Selling in Today’s B2B Marketplace
I come from the old school of selling; cold calls to set appointments. The more calls you made, the more appointments you set and, in the end, the more sales you closed.
It’s not that simple anymore. The people you are trying to reach today just don’t answer the phone like they did in the old days. Today’s first meetings require a lot of leg work; networking, referrals, LinkedIn, etc. You have to work a lot harder today to “crack the door.”
So what happens in that first meeting today is especially critical to your success. I was trained in Solution Selling. Solution Selling’s premise is to ask the right discovery questions to uncover the prospect’s needs, or “pain points,” and let the prospect navigate to the conclusion that your product or service is the solution to solving the problem. As the sales professional, you are the problem solver for the prospective buyer.
In the current issue of Harvard Business Review, the claim is made that Solution Selling is dead, and today’s top sales professionals are using a new sales approach called read more
Insight Selling; a radically different approach to selling in a B2B environment. I’m not sold on the total premise of Insight Selling, but I strongly believe there are elements that can be used to improve your sales effectiveness with prospects.
One sales strategy with Insight Selling that applies to selling one of our strategies, 401k SAFE, is the idea of showing a prospect a solution that solves a problem that the prospect hadn’t previously identified. Outsourcing administrative functions, such as payroll, is not a new concept to employers, but outsourcing their 401(k) plan is a new concept for most employers, and an opportunity to educate, or provide insight to a prospect on how outsourcing the fiduciary, compliance and administrative burden can free up valuable resources and mitigate the risk associated with a non-profit generating function in their business. It’s a different approach to discussing traditional fund performance, plan services, and cost.
If you have a specific situation or would like to review how Insight Selling can change your prospecting methods, please call me at (800) 979-9393 or john@mafcompanies.com