On the surface, it makes no sense. Prospects for B2B sales are usually intelligent, with many being college or university educated, with qualifications and plenty of experience.
The more complex the sale, the more intelligent the buyer. Despite this, the smartest thing you can do is to simplify your sales process. That doesn’t mean to gloss over problems, or to condescend your customer, but to keep everything streamlined and simple. That could mean talking in terms of how many documents you can store in a specific Cloud, for example, rather than reciting space data, or talking about the benefits of a faster processor, rather than reading out technical specifications.
Here’s why:
- Too much information feeds buyers’ risk aversion. It adds complexity, and increases risk. It’s a deal killer.
- Change feeds fear. A buying decision hinges on a prospects willingness to change the status quo. The more complex your sales process is, the more changes you are asking your prospect to make.
- Analysis becomes paralysis. Super-smart prospects can become preoccupied in analysing every detail. Every small detail requires evaluation, analysis, comparison, time and energy. It delays the process, and gives the prospect more time to postpone.
So how do you avoid these?
Simplify your process. Find out who has a say in the buying decision, what information they absolutely need, and what are the milestones. Work out if the decision needs to be unanimous, and who keeps the process on track. Go one step at a time, and focus on manageable steps. Avoid introducing too much information at once, and use staging so that your buyer only needs to consider what’s relevant for each step.
Don’t give in to temptation to use jargon, either. Speak in terms of what your product does, not what it is. Let the product do the talking. More people will understand “900,000,000 documents” than “16GB”.
Is your sales process simple enough?
Find the most competitive sales jobs on our website: http://www.hays.co.uk/sales
