The Mereo Revenue Performance Accelerators Series: Maintain Control of the Buying Journey



Building credibility and trust with your buyers early in order to guide and shape the buying journey can increase the likelihood of being chosen as the best provider. Maintaining control of the buying journey in a B2B sales pursuit presents unique challenges due to the formal and competitive nature of these processes. Contributing to this situation is the dynamic that buyers report seeing less and less value delivered by sellers and, thus, are engaging sellers less and later in their journey. In fact, according to a recent Sales Mastery study, 77% of buyers do NOT see sellers as a resource!

DELIVER MAXIMUM VALUE BY CONTROLLING THE BUYING JOURNEY

Why does this matter to the buyer? Buyers do not engage in large solution purchases often in their careers. Even so, they do not turn to sellers as a resource, looking elsewhere instead — online, industry and software analyst firms; consulting companies; and peers. This has created a situation where buyers do not engage a seller until they believe they understand their needs — true in more than 70% of cases, according to Sales Mastery. And in over half the cases, the buyer does not engage until after they have identified the solution they believe they want. However, according to a Challenger study 54% of buyers want to buy from a salesperson that offers a unique and valuable perspective and helps them navigate between alternatives.

Why does this matter to you, the seller? As a seller, your goal is to provide value to the buyer, not just with compelling solutions but credible insights that help the buyer better understand the opportunities to solve issues, while painting a picture for an ideal outcome. With information more readily available at a buyer’s fingertips, your task is even more difficult than before. The good news? In recent studies, more than 75% of B2B buyers stated their willingness to engage earlier in their journey when the discussion revolves around the following, which happen to be fully in the seller’s control:

  • New to the buyer
  • Perceived as risky to the buyer or their organization
  • Viewed as complex — particularly where it impacts multiple departments

How does it improve your chance of winning? Your solutions likely address these situations. You have the experience and have seen it before. Given many capabilities, trends and regulations may be new to the buyer, your solutions are proven on areas of significant importance and generally cut across functions.

PUT IN THE WORK TO BEST SERVE YOUR BUYERS

Maintaining control of the buying journey is about thorough preparation, adherence to the prospects’ needs, effective communication of value, a clear forward path at every interaction, stakeholder engagement, setting appropriate expectations and effective negotiation. It is important to be proactive and responsive throughout the process, while demonstrating commitment to meeting the buyer’s needs and delivering exceptional value.

Get our revenue performance accelerator how-to cheat-sheet for controlling the buying journey today and share the leading practices for navigating the turbulent waters of the buyer journey to deliver the utmost value to your buyers.

Maintaining control of the buying journey is just one part of the greater whole. Your sales force needs the right skills and behaviors for each of the 10 critical steps in the sales process to lead your buyers to a deal.

EARLY STAGE

  1. Prospecting power moves
  2. Resisting the itch to pitch
  3. Driving effective meetings
  4. Performing the quest of discovery

MID-STAGE

  1. Becoming a trusted advisor
  2. Maintaining control of the buying journey
  3. Avoiding being single-threaded with buyers

LATE STAGE

  1. Reframing objections
  2. Managing radio silence
  3. Not being the buyer’s “doormat”

Reach out to our experts to learn how we can help boost your sales team’s skills and accelerate your revenue performance.

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