The Silent Killer For Business Is The Change In Buyer Behaviour
Three Military Snipers
Preparing For The Invisible Battle
Change in Buyer Behaviour
Are we blinded by economic uncertainty and cannot see what’s really happening to our business?
The invisible threat!
The highly trained sniper, locked on and one by one, taking out our pipeline, our sales people and our customers.
We are experiencing a period of economic uncertainty that has triggered a cost of living crisis, investors put the brakes on, buyer confidence is at an all time low as businesses are nervous about spending money as performance continues to wane.
In tech we’re approaching 400,000 layoffs from almost 1,000 companies in the last 24 months, and that’s what's been reported. Sales and marketing operations are cutting costs to weather the storm.
War is a huge cost to countries and the affects damage economies and supply chains around the world.
We are paying for COVID and countries around the world fend off recession whilst money runs out for many. Yet inflation grows and so too do interest rates, adding the burden to consumers further halting spending.
Consumer confidence is expected to return in 2024 (if we are to believe the reports), however recession is still a threat. Can we expect to see buyers invest in technology and services for growth again, and investor money return. As a business owner I want to believe so!
However, as a B2B sales and marketing industry we’re overlooking something - The ever-changing, Change in Buyer Behaviour. Or I should say, we haven’t overlooked it, we just have adapted our sales approach enough to cater for the continous change.
Sales and marketing performance across the board was already declining pre COVID. Lead generation rates, pipeline quality, average order values and close rates. As a result in changing buyer behaviour and increased competition vendors struggled to cut through the noise and buyers struggled to see any difference in solutions. For many vendors, desperation forced outdated techniques as the chase for growth affected buyer experience. This pushed buyers further away, behind closed doors making it impossible for sales teams to connect and build relationships with their target audience.
The message from leadership was;
“do more with less, team!” is the mantra.
“we need to put in 30% more effort to return 30% less than last year” was what a senior sales leader told me about 2023
“right, everyone in the office one day a week, including all senior sales, to do a cold calling day” a friend shared with me.
“we're sending 3,500 emails from inbound interest to secure 1 meeting” a trusted source shared. And the emails are personalised with highly tailored content to each person.
"we invested heavily in sales leadership and all he wanted to do was buy email lists, and now we're paying the price" - sad but a true statement made to me last week!
“I had a choice, to either be made redundant or take a different job with a pay cut - with the cost of living rising I couldn’t risk being unemployed for any period of time” a good friend shared with me.
And still companies profit.
Real people are the losers!
Being forced to follow techniques that no longer work is killing your people.
In more ways than one, as 79% of sales people report suffering from stress or high stress levels. Jeff Riseley from Sales Health Alliance.
63% of sales people report suffering with poor mental health, up from 58% in 2021. SDR's, Account Executives and Account Managers suffering the most.
60% of sales leaders report suffering with mental health, up from 42% the previous year.
The industry wide average close rate had dropped to 17% from qualified opportunity, a drop by almost 50% in just 2 years according to 🐶 Jacco van der Kooij from Winning by Design
2023 is the year of the polycrisis, with so much happening businesses baton down the hatches to ensure survival.
Change in Buyer Behaviour - Is that the right thing to do?
Businesses would rather cut their people than solve the problem that has been developing for 15 years.
Why create reams of corporate content and refined messaging that is not believed anymore - there’s too much noise for buyers, content isn’t trusted and neither are sales people, with 72% of buyers wanting a rep free buying experience. Gartner.
Think about it. Was cold calling working for you? If you feel it was then what are you comparing it against? Was cold emailing? How many leads were the sales team receiving from marketing? How many leads were sales and CSM’s generating for themselves? What was your close rate and average order value and how was it trending the three years prior to COVID? What is it today?
Change in Buyer Behaviour - Is it time to work on messaging, again?
“We need to refine our messaging”, I’ve lost count of the times I’ve heard that and still pipeline is a problem a year later.
“Our market doesn’t understand our value.” No shit. And they never will until you’ve earned their trust and the right to explain the value!
There’s only one reason pipeline and revenue isn’t where it needs to be.
Change in Buyer Behaviour - Lack of trust.
Once deep and meaningful relationships are formed with your target audience, the rest will take care of itself.
The economic uncertainty will pass just like it did in 2001 (dotcom bubble burst) and 2008 (financial crisis).
The silent killer to business is the change in buyer behaviour.
The pace of change is exciting for the consumer and the start up but nauseating for the traditional business.
Buyers don’t answer their phone. Cold calling is the number one reason a buyer won’t buy from a vendor. TrustRadius.
Cold emails are no longer deleted, they’re blocked in one click. Cold email is the 5th most likely reason a buyer won’t buy from a vendor. TrustRadius.
Marketing messages are ignored and all vendor provided information is 18% less likely to be used. Buyers would rather trust an impartial stranger from a community for advice on solving their problem, than any sales or marketing content or white paper.
Vendor provided case studies, third party publications and customer references are 12th, 13th and 14th most impactful sources of information buyers use to inform their decision.
Traditional sales and marketing doesn’t work like it did 10 or 15 years ago. Buyer behaviour has changed so why hasn’t your approach to sales and marketing?
It’s up to us as leaders to drive change across our organisation. We are in a new era when it comes to competitive differentiation. Thanks to Dr. Grant Van Ulbrich and his new book Transforming Sales Management: Lead Sales Teams Through Change, we are officially in an emocracy according to Dr Julian Berkshaw’s research. Buyers are making decisions based on core values and beliefs and how they align with partners, suppliers and their employees.
Change in Buyer Behaviour - People buy from people
Empower your people across your organisation to demonstrate their authentic selves and show their support for values and beliefs that align with your business, your customers - that is a truly differentiating, your people are the only thing unique to your business, until trust is formed you cannot successfully sell anything. The new decision logic is co-creation and if you’re not empowering your people to share in and join the discussion you will get left behind as the new dawn breaks.
Change in Buyer Behaviour - What to do?
Invest in your people, help them develop their professional brand so they and the business they represent stands out and differentiates.
Equip them to activate and grow their own networks, create community and activate ideal customer personas across the audience you want to do business with.
Empower your people to create content that makes them stand out and look different, like authentic human beings that share your values and beliefs as an organisation.
Show your people how to begin conversations on digital platforms that build influence for them and your brand.
Scale this approach in an operational model that activates your entire organisation, using these four pillars:
Strategy
Design your new social and digital strategy, that starts with your people and your customers - we design with you, defining your commercial objectives and aligning leadership on the strategy.
Methodology
Train, coach and certify your people to a standard - our ISP (Institute of Sales Professionals) endorsed program guides learners, coaches and ferries them to a globally recognised standard.
Measurement
Measure behaviours that increase the probability for success and create belonging and a sense of purpose across the organisation - we design and build your bespoke dashboards and manage the analytics to hold the team accountable and motivate action that delivers positive outcomes.
Personal Change Management
Personal change - support your people as individuals, helping them manage the feelings and emotions that come with change - we leverage Dr Grant van Ulrich’s personal change model to guide each learner through change using an app, giving each person their own personal change plan in the palm of their hand.
After 18 months of testing and 6 months of data capture across a range of sales reps with differing strategies and experience levels, we now have the data that proves our methodology outperforms any other form of cold outreach that exists today.
Change in Buyer Behaviour - Are You Adapting or Drowning?