What’s the best way to get a buyer’s attention, move deals quickly through the buying cycle, and increase close rates? Follow these five fundamental steps. (For a handy summary of these steps, download our tip sheet, "5 Steps to Close More Deals.")
Step #1: Identify your buyer’s business problem.
B2B buyers don’t make purchases based on impulse or emotion. They only buy products that help them solve business problems. As a B2B seller, your understanding of that business problem will provide you with the opening you need to develop and expand a relationship with the buyer.
Step #2: Quantify the buyer’s problem.
Business problems always have consequences that can be quantified in numbers. Maybe the buyer is losing money because of unnecessary labor costs. Maybe the buyer’s average selling price is too low. B2B sellers and marketers can use a value calculator to help the B2B buyer measure how much his or her business problems cost.
Step #3: Illustrate clearly your unique ability to help solve the problem.
Every sales team is in danger of losing deals because prospects can’t envision the value of their offering. You need to prove how your solution is different from any other alternative, and why it’s also the best possible investment.
Step #4: Justify how much your solution will cost to implement.
The decision to buy from you will likely be made by a CFO or financial department. These professionals want to see the ROI from your product. You can spur prospects to act by showing the financial payback of investing in your solution and giving them a business case that will help them convince their financial team to sign off on the purchase.
Step #5: Document the value of your solution.
Perform a performance audit to see how well you helped buyers solve their business problems. Explore where you can expand on the existing value that you’ve delivered to customers. A proper feedback loop can tell your product development team where and how to improve your solution.
