Prospects now consistently complete most of their research on-line, then reach out to sales professionals near the end of their buying journey for confirmation. This change leaves us with a limited window to create bias and influence the decision criteria. This scenario is especially challenging with SMB (small, medium business) and MM (mid-market) prospects, who are increasingly looking to consume pre-configured industry solutions to address their business problems.

Every FUNDED IT project or software purchase contains a single Strategic Tipping Point; the moment a prospect decides to buy from a specific vendor over all the others. Historically, the Strategic Tipping Point occurred at the end of the buying process, often during product demonstration or proposal review. Due to the long sales cycle and frequent prospect engagements, sales professionals were able to develop relationships and establish solution differentiation during the Proof or Close phases of a traditional solution selling model.

Today most technology buyers struggle with differentiating one solution from the next based solely on product functionality and price. Solution parity, coupled with the buyer’s preference for rapid implementation and a low risk subscription licensing purchase model, has radically changed traditional selection criteria and buying behavior.

Today’s technology buyers want immediate value, limited risk and low cost. Traditional “tell me what you want, and we’ll build it for you” selling strategies no longer resonate with prospects that expect on demand, industry or workload specific business applications.

Your sales process should align with and be built around the needs of the modern buyer. It should be designed to trigger an emotional, experience-driven Strategic Tipping Point early in the prospect engagement cycle. It should also be configured to counter the traditional resource intensive, “demo-oriented” sales approach that typically leads to highly customized product demonstrations, complex sales cycles and long implementation projects.

Modern buyers want to work with sales professionals who recognize they have already completed a significant amount of research. They will engage with vendors that understand their industry challenges and requirements, bring additional insights and ideas that reduce project risk and simplify the buying experience. Today’s prospects want to buy; they do not want to be sold to. Adding value during the sales process is critical in today’s remote selling environment.

To engineer this experience sales professionals must develop a working understanding of their target industry, conversational competence at both the project lead and business decision maker level, and then execute a prescriptive, structured sales process.

Neural Impact can help you better align your sales process to meet the needs of the modern buyer. We can help you increase your win rates and lower your sales costs. We can teach your sales team the keys to emotional engagement, gaining and emotional bias towards your solution and company and more effectively moving the customer through to buying action.