Hello there!
It's the end of the month again! How was your month?
If you work in sales and have been striving to meet monthly targets, I hope you had a successful month.
It's important to remember that "Pressure is a Privilege", even though it may not always feel that way. As your sales coach, I want to remind you of your incredible opportunity as a sales professional. š
This week, let's look at various B2B sales models. Understanding these models can greatly enhance your sales process, so let's dive in!
There are four main types of B2B Sales Models: Client Need, Sales Cycle, Level of Relationship and Decision-makers, so you can decide which suits your customer base.
Let's start by discussing why these four models are crucial for today's businesses and how you can leverage this understanding in your sales process.
For any business, sales are the lifeblood that fuels growth and success.
B2B sales is a unique challenge that requires a different approach than selling direct-to-consumer. There are four types of B2B sales models. These models provide a framework for businesses to structure their sales strategies, from identifying target customers to building relationships and closing deals. By understanding the variety of B2B sales models available, companies can tailor their approach to best meet the needs of their specific industry, customers and goals.
So whether you're a seasoned sales pro or just starting out, it's essential to grasp the importance of B2B sales models to succeed in this competitive arena.
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1: Latent Need or Expressed Need
Does the client have an expressed need or latent need?
Does your prospect understand the value of working with you, or you need to take them into the process?
Understanding whether your client has an expressed or latent need is important. While an expressed need is relatively straightforward, a latent need may require more digging. This is where experience and expertise come into play. You must ask the right questions to help clients understand their needs and the value of working with you.
It's not just about pushing a product or service but identifying and addressing the client's pain points. What value are you providing your client?
Every sales or decision-making methodology has underlying beliefs and assumptions. Sometimes they are clearly stated, and sometimes they are not. Our products and solutions derive value from the problems people care about or produce highly valued results.
āAs an example, my accountant recommended the value of using Xero, a SaaS accounting app.
Honestly, I thought my accountant was being lazy! After using Xero for a week, I knew I couldn't survive without it. I now understand where my business is, and tax filing is a breeze!
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Is your product simple to use or you need an in-depth demo or onboarding? By taking the client through the process, you can demonstrate your value and build trust.
2: Sales Cycle
Is this a Short sales cycle or a Long sales cycle? Short sales cycles are primarily product-led sales. But some SaaS companies and mainly services enterprise-based solutions have longer sales cycle processes.
When it comes to Sales Cycles, one of the first questions you'll have to ask yourself is whether it's a short or long cycle. Most short sales cycles are typically focused on product-led sales. Some SaaS companies have successfully been product-led, like Xero, Zoom and Canva. If it's a less complex service that doesn't require a lot of consultation or customisation, it's easy to have a shorter sales cycle.
But even with some SaaS products, simply leaving the product/app with the prospects takes time to convert into sales. You need to take the opportunity to a demo and journey of the importance and value of the product.
You'll likely encounter a longer sales cycle process with a complex SaaS company and most services-based enterprise solutions. This is because these types of businesses require more consultation and customisation to fit the customer's unique needs. Knowing the differences between short and long sales cycles, you can better prepare and optimise your sales strategy accordingly.
3: Short Relationship or Longer Relationship
There are two types of relationships.
Is it a one-off or long nurturing relationship that you can upsell, cross-sell and renew?
The first type is a quick fling, a transaction that happens once and is over.
The second type is more like a marriage, requiring effort and commitment from both parties as they work towards a shared goal. While focusing solely on the one-off relationships that promise fast profits may be tempting, it's important to remember that the most successful businesses are built on solid, long-term relationships.
These relationships provide opportunities to upsell, cross-sell and renew, fostering growth and stability in the long run.
4: Is it a single decision maker or multiple stakeholders
Is it a single decision maker or multiple stakeholders?
And for multiple stakeholders, you have various roles. The use, endorser, decision maker, approver, recommender or is it a committee?
The decision-makers can involve various stakeholders, each with a unique role. You could have the use of a product or service, the endorser who recommends it, the decision maker who ultimately approves it, the approver who gives the final sign-off, or the recommender who offers guidance. Alternatively, decision-making could fall to a committee, with multiple individuals weighing in on the best course of action.
Understanding the various players and their roles in the sales process is critical. By doing so, you can ensure that you have covered everyone's needs and understand how the prospect's organisation make a decision.ā
In Account Management of more complex deals, account mapping is rigorously done. Political circles and influencers are identified so the account team can create a relationship mapping and execute a winning strategy. If you want to learn more about Account Management mapping, please let me know by responding to my email, and I will dig deep into this. You can also check out Strategic Account Playbook Template.
Choosing the Right Model for Your Organization
Choosing the suitable model for your organisation can take time, but it can significantly benefit your team in the long run.
For example, a case study on a SaaS company struggling to win deals and hit its sales targets. They had been using a traditional product-led model and expecting fast sales cycle but found that it wasn't providing the results they sought, as the platform requires onboarding and building a community to engage and use the platform. After doing some research and interviews with their prospects and clients, they decided to switch to a more Subject Matter Expert sales model, which allowed for quicker decision-making with their opportunities and prospects, embracing a fundamental understanding of how to use the product that led to the client's success.ā The new model proved to be a game changer for their organisation, resulting in increased productivity, higher quality work, and happier team members.ā
Understanding different B2B sales models is extremely important, as they can decide the success of sales and marketing activities.
Below are various combinations of the B2B Sales Models we just discussed. Where do your solutions sit? How can you improve your sales process based on your B2B Sales Model?
š” Introspection
āThink of a major sales opportunity - where does your solution fit? What kind of B2B sales model would work best in this situation? What would be your sales process? Consider all aspects of choosing a B2B model to generate maximum ROI and long-term customer relationships.
What's your take on this week's newsletter?
I am working on a course on increasing "Sales Productivity and Winning more Sales" by leveraging sales processes and using sales enablement tools. Is this useful?
Would love to hear from you!
Thank you for reading. I appreciate you!
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