B2B buying behavior has changed. đŻ
And itâs never going back to how it was beforeâŠ
This means prospecting needs to change with it.
When you were selling ten years ago, there was:
Buyers hold more power now:
You could say itâs been a long time coming. đ€
And you would be right.
Digital transformation is a key driver of this behavior change. And that has been spoken about for literally ages.
But unpicking years and years of traditional tactics is never easy. Itâs finally time for the approach to sales to catch up.
So, what does this mean for outbound lead generation and prospecting?
Prospectors must create unique value and offer buyers something they canât get anywhere else.
Value-based selling needs to become the norm. đ
Value-based selling focuses on the prospect and their needs rather than the solution youâre trying to sell. Itâs a technique used in B2B prospecting to nurture, build relationships, and ultimately help buyers make the right purchasing decisions.
Some of the key principles of value-based selling include:
Prospecting is just another channel (not the only one).
âIâd LiKe tO sPeAK to SOmEoNe!!!â is only reserved for Karen these days.
Just kiddingâŠ
But research from Gartner says that 72% of clients prefer a rep-free experience in B2B. Those surveyed said they didnât see the relevance of speaking to a seller or how it would help them achieve their objectives. đ±
Buyers have got access to information everywhere, at any time that suits them.
They can look at it in their preferred medium too.
Whether that is:
You get the picture. The list goes on and on.
Thereâs also the psychology of sleazy sales tactics to contend with. For most people, itâs deeply ingrained that thereâs something deceptive about salespeople. This idea goes back to when door-to-door sales was the only way, as there was little access to other information.
At this time of limited info, there was also a focus on high-volume outbound. This quantity over quality trade-off was to the detriment of the buyer experience. People didnât buy through outbound because they wanted to; they bought through outbound because they had to.
For outbound sales to be successful, you need to provide more value than any other channel. And you need to communicate this value to the prospective client effectively.
The majority of companies donât recognize the opportunity of focusing on quality in outbound.
A more personalized and relevant first-touch approach will likely lead to more closed deals. And larger closed-won deals, too. đ€
So why arenât most people doing it? Well, itâs never easy to move away from old methods.
Here are some ways to shift in this new direction.
Value-based selling is partly about building relationships.
At the end of the day, people buy from people.
It doesnât matter who you sell to. Will Aitken, Content Producer at Chili Piper, captures it perfectly in the post below. đ
Rachel Goldstone, Director of UK Sales Development at Cognism, has onboarded and upskilled many reps.
As an SDR, she was known as the âQueen of creative prospectingâ. đ
She says:
âPersonalization is very much about showing your character. And making yourself seem more human.â
Letâs be honest. Everything is sales to some extent. đŻ
In fact, a study commissioned by the author of To Sell is Human, Daniel H. Pink, found that people spend 40% of their time at work selling something. Even those that donât work in sales!
Weâre always selling new ideas, techniques, processes, and technology to use.
The emphasis on human-to-human connections is so important because a key part of sales is being persuasive.
Youâve gotta look at it like thisâŠ
In B2C selling, the buyer is spending their own money. In B2B, the buyer is spending the money of the company they work for.
This means many buyers either:
The ânobody ever got fired for buying IBMâ mindset is still around today. B2B buying decision-makers are often risk-averse. This is why sellers should focus on building trust.
Generic cold outreach just isnât going to cut it anymore.
Itâs no good sending a dry business email and expecting it to land.
There are a few reasons for this:
Prospectors need to use all channels to reach their customers. This includes phone, video, voice notes, personalized emails, WhatsApp, and Slack Connect, to name a few.
A multi-touch approach makes it easier to leverage facts about yourself. And trial new things.
Remember, first adopters benefit the most.
Although there are many different ways to approach value-based selling, there are some widely accepted principles for sales development reps to remember.
They are:
Letâs talk through each of these in more detail, and hear about some examples from reps about how they look in practice.
Value-based selling leads with putting the needs of the buyer first. And you canât do that unless your outreach is relevant. And to be relevant you need to research your prospect before you reach out.
Ideally you need to know about:
You can look for information on these indicators in so many places. LinkedIn is a great place to start for finding prospects. Other good places reps look is online, Troy Munson, Senior Account Executive at Proofpoinf has a great way of speeding up online prospect research using ChatGPT 4.
Another value-based strategy reps are using at the moment is bottom-up selling. This is where you dig for information from the users at the ground level first before you speak with your decision-makers.
Bottom-up selling means you go into the conversation with so much knowledge about whatâs going on in a company and where the pain points are in the current solution.
Itâs clear that thereâs a perceived lack of seller relevance in achieving business objectives. Can we blame buyers?
The âspray and prayâ approach has taken over before, focusing on getting meetings booked and leads into the sales funnel. This tactic is typically just a recycled sales pitch thatâs used over and over again.
And guess what? This type of generic pitch is still happening today! đ
If sellers want to be successful, this has got to stop. It makes prospects see sales as pushy and transaction-focused. So it's no surprise most customers would rather self-serve than speak to sales.
Prospectors need to become subject matter experts. This shifts the relevance to the prospect rather than the product being sold. And helps reposition a seller as:
Aligning with value-based selling principles make for more empathetic outreach. Think of the prospect on the other end of the phone, they werenât prepared for the call. SDRs need to set themselves up to get more than yes/no answers.
You need to ask the right open-ended questions. Otherwise, letâs be honest, youâre just wasting the prospectâs and your own time.
Callum Beecroft, Sales Recruiter at The PhonejackerÂź has some suggestions about how reps can ask questions with context to get more information. Hereâs Callumâs example, using his current role in sales recruitment.
â Instead of this:
âIâm just wondering, are you hiring salespeople?â
â Say this:
âA lot of CEOs I speak to in sales companies like yours say hiring is really difficult at the moment, so the question I wanted to ask is, I take it you are not hiring salespeople right now?â
Itâs a small change, but makes a big difference in the delivery of the question to the prospect.
Great outbound isnât just about finding the right ideal customer profile (ICP). You need to know who to speak to in the company and how to talk to them. Think about the sales styles and what will work for you.
Part of being a subject matter expert is speaking to the prospect on their level. There needs to be mutual understanding. đ„
Remember, the decision-maker can be different from the users within the company. So youâve got to focus on âspin sellingâ where you talk about the value for each stakeholder.
Itâs no good just coming in with generic statements and use cases. Youâve got to make your value pitch personal to their role and day-to-day struggles.
Hereâs an example of how you might speak to a CEO.đ
This skill is especially important in tougher selling environments like a recession, where multi-threading stakeholders is key.
According to Chet Holmesâ buyersâ pyramid, if you segment the market, only 3% are actively âbuying nowâ.
Thatâs such a narrow slither, but itâs often the one prospectors are hung up on because it will get them a meeting booked. Thereâs more room to be complacent when prospects are âbuying nowâ because they are solution and problem aware.
Only 6-7% of buyers are âopen to itâ, and 30% are ânot thinking about itâ. The winning zone is that 30%! They arenât actively looking for a solution but are open to change if they see the value.
Teaching prospects who are ânot thinking about itâ to be problem and solution aware is what you need to be doing. Speaking to them on their level in this way is critical. Thereâs no room for complacency.
Reps need to think about the buyerâs journey more, and less about the sales funnel. Remember, the funnel is about you and your target, the buyerâs journey is about the prospect.
Weâre not saying forget about filling your pipeline (please donât do that), but youâve got to not rush the purchasing process. Value-led selling is about nurturing relationships.
All buyers are drowning in priorities, no matter which persona youâre targeting.
Listen up, prospectors! Your cold outreach needs to be genuine. You should be calling because you think your product can help. Not just because the person youâre speaking to is on a list.
Weâve got to stop asking buyers to translate âwhat we doâ into âwhy they should give a s*** đ©â.
Instead, outreach needs to:
Rachel outlines this more in this video. đŹ
We know we said the focus needs to shift away from what youâre selling. But ironically, to make it not about the product, you need to know a lot about it. đ
Knowing your product inside out will help you show prospects the real value of buying from you. You need to know how each product feature is relevant to solving that particular customer's pain points.
Joel Matthews, Account Executive at Cognism says:
âWhen Iâm running demos, Iâll say to the prospect that Iâm showing them X feature because of something theyâve told me before.â
âAlways relate to what youâve seen in that early discovery.â
Buying behavior has changed, and the reason for this is that speaking to sales isnât the only channel for gathering information anymore.
Buyers do their own research and prefer not to speak with sales until they're ready (if at all!).
So this leads us to whatâs got to happen to change the game.
You guessed it, itâs:
âš Value-based selling âš
To respond to the changes in B2B buying behavior. Sales has to catch up and make changes too.
Prospectors need to become hyper-focused on the buyer in the sales process. Otherwise, buyers will just use their preferred channels to self-serve and find information on their own.
Sellers who practice value-based selling will be the real winners. Because prospects will come to them for the buying experience, something they can't get anywhere else.
Here are some the most commonly asked questions about value-based selling.
Value-based selling delivers unique value that potential customers cannot find elsewhere. The focus is on needs, challenges, and goals rather than the product or serviceâs features.
The sales person builds a relationship based on trust, acting as a consultant.
Sales professionals do this by using techniques, including personalized outreach and educational content.
Value-based selling is different from traditional selling in these ways.
Here are some sales training best practices for a value-based approach.
đĄ For more tactical advice on how to incorporate value-based selling into your daily routine, check out Prospecting on Demand, our free streaming service.