One Contact Won't Cut It
Relying on one contact is one of the biggest hidden risks in B2B sales. Here's what to do instead.
Don't forget to check out last week's top tip: Suffering from Premature Proposals?!
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If you prefer to read - here is the transcript:
Selling is a coalition sport. What I mean by that is, in today's complex environment, deals are never won in the enterprise space, on the back of a single buyer or stakeholder. They always require multiple people. Think of it like a community of support in the account.
Yet the big mistake that I see with sellers is we get stuck talking to one person. And there's a number of reasons for this: fear, comfort, complacency. But we have to get past that as salespeople and move to understand that there needs to be more than one.
You know, I always say that one is the most dangerous number in sales, because if you're trying to close an enterprise, a B2B deal on the back of information from one person, you're at risk that the information not tell the be, maybe not tell the whole story. Or that your person might move on to a different job inside or outside the organization, might get fired, might get acquired, or might go on vacation and leave you in the dark with not knowing where to go for more information. You always need a backup plan.
And so my challenge to you is this - but I know you've probably seen stats all over the place that say, oh, or the average enterprise deal has between 8 and 11 decision makers or maybe not. But I will tell you this, it's always more than one and I'm always aiming for four. That's the number that I think you should be looking for inside the majority of larger enterprise deals. And if it's 8 or 11 for some of the biggest deals, that's fine, but start with four. if you're only at one right now and work wide across the organization and deep across the organization to build a coalition of support and information that will give you a well qualified deal that will help you close more.