With the new year approaching don’t waste your budget on low risk, low value approaches that we know don’t work. Fix the actual problem first. 

Another pivot, new GTM, insight led approach, ABM, improved sales ops, new SalesTech or content. Value selling, new sales methodology, change in leadership, M&A strategy, the list of things to try to drive growth is long. 

The economic head-winds bring stern reality to an inflated industry, that has bounced back to pre-pandemic levels. We’re expected to pay for the lock-down and war in Ukraine with sustained high levels of inflation for at least the next two years. 

If you think weathering the storm is a safe survival strategy, I would think again. The best of your sales and CSM’s will find a way to succeed, the best always do, however unless you use this time as an opportunity to make a significant change to the model, your performance metrics will not improve after the storm has passed. 

Why? Because the industry challenge is getting worse. For 12 years Forrester and Gartner have been researching buyers and sellers and reporting on the steady decline of B2B sales and marketing performance. Buyers have made poor decisions as a result of under pressure sellers pushing them for the sale, forcing ill-informed decisions to be made. Only 23% of buyers felt they made a quality decision when a rep-led the sales process. Does this mean, 77% of buyers felt they make poor quality decisions? According to Gartner we know that 83% of buyers want a rep free sales experience, so is the death of the sales rep nigh. I doubt it, as 73% of buyers want to ask a human being questions to inform their decision. So rather than sales people, buyers want access to experts, people that are happy to share knowledge without conditions, teach and even guide them through their complex buying process. 

So with buyers not inviting suppliers into pitch until the purchase decision is almost 90% concluded and buyers hiding from sellers, what else is there left to do?

The problem is systemic! 

The good news is, it’s within your control to fix as the changes required to do so can be made within your business.

• The current model is broken - the traditional sales and marketing funnel is built on waste, built on the idea of putting volume in the top, for a minuscule percentile conversion, if lucky. This requires investment in expensive pipeline generating initiatives which pushes up CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost). Close rates are falling along with AOVs (average order values) and despite best efforts sales cycles are getting longer. We’ve all tried ABM and other focus account strategies to no avail, the time has come for us to stop using sticky plasters to fix broken limbs. 
• Measuring the wrong things - and by doing so, driving the wrong behaviours across teams. MQLs and SQLs make me cringe (I’m sure you’ve evolved and don’t use these measures any more), they have done for years - a vanity metric for the business to justify spend as opposed to driving behaviours that improve business performance. The times as a senior leader I’ve come together with my marketing lead to decide what looks good to ensure we get budget, and then manage the team to a different set of metrics, to understand the true position of a lead or deal and in turn understand a true picture for forecasting purposes. Leading and coaching your team based against the wrong set of behaviours will lead to short term disappointment and long lasting affects to performance.
• Existing teams and culture aligned to a broken model - stop trying new things, quick fixes to a broken model, whilst you might see a short term blip in performance, it won’t turn the tide or prevent the slow downward spiral of poor performance the traditional model delivers. 

So what should we do?

First of all, what would it mean to your business if each person in your company, within the next 12 months, could generate 360k content impressions, receive 4,700 pieces of engagement on their content, and generate 156 new business conversations, and those conversations resulted in 10 pieces of business (new and expansion)? These numbers haven’t simply been plucked from the air, these are real numbers from one individual who broke the traditional sales, marketing a customer success operating model, mould. 

What if everyone in your organisation were doing this?

Take a moment, now, to multiply those numbers by the number of people on your team, in your company!

What number did you come up with?

How will that impact your current growth trajectory?

If that’s what you want, then this is what you should do?

• Flip the current B2B sales & marketing model on its head. Empower our people to develop their personal brands, activate their networks and create content that engages and inspires. 
• Measure behaviours that increase the probability of success - that increases the likelihood of achieving a mutually beneficial commercial outcomes, create a scoreboard that focuses on lead measures to motivate for improved performance and make it visible to your team to see each day.
• Change the roles of your current team - don’t be afraid to break the mental model of each person on your team, lead, train, coach and mentor them toward a new way of working, one that differentiates your entire organisation from the competition. And don’t limit it to Sales & Marketing and CSMs. 
• Empower your people to take ownership of their personal brand - build confidence and teach them how to walk digital corridors safely and effectively. Align each behaviour and tactic to your growth strategy. 

Commercial value of the new approach;

• Lower CAC by up to 50% - optimise spend on expensive pipeline generating initiatives
• Lower sales & marketing staff costs - empower your people to be more efficient and more effective  
• Increase speed to pipeline by more than 3x - empower your people to develop relationships at scale, digitally 
• Improve close rate - build consensus early with decision making units, even before a purchase cycle begins 
• Attract top talent - amplify your culture and encourage talent to walk towards you, choose you.

Speak with Supero, we provide social strategy development, social interaction and influence training, coaching and mentoring. The only digital growth program accredited by a global authority, and with its own examination and pass levels based on the quality in which the knowledge is applied to your role. 

Supero are a B2B Sales & Marketing Consultancy focused on Enablement and Productivity, empowering companies to develop their people with our bespoke Value Selling and Social Interaction & Influence approach. 

If any of the content in this article has sparked interest, I’d welcome grabbing a virtual coffee and exploring how we might help. 

Drop me a DM on LinkedIn, Twitter @Alex_Supero or Guild, or a WhatsApp if you prefer +44 7951 220113 

#B2BSales#DigitalSelling #ValueSelling #WalkingDigitalCorridors #Enablement 

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