Back to Basics “Could It Be Time to Reassess Your Sales Fundamentals?” asks Bob Apollo
These are challenging times for many B2B sales organisations - particularly if you have a high-value, relatively complex product or service proposition that requires lengthy consideration. Prospects are understandably cautious about spending money, and “getting to yes” often involves persuading a significant number of stakeholders of the need to take action.
As a result, average sales cycles are getting longer, accurate sales forecasting is becoming harder, and a significant and growing proportion of deals are ending with the prospect simply deciding to “do nothing” - at least for the moment. It can be a frustrating time for sales people, and a doubly frustrating one for sales managers and chief executives.
Is applying more effort the answer? Probably not by itself - it’s clear to most sales leaders that simply exhorting their sales people to “sell harder” isn’t likely to provide a miracle cure, and could even be counter-productive if pursued to extremes. Rather than selling harder, the more effective strategy must surely be to find ways of selling smarter.
That’s why I’m suggesting that this could be an excellent time to reassess your sales fundamentals, to reflect on recent lessons learned, and to identify and implement some of the best practices that are helping many of today’s most successful B2B-focused organisations to maintain revenue, profit and market share growth despite the economic climate.
I’d like to offer a handful of “back to basics” suggestions that could help you to make the most of the opportunities that undoubtedly still exist out there.
Are You Clear About the Problem You’re Solving? When times are tight, prospects are less inclined to spend money on “nice to haves” or things for which it’s hard to create a truly compelling business case. They spend money because they have to in order to solve a significant problem, to address an important issue, or to achieve an important goal.
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