If our daily shopping habits are any indication, and also based on what is so frequently written by digital marketers and many software companies in the martech environment, then purchase habits have changed dramatically.

In 2011, CEB (now Gartner) published a statistic that is still widely known today: the average B2B decision maker has already done 57% of the buying process before contacting a supplier. At the time, this statistic created a bit of a concussion and the end of sales teams was already announced.

By 2022, we see that not only are B2B sales teams still alive, but sales representatives are also the 3rd most sought-after professionals in Canada (source: Randstad Canada).

In the sales process, closing a sale is often seen as the most important part of it. However, that's not true. A lot more goes into closing a sale than just using good closing techniques - and in some cases, what happens before that is much more important!

A lot of sales reps focus their closing techniques and strategies on getting the customer to say "yes". This is indeed a necessary step, but not if it means neglecting all other steps. Remember: selling is about making sure your client understands why they need what you're offering! Make them want to buy from you because you are the best alternative to the status quo.

This blog post will give you a closer look at the steps in the sales process that increase the likelihood that your closing techniques will be successful.

***BONUS***  At the end of the article, we present the best techniques for closing sales.

In many companies and across multiple industries, representatives face enormous pressure to quickly provide their price and present their offer even before having a real conversation with their potential customer. Unfortunately for them, many tend to actually provide these prices, which represents a significant error in their sales process. Thereafter, they often find themselves stuck in a conversation that focuses only on the price and they immediately enter into a negotiation process with their prospect.

Thus, the question is: Is negotiation a step in the sales process? My answer to this question is mitigated. However, as a general rule, if a consultative sales approach is followed and in particular, the baseline selling methodology, a representative should never have to negotiate during the sales process.

In this type of approach, negotiating is not part of an effective sales process. However, if a negotiation is to take place, the time at which it takes place is a determining factor for the profitability of the sale.

I often talk about consultative selling and the fact that it is the sales approach that elite sellers systematically use. We help sales leaders implement consultative selling within their companies to increase profitability and accelerate growth.

On the other hand, I talk less often about transactional sales. Very often, in my mandates, I find that B2B sales forces approach sales in a transactional way when a consultative method is required in order to achieve their objectives. But in rare cases, the opposite situation occurs and representatives work too hard on simple sales.

Often, when a customer has to change supplier or must make an additional investment, his first impulse is to talk about it to his entire team. This is a frequent situation that puts representatives in a bad position.

In fact, the search for consensus makes the sales process more cumbersome and can even be detrimental to the project.

Here are some ways to avoid finding yourself in such a position.

While we have heard a lot that telephone prospecting was going to disappear in recent years, I have never agreed with these forecasts. Some analysts have even talked about the extinction of the role of representative, nothing less!

Nonetheless, it is true that traditional cold call prospecting has suffered a downfall. In the golden age of cold calls, a representative could make 40 attempts in 2 hours, hope to talk with 10 decision-makers and get 2 or, perhaps, 3 meetings. However, we are far from those numbers nowadays.

A few years ago, Pete Caputa, VP of Sales for HubSpot posted a list of the 3 best sales books that new representatives should read. In this short list figure Baseline Selling by Dave Kurlan which is the consultative sales methodology Prima Resource uses for its clients.

You may be wondering what baseball has to do with sales! The purpose of the article is to answer this question by explaining the fundamentals of the methodology.

To generate as many sales as possible, reps must be rigorous: they must follow a clear list of steps in a formal and precise sales process.

When they lose too many sales, salespeople tend to justify their poor performance with excuses such as:

• The competition is too strong;
• I don't have time to sell;
• The economic context is unfavourable;
• Our prices are too high;
• We have delivery problems so I can't sell the products;
• Etc.

MONTREAL, March 18, 2019 – Prima Resource inc., a Canadian leader in sales excellence, announced today that Baseline Selling, a Consultative Selling Program, has been accredited by the Canadian Professional Sales Association (CPSA). Canadian sales professionals are now able to earn their Certified Sales Associate (CSA) designation in a fresh, memorable way.

The Baseline Selling program teaches essential sales skills necessary to close a sale in any situation, using what learners already know about the game of baseball. Modern salespeople can relate to and use the learning right away.

It's harder to get some customers to decide than others. It isn't necessarily related to the quality of your product or service or your sales skills.

There are, in fact, two types of reasons why someone buys:

• Those who need to buy (they're looking for a supplier), and
• Those who could buy (they aren't aware of a need).

We call those "why me" sales and "why" sales, respectively.