Anand Shah is cofounder and CEO of Databook, a pioneer and leader in Strategic Relationship Management (SRM).
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In a tough economic climate, many enterprise go-to-market (GTM) teams are being asked to do more with less. This means not only surfacing new opportunities but going deeper in existing accounts.
The danger of doing more with less is that GTM teams start with more volume, not more value. For example, one salesperson can send twice as many emails with more automated sales tools at their disposal. But turning sellers into spammers doesn’t actually lead to bigger or better deals. It’s no surprise that a recent survey conducted by my company Databook found that 66% (registration required) of B2B buyers agreed email outreach from B2B sellers was robotic and impersonal.
A spam cannon is only part of the problem. In a rush to attain quota, sellers also gravitate towards smaller ideas and smaller deals in the hope that they’re easier to close. But the key to success for sales teams in today’s economy is not more outreach to more people down the decision chain. Instead, success is based on reaching the right people at the top—and what you say.
This means positioning the right big ideas to the right executive buyer. ooking within Databook’s own customers’ sales performance, we found that the sellers who attained their quota were positioning deals that were roughly double the size of those who didn’t meet their goals.
Why do big ideas play so well? Matt Dixon, the author of bestselling novels including The Challenger Sale and The Jolt Effect, attributes it to FOMU—“fear of messing up.”
Buyers need reassurance that they’re making the right decision, one that won’t derail their own company’s strategic priorities. To bolster buyer confidence that leads to signed contracts, sellers need to demonstrate a deep understanding of their prospects’ companies and outline specifically how their solution can directly impact priority initiatives.
Over my career, I’ve worked with hundreds of GTM teams and found a set of commonalities that power strategic relationships and deals. These provide a roadmap for moving higher up the chain to target the executives with the budget and the authority to sign big deals.
Here are five things sellers should do to build strategic relationships.
1. Present the right idea at the right time.
Enterprise buyers expect sellers to understand their company’s current strategic priorities and areas of opportunity, and to demonstrate how their solutions connect to the business outcomes that matter. Additionally, sellers need to show awareness of the pace of financial change within individual companies and time their proposals to sync with management intent. Budget cycles, changes to major priorities and industry trends are all relevant for elite sellers.
2. Know your differentiators and accelerators.
Sellers must articulate what makes their product stand out as better, faster and/or cheaper than anyone else's—whether it be through patented intellectual property assets, strong partnerships or value pricing. And to cut through market noise and confusion, sellers need to illustrate their product’s differentiators more concretely. They must pinpoint specific use cases that demonstrate effectiveness in the areas that resonate most with prospects.
3. De-risk deals by carefully tailoring deal shapes.
To de-risk deals for cautious customers, sellers should consider a phased approach with milestones and proof points built in. That way, the solution is implemented sooner and begins producing tangible business results that are measurable and specific, encouraging further investment. Sellers need to know prospects’ budgets and prior investment patterns to develop a proposal that aligns with spending constraints and preferences.
4. Position thoughtfully for the right executive.
Identifying a champion with a vested interest in a specific priority initiative is critical to building momentum. But sellers also need to identify the right executives to target—and usually, higher is better. Aim too low, and sellers can get caught up “in the noise” with personnel who have less influence over budget.
At the same time, local context matters; similar roles and levels across different teams within the same company may have different responsibilities than those readily apparent to be peers. To pick up on these nuances, sellers need to embed themselves within the business, understand their prospect’s market and competitors, develop relationships and use financial reports and documents to discern which executives can unlock budgets specific to their solutions.
5. Establish trust and credibility.
Sellers or companies without a track record in the industry or with the specific prospect they’re pitching should compensate for lack of direct experience by providing even more specific details and strategic advice. Accurate forecasts,use cases and relevant case studies can demonstrate expertise and begin establishing trust.
A broader vision wins the day.
In an environment of uncertainty, focusing on strategic goals and bigger ideas may seem like a risky strategy. But by delivering strategic expertise and demonstrable benefits to the bottom line that align with key business goals, sellers can establish a relationship of trust with buyers and close deals that deliver both parties long-term benefits.
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