How To Make Buyer Behaviour Work For You; Not Against You Video Lecture | B2B Sales: Tips and Strategies

Hey, this is Ago. In this video, we're going
to talk about how to make buyer behaviour
work for you, not against you. I think it's
time that for once and for all, we let go
of the old sales language. I am talking about
things like overcoming objections, challenging
your buyer.
I don't know about you, but to me, that sounds
a lot like adversity. It sounds like war is
going on or something. The truth about this
is that this generates, this descends down
from an old style "command and control" model
where the seller was in charge and the buyer
had reasonably little information to go on
and was heavily dependent on the seller to
tell them what they needed to know. This is
no longer the case.
Buyers today are much more educated, much
more informed, much more aware of their options
and have done massively more research before
they are ever in front of the seller. In fact,
our own research at RAIN Group clearly shows
that collaboration is one of the biggest factors
that buyers seek. In fact, the number one
reason why buyers choose one firm over another
is because the seller educated them with new
ideas and perspectives.
But the number two reason is because the seller
collaborated with them. In other words, they
chipped in. They built these new ideas and
perspectives together rather than laying
them on the buyer and saying, "You know what?
Here is the holy gospel. This is what I believe
you should do." That style no longer works.
So instead what does work? Taking a collaborative
approach where you help the buyer sharpen
their thinking, think through the different
options, identify the potential risks and
pitfalls, and together construct the best
approach moving forward.
I can't stress how much this is valued by
buyers. I am a former Fortune 50 financial
services executive and I have had the good
fortune of working with dozens if not
hundreds of senior executives on the buying
side in a buying process. And I can tell you
that nothing is more valued by a senior executive
or manager inside a large corporation or even
a mid sized one than someone from the outside
who is coming in, gives them an external perspective,
helps them sharpen their thinking and helps
them identify and address and mitigate the
risks and the pitfalls that are in front of
them.
Another great way for helping the buyer along
is to help them build a business case and
help them make the internal sale. And again,
this is very much about collaboration. This
isn't about you cooking up some ROI model
somewhere in a spreadsheet and then coming
and presenting that to the buyer. This is
really about together, understanding the factors,
the drivers that go into it, the monetary
and non-monetary elements, how to combine
those, how to weigh those and then identifying
some possible intelligent scenarios together
in terms of what a potential investment may
look like.
And keep this in mind, in today's world, most
buyers don't have a set budget. They have
a budget they can tap into, but rarely if
ever is that budget allocated to something
specific like the product or service that
you might be selling. So your job is to help
them build the business case, look at it from
various angles and help them, even with senior
executives, help them sell it internally to
their constituents.
And finally, probably the biggest shift I
have seen, in terms of what makes sellers
successful in the post recession, post 2007,
2008, world is that most sellers today who
are successful act like consultants not like
sellers. In other words, they are out there
adopting a collaborative approach from the
start, in terms of collaborating with their
buyers, in terms of working with their buyers
towards a joint goal. It's really taking that
approach, and I know this sounds quaint and
may be old school, but it's really taking
that approach of us versus the problem, rather
than you versus me.
So just a couple of things to think about
in terms of how to make buyer behaviour work
for you, not against you. Think collaboration,
not confrontation. Help your buyer build a
business case together and make the internal
sales to their constituents, to their peers,
to their management team. Help them avoid
potential pitfalls, gaps and risks that they
may not be aware of but you do see. And finally,
think and act like a consultant first and
a seller second.
If you like that video, sign up for my YouTube
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this one, short, brief, to the point actionable,
with strategists tips technique to help you
sell more, to help you be more successful
and to help you generate better results for
your business, for your career, whatever your
case may be.
I look forward to seeing you in the next video.