What is the future of business-to-business selling?
Even before the events of 2020 shredded business models and projections, too many companies had overpromised and underdelivered across industries, including communications, healthcare, information technology, and financial services. Buyers have been rocked by the combination of uncertainty, government regulation, a struggling economy, and limited resources.
Perhaps understandably, buyers are demanding visible proof of success from us as sellers of products and services. Demand for pilot and proof-of-concept programs is higher than ever before. Buyers want and need statistical analyses of successful implementations and industry standard metrics to confidently ValueCore the financial impacts of strategic investments.
When developing and refining the concepts in my book ROI Selling (©2004 Dearborn Publishing), I contacted software companies about their use of a concept I called “360-degree ROI”. The key is following up with customers after the sale and implementation to measure the success they were able to achieve using your products and services based on the foundational measurements you and your customers developed together during the sales process. At the time, only about 5% of the companies I talked with actually measured post-implementation customer success, and my latest research suggests the number hasn’t changed much since.
Today’s buyers insist you show credible anticipated ROI during the sales process and then follow up to continuously monitor their success in the form of improvement(s) on one or more mutually agreed baselines. The baselines may be derived from the customer’s historical performance, published industry norms or standards, market research, or a combination of data sources. That said, your first challenge is to engage the right people within your customer’s organization to collaboratively build a set of baseline data that will be credible and compelling to their decision makers, and serve as a solid basis for post-sale measurement.
