B2B Selling: 10 pitfalls to avoid when selling to a Business

Reflecting on 20+ years advising, implementing, selling tech across 15+ countries and 4 continents, I compiled a list of potential impediments to B2B sales.

In particular, for B2B SaaS platform founders, it can be really challenging to grasp the complexities of the enterprise sales process: understanding the procurement process, cycles and timelines, the decision making process, the human factors, the people to “cover”, the power maps, …

A few things I learnt along the way… (and at my own expense!)

1. It’s not just what you sell but WHEN

B2B sales cycles and budget cutoffs follow strict timelines. At the end of their financial year, clients can spend “left overs” but may have nothing left for the following year; early in the year all budget might already be allocated. Tip: financial year is different from calendar year for many businesses, check their annual reports. If you miss one cycle, you got to wait a full year… nurture the relationship in the meantime to stay top of mind!

2. “WHO to sell to” is not always that obvious

it’s useful to understand who will BUY (procurement) vs who will PAY (corporate unit) vs who will APPROVE (management) vs who will USE (business unit) your solution. Draw a power map (who to convince and influence) and a decision flow to navigate the conversations amongst the right stakeholders.

3. WHY they care…

Once you found the right contact who will champion your solution internally and help push things forward, it’s important to understand WHY he / she is doing it, and what’s in it for them? Will it help advance their career? Shine in front the boss? If your solution is new and unproven, what’s their incentive to support your solution? Why should they take any risks? (No one ever got fired for buying from IBM!)

4. WHY they will NOT help you

They won’t tell you directly and will find all kinds of explanations as to why your solutions is not a good fit for them. Because your solution might threaten their own job OR will bring transparency in a process that was purposely kept opaque… so they could assert their control and authority. Or just because, no one likes change: don’t underestimate the power of the middle management and the operators who might resist your solution. You might be able to sell it to the leadership but the deployment will fail due to low adoption and resistance.

5. WHY NOW…

Sell urgency: it’s easier to sell a painkiller than a vitamin. It could be regulatory related (eg risk non compliance, big fines, bad headlines) or FOMO - Fear of Missing Out - related (your competitors are all doing it, why not you? You are going to be left behind!). It could be about bringing more revenue - to close the next quarter: “our solution will help you bring more customers quickly”. It creates an upside with limited risk. Be mindful: what brings costs reduction and automation or efficiency gains usually is much harder to sell as somehow you got to prove it upfront; which might be hard to do quickly. If you got to do a (paid!) trial, set clear timelines and success criteria upfront so it does not drag on forever…

6. WHERE to sell…

Some tech decisions are made globally at the headquarters: if you are talking to the local or regional folks, they might love your solution but can’t really decide on anything. Best to learn this quickly so you don’t spend time pitching the wrong people.

7. HOW to sell…

Your solution might introduce a perception of too much change in the organisation; like “it’s a great product but not for us”, they will reject it. Consider proposing implementation roadmaps starting small and focused, but shooting for the stars…(!)

8. HOW MUCH to sell at..

Many tech solutions promote automations and the promise of efficiency gains and savings… that’s great BUT in some markets with low labor costs and different macro economics conditions, it really does not matter… your solution as it is might just be too expensive to achieve any meaningful return on investment. Consider modularizing, localizing, reducing your pricing to accomodate local conditions.

9. Persistence pays off…

… until it does not. It may take many attempts, many contacts, many emails, calls, coffees, lunches, to stay top of mind. Be persistent… but don’t be annoying!

10. Signing a contract does not mean you will get paid …

if you are small, large businesses will just ignore your payment terms and do it their own sweet way.. don’t be surprised if your “due upon receipt” morphs into “90 days upon receipt”… unilaterally!

How about you? What learnings can you share?