Time to Look at your B2B Sales Procedure

"The Web makes it too easy for your competitor to lure away interested buyers before your people have had a chance to contact them," warns Steven Woods in a post at the Harvard Business Review blog. And that reality, he argues, demands some fundamental changes in the B2B sales process. To support his case, he cites results from a study his firm recently conducted—but first, he asks readers to take a quick quiz:

1. Which is the better prospect: (a) a potentially ideal customer who's mildly interested in your offerings, or (b) a less-than-perfect fit who expresses a lot of interest?
   
2. After a prospect registers on your website for the first time, is it better to (a) spend two weeks crafting a highly customized email to the target, or (b) send a less-customized message within 24 hours?

"Salespeople would typically pick 'a' for both," he states. "They assume that as long as the target is a good fit, a talented and diligent sales team can make the sale." They also "obsess" over the quality of their messages, he adds.
But the study finds that approach to be misplaced:

• Companies that showed some initial eagerness, even if they didn't appear to be typical buyers, were more likely to buy than "ideal" customers who had expressed mild interest.
• A highly customized email sent two weeks after a prospect registered online got much less response than a "semi-standardized outreach" sent within a day.

"Both factors mattered, but interest trumped fit in actual sales,"
The bottom line? It's time to free up your sales team to make contact with more of the people the Web sends your way.
The Point: Strike while the interest is hot! "Whatever the disadvantages of a poor fit, they're outweighed by the advantages of buyer receptiveness,"

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