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Workshop Scenario:

Please think of yourself in the following scenario as you complete this workshop.

You recently joined an internship as a junior salesperson and feel slightly overwhelmed with your new tasks. Your boss, a senior salesperson, suggests you take an introductory workshop on sales. You agree and begin a search for the perfect workshop. After some research, you discover this one, and it seems ideal for your situation.

In the past lesson, you learned how to use buyer personas to connect with your buyer.

In this lesson, you will learn the differences between selling to businesses and selling to customers. You will also learn additional selling techniques.

In your sales presentation, you will be selling to customers. Think about how you will sell this sales workshop to them as you go through this lesson. Take good notes.

Lesson Objectives:

• Your objective today is to compare and contrast different sales techniques for customers and businesses.

As you read, please consider the following questions:

1. How would you sell a product to a business vs. a customer?

2. How can sales strategies be adapted to different situations and markets?

Lesson 4: Selling to Customers vs. Businesses

What tactics do salespeople use to sell to businesses?

Businesses purchase raw materials that they can use in their manufacturing departments to make an existing product or create a new product.

Companies send purchasing managers to meet with sales representatives to buy products and services. These purchasing managers usually buy products based on cost, the time saved, the availability of the materials, and the ability to meet the business’s specific needs or requirements.

Therefore, selling to businesses involves a more strategic and consultative approach than selling to individuals. Salespeople need to understand the business’s specific needs, provide value and demonstrate how the product or service can help the company achieve its goals and objectives.

It involves a longer sales cycle, multiple decision-makers, and a focus on a product’s or service’s financial and operational benefits. Salespeople selling to businesses need a deep understanding of the industry, the customer’s business model, and the business’s specific needs.

Let us look at some of the most important tactics used in selling to businesses.

1. Building Relationships: Salespeople need to establish strong relationships with the decision-makers and key stakeholders in the business. This includes understanding their needs, building trust, and providing valuable information and insights.

2. Identify Pain Points: Salespeople need to identify and understand the specific pain points of the business and how the product or service can help alleviate them.

3. Providing Value: Salespeople need to demonstrate how the product or service can help the business achieve its goals and objectives and how it will bring value to the company.

4. Creating a Sense of Urgency: Salespeople should develop a sense of urgency to help the business understand the importance of the product or service and how it will help them to achieve their goals.

5. Proposing a Solution: Salespeople should be able to present a tailored solution that addresses the businesses’ specific needs and pain points.

6. Negotiating: Salespeople must deal effectively with the business to reach a mutually beneficial agreement.

7. Following up: Salespeople need to follow up with the business to ensure satisfaction and to identify additional sales opportunities.

Sales representatives may also use marketing materials such as brochures or product demonstrations to help make their case.

How do salespeople sell to customers?

What tactics do salespeople use to sell to customers?

Salespeople sell to customers by building relationships, identifying the customer’s needs, and presenting solutions that meet those needs.

Let us look at some of the most popular tactics used to sell to customers.

1. Build relationships: Salespeople establish relationships with customers by listening to their needs and concerns, building trust and rapport, and providing valuable information and insights.

2. Identify needs: Salespeople use active listening, observation, and questions to understand the customer’s needs and pain points.

3. Present solutions: Salespeople present solutions that address the customers’ needs and show how the product or service can meet those needs. They also use storytelling, demonstrations, and other techniques to help the customer visualize the product’s or service’s benefits.

4. Address objections: Salespeople anticipate and address any complaints or concerns that the customer may have about the product or service.

5. Closing the sales: Salespeople use various closing techniques to get the customer to make a purchase, such as creating a sense of urgency, offering a limited-time deal, or addressing any final objections.

6. Following up: Salespeople follow up with the customer to ensure satisfaction and to identify additional sales opportunities.

Additional Selling Techniques

Asking good questions

Salespeople can use a variety of different types of questions to find out more about their customers and their needs. Some examples include:

Open-ended questions: These questions encourage customers to provide more information about their situation, needs, and concerns. Examples include:

• “Can you tell me more about your current situation?”

• “What are your main concerns when it comes to XYZ?”

Probing questions: These types of questions are used to follow up on or clarify answers provided by the customer. They can be used to dig deeper into a customer’s needs or concerns. Examples include:

• “Can you give me an example?”

• “How do you currently handle that?”

By combining these different questions, salespeople can better understand their customers’ needs and concerns and tailor their pitch to address them more effectively.

Storytelling Techniques

Salespeople can use stories as a way to connect with customers emotionally and to help them visualize the benefits of a product or service. Stories can help to make the product or service more relatable and relevant to the customer and can help to overcome objections or concerns that the customer may have.

Salespeople can use a few different types of stories to convince customers to buy a product. Here are a few examples:

Customer Success Stories: These are stories about how other customers have successfully used the product or service to solve a problem or achieve a specific goal. These types of stories can help to build trust and credibility with the customer and can help to demonstrate the value of the product or service.

Personal Stories: Salespeople can use personal experiences with the product or service; it can be a powerful way to show their belief in the product and make it more relatable to the customer.

In Conclusion

Practical Day to Day application of these tactics

It is essential to practice using these strategies whether you are selling boy or girl scout cookies or selling a product at a store. The best teacher is repetition and learning from your mistakes.

Closing Assessment:

Please respond to the lesson email with answers to the following question, and one of our sales mentors will respond with feedback.

1. What are the similarities between selling to businesses vs. customers?

2. How would you sell a product to a business vs. a customer?

Participate in the 24/7 Discussion Forum

Please answer the following questions in the comment section below and interact with learners from around the world:

1. Which tactic would you gravitate the most to and why?

2. Which tactic do you not see yourself using and why?

Please read and reply to other learners’ answers in the forum by stating if you agree or disagree with their answers and why. Your replies should offer new substantiated ideas or thoughtful questions.

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