In 2024, shifting from a seller-centric to a buyer-centric sales approach is imperative. Traditional training methods often need to be revised, emphasizing aggressive tactics that alienate buyers. To foster better relationships, sales teams must build empathy and understand the buyer's perspective.
Flowla conducted a study with around 200 B2B buyers and sellers, 95% in executive leadership positions. The research delves into their experiences, challenges, priorities, and relationships. Here are key insights from the study to transform sales approaches and better engage buyers:
Autonomy in Research: Most buyers prefer to conduct research rather than rely solely on salespeople. This autonomy explains why sellers cite "reaching buyers" as their primary challenge.
Importance of Buyer Experience: Buyer experience is crucial in decision-making, ranking second only to features and ahead of cost. This highlights the need for salespeople to focus on creating positive experiences.
Role of Sellers: Nearly half of buyers believe a seller's main job is to share the right information at the right time. Conversely, most sellers think their role is to help buyers understand and solve their problems.
Challenges in Deal Closure: The main reasons for losing winnable deals are a need for more consensus among buyers and the absence of an internal advocate. Successful deal closures are strongly linked to buyer engagement and relationships with internal champions.
Common Missteps: Salespeople often fail due to inadequate discovery and lacking engagement with multiple stakeholders. This underscores the need for a deeper understanding of buyer needs and more comprehensive engagement strategies.
To bridge the gap between buyers and sellers, sales teams must adopt a buyer-centric approach, emphasizing empathy, thorough discovery, and meaningful engagement with all stakeholders involved in the decision-making process.