Most salespeople are connected to only six people in target accounts despite buying teams averaging 12+. Learn why this critical problem hinders deal speed and how to build wider, more influential networks.
There is a problem with every sales function in every business.
The problem is that despite what research shows us to be true, we still operate like it isn’t. Over the last few months, I have been to countless lunches where research companies proudly share the latest insights on customer behavior and the “state of the nation” for sales.
Everyone there nods and smiles politely because everyone knows the research is correct. Spot on. However, few, if any, are using this insight to reshape their sales behavior.
Many years ago, I was working at a big tech company and researched what top-performing salespeople had in common. There were a number of trends – investing in ongoing professional development, spending time on health and wellbeing, innovating, and, crucially, being active on LinkedIn in the accounts they were selling to.
Today, we know that the buying process is more complex than ever. We know that a minimum of 12 people are involved in the decision-making process for large purchases (and in most cases, many more), and we know that many other people have the ear of those making the decisions (having influence rather than authority, you might say).
This will come as no surprise to anyone. But what does come as a surprise is when I (as a social media expert training and coaching salespeople) interrogated how well-connected salespeople are, the shocking answer is…not very well at all.
If the buying team has 12+ people and there may be another 20 or 30 people who are influential in the decision (and we often don’t know who these people are), the salesperson should have a lot of connections in the company. I mean A LOT.
But my own experience is that they don’t. When you amortize the average number of connections that salespeople have with enterprise clients, the answer is…Six. Yes, 6.
This is catastrophically bad. To sell successfully, you need to convince (at least) 12 people that you are the best option. This means that if you are only known to 6 people, you are reliant on them selling you into the others (which is unlikely) or them introducing you to the others, which is (also unlikely and) very time-consuming.
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Why are you building and mobilizing sales consecutively if you are selling in this? If your research the client (2 months) you identify your entry point (1 week), you make contact and build a relationship (2 months) then get an introduction and then make contact and build a relationship (2 months) etc this is a very long process and is asking for problems. Sales is always a race against the clock, now more than ever, and many deals are lost because something unforeseen happens between being the front runner and losing the deal. Perhaps one (or more) of your champions is laid off, moves on, or is promoted to a different role with different deliverables.
- Maybe the budget is pulled.
- Perhaps a competitor enters the fray, and you lose out to them
- Or, most likely, the prospect simply changes their mind and decides to stay with what they already have.
There are undoubtedly other things that can go wrong, but these are things that I have seen happen firsthand to the sales teams I work with (obviously before my arrival).
In almost all cases, these can be avoided by focusing on speed. It should be imperative to bring home the deals as soon as possible. Closing the deal is vitally important, but there is more to it than that. Closing the deal this month after the company has gone bankrupt or you have lost your job is cold comfort.
In my experience, deals need to be closed now rather than later, so focusing on the speed of deal closure is the most important thing you can do. The best way to achieve this is to develop relationships concurrently.
Flood your target accounts with connection requests, ask every single one of them for a discovery call (but don’t call it that, of course), and make sure EVERYONE knows who you are and, most importantly, that you are a good person who is there to help them (as an individual and as a company) and keep growing your influence within the business.
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The more people you know, have spoken to, and like, the more risk you are spreading within the deal, so this needs to be an ongoing process for every account/industry/sector that you work in.
Think about it like this, if everyone in a particular company/industry believe YOU are the go-to person for [whatever it is that you do] that’s a pretty good place to be and ultimately that will provide you with security and predictability within your accounts.
I often say, “Luck isn’t a strategy,” which it isn’t, but the lovely byproduct of behaving this way is that you bump into a lot of lucky opportunities along the way, and that’s very nice.
If you would like to know more about how you can create a process in your business to accelerate deals through your pipeline, shore up failing deals, and provide greater confidence in your forecasting, give me a shout. I’m always happy to have a chat over a coffee.
