The Art of Influence: Proven Strategies to Overcome Buyer Resistance in B2B Sales

In an era where 78 percent of buyers believe they have all the answers before they even speak to a salesperson, how do you turn the tide to not just gain their attention but to decisively influence their business requirements? The secret lies not in the hard sell, but in mastering the subtle art of information disparity. Dive into the world where sales becomes not just a transaction, but a transformation, reshaping buyer perceptions one insight at a time.

The LinkedIn Post referred to 6sense survey. It read: “By the time of the first contact 78% of buyers have completely or largely established their business requirements. Sellers have little influence over this, post-contact.” This is not correct. It should read “most sellers have little influence over this post-contact.” There are salespeople with a strategy that, in the right hands, will have little trouble influencing their business requirements.

The people who believe they can’t influence the business requirements may not be the best salespeople. They might also lack creativity. This problem has already been solved, even if few salespeople have been taught or trained in the most effective sales strategies that solve this problem—and many more.

Longtime readers of thesalesblog.com will know that they have greater knowledge and experience with the company’s problem, as they deal with their problems every day. They will also have greater experience and insights when it comes to the client’s decision.

Leveraging the Asymmetry of Experience in B2B Sales Strategies

There is an asymmetry of experience between the salesperson and their clients. There are things you pick by having daily conversations with decision-makers and their stakeholders. Unless your contact sold what you sold for some time, it would be close to impossible to match your experience.

This is why you have the advantage of asymmetry, and it is why smart leaders spend time with salespeople who can help them with their change initiative. We don’t know what we don’t know. That is why we ask our contacts questions. It is how you acquire the information you don’t know, which helps you help your contacts and their teams.

Let us return to the McKinsey survey. We know buyers are “researching” companies and their solutions. This is like you going to WebMd or Dr. Google to diagnose yourself. You have no experience in medicine that would allow you to determine your malady, let alone how to treat it. Your doctor has the advantage of education and experience.

Exploiting Outcome Asymmetry in Buyer–Seller Dynamics

You can live without a deal, even though you should win deals by “influencing the buyer’s business requirements.” The asymmetry of outcomes here is that your contacts, no matter how much research they conduct, are still making a rare decision, one they must get right on the first attempt. No one wants to get an important decision wrong. Nor do they want to be embarrassed by making a mistake, the kind that can lower their status. This is why you have a room full of contacts in meetings as it spreads the responsibility across the task force.

Getting the decision wrong may also cost the company revenue or lost clients or customers. Your contacts want to buy from a salesperson that is able to provide them with a way to ensure they succeed with the change and their desired outcomes.

Overcoming Information Disparity: A Key to B2B Sales Success

This is the super-strategy that will allow you to adjust and improve the contacts' business requirements. The short version of this strategy is: “I know something you don’t know. May I share it with you.”

You should sell by helping your prospective client to make the decision that you would make for them if they asked you to. In fact, while you are correcting your client’s lack of experience, you should make certain your client is correcting your information disparity by filling in gaps in your own information.

When we talk about creating value in the sales conversation, we are talking about helping the client to learn what they need to know to be able to get that rare, critical decision right on the first try.

Effective Strategies for Addressing Information Disparity in Sales

Two experiences caused me to realize I knew things my clients didn’t. First, a senior leader from a large enterprise-level deal chastised me for the $1,000,000 he spent with my company. Because it is my nature, I asked him if he saw me park a Ferrari in his parking lot. He wasn’t thinking about the fact that all but 15 percent was spent providing him labor he needed. He apologized, and he said, “I should have known you have to pay the same thing we do.”

The second experience was also a senior leader who refused to invest in the results he needed. We argued over the investment for months, until I was certain I would be fired. He had two false assumptions about labor. He believed labor was cheap and abundant. I replaced those assumptions with a slide deck containing all the data he wasn’t tracking. After the executive briefing, he called me and gave me $2,000,000 to invest in the outcomes he needed.

Launching This Week: A Comprehensive Course on Mastering Information Disparity in Sales

I am looking at a brand-new workbook for a single course on information disparity and the sales strategies that will allow you to create value for your clients, and help them make changes that will cause them to prefer you, your counsel, and advice, and your recommendations. The course is around 25 minutes. The first half is about information disparity, and the second is value creation. The workbook has exercises, and it is over 100 pages. I want to make sure you have the content that will help you execute the sales strategies.

If you are a sales leader, you can schedule with us to gain access for your team, or to have us do a private live virtual training.

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