Elevating Business Acumen: The Key to B2B Sales Success

Unlock the secrets of outperforming in B2B sales by transforming into a savvy business advisor.

Success in B2B sales requires an increasing amount of business acumen. One reason a salesperson beats their competitors is because they look, sound, and feel like a business advisor. Compared to the salesperson who believes that their solution is the variable to success, they will be discouraged by the failure.

Your contacts ask questions to assess the salesperson’s business acumen, a test of the value of the salesperson and how helpful they might be. They are looking for a business advisor and a strategic partner, someone who knows enough to give them confidence they will succeed and improve their results.

Understanding Your Business Model

The contact starts the conversation with a question. The question was really a command, “Tell me about your model.” When your contact asks you about your model, you can be certain they have experience buying what you sell. It also means your contact has some idea of what they believe they need to succeed.

An inability to answer this question with a description of your company’s model will often end with your contact asking you to call them to schedule a second meeting. You call, leave voicemails, and send emails, but your contact will wait you out, knowing you will eventually give up.

If you have the business acumen to describe how your model differs from your competitors, you will have passed one test to determine if you are worth your client’s time. Passing this test will also allow your contact to meet with the task force that will determine who they want as a partner.

Highlighting Your Unique Value

Like the question above, it is certain the contact has experience with what you sell. You wouldn’t be wrong if you believe they are not getting something they want from their current provider, making it easy for you to displace them. See Eat Their Lunch: Winning Customers Away from Your Competition.

The way you fail this test is by failing to explain what you do differently, why you do it that way, and how it helps your clients produce the better results they need to improve their business outcomes. The more your answer is superficial, the more you risk failing this test of your business acumen.

Here is a secret that will help you pass this test. Start by saying, “We do five things differently than most companies in our industry,” and start reciting the list of five differentiators. In my time in sales, I used six differentiators to overwhelm the contact with what made my company and our approach different. Sometimes more is better, but you should be able to go deep if asked for more information.

Justifying the Purchase Decision

When your contact asks you why they should buy from you earlier than you might have expected, the right answer is, “I am not sure you should, but by the time we are done here, both of us will have a better idea if we are the right partner for the strategic outcomes you need now.” You need time and a conversation to figure out if your prospective client is a good fit.

Getting this wrong will have you trying to explain why your contact should buy from you before you have had enough time to know that is true and why your client should believe this to be true. Be patient with this question.

The right answer may sound like this: “Because you need this process, I believe we are perfectly positioned to deliver that outcome, especially because of the way your production works. It is why most of our clients choose us. But I also believe our approach will also allow you to improve your results in two other areas.”

Discussing Investments

When pushed for more information about you and your business acumen, you should be prepared to talk about the investments you make that your competitors fail to make. You can simply say, “We tend to invest around 30 percent more in this area to produce the best results and reduce your overall costs.”

You will sound more like a businessperson than an average salesperson, pleasing your contacts by talking about the business and the client’s future results.

Addressing Challenges

The salesperson must be willing to commit to producing the results without knowing what challenges they will confront should the client buy from them. You might have had this experience: You sit down with your contact and their team. The call goes perfectly, and you sign a contract. When your team begins to execute, they fail. This happens because you didn’t have a conversation that would have exposed the challenge that caused the client’s last supplier to fail.

The Power of Conversation

The only vehicle you must win a client’s business is the sales conversation. Your client shares this with you, as all they must go on when making a decision is that same conversation. The better you perform for your prospective client, the better your results.

By creating value for the client in the sales conversation, you create a preference to buy from you instead of your non-value-creating competitor.

You may believe the contest is between companies and solutions. But the competition is between the salespeople and the value of their conversation. This is why you lose to a salesperson whose company and solution is no match for you. It's also why you win over larger competitors with more to offer than you.

Designing Effective Talk Tracks

To improve your results, spend your time designing the language you will use to handle client questions and challenges. If you want to acquire good language, there is nothing better than role-playing.

Leaving this article, take 20 minutes and draft responses to the business-oriented questions. Share this with a peer and work together to find the best way to communicate your business acumen in the sales conversation.