Are you struggling to hit your sales targets despite all the effort and resources you’re pouring into your B2B sales strategy? It’s time to rethink your approach.
Yesterday’s post was about the nine narratives salespeople need to use in their sales conversations. The first narrative was the “why change” narrative, which is used in a first meeting. You might have been taught to ask the client about their problem, even though you should already know the common problems you solve for your clients. Because you see the same problems over and over again, it would be negligent to fail to recognize the few problems that you solve with your solution. You need to know your client’s problem better than they do.
Why B2B Sales Win Rates Are Declining
In B2B sales, win rates are falling between 17 percent and the low 20s. These low win rates are far too low for salespeople to reach their sales targets. Instead of focusing on sales effectiveness, the sales industrial complex has convinced sales leaders and sales managers that efficiency is the most important initiative in B2B sales. For more than a decade, sales organizations have prioritized technology over sales effectiveness, causing win rates to collapse. Your win rates will only increase when you improve your effectiveness.
The Critical Issue of Quota Attainment in B2B Sales
At the same time, quota attainment has also fallen off a cliff. Most data suggests that only 42 percent of salespeople reach their quota. Sales leaders and sales managers build their plans based on reaching their quotas. When 60 percent of salespeople fail to hit their quota, the sales organization fails to generate the net new revenue necessary to grow the enterprise. The longer sales leaders allow their sales teams to miss their quota, the more they will struggle to make their plan. You can attain your quota only by winning deals.
Pipeline Coverage versus Effective Opportunity Capture
Most sales organizations prioritize pipeline coverage. These sales leaders believe that more pipeline coverage is the key to hitting their targets. We have been playing this game long enough to know that this isn’t a reliable strategy for growing revenue. By requiring more and more opportunities, salespeople spend too much time on creating opportunities and too little time and effort capturing the opportunities they create. A focus on capturing opportunities will do more for you than almost anything else.
The Impact of Lengthening Sales Cycles on B2B Sales
Sales cycles are growing ever longer. The average time from a first meeting to a closed deal now takes more time. Because we have taught sales reps that they need velocity, the old chestnut that time kills deals is no longer true. Your clients and mine need more time to find the certainty and confidence to move forward with their change initiative. The faster the salesperson goes, the more their client will work to slow things down.
Why Sales Growth Stalls in B2B Organizations
Sales growth is the percentage increase in sales over a specific period. This KPI tells you if you are growing and expanding or if you are shrinking your way to success. Sales growth stalls in many sales organizations that follow what others do without considering if they are succeeding. If you are not growing, you are shrinking revenue.
The Strategic Pivot: From Efficiency to Sales Effectiveness
It makes no sense to start with a “why change” narrative if you don’t pivot to the answer your client needs. The answer to the question of what your client must do to improve their sales results is the key to sales effectiveness. Many sales organizations prioritize efficiency over effectiveness.
For many sales leaders, requiring more pipeline coverage is easier to mandate instead of increasing the effectiveness of their sales teams. To be fair, it takes time and effort to adopt a modern sales methodology that creates value for your clients. It also requires B2B sales training, a development plan, and coaching their sales teams to improve the KPIs above, starting with win rates. A significant increase in win rates will allow the sales force to need less coverage because their win rates reduce the need for ever more opportunities.
Win rates also solve the problem of quota attainment. An increase in quota attainment does much to ensure the sales organization is growing. You are more likely to reduce the length of your sales cycles by going slower and giving your prospective client time to make a rare, strategic decision they need to get right on the first attempt.
Conclusion: Implementing a Why Change Narrative in B2B Sales
This article should be enough motivation for you to model this approach by providing a “why change” narrative. You should use a set of insights with data and citations that make you and your data credible.
You will notice that this narrative builds as you lay out the case for making a significant change that will improve your client’s results. If you have been working in the same industry for a long time, you should have no trouble identifying the false assumptions and problems your clients have. I used to base this narrative on five things sales organizations tend to get wrong, but you may need fewer or greater numbers, depending on the case you need to make.
If you are a salesperson, you will do well to use a “why change” narrative in the first meeting. No one will buy what you sell without a reason to change. When you can teach your client why they must change, you project that you already know the client’s problem better than they do.
If you are a sales leader or sales manager, you can model this with your team and help them with the change message your clients need to improve their results. Do good work, and I’ll see you here tomorrow.
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