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Summary: As companies have transitioned to remote work and virtual meetings during the pandemic, one common piece of wisdom has emerged: It’s much easier to transition an existing relationship to video than it is to create new ones. That’s especially true in B2B sales. Many companies have coped with this by using this time to deepen relationships with existing customers. However, sales teams should not give up on finding new customers during this period, too. This article offers tips on how to do that.
As the pandemic persists, most B2B companies are finding that selling to current customers has moved to virtual methods — such as connecting remotely using video or telephone — with surprising ease. But acquiring new customers remains extremely difficult.
With limited or no opportunity to meet in-person, buyers naturally turn to known, trusted suppliers who already understand their business needs. For sellers, this makes access to prospective buyers the first chokepoint. And if sellers do get access, virtual-only connection makes it difficult to address additional challenges of winning new customers. These include:
- Getting a handle on the buyer’s needs. Virtual selling makes it harder to probe and ask questions, especially for discovering needs that are complex or latent.
- Winning the buyer’s trust. Buyers are more likely to be open and forthright with salespeople they know. Especially with high-stakes decisions, a seller who has built a reputation and history has an edge.
- Demonstrating differentiated value. This requires truly understanding a buyer’s needs and buying criteria. Again, an incumbent has an advantage.
- Understanding buyer decision-making. Buying influences are especially difficult to determine virtually when the buying organization and process are opaque.
While finding ways to mitigate these challenges, sellers must answer a more basic question. Where should they be spending (or not spending) their time? Three imperatives drive growth in an all-virtual selling environment.
Focus on expansion of existing customers.
Sellers with an established customer base are seeing payoffs by focusing disproportionately on nurturing current customers. As sellers face restricted access to and success with prospects, competitors are facing similar challenges in getting to the seller’s existing customers. Consequently, it’s a good time to double down on current customers who have unmet needs. Sellers can look for opportunities for expanded usage of existing products, for broadening the offerings, and for growth across geographies and business units within the customer organization. The demonstrated expertise, experience, and trust built over time will pay off handsomely now.
Stay away from prospects in “no oxygen” zones.
It’s always true that selling time is wasted with prospects who have no need and urgency. And the odds of success are low when offerings are undifferentiated from alternatives. In the virtual sales world, these situations have become “no oxygen” zones, where limited success has become no success. Further, pushing unneeded products on buyers weakens a seller’s reputation, making prospects less likely to engage in the future even if offerings become relevant.
Reach the right prospects with differentiated offerings and an updated sales playbook.
Obvious as it is, when prospecting, it’s critical to lead with offerings that are differentiated from alternatives. From there, success requires reworking the sales playbook.
In-person selling is much more forgiving than virtual selling. Skilled salespeople can recover from deficiencies and setbacks when working face-to-face with prospects. But recovery is much harder in the virtual world. The following effective sales practices become even more important.
- Focus on “being found” and not just on “finding” new customers. Even before the pandemic, buyers were…
