2 MIN. READ
Businesses are facing an increasingly intricate vendor ecosystem. Products like IT solutions, tools and machinery, and even business services are undergoing significant changes as new digital features appear, making these products more complex to research.
In fact, the process is so complex that for 80% of businesses, the B2B buying process takes more time than it used to. As a result, the B2B buying process is starting to prioritizing research.
Salespeople can help by adopting an approach known as prescriptive selling.
Prescriptive selling is a process that begins with researching your prospect. You need to understand the prospect's goals and pain points, identify the trends and challenges that are disrupting their industry, and understand what their requirements are.
Instead of having a go-to sales pitch that covers the top features of your product or service, or focusing on pricing or other competitive advantages, you should provide information that establishes a clear connection between the prospect's main goals or pain points and the features of the product or service you offer.
Prescriptive selling takes a narrower approach by presenting a small selection of products or service bundles that are pre-selected to match the prospect's needs and requirements. A smaller selection makes the B2B purchase process less frustrating, saves a considerable amount of time and prevents the prospect from selecting a solution that isn't adapted to their needs.
You should take on your prospect's perspective and only provide information that is relevant to them. Ultimately, a prescriptive sales process entails less back and forth and should be less time-consuming.
The role of the salesperson is evolving. You have the potential to become a long-term partner who helps prospects achieve growth. Adopting a prescriptive sales process allows you to recommend solutions that make sense for the current challenges and continue introducing more relevant products in the future as needs change.
This flexible and scalable approach reflects the modern B2B environment and addresses challenges linked to the complexity of the average B2B vendor ecosystem. B2B organizations typically have complex supply chains and work with several vendors who have large catalogs of products and services. This makes it difficult to ensure that solutions meet all the desired requirements and are the most cost-effective choice.
Therefore, making a purchase decision takes time since B2B organizations have to research different vendors, understand the complex offers and bundles available, conduct due diligence in areas like security and compliance, and consider costs and ROI. As a result, some prospects might delay purchasing a new solution and keep using an outdated product due to the time-consuming process of researching alternatives. With prescriptive selling, you have the opportunity to meet your prospects' needs and solve their problems quickly.
IndustrySelect can help you switch to a prescriptive selling process. We can provide you with comprehensive, data-rich profiles of prospects in a wide range of industries. Having access to information like sales numbers, contact information for executives and Standard Industrial Classification codes for products will help you develop a prescriptive sales strategy with offers that make sense for each prospect. To learn more, visit our website and try out a free demo.