Earlier this year, CB Insights Enterprise Account Executive Stephen Russo had a huge deal in the works with an international beverage company.
All systems were a go — that is, until budget approvals began.
Four months had passed, and the deal slowed to a complete stop. But instead of surrendering to the budget talk lull — the number one factor that causes strong sales to fall apart, according to HubSpot — Russo relied on an enterprise sales technique that he’s practiced for years: following companies and individuals on LinkedIn.
This approach helps deepen his understanding of how prospects could use and benefit from CB Insights’ market intelligence platform, Russo said.
“In this deal, I followed the decision maker on LinkedIn after our call,” Russo said. “Soon after our meeting, he posted that he would be leading a public webinar about how their team is navigating innovation.”
So, what did Russo do? Attended the webinar, took notes and sent the decision maker an email thanking him for his time.
“I also reiterated how his team would specifically use our product based on how he described his team’s priorities and initiatives in the webinar,” Russo said. “He responded and asked for a call so that we could finalize our partnership.”
For more tips on how to close enterprise deals, we turned to Russo and Zhanna Dyakovetsky, a senior account executive at the data analytics platform Sisense.
What’s the most impactful B2B sales strategy you’re currently leveraging in your work?
For every prospect I speak with, I try to put myself in their shoes and think about how I would leverage our product. From then on, I customize the rest of the deal cycle, including the product demos and follow ups, to share how they would benefit from our packages. This mindset tends to help the prospect clearly understand the product and value, which then allows them to deliver a meaningful pitch internally. It creates champions on the client side, which is critical to the success of any deal, but you have to enable your champion to sell well. Good discovery is key to this principle. When you ask thoughtful questions of a prospect, you are more likely to understand their challenges, what’s important and how your product fits into their workflow.
RUSSO’S TIPS
- Put yourself in your prospect’s shoes
- Customize every step of the sales cycle
- Enable your internal champions to sell well by ensuring they have a clear understanding of product and its value
- Follow prospects on LinkedIn at the company and individual level
- Treat everyone — prospects and internal team members — with respect
Throughout your career in B2B sales, what has been the most important lesson you’ve learned?
Sales has always reminded me of a large puzzle. There are a million pieces that make up the puzzle, and each piece is critical to making a very well rounded salesperson — particularly empathy and good organization and presentation skills. How you treat people is the most important concept a salesperson can understand, and I’m not just talking about prospects. It extends to how I treat members of my finance team, the secretary of my decision maker, my sales development representative, and so forth. Although my book of business is my book of business, it takes a large group of people to close each deal. I could have every piece of the puzzle in place, but if I don’t treat this large group of people equally and with the utmost respect, my sales career would be very short.
What’s the most impactful B2B sales strategy you’re currently leveraging in your work?
When working B2B you are still working with individuals, and so my sales strategy is being personable and consultative. The client is looking to you as the expert to help them solve their business problem. Hence, it’s not only important to know your business in and out, but in turn it is crucial to be a true resource for your client to help them find their solution. This sales strategy is effective because it helps build credibility with your buyer. People buy from people they trust.
DYAKOVETSKY’s TIPS
- Be an expert and a resource
- Establish credibility
- Take a consultative approach
- Understand the prospect’s buying process
Tell us about a time when this strategy helped you close an important deal.
I was in the midst of closing a six-figure deal for an embedded analytics use case, but my client had concerns over performance issues related to their underlying database. As such, the client was considering other solutions.
Because I was able to build credibility with the client early on, they didn’t feel like I was in it just for the sale. I reiterated that I understood their concerns, and explained the reason we experienced issues. I also emphasized that the other vendors would have the same issues, but most importantly would not resolve their main pain.
The client listened to me. They trusted my recommendation and feedback and chose to proceed.
Having previously worked in B2C sales, what was the most important shift you had to make in your approach when transitioning to a B2B role?
The most important shift I had to make in my sales approach was transitioning from a transactional sale with B2C to a more consultative sale with B2B.
In both roles, you are selling to people, and people buy from those they like. Being personable is crucial in having the credibility you need with the client. However, when selling B2C, the client is less in need of a long sales process in favor of a quick, intelligent recommendation. Whereas, when selling B2B there is a lot of red tape that needs to be considered for each client. Knowing how businesses run and their buying processes is crucial in knowing how to properly build a pipeline, forecast and close business.
