At FunnelAmplified, we use the expression, The Buyer’s Circle of Trust to refer to the challenge so many sales teams have had in the past several years. 

Buyers have changed how they research, how they learn and how they ultimately make a buying decision. The challenge for most sales teams is a lack of qualified leads in their pipelines.  Teams are struggling because old prospecting activities are not working as well with modern buyers. 

Below is a link to a great article by our friend Tim Hughes that is worth the read. His article discusses how the Covid-19 pandemic clearly identified the challenges sales teams have with prospecting and closing deals. There is a link below to his article but here are our FunnelAmplified thoughts on his article and this challenge for sales teams.  

Pipeline is a real challenge. 

Unfortunately many sales teams see the solution to the challenge as investing more money into the same processes and systems. They seek to do more of the same sales activities that have lead to their current challenges. 

More sales team members, more emails, more cold LinkedIn messages and more offers for demos. Cold outreach on steroids as we say in our internal meetings. 

The solution to a pipeline challenge must be buyer centric. 

Don’t just do more of the same activities that have led them to the current sales situation.  How do teams adjust quickly to get into the buyer’s circle of trust and fill pipeline with qualified, excited ready-to-buy buyers? 

Sellers need to adjust their daily activities to meet how buyers research so they are accessible and known by buyers, so buyers will engage them earlier in their research stages. In other words, they need to be known. They need to be top of mind with their buyers. They need to have relationships with them. 

Telling sales leaders their sales team need to have more relationships can scare them. What they hear is we are prescribing less sales activities and more wasted time when they could be selling. Remember the old mantra ABC – Always Be Closing?  The challenge is that this mindset no longer works with buyers. 

ABC should mean Always Be Communicating. 

Sellers should spend their time communicating in channels that engage their ideal buyers and share valuable information to help them with their challenges and goals. 

Teams need software and systems that make it easy and convenient for sellers to “show up” digitally in a manner that matches buyer behavior. 

Sellers need to provide content. They need to curate content, create original content and consistently publish in a manner best for buyers. This means publishing in social newsfeeds, text messages, direct social messages, email or other channels that are ideal for buyers.  

Sellers need repetition to create a reputation. Share, and share often, in order to create a reputation as a valuable resource for buyers.  Then, buyers will know sellers. They will know and remember sellers as sources of insightful information that helps buyers. Consistent content reinforces memory and topic in buyer’s minds. It is known as being top-of-mind.  When sellers are top-of-mind for their industry with their network, they also have a pipeline filled with individuals looking to buy from them instead of a pipeline of people sellers are trying to sell to. 

This approach makes all the difference in the health and size sales pipelines. 

That is why we created FunnelAmplified.  

This article is published on:https://dlaignite.com/why-your-sales-arent-growing/