“A-B-C,” Alec Baldwin’s character shouts at his bullpen of salesmen in Glengarry Glen Ross. “A-Always, B-Be, C-Closing. Always Be Closing. ALWAYS BE CLOSING.” The prospects: irrelevant. Their needs: irrelevant. Anything besides closing: irrelevant.
While his character may have been an exaggeration of the worst tendencies of the “closer”—the type of salesperson who will do anything to get their commission (and, of course, their coffee)—the ABC myth has persisted for over 20 years.
As a HubSpot partner, Mediafly got early access to HubSpot’s new Inbound Sales Methodology course (and a few certifications, to boot!). I’m happy to report that with this methodology, we can add a D to ABC: Always Be Closing is Dead.
Why “Always Be Closing” Doesn’t Work Anymore
In a recent survey on sales perception, Hubspot asked over 500 buyers worldwide what words they would use to describe sales as it currently stands. See anything that stands out?
Words like “knowledgeable,” “communicative,” and “dedicated” are in there, but they’re overshadowed by “biased,” “aggressive,” and “pushy.” Those aren’t the makings of a positive sales experience.
20 years ago, salespeople could afford to be pushy. After all, they were the gatekeepers to the answers to any questions a buyer had:
- What’s included in an offering?
- How much does something cost?
- How does it compare to other competitors?
- Who else is using the offering and what do they think?
In the past, no matter what company a prospect was looking at, they had to talk to a salesperson. Now, the power has shifted to the buyer. When asked about preferred content channels, 29% of buyers cite connecting with a sales rep as a preferred channel when they want to learn more. Only 43% cite connecting with a sales rep as a preferred channel even when they’re ready to buy.
Features? They’re online. Pricing? Online. Detailed comparisons? Online. Reviews and testimonials? All of it is online, so modern salespeople have to go beyond being gatekeepers. The HubSpot perception survey found that the majority of salespeople have seen the power dynamic shift recently:
Modern salespeople realize that the concept of “closing” as the necessary and distinct last step of the sales process is backwards with the empowered buyer. Closing is obviously necessary for a business to survive, but ABC puts the focus on the salesperson and their needs in total ignorance of the buyer. Salespeople are free to believe that buyers are “more dependent” now, but they do so at their own peril—B2B sales will shrink to the tune of a million jobs by 2020.
Introduction to Inbound Sales
Inbound sales and sales transformation are not entirely new concepts. HubSpot’s CRO Mark Roberge wrote about inbound sales first in 2013 and last year, Mediafly CEO Carson Conant laid out how enterprises can start the process of sales transformation.
HubSpot expanded on these concepts with the release of their Inbound Sales Certification course, helping salespeople move away from the “Always Be Closing” mentality so they can better add value for their buyers. Available to the public starting today, here are some of HubSpot’s insights on the last mile of the buyer’s journey.
Starting with the buyer
The big difference with the legacy sales process (prospect, demo, and then close) is that inbound sales methodology begins with the buyer’s journey:
- Awareness: Buyers identify a challenge or opportunity
- Consideration: Buyers have defined their goal and have committed to addressing it
- Decision: Buyers decide on a solution category and pick the best one for their needs
Inbound sales is about starting with the buyer in mind and basing the entire selling strategy on that journey, personalizing the experience to the individual buyer:
The bottom is the buyer’s journey and the four stages above (Identify, Connect, Explore, Advise) are the parts of the inbound sales methodology mapped to that journey. You’ll have to watch the whole course for the lowdown on the entire methodology, but let’s focus in on that last stage: Advise.
Always Be Advising
You’ll notice that closing is not a necessary part of HubSpot’s inbound methodology. When legacy people wanted to convert an opportunity into a customer, they would go into their stock presentation: This is who we are, this is who you are, here’s how we solve problems, here’s the dotted line. The problem with that is modern buyer knows who you are through your website and third party information like reviews.
When it’s time to advise, then, it’s time to translate that generic website messaging for the buyer’s unique needs with your insights as a salesperson. So, that presentation flow should be closer to:
- What I’ve heard
- What people in your situation think about making changes
- Some pros and cons
- The suggested approach and the potential outcome
- Why it makes sense
- This is how we can support it
A few tips to keep in mind to successfully advise:
Customize, customize, customize. Don’t even think about showing a generic PowerPoint deck. If you do go with a deck, leave out anything that’s not relevant or interesting to the prospect. You don’t need to show off every bell and whistle: just the ones your prospect needs to know about.
Be flexible. There’s no better way to kill a sale than to soldier on with your presentation when you see a buyer’s tuning out. Actively listen to and watch your prospects to see if they’re engaged. Adjust your presentation accordingly. When there are a number of different paths you could go down with a buyer, consider a dynamic, “choose your own adventure” approach to presenting.
Uncover everything. Take one more opportunity to connect your prospect’s challenges and goals to your solution. HubSpot offers up the “1 to 10 closing technique” as a way to dive deeper. This technique has the salesperson ask the prospect to rank from 1 to 10 how interested they are in working with them. This has the buyer share their concerns, and at the same time, gives the salesperson to explore objections, and face those objections, which might not otherwise come up in conversation. Your goal is to get them to a 10, but what you might uncover in that detailed discussion is that your solution just isn’t a 10 for them. And that’s okay!
Salespeople who focus on advising rather than closing know that they can’t control the decision a buyer makes. The only thing they can control is who they spend time with (which earlier steps in the inbound methodology address).
If salespeople want to close, closing and the need to make a sale need to be an afterthought. The priority needs to be how they can solve the prospect’s problems and advising them on how to get there. That means being honest if a buyer is a bad fit or has a goal that you can’t help them with—it might even mean directing them to the right solution when you’re not it. You’re no longer trying to sell. You’re trying to help your customer buy.
Visit HubSpot to learn more about the methodology and get your Inbound Sales Certification. Click below to learn more about how interactive sales content can add new levels of customization to your inbound strategy.
Comments are closed.