While every B2B sales pro has their preferred strategy, choosing the right one can be a challenge. But regardless of the tactic chosen, salespeople should ultimately strive to build better relationships with their customers.
CrowdStrike Senior Director of Corporate Sales Jack Hyer considers his greatest weapon to be the “trust equation,” a concept outlined in the book, The Trusted Advisor. This method, which combines credibility, reliability, intimacy and self-orientation, has played a pivotal role in helping him close important deals, he said.
On the other hand, BigCommerce Senior Account Executive Gregg Belbeck’s favorite strategy is active listening. In his mind, this simple yet powerful tactic has had a significant impact on his sales performance.
“Active listening is key to not only closing the deal but expediting the deal cycle,” Belbeck said.
Built In Austin caught up with Hyer, Belbeck and another local sales pro to learn about their most powerful B2B sales strategies and how they have made it easier to close more deals.
BigCommerce’s platform helps merchants grow their online businesses.
What's the most impactful B2B sales strategy you're currently leveraging in your work, and what makes it so effective?
The most impactful strategy in my toolbox is truly active listening. Merely the word “sales” or the term “sales professional” can put a prospect's guard up, given negative connotations or past experiences. It's imperative that I actively listen to position myself as a consultant solving a problem from the very first interaction, whether that be through email or over the phone. This is why I would never be able to work somewhere where I didn’t wholeheartedly believe in the product. I feel that I've been able to turn that skill of effective listening into a differentiated business strategy at BigCommerce.
Tell us about a time when this strategy helped you close an important deal.
One scenario that comes to mind when active listening has been pivotal to closing deals is working with B2B merchants, in particular those pivoting from a more traditional offline model to entering e-commerce. The inherent anxieties of a prospect entering e-commerce are vast and include factors like total cost of ownership, business model changes, fulfillment and customer service. I've found that it is in these scenarios where active listening is the key to not only closing the deal but expediting the deal cycle. When a prospect authentically feels like their success is your success, magic and true partnership happens.
When a prospect authentically feels like their success is your success, magic and true partnership happens.”
Throughout your career in B2B sales, what has been the most important lesson you've learned?
The most important lesson that I've learned so far has been to listen to your gut. At the end of the day, sales is both about people and relationships. If you're sensing that momentum or something is off in your discourse, you're probably correct. Rather than spiral into concern, it's imperative to leverage the relationships that you've built so far to ask direct, difficult questions.
Listening to your gut also applies to deal structure, incentives and other areas. There have been times I've found myself in situations where deep down I knew I should have listened to my gut about the structure of a certain deal or the balance of a give-get strategy, and not doing so has been to my detriment. Thankfully, I have never forgotten those lessons.
CrowdStrike offers organizations cybersecurity protection powered by big data and AI.
What's the most impactful B2B sales strategy you're currently leveraging in your work, and what makes it so effective?
Employ the “trust equation.” Trustworthiness = (credibility + reliability + intimacy) / self-orientation. You've probably heard that sales is about relationships. Well, the trust equation is the blueprint.
Obviously, you don't plug numbers into this equation, but it gave me a new perspective on how to get people to open up about their pains and become more transparent with me in a sales process and build a genuine relationship.
Credibility can be built by doing your homework, which means showing that you intentionally listen and understand their business. Reliability is more straightforward. Do what you say you're going to do, and do it on time. Intimacy was the one I took some time to truly hone, but it really comes down to humility. When you make a mistake, own it. Reveal how you feel to the customer. This leads to more memorable, enjoyable and impactful conversations.
Tell us about a time when this strategy helped you close an important deal.
My team spent months with a large energy company looking to improve their security. We were at a point where they saw us as the top solution in the market. However, like many companies, they had dozens of conflicting priorities and didn’t see a path to signing with us for another six months.
Then we made a mistake. We wanted to get this done earlier in the year. The testing version was already deployed and ready to turn on. We told one of the project leaders that if we didn't get it done this month, we would have to uninstall the solution and reinstall when they were ready to move. Our engineers can't run something for free forever.
The project leader responded, saying, "Lets scrap it; we can talk in a few months." Instead of being defeated, I called the project leader directly. I started with, "My team made a mistake highlighting that. It sounded threatening, but really, I want to share the position my team is in." Immediately owning the mistake built intimacy and we were able to sign off early as we had planned.
When you make a mistake, own it.”
Throughout your career in B2B sales, what has been the most important lesson you've learned?
Kids don't buy toys; parents do. My colleagues are going to laugh when they read that because I say it so often. The meaning of it is that the people most enamored with your solution and the ones using it are often not the same people with the power to make a purchase.
By reminding ourselves of this catch phrase, we keep a long-term focus on involving those with purchase authority and try our best to translate how it impacts their role and responsibilities to the company.
WP Engine’s digital experience platform enables businesses to create websites and applications on WordPress.
What's the most impactful B2B sales strategy you're currently leveraging in your work, and what makes it so effective?
The most impactful strategy has been a unification of two different concepts: the Sandler sales methodology and MEDDIC opportunity management [created by Jack Napoli]. We operate at a very high velocity, but our buyers have the same typical enterprise buying structure, so it's even more critical that every single deal has a clear path to understanding the buyer's decision-making process. Stated simply, our strategy is to fully understand how our buyers make decisions.
Tell us about a time when this strategy helped you close an important deal.
As a managed host, several of the biggest challenges we solve for our clients are avoiding website crashes, vulnerabilities or slow speed. Recently, one of our top agency partners referred us to a new customer who seemed to have a fairly simple challenge with their website. As we continued through the discovery process, unearthing the complex nature of their security and website availability, it became clear that we wouldn't be able to solve their problems without including all buyers and deal influencers, their metrics for success, and ultimately their legal and procurement process. By reshaping our questions, the deal value increased nearly twenty times more than its original forecast. Had we not done this, the client would have purchased the completely wrong solution and wouldn't have known that until it was too late. As professional sellers so often hear, the price wasn't the problem.
It's not sexy to be consistent, but it’s what wins the game.”
Throughout your career in B2B sales, what has been the most important lesson you've learned?
You need to find the levers that create predictable outcomes. Sales is an honorable profession, and most great salespeople have a very simple and repeatable process. They find the method that works for them, their buyer and their business and repeat it over and over until they hit a plan. It's not sexy to be consistent, but it’s what wins the game. As an example, if a professional seller knows they consistently lose dollars on deals when they improperly set social contracts, they can simply change their approach and evaluate the difference in success. The same is true with changing how you set up proposals, take a prospect through a technical review or run the discovery process. Don't over complicate simple things. Just optimize them.
