Hi Community members,
Since the final quarter of last calendar year, we have been talking about putting your buyers first in this new age of selling and shared how Community members have utilized different Sales Navigator features to achieve the practice of Buyer First selling:
- Learn, then define — with Sales Navigator Alerts
- Share readily — with Advanced Search & Save Search
- Solve, don’t sell — with Custom Lists
- Deliver value — with InMail Messages
- Earn trust — with Smart Links
While we’ve identified the five principles of this practice and your peers have demonstrated how they use certain tools in Sales Navigator, aren’t you also curious about what your buyers think and what they really want to see from sellers? At the end of last year, I shared a post on what’s top of mind for B2B buyers then. In today’s post, I will present the top four factors that highly influence buyer purchase decisions, based on a research conducted by the RAIN Group Center for Sales Research on 528 buyers and sellers, as well as how sellers can meet buyers’ satisfaction.
1. Leading a thorough discovery of concerns, wants, and needs — Make sure you are prepared for one of the most important meetings with a potential customer in the future. Here’s how you can set yourself up for success:
- Map out questions you will ask before your discovery call, including specific and open-ended questions
- Don’t forget to follow up with questions after your meeting – you can also include additional information by sharing Smart Links in an InMail message
- Log your meeting notes and next steps in your CRM – here is why syncing your CRM with Sales Navigator can help streamline your prospecting activities
2. Showing what’s possible or how to solve a problem — Don’t be afraid to share your thoughts and ideas as buyers want to know that you are the best person to help solve their problems. Here are two ways to show buyers you understand their specific case:
- Inspire buyers with new ideas and possibilities
- Redefine their needs as you progress further along in the customer journey
3. Listening — It’s one thing to be a good audience and another to be a good active listener. You can stay engaged in the conversation and reassure your buyers that their thoughts and needs are heard by:
- Restating what the buyers said
- Making eye contact, nodding, and giving other body language signs
- Sending summarized discussion points using InMail messages
4. Making the ROI case clear — RAIN’s research found that sellers were not effective in this area at all. To change that, try these ideas:
- Calculate the business impact by sharing case studies and examples
- Communicate intangible, emotional impact as well (such as increased customer reputation, higher productivity, faster promotions, etc.)
- Share the impact compared to your competitors
- Illustrate what will not happen if the buyer doesn’t move forward
What do you think? Do you agree with the research’s findings on the top factors affecting buyers’ purchasing decisions? I’m also curious to hear what other factors you think play a role in the decision-making process. I’d also like to know if you and your team have tried any of the ideas above on becoming more effective sellers and what results you may have seen. As always, I look forward to the discussion!
Thank you and happy selling,
Eva C.
