Building consensus has long been an objective for B2B sellers selling to multiple stakeholders influencing a purchase decision. In theory this activity sounds straightforward but in practice it’s one of the most difficult activities for both seller and buyer to do effectively.  

In fact, the number one reason deals don’t happen is down to not achieving consensus. And depending on your approach as a seller, you might be creating the need v’s reacting to one.  

Creating the need.

If you think about the fact that within a sellers territory anywhere between 70-95% of their target accounts are not in market. Stakeholders in each account are not looking to explore solutions as they haven’t identified a problem that needs solving yet - this presents the best sellers with an opportunity!  

Some of the best B2B solution providers in the world recognise this and invest significantly in defining their commercial value, they learn how to tell a very effective value story and enable their sales force to position this value early and teach prospective buyers about a problem they didn’t know existed. Difficult to execute on, but highlight effective.  

If you can successfully help your buyer uncover a problem they didn’t know they had and show them how you are uniquely placed to solve this problem and by doing so will achieve their commercial objectives sooner than any other solution on the table, the rewards are very high.  

The problem is, this approach is twelve or more years old and buyers have become wise to it!  

Most B2B sellers use insight and a well designed sales process aligned to buyer milestones, in an attempt that the experience the seller gives the buyer is the differentiating factor that wins the deal.

The problem with this, is every B2B solution provider is now leading with insight and it creates noise that is difficult for buyers to cut through. Buyers are wise to this approach being a tactic leading to them being sold too. Moreover, buyers are much wiser today and buyer influencers, team members influencing a purchase decision, are growing younger, therefore do not respond well to direct outreach from sellers.  

Isn’t building consensus done much later in the sales process?

Perhaps many years ago. But if you want to increase your chances of winning, improve deal value, shorten sales cycles and improve your close rate then building consensus should play a significant part of your sales strategy. Across all revenue facing teams, demand generation, sales, marketing and customer success. And whether you have a focused or volume based sales approach, ignore this at your peril. 

At a high level, building consensus should not be limited to stakeholders employed by the company you are targeting. It should include influencers and partners your stakeholders trust. Building a community of brands, partners and influencers will support this - community building and the power of building an engaged community, and the role both face to face and digital plays in this, is for another article.  

Building consensus across the decision making unit or stakeholder group influencing a purchase decision has long been a thing sellers have done for years. Research, and experience I must add, shows by building consensus independently, you are more likely to fail than building consensus with the decision making unit together, either as the seller or with a highlight confident and well coached buyer (aka champion). It’s one of the most difficult activities a seller can do, especially when a direct relationship does not exist. 

Which is why building consensus should be part of your relationship first approach to building pipeline. You might not know the stakeholders responsible for influencing a purchase decision within your account, in fact it’s highly likely the decision making unit (DMU) hasn’t been assembled yet, as you’re targeting the 70-95% of your territory without a problem identified.  

The only way to penetrate the zone of resistance is to build genuine relationships. 

90% of the internet population is on Social Media. 75% of those use social media as a source of information when researching companies. Whether considering solution options to a known problem or a candidate attempting to understand the culture of a company they’re interviewing with.  

The problem is, once you get to that stage, perceptions are being formed already, it’s likely the buyer or candidate have a rough idea of what they want and from whom. 

It’s vital you build relationships at scale before this point in time. Making YOU the familiar face, the trusted advisor and therefore the most likely choice. 

Having a Social Selling & Influence Strategy is the only way this can be done at scale.  

How many people do you connect with on a weekly basis?

How many of them are in your target accounts?

What percentage of your current LinkedIn network or Twitter following are stakeholders within your target accounts?

Before you read on I urge you to have a think about the answer to these questions…

Are you surprised with the answer. It’s likely you are, but even if you’re not and you’re happy about how well you are connected within your ideal customer and partner accounts, congratulations, you’re only a fraction of the way to realising the opportunity social selling and influence will bring to you. 

What does your passive social presence say about you and what conclusions will your target audience make of you?

How often are you writing articles, blogs or posting on LinkedIn or Twitter?

When was the last time you shared a humanised post, to show your target audience your human side, helping them get to know YOU.

Remember, people buy from people and if they don’t know you or trust you, they will not buy from you.  

Since leaving the corporate world in 2020 I founded Supero. Our vision is to help MarTech companies accelerate growth and improve profitability by providing sales and talent acquisition as an always on approach. 

In 2022 we added a new string to our bow, we are pioneering a Social Selling & Influence program to enable our clients to bring consistency to pipeline growth and talent acquisition. It’s the only Social Selling & Influence program in the world to come with an official, globally recognised qualification from the Institute of Sales Professionals (ISP), delivered by me and my team at Supero, supported by our partner DLA ignite (#1 influencer in Digital Selling) and accredited by the ISP. 

For more information please DM me on LinkedIn or Twitter: @Alex_Supero

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