Hey, Scott from The Sales Mastermind here. Today’s edition only takes 3 minutes.
All sellers need to know how to treat their buyers.
Before you make a sale, a buyer decides they want to buy. Sales is a lagging indicator.
After 17 years selling and 6 years buying, here are 5 ways modern B2B buyers want to be treated:
Buyers want you to keep your word
The buyer-seller-dance involves unequal information. A buyer’s outcome is initially unknown, while a seller’s outcome is always known. Sellers get money.
Anytime sellers break trust, for example, committing to send an email today and sending it tomorrow, even something this small can open the floodgate that everything else might be a lie.
Keep your word so the buyer has no reason to distrust you.
Buyers want to be challenged
A seller’s ideal outcome is for your buyer to think, “I can’t do this without them.”
Buyers want to be challenged and helped to understand which problems you solve. They want help identifying if they should be solving those problems or if it’s not enough of a priority for now.
It happened to me last week.
A friend connected me to a founder who is new to sales. This founder needs help articulating the problems his software solves. I challenged him on this, and we have a paid workshop soon.
Buyers want to be a focus for their suppliers
No one can read your mind. Until you tell them, buyers assume your product is for someone else.
My mother-in-law was a hyper-successful real estate agent. She used to say, “Your suburb is my focus area.” No other local estate agent said this, and it helped her buyers feel comfortable that they would be looked after.
Buyers want to know what happens next
Buyers are only human, and they get excited easily. Everything sounds good in the moment. Most have no idea what to do next.
Your job is to connect the dots from today until they have the future you’re promising. Step-by-step.
- Will you need a technical review? Tell them.
- Will they need a legal review? Tell them.
- Will they need to send a test example? Tell them.
- You get the idea…
Buyers want to be listened to
Nothing is worse than spilling your guts and the other person responding like a robot.
The best conversations are back and forth. Each person actively listens to the other before driving the conversation forward. The worst conversations occur when either side is waiting for their turn to speak again.
When a buyer shares something with you, remember it. Write it down if you need to. You’ll be able to bring it up later in the conversation and help your buyers mentally bridge the gap from where they are to where they can be (with your help).
If you genuinely listen to your buyers, they’ll tell you everything you need to know to help solve their problems and win the business. If you don’t listen, you’ll miss what they need from you.
Treat your buyers well and you'll be miles ahead of the competition.
LinkedIn Posts of the Week
A prequel to today's email How to piss off your buyers
From Me
9 little things salespeople do that destroy trust
Josh Braun's take on our subject
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Until next week,
Scott Cowley
PS If you're ready, I have just started conducting:
Sales Tear Downs
Is your business closing some deals, but not enough? I work with many sales leaders to do a top to bottom tear down of what is working, what isn't and what to do about it. Sound interesting?
(Next opening 6th November)
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