Good morning everyone,
I hope that last week’s blog entry helped you with being intentional after the sale and not being the kind of sales person that rides off into the sunset never to be heard from again.
Today I want to talk about the reason why B to B and B to C are similar. Now I know that some people are going to say they are not similar, but I want to focus on the selling process part. Yes B to B is different in terms of cost structures, wholesale, and other items that people tend to say, but here is the thing. We are still selling to people when we have both transactions.
Granted its easier to get customers in Business to consumer to buy based off emotions as they want to fulfill a need, but I would challenge that business to business kind of customers are also looking to fulfill a need. Emotions could be why you are sitting in front of them in the first place. Their current supplier could have changed something that is driving the customer to look at other options for similar products. I have had owners of companies contact me to meet with them due to being upset with their current supplier.
When I worked deals for multi-million multi-year contracts with large corporations, I was working the sales process and identifying all of the key decision makers. This did take a great deal longer than selling $30 hearing protection to an end user to keep them from losing their hearing at a young age, but I still used the same selling process of identifying the needs. I just had to multiple key decision makers from engineering, purchasing, quality, etc. Each one of these decisions makers walked through the sales process with me in order to make sure they were all on board with purchasing our product. This took time to build all of the relationships, meeting with each of them individually as well as together.
A side note, getting the people to meet individual is always a good way to see what they view as their needs. When people are in groups some of the needs tend to get drowned out in conversation. Make sure to make the customer know they are valued and their needs are important.
At the end of the day people buy from people. That is why certain financial advisors and marketing agents can retain their large accounts as they move to other organizations. Making sure that the customer feels valued and trusts you is extremely important. By being intentional with the sales process you will be working the same principles that you would use with an end user as you will for large organizations.
If you would like to discuss further reach out by commenting below, or by hitting me up through email.
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
Sales and Leadership Enterprises