The key to identifying true revenue opportunities and gain more B2B sales is to obtain an in-depth understanding of your buyers: peel back the onion!
Gaining sales within large corporate customers is the nirvana for many B2B SMEs and start-ups.
But to determine if true opportunities exist within your buying base, as well as the know-how to gain those B2B sales, it is essential to develop an in-depth understanding of your buyers and their buying decision processes.
To help you achieve this understanding, here are a series of questions to ask your current and potential B2B customers and prospects:
Topic | Questions To Ask | Insights Gained |
---|---|---|
Demographics | What is your role? What are your responsibilities? Whom do you report to? | Helps you recognise patterns among customers and prospects |
Business Drivers | What are your objectives this year? How will you be evaluated this year? Do you expect these to be different next year? What are your customers trying to achieve by using your products and services? | Helps you understand objectives and spending priorities |
Problem Priorities | What are your top 3 challenges? What keeps you from achieving your key objectives? What keeps you from acquiring more customers? | Helps you identify the problems that really matter to them |
Problem Ownership | Who would benefit most from solving this problem? Who else in the company should we be speaking with regarding this problem? | Helps you identify who else may be involved in the purchase decision and who else may benefit |
Decision Making Power | What was the last technology purchase that you were involved in? Who else is involved in decision making? What does the purchase process look like? Do you need to gain approval before purchasing new solutions or services? | Helps you understand if the person is a true buyer |
Buying Process | How does your team typically go about buying a solution? Who is involved in the buying decision? What is the typical length of the approval process? What does the purchasing process look like? | Helps you understand the internal processes and stakeholders you need to speak with |
Problem Drilldown | How are you currently solving this problem? How do you typically work around this problem? Do you expect this problem to stay the same, worsen or improve? How are you planning to solve this problem? What would be the impact of solving this problem? | Helps you understand the problems and challenges from a customer perspective |
What outcomes could you expect for your business?
By answering these questions your SME or start-up will be able to:
- Position your company and its offerings as being aligned to and meet business customer needs
- Provide insights, information and advice that will assist the B2B buyer thereby help your company to be perceived as a trusted advisor which is what over 70% of B2B buyers want!
- Provide the right information to the right people in the right format to help progress the purchase decision process
Did you find these questions and the insights into your buyers you could gain helpful? Have you used them yet? Let us know in the comments below, and please do share the article with your network
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About Michael Haynes
B2B Customer Acquisition & Growth Strategy Consultant
For over 20 years, Michael has worked with micro-businesses to large corporates alike across Australia and Canada, developing and implementing business growth strategies and programs.