When building relationships with buyers, it’s important to choose your words carefully. We’re not just referring to small talk or the language of negotiation. We’re talking about the specific words you use to describe your offering and what differentiates it. A lot of sellers and marketers make the mistake of using what we call “ity” words when attempting to convey the value of their offering. For example:
An RFP lands in your inbox. It’s from a company you would love to do business with. Your pipeline for the next two quarters isn’t as strong as it could be, and several of your biggest opportunities seem to be stuck in the dreaded “no decision” limbo.
If you want to increase your average deal size, the best thing you can do is learn to sell based on value. That’s because a value-based selling approach helps you justify your price and expand cross-selling and upselling opportunities. Here’s how it works.
Have you ever heard customers say, “I don’t believe these numbers,” while showing them the business case for your offering? It’s not that the customer thinks you’re a liar. The problem is that many customers come to the table with existing assumptions or prejudices around benefit dimensions. Therefore, your ROI estimates can seem like pipe dreams.
Each year, sales operations and marketing managers purchase sales enablement tools to help their sales teams increase win rates and close deals faster. So why do so many of these tools gather dust in the salesperson’s toolbox? In my experience, this happens for two main reasons.
Is your offering underpriced? It happens more often than you’d think. For example, during a recent consulting project, I helped a particular business unit at a material manufacturer realize they were charging $100,000 for an offering that was delivering $1.2 million in value.
The way you talk about your competitors tells prospects and customers a lot about your company and the way you do business. Here are some guidelines sellers and marketers can use to avoid leaving a negative impression and potentially losing business.
What’s the best way to get a buyer’s attention, move deals quickly through the buying cycle, and increase close rates? Follow these five fundamental steps. (For a handy summary of these steps, download our tip sheet, "5 Steps to Close More Deals.")
One of my fundamental beliefs is that the strategic marketing team—not sales, finance or operations—should own pricing. The reason is that marketing is best equipped to set the optimal price and maximize an offering's lifetime value.
What makes sales management such a tough job? There are many reasons, but a very basic one is that your success as a B2B sales manager depends on the performance of your sales team. If your sales team doesn’t perform well and make quota—despite your best efforts to coach, motivate, support, mentor, and lead—then you can’t succeed.
