What is B2B Buyer Enablement and how does it differ from Sales Enablement? Well let’s start with the obvious – Buyer Enablement focuses on the buyer and their needs, whereas Sales Enablement focuses on the sales rep and their needs. But if you’re trying to close a deal, the only one with full control over the sale is the buyer – so shouldn’t we be focusing on their needs the most?
Why Sales Should Focus on Buyer Enablement
In sales, we’re very familiar with this situation:
Prospect: “I love your product. I can definitely see how it would fit with XYZ in our company. Let me share it with the rest of my team and get back to you.”
Sales Rep: “Sounds good – I’ll reach out again soon.”
But what happens over the next few days? Most likely, your prospect a.) gets bogged down with other things, and loses focus on pitching your solution to the rest of their team, or b.) has difficulty getting time on the rest of their team’s calendars to discuss your solution or c.) pitches your solution to the rest of their team in a way that does NOT properly convey your value props, or speak to the needs of the rest of their team. The conculsion? You lose complete control over the sale once it’s passed off to your prospect, and most likely, they’re doing a much worse job than you would pitching it to the rest of their team (AKA their buying group).
Rather than fighting the inevitable pass-off to your prospect, try to embrace it by equipping them with the right tools, messaging and resources to become: the Internal Champion. This is what Buyer Enablement is all about. Your internal champion needs you to coach them through reaching every stakeholder in their buying group, and conveying your solution in a way that is valuable to each stakeholder. Each stakeholder will have different needs and perspectives, that you (and in turn, your champion) will need to be prepared for.
At Consensus, we use dynamic, automated demo videos to equip our internal champions. These videos are sent to one prospect within the organization, and they in turn share the demo with the rest of their buying group. This way, there’s no coordinating of six different calendars needed in order for each stakeholder to learn about your solution. They’re watching the demo video at their convenience, and each stakeholder is tailoring it to each of their needs – so you’re sure they’re each getting value in a way that’s relevant to them. On the back end, your sales rep sees everyone their prospect has shared the demo with, as well as how each of them tailored the demo. The result? Your sales rep has full insight on who their buying group is, what each of them cares about, and can help the Internal Champion faciliate conversations to move the needle forward.
How are you handling Buyer Enablement in your organization? Leave a comment below!
