Category: Roberto’s Blog

There’s a popular Chinese proverb that says: “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is now.” Basically, in the context of the conversation here today, this means that if you want success and growth in the future, the best time to act is now.

What does that mean for you as a sales professional?

I would like to share a story with you here. A few days ago, I had a conversation with the manager of a company in the B2B sector. 3 years ago, this company was overrun with orders. So the company decided to stop sales in order to guarantee a high-quality delivery and execution for their existing customers.

Now the orders have decreased, and the company has lost part of its ability to sell and has to rebuild this ability. As a result, a lot of time and market presence is lost.

So, even in good times, there should always be sales operations as otherwise valuable time and good opportunities are lost. There are always ways to sell, even if the execution of the projects takes a lot of time and resources.

Think about it and you will surely find some.

Find more B2B sales topics here:

Blog

Millán Elduayen Urcola is the managing director of Häfele HerrajesEspaña, s.l.

– Millán, what were the challenges you faced for your sales team?

The lack of structures and processes that allow for greater efficiency in management and sales, the insufficient information from the visit reports and the absence of a uniform method in sales are the main problems we have to face. The challenge is to develop a methodology for the sales process that leads to greater efficiency and increased sales.

– How did the methodology practised in the workshop help you to master the challenge?

The method represents a structured approach that enables us to create a consistent and efficient sales process, optimize resources and focus on the right customers and selling complex projects. It also helps us to systematically structure the required sales strategies and action plans. The method can be easily adapted and scaled depending on the company and target market we want to address.

– When would you recommend other sales managers to work with Roberto?

My team finds the workshop one of the most practical and best-structured workshops they ever attended during their career at Häfele (author’s note: some of the employees have been with Häfele for over 20 years). I would recommend working with Roberto to all companies that want to expand their network and integrate it professionally. In contrast to traditional training, working with Roberto is much more dynamic and he always takes the sales staff into account when designing the sales process and picks them up where they are. Roberto is always attentive to the specific needs of the company and his advice has helped us in our development.

For further information, please contact Roberto Maugeri-de Graaff at www.maugeri-degraaff.com.

This article is translated from Spanish.

Slimming cure for your sales funnel

Here I would like to share the experience I had with a potential customer a few months ago.

The request

Shortly after starting my own business, I received an inquiry for a sales training for a large global biotech and life science company in the Basel area. Let’s call it “Life Sciences AG“. A person from the human resources department wanted to know the price of one of our modules and sent us an e-mail. Our sales approach is based on always getting to know the customer’s needs and the Buying Center before the actual offer. For this reason, I replied to the person:

“Dear XY, thank you very much for your inquiry and interest in our services. My name is Roberto Maugeri-de Graaff and I am your consultant in charge of this inquiry and the next steps. Before we come to an offer, I would like to know something about the motivation, the sales goals and the challenges of Life Sciences AG to tailor our offer to Life Sciences AG.

I would like to contact you by phone next Friday either at 09:00h or 15:00h if that is okay with you. Do you agree with this procedure and does one of the two proposed times suit you? Thank you very much for a short feedback.

The answer:

“Dear Mr. Maugeri, thank you very much for your mail. What we would like to know at this moment is how much the above-mentioned workshop will cost and when it will take place. I am currently very difficult to reach by telephone, so I would be very grateful if you could inform me by mail. Thank you very much.”

Keep your spirits up

I then sent a longer e-mail with a link to our questionnaire and the questions I needed to find out about what Life Sciences AG needs. Afterwards, there was radio silence and, on the phone, I was held up by the reception for several weeks. As a “start-up company” my nervousness increased and finally I got carried away to communicate a price. And behold, the next day I already had the answer and an order for 1 employee who had just started in sales Well, since we only do tailor-made, in-house workshops with the whole sales department, I could not confirm the order. A telephone call with the person from the human resources department also showed that there were no clear goals and no agreement with our services. So, we politely declined and offered to be available for an in-depth, serious analysis of the sale of Life Sciences AG.

What did I learn from this?

“Stick to your principles,” I told myself. This case was a “lesson” for me to be able to say “no” once in a while. Not to bet on “dead horses” has a greater effect than commonly assumed:

– It mentally opens up space for new opportunities.

– A polite refusal, which leaves the door open for further chances, often strengthens the reputation.

– Internal resources are freed up to focus on the really important customers

Therefore, it helps to have a clear customer profile, guidelines for Go/No-Go decisions and clear ideas about how your own sales process should look like. Because the customer’s purchasing process is not a good sales process for us, or as my business partner Phil Kreindler says: “Only doing what the customer asks for is not a good sales process”.

A blog post by Roberto Maugeri-de Graaff, a B2B sales process architect.

In marketing and sales, there are often talks about B2B and B2C. The “B” stands for “business”, meaning companies, and “C” stands for “consumer”, the “2” stands for “to”, meaning “to”. B2B is thus broken down into business-to-business and B2C is business-to-consumer, i.e. all of us.

6 dimensions are described below, which allow a fundamental distinction to be made between the two areas of business relations, B2B and B2C:

Dimension 1: The emotions

B2C: When we buy something privately, it is usually something we need in our household, something we want for our hobby, we give something away or we buy it simply because we like it or because it is fun. The last argument is not limited to small expenses. Many people buy an expensive sports car or a holiday home simply because they like it and not because they need it. We often also replace items because they no longer look good or because we have “seen” the item.

B2B: When a company buys something, it is almost always a business investment. The purchased goods should bring the company a financial added value, i.e. a financial profit. They try to leave emotions completely out of the equation. Many companies change the buyer for a certain supplier every year and let the various buyers “rotate” among the suppliers. This is intended to prevent an emotional bond or relationship.

 

Dimension 2: The time

B2C: Who does not know the impulse purchase? A friend or acquaintance told us about a great product and we thought: “Well, I could actually afford to do that. After Christmas, I’ll take a look at it”. But then after a short time, you walk past a shop where this very product is in the shop window as a “special offer” and you are in a good mood and buy the product not only because of the nice salesperson.

B2B: Completely different from a procurement decision in companies. These are well-coordinated and, among other things, are provided with a plan for profitability and implementation.

 

Dimension 3: The Buyer

B2B: A very large difference is the professional buyers in B2B. They are trained in dealing with purchasing processes and are often not alone. At Infoteam we distinguish between 5 different roles: the approver, the decision-maker, the auditor, the user and the coach. Often the B2B salesperson is opposed by two, three or a dozen people in the company who influence the purchasing decision (the Buying Center). It is very complex to consider all these people with their wishes and ideas, to know the business and personal goals and to incorporate the criteria leading to the decision into our offer. Interestingly, many personnel departments still first check the professional and technical skills of the prospective sales employee and also weight them strongly. This, however, is material for a future blog post.

B2C: The private “buyer”, on the other hand, has at best been well or very well informed. But it is not his main occupation.

 

Dimension 4: Legal and voluntary guidelines

B2C: There are legal regulations if we as private persons want to buy a weapon or an exotic animal. Of course, we also impose voluntary criteria such as fairly produced clothes or we compensate for the CO₂ emitted by our flight. But if we are invited to the theatre by the car dealer, we gladly accept this without further ado. For the vast majority of B2C purchases, however, legal requirements are irrelevant.

B2B: Different in the corporate environment in B2B. Here I have already experienced it, that my customer insisted on paying for his lunch himself in the in-house canteen. In many companies, lunch or even small gifts like a bottle of wine are forbidden. This presents the B2B salesperson with ever greater problems in establishing a relationship of trust with this customer and establishing a relationship based on which a trusting and efficient transaction can take place.

 

Dimension 5: Marketing

B2C: Since we cannot personally look after all “consumers” in B2C, we have to spend a lot of money in Marketing.We have to invest in large-scale marketing campaigns. Not just because the margins in B2C are often in the lower, single-digit percentage range. We need at least hundreds of thousands or even millions of customers to run a business profitably.

B2B: In B2B, on the other hand, the revenue per customer is usually higher and therefore we need fewer customers. How much less depends on the industry and business. In general, however, it is often the case that companies generate the major part of their sales and predominant part of their turnover with only a handful of customers. For this reason key account managers in larger companies only have a few customers.

 

Dimension 6: Level of professionalism

B2C: As a B2C salesperson at a department store or in the grocery store around the corner, our customers do not expect a high level of professionalism. Of course, it is a pleasure to have a noticeably trained salesperson on the other side. But I would say that friendliness and helpfulness are more important. A salesperson in a clothing store does not need a university degree in materials science.

B2B: But we expect more from a B2B salesperson for hydroelectric power plants. By this, I do not so much mean professional and technical skills, but rather business management knowledge and organizational skills. The B2B salesperson must know the challenges and processes of the customer, he must know when to call in an internal expert on a topic and he must also be able to manage the sales process internally (specifications, prices, resources and involvement of other departments and functions). Infoteam’s study has shown that 45% of the customers surveyed expect more professionalism, but only 25% of suppliers feel that more needs to be done.

 

Conclusion

It is becoming more and more important for the B2B salesperson to gain the trust of their customers already during the sales process. Phil Kreindler has summarized this in his book “Customerized Selling” in the following 5 points:

1. Reaction speed
2. Team spirit
3. Living company values (not just talking about them)
4. Persistence
5. Self-reflection

A professional and well-implemented sales process supports the implementation of these principles and makes the sales process more successful.

 

Credits

Many thanks to Janine Brüssing of Cleantechnology Consulting for the editorial support of this article. The picture is by Gili Benita from Unsplash.