How to Use Open and Closed Questions to Boost Your Consultative Sales: A Practical Guide for Effective Negotiations
Hey, entrepreneur! Ever stop and think about how important open and closed-ended questions are in your consultative sales? These two types of questions can be the key to transforming your sales approach and increasing your effectiveness in B2B negotiations. Throughout my journey in the business world, I’ve realized that knowing when and how to use each one can directly impact company administration and business management. While closed-ended questions help collect specific information, open-ended ones are essential for exploring the customer’s needs and desires, creating space for dialogue and relationship building. In this post, I’m going to share valuable insights on how to implement these sales techniques, along with practical tips that can boost your profitability and productivity gains. Get ready to discover how these strategies can be the difference between closing a good deal or letting an opportunity slip away. Don’t miss out! Keep reading and see how you can improve your leadership and negotiation skills with the right questions. And, of course, I want to hear your experiences! Leave a comment below or share your questions! Master the Art of Questions: How Open and Closed-Ended Questions Can Boost Your B2B Sales and Increase Profitability Mastering the art of open-ended and closed-ended questions is crucial for anyone working in B2B sales. When you use open-ended questions, you’re expanding the dialogue with your customer, allowing them to express their needs, challenges, and expectations more freely. This type of approach is essential in consultative sales, where deeply understanding the customer is vital to offering personalized solutions. On the other hand, closed-ended questions are valuable for getting specific and direct information, making it easier to collect data that can speed up the negotiation process. Implementing these techniques in your business interactions not only improves communication but also develops a stronger relationship between seller and customer. When you ask open-ended questions, you create space to understand the details behind the customer’s motivations, which can lead to a clear identification of upsell and cross-sell opportunities, increasing the business’s profitability. At the same time, with closed-ended questions, you can validate assumptions and get quick confirmations that can help you close sales more efficiently. Business management should focus on training sales teams in the effective use of these questions, integrating process automation to support the analysis of responses and improve productivity. The ongoing development of the ability to ask the right questions can transform the sales approach, making it more strategic and results-oriented. Explore these concepts in depth and see how they can be applied in your everyday B2B sales. What strategies have you used to ask the right questions? Share your experiences in the comments and let’s delve deeper into this discussion! What is a questionnaire with open-ended questions? A questionnaire with open-ended questions is a tool used to collect information in a more in-depth and qualitative way. In the context of business, sales, and business management, this type of questionnaire allows respondents to express their opinions, experiences, and suggestions freely, without limitations imposed by closed-ended responses. Open-ended questions are essential in various areas, including: Consultative sales: They allow you to understand the customer’s needs and pain points in more detail. Sales techniques: They help identify which approaches and strategies resonate best with the target audience. Negotiation: They facilitate getting feedback on proposals and the customer’s perception of value. Company administration: They offer insights into the company’s organizational culture and internal climate. Leadership: Through these, leaders can get honest opinions from their teams about management practices and areas for improvement. Process automation: They can be used to assess the effectiveness of implemented technologies and identify potential improvements. Productivity and profitability gains: They allow employees to share suggestions that can directly impact the efficiency and profitability of the business. B2B sales: They help gather feedback on the expectations and needs of corporate customers. In short, a questionnaire with open-ended questions stands out for its ability to generate valuable information and deep insights, which are fundamental for strategic decision-making and for improving the customer relationship. What are semi-open questions? Semi-open questions are a type of questioning frequently used in the context of business, especially in consultative sales and negotiation. They allow the respondent to provide a more elaborate answer than just a “yes” or “no,” but are still directed toward a specific topic. These questions usually contain an open element, allowing the respondent to express their opinions and feelings, while still maintaining some control over the direction of the conversation. In sales, this is fundamental to understanding customer needs and desires, making the B2B sales process easier and the presentation of personalized solutions more effective. For example, instead of asking “Are you satisfied with your current supplier?”, a semi-open question could be “What do you value most about your current supplier and what would you like to see different?”. This approach not only gathers valuable information, but also promotes a richer and more constructive dialogue, which is essential to building trusting relationships and effective leadership in sales teams. In short, using semi-open questions is a powerful technique in sales techniques and business management, as it helps to obtain deep insights into customers, making it possible to increase profitability and productivity through more effective communication. How to formulate open-ended questions for the customer? Formulating open-ended questions for the customer is an essential skill in the context of business and consultative sales. These questions not only help you better understand the customer’s needs but also promote a more enriching dialogue. Here are some tips on how to craft these questions: 1. Understand the goal of the conversation: Before formulating your questions, be clear about what you want to discover. This will guide your questions. 2. Use words that encourage reflection: Start your questions with words like “how”, “what”, “why”, and “which”. For example: – “How would you describe the challenges your company is facing right now?” – “What motivated your search for a new solution?” 3. Create an environment of trust: The customer should feel that they can share
How to Conduct a Sales Survey: A Practical Guide to Increase Profitability and Enhance Your B2B Negotiations
Ever thought about how important it is to “probe” in sales? A lot of times, this crucial step gets skipped over by salespeople who are too focused on closing deals. But, over my time in the world of consultative selling, I’ve realized that probing is the heart of a successful sale. Understanding a customer’s needs and pain points not only increases your conversion rate, but it builds a relationship of trust that can lead to more profitable B2B sales. In this article, we’re gonna dive into some effective probing techniques that can transform your sales approach, sharpen your business management, and boost your productivity. This SEO-optimized content is packed with practical tips you can start using right away. So, if you’re ready to discover how probing can change the direction of your sales and boost your results, keep reading! Don’t forget to leave a comment or share your own experiences on the subject; I’d love to hear from you! Probing in Sales: The Key to Understanding Your Customer and Driving Results in B2B Businesses Probing in sales is a fundamental technique for anyone working in the commercial field, especially in the context of B2B sales. Through probing, professionals can extract valuable information about the needs and desires of their customers, allowing for a more consultative and personalized approach. By applying effective probing methods, it’s possible to identify a customer’s pain points, their expectations, and what they truly value in a product or service. During the negotiation process, well-directed probing not only helps to build a bond of trust, but it also increases meeting efficiency, resulting in significant productivity gains. This is because, by deeply understanding the customer’s priorities, the sales team can adjust their offering in a way that maximizes profitability and closes deals with greater assertiveness. In addition, automating probing processes can facilitate the collection and analysis of data, optimizing resources and delivering faster, more effective results. To ensure that probing in sales is effective, it’s important to ask the right questions at the right time. Sometimes, a simple open-ended question can reveal insights that transform a simple sale into a tailor-made solution for the customer. Incorporating this practice into the team’s routine not only improves sales skills, but also strengthens leadership and business management as a whole. So, if you want to know how to implement probing strategies in sales that really work and can boost your sales results, keep exploring our content. You’re one step away from discovering what could be the turning point your business needs! What is customer probing? Customer probing is a crucial step in the sales process, especially in consultative and B2B sales contexts. It’s a set of techniques and strategies used to understand the customer’s needs, desires, and problems before presenting a solution or proposal. This process usually involves asking open-ended questions that encourage the customer to share detailed information about their current situation. Some of the main purposes of probing include: 1. Identifying Needs: Understanding what challenges and needs the customer has that can be addressed by the product or service offered. 2. Building Relationships: Establishing a deeper connection with the customer, demonstrating genuine interest in their pain points and goals. 3. Developing Personalized Proposals: With the information gathered, the salesperson can create a proposal that is truly aligned with the customer’s expectations, increasing the chances of closing deals. 4. Anticipating Objections: By better understanding the customer, the salesperson can anticipate possible objections and be prepared to address them effectively. 5. Gaining Credibility: Showing the customer that the salesperson is willing to listen and understand their needs can increase trust and credibility during the sales process. In short, customer probing is an essential tool that helps not only to close sales, but also to build lasting and productive relationships between companies and their customers. Mastering this technique can lead to significant gains in productivity and profitability, as the solutions offered will be more aligned with the real needs of the market. What are some examples of probing? Probing is an essential technique in consultative sales and in the commercial field, as it allows for a better understanding of the customer’s needs and desires. Here are some examples of probing questions that can be used in the context of business, B2B sales, and negotiation: 1. Identifying Needs: – “What are the main challenges your company is facing currently in relation to [specific area]?” – “What do you hope to achieve by implementing a new solution in your company?” 2. Exploring Priorities: – “How do you prioritize your goals within your organization?” – “What is the top priority for your team this quarter?” 3. Understanding Budget: – “What is the budget that you have allocated for this project?” – “Are there any financial limitations that we should consider when presenting our proposal?” 4. Evaluating Previous Solutions: – “Have you used any similar solutions before? What worked well and what didn’t work?” – “What were the reasons why you decided to switch suppliers?”. 5. Purchase Decision: – “Who else is involved in the purchase decision process within your company?” – “What criteria are most important to you when choosing a supplier?” 6. Timing: – “What is your timeline for implementing this solution?” – “Is there a specific date that you have in mind to make a decision?” These probing questions aim to promote an open dialogue and help the salesperson align their offering with the customer’s expectations, thus increasing the chances of sales success. The effectiveness of probing lies in listening carefully to the answers and using this information to personalize the sales approach. What is market research? Market research is a fundamental process for making strategic decisions in any business. It involves the systematic collection of data about the market, consumers, competitors, and industry trends. This research allows companies to better understand their operating environment and identify opportunities and threats. In the context of sales and the commercial field, market research is essential for: 1. Identifying the target audience: Understanding who the
Sales Intelligence: Transform Your Performance with Effective Data and Strategies
Sales intelligence, both in English and Portuguese, has become a crucial element for optimizing sales processes in today’s landscape. This concept goes beyond simply collecting data and embraces the analysis and application of strategic information that allows sales teams to operate more effectively, personalized, and competitively. Have you ever wondered why some companies manage to maintain a competitive advantage in such a dynamic market? The answer lies in data. Personalization and segmentation based on sales intelligence are more than just differentiators—they are consumer expectations. More and more, customers demand tailored approaches that take into account their individual needs and behaviors. Studies show that 70% of buyers expect a personalized approach from salespeople. This reinforces the importance of a data-driven sales strategy. Sales intelligence not only helps identify promising leads but also directs team efforts towards opportunities with the highest potential for conversion. What you do with the data you collect is what determines the success of your sales pipeline. Now that we’ve given an introduction to the concept of sales intelligence, the next step is to understand how it can be effectively implemented and the impacts it can bring to your business. How Sales Intelligence Optimizes the Sales Cycle Sales intelligence is much more than just a support tool. It’s radically changing the way sales teams conduct their strategies, providing valuable insights that guide every step of the process. From prospecting to closing deals, sales intelligence allows salespeople to work more precisely and personalized, maximizing conversion potential. The Importance of Data in the Sales Process In a data-driven sales world, accurate information is key to more informed and assertive decisions. Sales intelligence is based on the collection and analysis of this data, allowing teams to have a clear view of prospect behavior and adjust their strategies in real time. According to the material we analyzed, data is not just important, but fundamental to the effectiveness of any sales operation. They provide information about past customer interactions with your brand, reveal their preferences, and help identify personalization opportunities. These insights not only improve conversion chances but also strengthen customer relationships. A common practice that exemplifies the effective use of data is lead segmentation. From demographic and behavioral information, you can identify which prospects are more likely to buy and focus your efforts on them. Personalization, in this context, is more than just a differentiator—it’s a requirement. Providing a custom experience not only generates more sales, but also increases customer satisfaction and loyalty. The Role of Personalization in the Sales Cycle One of the biggest advantages of sales intelligence is its ability to promote personalization at scale. Instead of generic approaches, which are often ineffective, salespeople can tailor their communication and offers based on the specific needs of each customer. This means that the sales process becomes more human, relevant, and targeted. A study cited in the attached content points out that 35% of companies adopting sales intelligence report a significant increase in closing rates. This data reflects the direct impact of personalization on sales success. When a salesperson presents a specific solution to a customer’s problem, the chances of success are drastically amplified. This personalization process is not limited to personalized emails or more targeted calls. It involves understanding the behavior and motivations of leads deeply, allowing each interaction to be an opportunity to advance the business relationship. Sales Intelligence Tools: Automation and Effectiveness With the growing demand for personalization and optimization, sales intelligence tools have become indispensable. Platforms like Gong, HubSpot, and Crunchbase offer a range of features that not only help collect relevant data but also analyze it and use it strategically. These tools are capable of automating manual processes, such as lead research and interaction tracking, allowing salespeople to focus on what really matters: building relationships and closing deals. Among the main benefits of these tools are: Reduced research time: Sales intelligence solutions are able to process and organize large amounts of data, making it easier to identify qualified leads. Automation of repetitive tasks: With automation, salespeople can save time and effort by leaving tasks like follow-ups and lead qualification in the hands of technology. Access to actionable insights: Tools not only collect data but also provide insights ready to use, such as purchase signals and personalized recommendations for each prospect. Sales Intelligence and Prospecting Prospecting is one of the most challenging stages of the sales cycle, but it’s also where sales intelligence can make the biggest difference. By identifying leads with the highest potential for conversion, sales intelligence tools optimize this stage to the extreme. Through criteria such as geographic location, purchase behavior, and previous interactions, these platforms are able to “filter” the best leads, allowing the sales team to focus only on qualified prospects. This significantly reduces the time wasted with unproductive contacts and increases the chances of success. Tools that use machine learning are also essential for this process. They are capable of analyzing large amounts of data and making predictions based on behavioral patterns, identifying those prospects who are closest to making a purchase decision. This provides a competitive advantage by allowing sales teams to act proactively, reaching the right customers at the right time. The Role of Sales Intelligence in Personalizing the Customer Journey The customer journey has never been as complex and personalized as it is today. With the growing number of interactions between businesses and consumers, understanding each touchpoint is vital to deliver a unique and effective experience. Sales intelligence plays a key role in this scenario, helping sales teams map, analyze, and optimize this journey in a personalized way. Understanding Customer Behavior With sales intelligence, companies can go beyond traditional marketing and sales strategies. Specialized tools can identify consumer behavior patterns in real time, allowing adjustments to the approach based on the customer’s needs and expectations. This includes everything from the interactions the customer has with the company to the products they view on the website or the content they consume on social media. This ability to monitor customer behavior provides valuable
Sales Strategy: How to Build Yours
Everyone who has a company, a trade or offers some kind of service has – or should have – a sales strategy well defined. It is what, in the end, will serve as the basis for achieving what every entrepreneur wants: profit, which generates growth and gives the business a long life. More than an idea, a sales strategy deals with what is expected of each company. Does it exist to sell to the final consumer? Is your focus on selling little, but with a very high average ticket? Is the idea to produce in the long term or is the focus to produce in one week to supply consumers the following week? All these questions help define a sales strategy. Therefore, it is usually defined by managers, by professionals who follow the company’s own numbers, by people who are aware of market trends. As we will show throughout this article, there are numerous strategies that have proven to be efficient over the decades. The point is that each sector of the economy and each business segment has its peculiarities. What works for one might not work for another. What they all have in common is the way in which a commercial strategy is built. Next, we’ll show you the best guidelines for you to assemble yours. What is a sales strategy? Sales strategy is a set of guidelines aimed at building the brand, growing sales and increasing revenue. It is defined by company managers. Also called commercial strategy, it aims to search for new customers. To do so, you need to rely on market research, consumer trends, lead generation, average ticket to look for, among others. It is important to emphasize right away that sales strategy is not the same as sales techniques. Although the concepts are related, they refer to different aspects. The sales strategy deals with the commercial objectives that the company wants to achieve, in what period of time and how to achieve this. Sales techniques, on the other hand, are the tactics used by the sales team to reach the objectives set by the company’s board of directors. There are numerous sales strategies, applied and tested by the market over the decades – and which have developed even more in recent years, mainly from the changes in the way of consumption and the growth of online sales. Yet they all have aspects in common. Knowing the market in which it operates, defining a persona, having very clear objectives, knowing how to price products or services and, increasingly, focusing on the customer and not on the sale, are points that have already proven to be effective in the application of any strategy. of sales. Another point in common to all of them are the three basic phases: finding potential customers, conquering them and keeping them. Finding potential customers Although with different objectives, this phase is common to companies of all sizes and of all ages, whether they are centenarians or startups that are now entering the market. New companies need to find potential customers to place their product or service proposal on the market, while established companies seek new consumers to expand their revenues or, at least, maintain commercial stability considering the lifetime value seen in all segments. If you are looking for new potential clients, you can search for information on blogs, YouTube and even access this article about tips for starting your online business. There are several ways to find potential customers. You can make use of outbound marketing or inbound marketing strategies – in the ideal world, jointly. The fact is that prospecting needs to be constant for a sales strategy to be good. When opting for active prospecting, it can be done through advertisements in traditional media, offering discounts or investing in approaches such as cold calling, especially cold call 2.0. In the B2B business environment, one of the most traditional ways to get new customers is to participate in trade fairs. Common for many decades, they were on standby from 2020 due to the pandemic, but will certainly resume with force. Business fairs have the great advantage of bringing together companies whose main focus is selling to other companies – and therefore, arouse interest in already qualified leads. Another way to generate new leads is through digital marketing strategies, especially content marketing. It is a method that requires less investment, but whose results are expected in the medium and long term. Conquering new customers Earlier, we made a caveat that sales strategy is not the same as sales techniques. In it, we said that they were concepts that were related. And it is precisely at this stage that this happens. After prospecting for new leads, the moment comes when it is necessary to win them over and turn them into customers effectively. This is the job of professionals like Business Development Representative, Sales Development Representative or even the sales professional himself. Conquering new customers is an exercise that demands method, persistence and empathy. A method is needed because this is the only way to get new customers that are not based on luck or just in case. A lot of persistence is also needed because, especially in B2B businesses, these are agreements with new companies that are very likely to present a series of sales objections. As for empathy, this appears more and more as a differential to get good deals. So much so that consultative selling is on the rise. In this model, more than a salesperson, the professional puts himself in the customer’s shoes to understand what his pain points are and how to design the best sales model for him. The idea of this view is to show the customer that he is, above all, a partner. And that’s because the consultative sales model best fits the win-win definition, which is good for both buyers and sellers. Whenever deals are established that are good for both ends, a virtuous circle is created: whoever buys knows that it
Sales Machine: Definitive Guide to Structuring Your Sales Machine
Attracting customers in a continuous flow is essential for a company to remain in the market, but growing a business’s sales is not a simple task. If you want to leverage your sales, maybe it’s time to learn what a sales machine is. The growth of a company depends on the joint work of different areas, such as marketing, sales, production and supply. Even more occasional factors, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the need to adopt a home office, for example, end up interfering. All of this affects your business’s relationship with the market and customers. Therefore, having a sales machine is essential to maintain the stability of your business. This concept was created to help your company grow and stay in the market. So, if this is your goal as an entrepreneur, read on! What is a vending machine? Sales machine is the expression used to explain the process of structuring a scalable sales model. That is, this concept designates optimized actions and processes designed to support a constant volume of newleads in your company. A sales machine must always be scalable and deliver solutions that really make sense for the customer. In other words, it’s like a roadmap of steps your company should take to increase lead capture and retention. The term was invented by Aaron Ross, in the publication of the book“Predictable Revenue”, and comes from English Sales Machine. In the book, the author tells how he created a sales machine that earned more than 100 million dollars for the pioneering company of the strategy, Salesforce. What Aaron did was to structure a lead generation growth process, continuously generating opportunities. This is what defines an effective sales machine today. The vending machine is: Scalable; Profitable; Predictable. Scalable, as its objective is to increase the number of customers. Profitable, because the objective of every company is the profit. It’s predictable because it’s essential that your company’s projected future matches what’s happening in the present. After all, you can’t imagine that your future will be billions if your company’s revenue hasn’t even reached the hundreds of thousands. In that case, keeping your foot on the ground about your company’s growth is essential. It is also essential that the vending machine is profitable. That is, your customers need to give a return greater than what was spent to acquire them (ROI). This means that if you have a marketing campaign that costs 2,000, for example, and it only brought 2 customers, the cost of each customer was 1,000 reais. In this case, the only thing that would pay for the campaign would be if both customers spent more than a thousand reais, which is unlikely in many scenarios. In this sense, the CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) must always be as low as possible, as this means more profit. Therefore, the sales machine is the whole process and mapping to increase your sales numbers and profit more and more. Scalability and sales machine A scalable company is a company that manages to increase its revenue without necessarily increasing its costs. In other words, it is a growing company. Every company wants to be scalable, have continuous growth and profit greater than its expenses (even if this is not always the case for all scalable companies). There are two scalability models within a business: horizontal and vertical. The horizontal scalability model has as main objective to make the company a reference in the market in general. In this way, the company seeks to maintain a varied range of customers and segments, with the objective of remaining relevant in the market as a whole. We can give as an example of a company with horizontal scalability Coca-Cola, which in addition to the soda, today is also a brand of clothing, sneakers and much more. In horizontal scalability, the company seeks growth within its specific market niche, focusing on the company’s specific products and services. It is necessary to define which type of scalability your company wants to focus on before creating the sales machine, as this model intends to standardize its entiresales strategy in line with your company’s goals. The goal of the sales machine is to keep the flow of customers continuous, just as the goal of scalability is to keep growing. By putting these two concepts together, it is possible to create a sales machine that increases your company’s ability to scale in the market and grow even more. Therefore, for those who want to increase the company’s revenue without necessarily increasing costs, creating a sales machine is paramount. How to make a vending machine? The vending machine takes its name because it is also composed of parts and gears. That is, there are several parts of a process so that the whole structure makes sense. All parts of the company need to be engaged with the sales machine: the team, the metrics, the strategies, everything. For example, there is no point in having a structured and perfect process if your employees are not trained to execute it. If the team does not understand the process, the process will not be used and therefore will be meaningless. That’s why everything has to be working properly for the sales machine to bring results. Implementing a sales machine in your company necessarily means reviewing your business’ commercial approach. That is, review the sales strategies and techniques used by your employees. So, before you decide to make a vending machine, be aware that this is a laborious strategy. However, once the sales machine is working properly, all sectors of your business will be much more in tune with each other – and the flow of customers will inevitably increase. Below, we will mention the main tips and strategies to make a sales machine for your business. We are specialists in business between companies. Get in touch and find out how we can help! Define a sales strategy Defining a commercial strategy is essential to establish the sales machine and create your company’s
What are complex sales? Completely understand the concept
Have you ever thought about the process of selling a submarine? State-of-the-art technological systems? Of aerospace components? Or, bringing it closer to reality, equipment for assembly of manufacturing plants of any kind? Right away, you realize that these are not the simplest of negotiations. And there is even a category for this type of sale: these are examples of complex sales. In this article, we’ll show you what defines complex sales and what are its main characteristics. You’ll find that they have some aspects of their own, notably their longer sales cycles than you’d see in simple sales. At the same time, complex sales bring the great advantage to the companies that work with them, the fact that they return a higher average ticket, which boosts revenue. Another very present aspect concerns the environment in which complex sales are more common: in business between companies – also called B2B complex sales. What are complex sales? Complex sales are those that require longer processes, which involve more technical issues and, consequently, go through several decision makers until they are concluded. Because of all this, in general complex sales have a more costly process, but at the same time represent a higher average ticket. Although not a rule, they apply more frequently in negotiations between companies (B2B). As the name suggests, complex sales vary greatly depending on the type of product or service being sold. More technical or more specific products or services make sales more complex than others. This is because they demand clear and very restricted understandings at both ends: both from those who sell and those who buy. As a result, it is quite common for this type of sale to require the engagement of very specific professionals, expanding the negotiation process and the number of decision makers. The seller, for example, needs to act a lot with theconsultative sales profile, evaluating the client’s pains well and formatting a business that fits perfectly to his. At the same time, it is essential that those who work with complex sales are specialists in the product they offer. After all, negotiation involves a series of doubts and technical questions that only those who are very knowledgeable about the subject will be able to answer. And a bad impression left could put the entire sales effort down. Despite taking longer and requiring a much more expensive process than simple sales, complex sales bring a great return. This is because they involve high-cost products and, as such, offer great revenue opportunities. Difference between simple sale and complex sale First of all, let’s make it clear that the expression ‘simple sale’ in our context does not carry any meaning that represents lesser importance. Far from it. It is simply a conceptual issue. That said, simple sales can either be those of everyday life, or other less commonplace ones, but with shorter processes and fewer decision makers. A simple sale aimed at the final consumer, for example, could be a traditional trip to the mall. You enter a shoe store, choose the model, ask the salesperson for help and close the purchase. When it’s abouta B2B environment, we can say that a simple sale is one whose negotiation is possible to be done directly with a single decision maker. Think, for example, of the person responsible for supplier relations. Complex selling, on the other hand, requires a longer decision process and involves more than one decision maker. Because of this, it is necessary to build a relationship of trust between the parties – something that we do not necessarily see in simple sales, which are often resolved in a matter of minutes. In addition, while in a simple sale, in general, the seller’s approach is more incisive, in complex sales, it is necessary to act mainly as a consultant. After all, in complex sales, the idea is not simply to sell or sell soon, but to format the best deal so that, in the end, the entire investment makes sense – for both ends. Features of complex sales We have seen so far that a very present aspect in complex sales is the longer period for closing a deal. However, this characteristic is just one of those that conceptualize a complex sale. Quite simply, it can be said that a complex sale is one in which all the nuances involved in a simple sale are enhanced. After all, as you will see below, the cost to acquire a new customer is greater, the journey to be faced until closing the sale is greater, the average ticket is higher and even there are more decision makers. High Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) Those who work in sales know that conquering a new client is not a simple task. It takes a lot of research, analysis, conversations and negotiations. And, even if you are an extremely prepared seller, there is no guarantee that the deal will materialize. In any case, conquering a new client is an activity that requires the integration of efforts. The marketing team needs to invest in content analysis and production, while those responsible for the pre-sales department need to prospect and qualify potential new customers. Then comes the time for the sales consultants to actually start negotiating, and only then is the deal closed. As you can see, this whole cycle demands financial investment. And all of this will have an impact on what we call Customer Acquisition Cost, or simply CAC. The CAC calculation takes into account the total amount invested by the company in all sectors and/or professionals and the total number of customers actually acquired. For example, if the company invested BRL 20,000 in marketing and sales, and during the period it acquired four new clients, the CAC would be BRL 5,000. In complex sales, the CAC is often much higher than that seen in simple sales. This is because, in general, negotiations involve few potential clients and a lot of investment in research and prospecting. Consider, for example, a
Downsell: understand what it is and see how to use the technique
High inflation and political uncertainties have made the economic scenario increasingly difficult, forcing companies to act with an extra dose of caution. Even if every manager has the ultimate goal of seeing business growth, it is necessary to be confident at every step. And that often means investing less. Less money circulating means less business, right? Wrong! You just need to know how to use the right strategies. And today we’re going to address one of them, the downsell. Downsell is a widely used sales technique that basically consists of proposing a negotiation with lower bases than initially anticipated. However, anyone who thinks that thismeans decreased profits or loss of revenue. It’s all a matter of knowing how to use donwsell efficiently. Often, offering discounts or less expensive business alternatives serves as a way to retain customers or even gain new ones. Although, at the tip of the pencil, the final numbers are smaller individually, in context they can mean the same billing. More than that, in the medium and long term, today’s donwsell may result in more advantageous agreements. For this to happen, however, it needs to be applied consciously. As we will show below, having well-trained teams, knowing the market, knowing how to listen to the customer and, just as important, identifying the correct timing to propose the donwsell, is what makes the technique yield good results. Follow with us! What is a downsell? Downsell, also called downselling, is a sales strategy that consists of offering the customer a solution whose sales value is lower than the one he had expressed at the beginning of the negotiation. The idea here is not simply to sell the same product or service cheaper; What you want is to keep the customer, even if the direct consequence for the company is a lower average ticket. A very common example concerns cable TV operators. Whether due to the popularization of streaming services, the economic crisis or the change in consumption habits, in recent years this sector has seen a sharp drop in its customer base. And how to break it? One form that has been quite common concerns the offer of service packages consistent with the new reality. If a customer calls the operator expressing interest in canceling the subscription for reasons of economy, it is very common for the company to offer a cheaper package, or else a discount for a period of time. Even if this could mean a decrease in profit for the cable TV operator, the permanence of that customer will at least generate “some” profit. And, no matter how small it is, it’s always better than having no sales at all. It is often possible that the downsell actually ends up not generating any financial advantage for the company – in this case, the sale price ends up being the cost price. But this momentary stalemate could mean customer loyalty, and profits from it could be resumed later on, when conditions prove to be more favourable. Differences between downsell, cross sell and up sell As we have seen, downsell is a sales strategy that aims to keep a customer, even with a lower financial return than he previously offered. The strategy, however, also applies to new consumers or business partners. Imagine, for example, that your marketing team has identified a new lead and its professionals pre-sales started an approximation. That potential customer showed interest and started negotiating a purchase. But at the last minute, he raised some objections and decided to pull out of the business. One way to try to secure a sale is to downsell. Even if the average ticket becomes smaller, once again the sale can be guaranteed and you will have a new customer. This strategy is exactly the opposite of two others that we have already covered here at Protagnst: up sell and cross sell. How about having the services of a consultancy specializing in B2B sales? Protagnst excels at this! Contact us and find out how we can help you! Up sell Also called up selling, this strategy aims to expand an initial sale, making it more interesting. The idea is basically to take advantage of a customer’s desire to buy to make the product or service even more advantageous for them. It is important to highlight that, in up sell, the benefit is mutual. When doing up selling, both the buyer and the seller have an advantage. This method basically consists of offering a larger quantity of the product, but with a proportionally lower price. Thus, you gain in value from the sale. Although it is fully feasible – and interesting to apply – in business between companies, this strategy is very common in the day-to-day business between companies and end consumers. Good examples of her we find every time we go to the supermarket. Just look at the shelves of products offered in different sizes. Who never thought something like “the price of two bottles of this 600ml soft drink is higher than the price of the same soft drink in a two liter bottle”? Or did you choose to buy a five-kilogram bag of rice instead of a two-kilogram one, because the sum ended up being more affordable? Realize that, at the end of the day, you spent more, but benefited proportionately. The supermarket lost proportionally, but had a higher average ticket. Also read about how to win more customers with the technique ofrole playing. Cross sell Cross sell – or cross selling – is another sales strategy that brings benefits to both ends of the business, but here using cross-negotiation. The intention of this business model is to expand the customer experience – and the average ticket – by offering products that complement each other. Once again, the gain is in proportional terms: if the products or services are purchased separately, the customer will have a higher cost than if they are purchased together. One sector that uses a lot of cross selling is travel. Try
Unique value proposition: why is it important and why have one?
What makes your business different from the competition? If you answered a unique value proposition (Unique Selling Proposition), is a sign that you are on the right path! However, having a unique sales proposition and not offering a guarantee is not enough. After all, many companies can even bet on a PUV, but not generate the expected result, that is, convince the customer that their business is better than the competitor’s. Here, then, is the great challenge for marketing and sales: winning over the customer with a good sales promise that guarantees the result of the unique value proposition. That is, if you promise to deliver much faster than the competition, then this becomes yoursUnique Selling Proposition (USP), and you must maintain this agility, because this becomes associated with the brand identity. A good example of a unique value proposition is the Head & Shoulders brand. Who does not know the brand of shampoo that promises to eliminate dandruff? Well, she brought the following phrase in the advertisement in the 60s: “Clinically proven to reduce dandruff” (Clinically proven to reduce dandruff). It’s not just a sales promise, but a guarantee that the product actually works. And that’s why, if you’ve never done or intend to improve your unique sales proposal, we invite you to continue reading and learn more about the term USP. What is a unique value proposition (Unique Selling Proposition)? A unique value proposition, also called a unique selling proposition,Unique Selling Proposition, Unique Selling Point or USP, for its acronym in English, is the term given to a product, service or any detail of the brand that helps to differentiate it from the competition. The name was created by Rosser Reeves, in the 1940s, to define the promise of sales within the advertising of products and services. According to him, the unique sales promise should bring a real benefit that no other brand has or claims to have. In this way, the target audience starts to associate the benefit with the brand and, as a consequence, even buys it. In short, the unique selling proposition should answer the following question: What sets you apart from the competition? What makes your company/product/service unique? Why is it important to have a unique sales proposition in your business? Before answering this question, we want to know: when you enter the supermarket or visit an online store, what do you consider when you find two or more products of the same type? If they’re equal in supply and price, either one will do, right? Unless one of them has a unique selling proposition. That unique value proposition could be a promise of service, not necessarily a benefit of the product’s composition: for example, the product always has free shipping, a 5-year warranty, or part of the sales goes to a charity. That is, the unique selling proposition is not always an exclusive advantage for the customer itself, but it can be a benefit to society as a whole. This also helps the brand to leverage its position in the market by not thinking of people only as customers. Therefore, having a unique sales proposal is important because you stand out in a competitive environment, bringing a differential that no one else can bring, and nullifying any comparison of prices and products. Not to mention that, without a good USP (Unique Selling Point), you don’t connect with fans because there’s nothing about your product or service that sets you apart from others to create an identity. But, before thinking about an exclusive offer, it is essential to fulfill the advertising promise, unless you want to have your sales pitch go down the drain. Having a well-defined PUV can transform your business. If today you have difficulty selling value, maybe it’s because your audience sees your brand as a commodity and will always buy for price. If you compete on price and don’t have differentials, you’ll end up losing margin and having an unprofitable company. To prevent your solution from being easily replaced by the competition, you must think and define a unique value proposition. If well defined, you stop being compared with the competition and start being compared to yourself. Do you need to improve your approach results in sales processes? Talk to Protagnst and find out the reasons to hire a company that specializes in B2B prospecting. Characteristics of a good value proposition An effective unique value proposition must be very assertive, harmonious, coherent and directed to the public that seeks the values that only your brand can offer. It must be supported by four categories of value elements, according toBain & Company: social, emotional, functional and life changing impact. A company can focus only on social impact, like the Peita store, which sells t-shirts with inspiring phrases that give visibility to the female audience. It can also have a functional impact, like Airbnb, which provides cheaper accommodation. In other words, the characteristics of an effective value proposition go far beyond granting exclusivity. It is important, however, to highlight the differentials that make a person look for your company, and not the competition. See what these differentiators are then. Assertiveness and clarity “We sell the best cheesecake in town”. This is a generic phrase, without impact, since every pastry shop can sell its product as the best in town. Therefore, it is worth identifying a differentiating point of the product/service in a clear and objective way – and, of course, fulfilling the promise of value. The sentence above, therefore, could be more or less like this: “We sell the only cheese pastry, with real cheese, straight from Minas”. It is a fun and unique proposal. See that, by positioning itself as a different pastry shop, the owner manages to bring something that really adds value, leaving aside subjectivities and points that are difficult to prove. If this pastry shop had an award, which proved that it was the best pastry in the city, state or anywhere else, then the unique value
Predictable revenue: how to get the most out of the methodology?
Are you related in any way to the business world and have never heard of predictable revenue? It’s time to change this scenario! Anyone who undertakes or manages a business knows how important it is to have financial control. In addition to cash flow and monthly expenses, being aware of how much the company will earn over the year helps to devise medium and long-term strategies, such as sales growth, business expansion, increase in physical capital and so on. This is only possible when the income you have is consistent with what you have projected. In other words, this is only possible with predictable income. Because predictable recipe is precisely the name of a method – and, because of it, also of a book – developed in 2002 by an engineer in the United States. At the time, Aaron Ross took the sales team of a large CRM company and turned it into a global giant. The model allows the manager to more reliably project future sales. And this happens because it is something that has already been tested and can be replicated. So the tendency is that what worked once will work again. That is, you already have a notion of the return that it brings. This article is not intended to be a summary of the book, nor a guide to implement the model. It sets out to present the core concepts and also help you understand how to get the most out of the methodology. The idea is to understand the bases and, who knows, serve as a start to implement in your company. Let’s go? Predictable income: what is it? Predictable Revenue is a sales methodology that aims at both increasing a company’s commercial capacity and, as the name suggests, helping to predict how much the company will earn at the end of the year, very close to reality. Unfortunately, it is quite common for companies around the world to set a revenue target that, in the end, is not sustainable. The reasons can be the most diverse, but among the most frequent are unrealistic goals or the loss of customers along the way. However, the model developed by Ross at the beginning of the century has helped managers around the world to have greater predictability of how much they will sell and, consequently, how much they will earn. This model was named Predictable Recipe, which became a book that is a worldwide bestseller. Aaron Ross’ predictable recipe rests on a few pillars. In summary, he teaches that good returns on sales appear when teams are specialized and with division of tasks, when inbound and outbound marketing strategies are used to have a variety of leads, and when the prospect is conquered without haste. In this article, we’ll introduce Ross’ predictable revenue assumptions and give some tips on how to implement the methodology in your company. As you will see throughout the text, these are simple ideas, but if applied with patience, they can greatly increase your company’s revenue. But who is Aaron Ross anyway? Graduated in engineering at Stanford University, American Aaron Ross changed his life – and the way to succeed in sales – starting in 2002, when he was hired by Salesforce, one of the largest CRM companies in the world. At the time, he assembled a sales team and implemented a new outbound prospecting model, which would become known as outbound 2.0. The result was immediate and couldn’t be better: Salesforce increased its revenue 20 times, jumping from US$ 5 million to US$ 100 million in revenue in just a few years. The curious thing is that Ross himself says that, in the past, he was a failure as an entrepreneur. The reason: I didn’t know how to sell. It was based on his difficulties and what he saw next to him that the engineer realized what could be done differently. In general, he understood that it is possible to be much more efficient when salespeople are dedicated exclusively to selling, and not to prospecting new customers. To prospect, in turn, it is right to invest in specialists in the area. In short, what matters is putting the right person in the right place. The experience he gained also served as a basis for Ross to point to nine assumptions that help sustain predictable revenue. And it is precisely with them that we will begin. What are the key assumptions of predictable revenue? In his book Predictable Income, and in his lectures, Aaron Ross shows us that the model is based on nine principles. And the most interesting thing is that many of them can apply both to the world of sales and to our daily lives: being patient, experimenting, looking for long-term projects, focusing on results and knowing how to identify the right time are some of them. As we will see below, success in sales depends a lot on accepting that everything has its time and that each step needs to be taken at the right time. Wanting to shorten or lengthen steps doesn’t help. And we’ll show you why. Be patient Of course, everyone would like to see the company taking off right away, selling well and growing at good levels from its first movements. But let’s be clear right away: it’s not about that at all. Aaron Ross’ Predictable Recipe is not a magic formula; it is, rather, a method that has proven to be effective when applied with the time it demands. Don’t expect immediate results. Be patient. According to Aaron Ross himself, the method starts to show results after a few months – and this varies from company to company. After all, one cannot expect the same return in environments with competition, economic conditions and other variable opportunities. Sometimes the fruits of applying the predictable recipe begin to appear after four or five months. Other times it is necessary to persist for a longer time, up to a year. Even if you seek – and
What is outbound marketing?
There are countless ways to define marketing and sales strategies, but in the end they come together in two large groups: the inbound model and the outbound model. While inbound turns to learning and spontaneous searchby the leads, the outbound is active, does the opposite and goes in search of them. After all, what is outbound? And what is outbound marketing for? Precisely to show a potential customer that the company has something that will help him, even if he didn’t even know he needed it. Although it is not something watertight, it can be said that the outbound model is more interesting forcorporate business, known as B2B. In these, negotiations take longer, involve a higher average ticket and, for this very reason, require a more direct approach, involving different decision makers – not to be confused with hurried. And, in this article, we are going to show what outbound marketing is for within this context and how to apply it togenerate more qualified leads for your company. What is outbound marketing? Outbound marketing or outbound sales is a business model for actively prospecting for new commercial opportunities. It involves several techniques, ranging from the identification ofwhat is your ideal customer profile to what he values, and what needs to be done to generate qualified opportunities. In this article we are going to talk a lot about outbound, its advantages, when to use it and present a step by step so that your company can get out of inertia and put it all into practice. What is outbound marketing for? Outbound marketing is a model ofactive prospecting for new customers. Also called interruption marketing, in this strategy the idea is to identify who has the potential to become a new customer andtake a direct approach. Before starting an approach, it is important to define who we should approach, why we should approach it, and really only offer something if it is in line with what the lead is looking for or will help him in the future. Our idea is to qualify the lead even before starting theactive prospecting process. This is the most classic model – in the sense of “used for many decades” – of marketing. It includes TV commercials, newspaper and magazine advertising, billboards, as well as cold calls and other media. In recent years, outbound marketing has been losing ground to inbound marketing – also called attraction marketing –, due to the fact that inbound is cheaper and spontaneously arouses interest. In addition, it is a less “invasive” model. Inbound marketing manages to attract large volumes of leads, but which often require greater prior qualification, as they are impacted by different media and end up finding the company in different ways. From an operational point of view, inbound requires asking questions to assess whether or not that customer is a potential customer. This demands a very high cost of hours of work, making the company really have to filter who is and who is not worth doing business with. However, outbound marketing has also evolved and regained its importance. With cold calling 2.0, cold email and newprospecting strategies, such as approaches via social networks (social selling), especially LinkedIn, it has proven to be an important way to attract new customers. Furthermore,outbound marketing has a big advantage in relation to inbound: despite demanding larger investments, the return is faster. This becomes especially important for companies seeking rapid sales growth or market repositioning. The outbound manages to attract customers within a pre-delimited size and manages to attract more customers within a more interesting size. These are customers who have the economic and financial capacity to pay more, and who can get bigger tickets. Outbound 2.0 One of the main responsible for showing the importance of outbound marketing wasAaron Ross. In the early 2000s, he took over the sales team atSalesforce, modernized processes and made the company jump from revenues of US$ 5 million to US$ 100 million, transforming it into a global giant. In the model launched by Ross, which would come to be called outbound 2.0 or cold call 2.0., it was about segmenting and specializing the sales team. Instead of everyone doing the same thing, sellers with different profiles started to act where they stood out. Author of the book “Predictable Revenue”, Aaron Ross teaches us that a good sales team needs to be formed both by experienced sellers, specialized in closing deals, and by otherswho excel in prospecting. This is because the same person is hardly capable of carrying out the entire process with the same efficiency. Also, it doesn’t make sense to get everyone trying to sell, because you often end up wasting time on leads that won’t convert into sales. It is necessary to balance the demand for prospecting with the demand for business generated and sales closed. Therefore, specialization in sales becomes necessary. To address this, Ross showed that much better results are achieved if the prospect team does prior research to identify ideal leads; if in the sequence another team tries to make the first approach – as theBusiness Development Representative or theSales Development Representative; and if the closing is up to more experienced sellers, who understand negotiation techniques. Thus, outbound 2.0 is mainly based on the use of intelligence and segmentation. It also makes use of the most up-to-date communication strategies and tools. Using e-mails, WhatsApp messages, prospecting via LinkedIn, phone calls and using your own prospecting tools are also a fundamental part of the process. Advantages of outbound marketing If you ask yourself what outbound marketing is for, if inbound is the darling of the moment, you need to pay attention to some fundamental aspects such as: return on investment, predictability of the sales funnel, right message for the right audience, going after big accounts, better control and, perhaps most importantly, lead qualification. And we will deal with each of them below. Faster return If you work with sales or company management, you certainly know the term ROI,