is the need for salespeople to know themselves. For an organisation to improve its sales results, it is essential that the members of the sales team know each other so that they can control their communication style, emotions and focus on their prospects.

4- Consistency

Before taking off, an airline pilot has a checklist. A set of variables that he checks constantly. This is documented and evolves over time. Armies have 'war games' to rehearse the modus operandi to follow in the event of conflict. Sportsmen and women who are at the top of their game are constantly out on the pitch to acquire automatisms when they are under pressure and have a coach to guide them. Like airline pilots, sportsmen and women and the armed forces, sales people are creatures of habit. To be effective, they too need to have documentation on the best way to react to a given situation (what is known as a "sales playbook") and to rehearse regularly so that, under pressure, they can react correctly.

5- Courage

Selling is an extremely complicated job. The sales function is the one where you have to deal with the most rejections. To deal with this difficulty, salespeople - both those dedicated to sales and the NSPs I mentioned above - deploy an armada of approaches which, in reality, do them a disservice. For example, they try to develop a friendly relationship with their prospects rather than the frank relationship of a trusted advisor. The one where the salesperson gets the prospect to confide in them and where both parties openly admit that they may have nothing to do together. Or they don't have the courage to ask the tough questions that would allow them to really understand the prospect's background. Or they find it hard to pick up the phone for fear of being rejected, and find a whole range of reasons not to prospect (a proposal to finish, a CRM to complete, a cousin to check on, a coffee to get, etc.). It is therefore necessary to equip sales people with a holistic approach, a mixture of habits, mindset and techniques, which will enable them to manage these difficulties and perform at their best.

There is no quick fix, and developing these new habits takes time and effort. The transformation programmes I put in place to help managers improve their commercial effectiveness differ from traditional approaches. The aim is to ensure that this expertise and new way of working are properly assimilated and the challenges resolved once and for all.