Making great sales starts with having a great mindset, more importantly, the right mindset as a B2B sales guy. The average deal size is higher in B2B, and an SDR has to deal with senior decision-makers to close deals. Hence, the snipe-and-kill approach is beneficial here. Apart from these common attributes, all top B2B sales guys share specific mental approaches that we’ll discuss in detail in this article.
Why Changing Your Sales Approach Is Required In B2B?
The B2B space is exciting and, at the same time, intimidating for a newbie. This is primarily due to 3 reasons.
- Less than 1% reply rates– In B2B sales, the typical reply rates are less than 1%, so a new B2B sales guy must learn how to tackle failure and keep at it despite rejection and lack of closures and low reply rates.
- Demand for discipline– With low reply rates, the need to be highly organised and disciplined in your approach to ensure maximum closures is rising. An SDR needs to have the discipline to reach out to, say, 100 people every day. The number might change; however, staying consistent and persistent is what matters here.
- Demand for proactivity– The next crucial thing this sector demands after discipline is proactivity. SDRs shouldn’t wait around till executing a task becomes a compulsion. Smart SDRs always catch an opportunity and act on it immediately to seize the moment and close a deal.
Mindset Changes A B2B Sales Guy Needs To Make
There are a few tricks to acing your targets as a sales guy. Here’s a list of some of them.
Being open to learning
Sales is a tricky domain; one can never know enough about it. Hence, a constant learning process has to happen to grow and evolve as a B2B sales guy. Finding new ways to execute and plan things will always help your career and targets. Simply put, learning is the most vital ingredient in the making of an excellent SDR.
Adopting a ‘Buyer First’ mentality
Having an ‘us vs them’ approach in sales isn’t helpful. Instead, cultivating a ‘buyer first’ mentality helps the situation. Your first and foremost responsibility as a B2B sales guy is to identify your client’s goals and the roadblocks on the way. That’s because once you figure that out, creating an actionable and effective sales approach would be easier once you figure that out.
For this to happen, you need to listen to your client before proceeding with any selling. Try to see things from the client’s perspective to understand their challenges in the best way. In the B2B domain, you have to identify the problems as well as suggest practical solutions. So, paying close attention to the prospect’s needs will later help you pitch better and make it more tailored and hard-hitting.
Shifting gears from velocity to value
In B2C, velocity may get you conversions and closures, but that will never happen in B2B sales. That’s because value takes centre stage here. Crafting a value-based approach is crucial to ensure long-term success. While staying consistent in your outreach count matters, it’s still important to prioritise who you approach, who to pitch to, and who to drop.
Your product should create value too, and your focus should be on selling the solutions it offers and not the features. Look for value everywhere- creating your ICP, filtering leads, and pitching to a prospect. A strong value proposition will catalyse the conversion of leads, leading to better and faster closures.
Read More: Pratyush Kukreja speaking with Abdul Javed, a seasoned sales professional
Incorporating creativity into tasks
Sales is indeed a number game. However, keeping your approach creative will ensure that you differentiate from others quickly and avoid getting lost in a saturated market. Data is undoubtedly your most significant asset, but creativity will help your product stand out and drive prospective clients emotionally. Create a convincing pitch and use data to deliver the pitch to the right person at the right time.
Even though creativity and data seem to exist poles apart, they actually go hand in hand in executing sales operations. According to a LinkedIn survey, 81% of B2B market leaders believe that creativity helps create a 10x multiplier in sales. Creative campaigns that rival similar brands are engaging and easily garner market attention. So, creativity is one of the greatest mental assets for a B2B sales guy.
Cashing in on the B2B currency- LinkedIn
LinkedIn is for sure the new B2B currency, and utilising it should be a top priority for a B2B sales guy. Building a social network is extremely important in B2B sales. Shifting from the mindset of being a lone wolf to that of a busy bee is important. Your social content can be enough to validate the proof part of your sale process. Social selling helps communicate your sales capabilities, and leads get filtered automatically. Hence creating a social network that helps you sell is essential in B2B sales.
Final Words
The mindset changes discussed here are significant for a B2B sales guy. Understanding and incorporating these changes will allow reps to build a better rapport, drive in more sales, and get on track for long-term growth and success. If you’re a newbie, implementing these changes from the beginning will prove helpful in the long run. Like all mindset changes, these ones happen gradually. No matter how seriously you take these, you’ll always have to go through the grind to improve and refine your sales skills.
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