Sales Process or Snakes & Ladders?
Your rep is back from the big meeting. You know how much prep went into it, and you've been anticipating this deal progressing into a star opportunity for the quarter. But the look on your rep's face gives you a sinking feeling.. 'What happened? Did you get through the stage gates? Did we get selected as preferred vendor?'
No. Despite your rep being one of your top players, this deal is going backwards. And it's not alone. Maybe 75% of your pipeline is starting to sound like this. All of a sudden, there's additional stakeholders in the buying group, all with access to quality information, and the ensuing confusion and lack of confidence is wreaking havoc on the evaluation. And your sales process, whilst never completely linear, now feels like snakes and ladders.
But you're not alone: Gartner has done great research in this space: 'The New B2B Buying Journey' is eye opening. Here's a small excerpt:
“The typical buying group for a complex B2B solution involves six to 10 decision makers‚ each armed with four or five pieces of information they’ve gathered independently and must deconflict with the group. At the same time, the set of options and solutions buying groups can consider is expanding as new technologies, products, suppliers and services emerge”
Gartner go on to make the point that if your organisation is trying to improve sales results by refining and reinforcing existing skills, then you're in a bit of trouble. The buyers are overwhelmed, and a shift in approach is needed if you're going to continue to hit your growth targets. Should we still be 'Challenging?' Is influencing the 'Vision of the Solution' still effective? Will you still need PoVs?
All this and more are seemingly wrapped up in a new sales persona Gartner calls the 'Sense Maker'. Whilst I would have gone with 'Snake Charmer' :-) the title they've chosen is an accurate description. In order to better respond to buyer needs, as well as reduce skepticism, sales people now need an information strategy as well as a deal strategy. But if the 'Sense Maker' is an ultimate persona, one which requires maturity, experience, and great breadth of knowledge, how do you enable for this? How do you hire? Where are these T-shaped unicorns?!
As there's an exponential number of paths that any given deal can take, my view is that in order for your sales team to have the agility to recognise and respond accordingly, sales enablement needs to shift to focus on the customer's perspective & buyer enablement, with boot-camps and sales simulations to ensure your sales team can reduce the noise for your customers, simplify their path, and ultimately increase your win rates.
Slippery snakes and wobbly ladders aside, I'd love to hear about your own experiences of these buying behaviours, as well as your thoughts about how best to adapt. The implications are broad!