“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” – Leonardo da Vinci
Enterprise Sales is simple but not easy.
The problem is that we are always trying to make Enterprise sales easy which makes it complicated.
In fact, several sales experts refer to it as the Complex Sale. Those who use that term don’t know what they are doing and are just confusing people.
Simple means to have straight lines. It means untangled. It means cause and effect are connected in a straightforward manner. It means basic or fundamental.
The role & responsibility of a B2B Seller is simple. Your job is to keep things untangled. To keep the lines straight as you help your Buyer evaluate your offering and make a buying decision that is right for them.
Your job is to provide insight into how your offering can help the Buyer meet their business goals and solve the challenges they face in doing so. They are not buying your product or service. They are buying who they aspire to be! Your job is simply to connect the dots that help them achieve that aspiration.
What is not easy is providing meaningful insight and communicating the value of your insights in a clear manner. It takes a lot of hard work to really dig in and make sure you see the challenges and opportunities correctly. Frequently, the Buyer can’t see this clearly. They are too immersed in working in their business and don’t have time to work on their business. A sales professional can bring an objective eye and see things the Buyer may not.
To make this hard work easier, the sales industry has produced dozens of sales methodologies, hundreds of sales productivity tools and thousands of experts providing consulting & training services. Trying to figure out the right ones to use, when & how is a daunting task for Sellers.
Now throw AI into this sales process mix and you have the potential to create a real mess. Sales productivity is declining as it is. The number of Enterprise Sales professionals in the US who made quota in 2023 is reportedly under 25%. Unless there are clear strategies for integrating AI into the Enterprise sales & buying process those performance numbers will decline even further.
AI can be a powerful tool for finding leads, optimizing pricing, personalizing offers, and automating tasks. However, AI can also create challenges and risks for salespeople. AI is not a magic bullet that can solve all the problems of sales. It is a tool that can enhance and augment the human capabilities of salespeople, but it can also introduce new variables and challenges that require human judgment and creativity. Salespeople need to embrace AI as a partner, not a competitor, and leverage its strengths while addressing its limitations.
The job of an Enterprise Sales professional is to keep things simple for their Buyer in an environment of multiple decision criteria and rapidly changing business conditions. You also need to shield your Buyer from all the things you are dealing with such as all the tools, methodologies, systems you use, and the performance demands you face on a regular basis.
Some of the benefits of simple are:
1. Ease of Understanding: Help your Buyer keep straight lines between your offering’s features and the benefits they will realize. Don’t assume they make the connection. Constantly reinforce those connections even at the risk of sounding repetitive. Ease of understanding drives deal velocity.
2. Ease of Change: A buying decision implies change. The Buyer is changing a business process or from an existing set of tools to new ones. Help your Buyer see the straightforward path of changing from their current state to the desired state using your offering. This will also help the Buyer to adapt to changes in market conditions, internal needs and processes. Ease of change improves ROI.
3. Ease of Movement: Keeping things simple allows for smoother transition between different stages of the Enterprise buying process. Ease of movement reduces the cost of sale.
4. Durability: Enterprise buying processes can be long. Keeping things simple provides the Seller the ability to sustain their value through multiple stages of the buying process. Durability can compress the sales cycle.
5. Collaboration: Simplified offerings and their value propositions promote collaboration across different departments or teams involved in the buying process. It streamlines communication and coordination, fostering a more cohesive approach to achieving the buying objectives. Collaboration reduces the pressure on discounting.
Being a high-performing Enterprise Sales professional is hard work. It is not easy. But it can be simple. The job is to keep things from getting tangled. To keep the lines straight. Do that and you will close some terrific business!
Navigation: This was written while listening to ‘Nothing to Lose” by KISS.
Tom - Thank you so much for your kind words and all of your support - John
Thanks! Great work, John. I'm excited about seeing all the great content that can only be derived from years and years of tremendous success in the enterprise software world! The Compass will be an invaluable platform used by the "Best of Best" sellers for years to come. You are a true leader, visionary, and inspiration for all who have enjoyed knowing and working with you!