• March 3, 2015

What Salespeople Can Learn From The McKinsey Quarterly

Recently the McKinsey Quarterly published an article titled Do you really understand how your customers buy? In short, this article is focused at business executives and gives them insights about the changing trends of business-to-business buying habits. It also shares some insights on how to reshape their sales organizations.

It is a great article but I find it quite interesting that a company that doesn’t have a direct sales team is publishing articles about sales…

Regardless, there are some good takeaways for sales guys from the article. Let’s break them down:

Takeaway #1 – Business-To-Business Selling Has Become Less Linear

Just as the digital revolution has transformed once-predictable consumer purchasing paths into a more circular pattern of touch points, so too business-to-business selling has become less linear as customers research, evaluate, select, and share experiences about products.

This probably will not surprise you as a sales guy, but it may be news for management. While years ago your sales approach probably followed a standard path, today that path becomes ever more circular.

One of the best approaches we have seen to manage this changing buying pattern is to be active socially (see Be Social Sell More). That doesn’t just mean being socially active with your prospects, it means being social with everyone.

You never know where your next lead or opportunity may come from. The person behind you in the grocery aisle, your next-door neighbor, the coach on your kid’s soccer team. You just never know where leads can come from.

Be active socially because when a lead comes through casual conversation, it is a much stronger lead than a lead that comes through hard selling.

Takeaway #2 – Selling To Businesses Is More Like Selling To Consumers

Many more influencers and decision makers are now involved in the purchasing process, and business buyers too have been shaped by the consumer shopping experience.

The consumer shopping experience is dramatically impacting the B2B space as well. The patterns that consumers have learned in their personal lives are overflowing to their business space.

Online review sites like Yelp, Google Places and the Better Business Bureau are growing in popularity not just among consumer destinations, but B2B businesses also. Buyers are looking at these pages to see what past customers have to say about their experience working with your company. If you aren’t monitoring these, beware as a bad review can seriously tarnish your company’s reputation.

This is just one of the many factors influencing our buyers purchasing decisions. Everyday, they begin to buy more and more just like standard consumers.

What can you do as a salesperson to remedy the situation? First of all, do a better job of staying in touch with your contacts at the company. (Spiro’s app makes staying in touch easy with helpful reminders of who to call and when to call.)  Give them the attention that a salesperson should and this will stop them from making impulsive consumer like purchasing decisions.

How do you actually stay in touch without being annoying? Read our guide on how to stay in touch with your prospects.

Takeaway #3 – Salespeople Should Get Closer With Marketing

We often see marketing units do customer research without seeking frontline input. Sales organizations often say that they understand the importance of better data but complain that proliferating information isn’t helping them navigate the situations they face on the ground.

So marketing guys don’t really know what’s going to be effective in the field? Again, another shocker…

You can’t blame them for their lack of knowledge. They aren’t on the front lines talking with customers like you are everyday.  If you want better marketing materials, then you need to get closer to marketing.

Make a friend in marketing. Get them to come along or listen in on some sales calls. Give them a taste of what the customers are like on the front lines. They will appreciate the insight and it will help you both do your jobs better.

Don’t just complain about marketing – be proactive and do something to make it better.

Conclusion

For an article written by an organization without a sales team, I have to say they had some good nuggets of insight and wisdom in the article.

Hopefully this post helped break down some of the key takeaways for you in a more down to earth language.

The sales world is a constantly changing space. Don’t let yourself fall behind and stay up to date with the latest trends.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Fortune Live Media.