Acquiring large corporates as customers and clients is the holy grail of startups and SMEs.
As these organisations often have great complexity in their organisation structures and buying processes, a considerable planning, effort and time will be required in order to win the sale.
However, the benefits can be considerable in driving the growth and profitability of your startup or SME
Here are my top tips to winning the large B2B sale!
- B2B is all about the LONG GAME. If you are looking for a quick win, B2B is not it!!
- Strong relationships and becoming a trusted ‘partner” should be your ultimate aim
- Capture your customers’ needs and their
definition of value to precisely match and position your solution as to what
they ideally would like to buy
- You must think of customer needs on two levels: Buyer Needs and User Needs
- These can be distinct. Both must be deeply understood to win B2B sales
- Be sure to have a deep understanding of your prospects’ buying decision process so you know exactly what you need to do each step of the way to win the sale
- Be sure to get an understanding from BUYERS as
to the “3 WHYS”:
- Why they are looking to make a change?
- Why they are motivated to change?
- Why the company is going to fund the change?
- Be sure to identify and understand:
- Your Champions: Who can provide you with information, Be your advocate
- Your Competition: Who else is the buying group considering? How can you differentiate from them?
- Service and Support of Current Customers=More
B2B Sales!
- Be consistent in providing advice, information, assistance and support
- This will lead to renewals, cross-sells/upsells with current customers as well as referrals, references and testimonials which are critical in acquiring new customers
- Two Key Approaches to Winning Large B2B
Customers:
- Bring prospects to visit customers: Provides real, compelling evidence of both your company and its offerings
- Formal and Informal Conversations: Both enable you to gain an in-depth understanding of key stakeholders, their needs, how you buy and ultimately what you need to do to “seal the deal”. Be sure to document and share your learnings.
- Provide candid/honest feedback as to how your company will handle when things go wrong . Confidence in service levels and service recovery is key to winning large customers
- Preparation is key prior to meeting your
prospects. Key preparation tasks include:
- Research your prospects as to their industry, strategies and financial performance. Formulate a perspective as to the challenges and opportunities both for their industry and company and how it could impact their revenues, cost, risks and customer retention.
- Identify the names, titles and connections of everyone you think will be in the Buying Group (ie those 6-8 people to be involved in the buying decision) as well as any individuals that may influence buying committee members
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