I was talking to my friend, Jonathan Farrington from Top Sales World, a couple of days before Christmas. He said, "While 70% of the buying process might be completed by the buyer today before a sales executive needs to get involved, 100% of the job of selling still remains."

Call me old fashioned, but I don’t buy into that current thinking. In fact, in my opinion, thinking like that results in so few sales teams actually making quota.

I don’t argue that buyers are more knowledgeable about their purchases today. And, I don’t argue that buyers are more connected with peers today than ever before; and have access to more advice during their informal and formal due diligence on significant purchases. I do argue, however, that standing on the sidelines while your buyers do their research is, at best, lazy. At worst, it's ignoring the fiduciary responsibility an employee has to its employer.

If your results were disappointing in 2013, here are some reasons why and what to do about them:

1. The leads from marketing suck

Marketing has defaulted to a cost per lead, and quantity of leads, mentality. Want to know why? It is because they never get feedback on leads, so each year their budget is cut and the lead quota goes up. Want to fix it? Provide feedback on every lead. Connect with your sales peers and ask them to do the same. It will be ugly. It will take time. You will actually have to try to connect with leads more than two or three times and not give up too soon like you did in 2013.
 
If you are in sales management, roll results up and provide summarized feedback to the entire organization. Be specific on what works and what doesn’t. And, if your definition of a qualified lead is a buyer waiting with a PO and pen – get over it.

2. You are selling to a buyer who is at Step #2 using a 5-step approach

Every buyer has to be guided through a five-step process to be sold (not tricked or scammed):

1. Find a pain or need
2. Get agreement that there is a pain or need
3. Get agreement to do something about the pain or need
4. Agree on a generic solution
5. Agree on a customized, specific (your) solution (if it is the right fit)

Today, marketing starts and stops at the first step and sales starts and stops at the last step. Think about it: I start selling our solution too early at least once a week and it hurts my results. It is hurting yours too.

3. You are responding to the equivalent of RFPs

If, in fact, things have changed dramatically, responding to RFPs is the same waste of time it was ten years ago. Most of the time, the RFP process is designed with a clear winner in mind for the purpose of making the decision appear to be fair and unbiased. If you wait until the buyer has completed 70% of the buying process before getting involved, rather than getting yourself and your company positioned significantly earlier in the evaluation, you have already lost.

Unless you are talking about relatively low-end, commoditized products or solutions, fast growing companies are very aggressive about eliminating funnel leakage and extremely aggressive outbound marketers. They don’t wait for the market to come to them. You shouldn’t either. Virginia, don’t waste a minute. Get out there and start selling. 

About the Author

Dan McDade is President and CEO of PointClear, LLC, a prospect development firm that helps B2B companies drive revenue by nurturing leads, engaging contacts and developing prospects until they're ready to purchase.

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