As we enter into the second half of the year, technology buyers are looking to restart and rebuild after what has been a harrowing and unprecedented first six months. With much uncertainty and volatility still in existence doing business will be tougher than ever before.
The technology sector is no exception. While technology is a sector that is experiencing strong demand and growth, distrust and scepticism of technology providers reached an all-time high even before the pandemic.
Despite the current business conditions and heightened distrust, significant opportunities exist in this “new norm” for technology providers to sell their solutions as well as grow their businesses if they know the 3 secrets to make B2B technology buyers buy.
Show why change is needed NOW!
With many technology buyers facing higher scrutiny on spend and tighter budgets, you must demonstrate to prospective business customers why they should change now.
This can be achieved by providing your prospective buyers with trends, benchmarks or research based on credible, authoritative sources which show they have a problem and the potential consequences of not adopting a new solution.
Where possible, try to demonstrate the business or opportunity costs of failing to do so which is often referred to as The Cost of Inaction. Some examples of these include:
- Lost revenue opportunities
- Failure to capture future cost reductions
- Loss of market share
- Reduced speed to market
- Lagging on the technology curve
Providing such insights will open up a prospect’s mind and get them thinking about their situation in new ways and help them realise they have a problem.
Don’t sell to technology buyers… ENABLE them!!!
Buyer enablement is about making it easy for technology buyers to buy.
Typically, there are 6-8 people involved in the purchase decision process (often referred to as the buying committee). Each of these people may use 3-5 sources of information in their purchase decision.
Therefore, buyer enablement is achieved by:
- Providing the right information to the right members of the buying committee in the right format
- Making it easy for buyers to make each next step in the buying decision process
- Helping your advocates gain internal buy-in (which will help drive the sale!)
Take buyers on a journey of discovery towards execution
As part of your sales process, conduct buyer discovery sessions. These are problem solving discussions that you conduct with the potential buyer and relevant stakeholders in order to understand their needs, goals, challenges and strategic priorities.
Discovery sessions should be conducted not as a “one-off’ but throughout the sales process to enable you to develop and offer a solution that will enable the buyer to successfully implement and execute to achieve their desired outcomes.
Don’t delay – take action now!
Doing business in the “new norm” will be challenging more than ever before. However, it will present numerous and significant opportunities. Use these secrets to plan your roadmap to acquire new clients and take your business to new heights.
Does your SME need help in acquiring business customers in these challenging times?
Related reading
Getting B2B Technology Buyers To Buy: Address The Disconnect
B2B technology buyers distrust of vendors is at an all-time high. We take a look at the latest TrustRadius Buyer Disconnect Report to find out why.
Moving Forward: Generating B2B Sales In The “New Norm”
With many economies now trying to move forward, service-based SME owners need to address the challenging task of generating B2B sales leads and revenues to reignite their business.
