3 Reasons Why Your B2B Sales Team Isn’t Selling, And How to Fix Them

1. You’re B2B Sales Process is Outdated

Modern B2B Sales Operations (Sales Ops) are automated, data-driven, and customer-focused. It’s a system optimized for transparency, speed, accuracy, and generating consistent, predictable income. It embraces multi-channel marketing and selling and being proactive over being responsive.

In comparison, legacy B2B Sales Ops functions like an assembly line. Leads and converted customers are handled by different departments before being shifted downstream to the next operation. Teams and departments work independently, often generating duplicated, uncollated data that creates errors and slows down processes.

Other problems that can plague such a system include lower-than-average lead conversion, customers who churn within months of buying, sales teams that waste time on menial tasks, and the inability to locate vital content crucial to closing a deal. 

Forward-thinking sales leaders try to adopt new technology into their tech stacks to address some of these issues; however, this can sometimes worsen matters. The wrong CRM and peripheral apps can create more friction, resulting in further loss of money and valuable sales time. 

How to fix this:

Implement a Revenue Operations strategy. Revenue Operations (also called RevOps) has emerged as a near-perfect model for modernizing B2B Sales and other processes within a company related to attracting, converting, and retaining customers. As a relatively new function in B2B SaaS, it’s experiencing increased adoption due to its proven ability to boost revenue growth and streamline overall operations. 

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RevOps achieves its results by focusing on aligning Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success for better cooperative effort and data transparency. In a RevOps model, these three teams support one another on a joint mission to achieve revenue excellence. That means they share metrics, content, and other information critical to closing deals, enhancing the customer experience, and increasing buyer retention.

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Because B2B sales cycles can be relatively long, Revenue Operations is particularly well-suited to the processes of nurturing leads over an extended period. As a united force and using automation and AI tools, Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success ensure that a prospect has the information, trust, and assurances they need to eventually become a buyer.

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When it comes to the technical requirements for supporting a RevOps strategy, it can be somewhat challenging to find a perfect CRM capable of seamlessly aligning company operations and supporting data transparency. A bespoke tech stack built for this purpose can quickly become expensive and unwieldy. That’s why Customer City decided to make a CRM specifically for RevOps. We suggest you schedule a demo call with us to learn how our platform can support your operations alignment goals.

2. You’re Struggling To Retain and Attract B2B Sales Talent 

As the purchasing habits of B2B customers have changed, less than 20% of their buying time is being spent interacting with Sales reps. This leaves a smaller surface area of opportunity for B2B sales teams to ply their trade. Meanwhile, sales leaders and C-suite executives are expecting them to produce more while the sales environment becomes increasingly challenging to navigate. 

Traditionally, companies will seek out sales talent with the expectation that only 20-30% of these hires will be top performers that bring in big deals. The remaining hires are expected to churn out and be replaced; in the meantime, the top performers carry the entire sales team. 

As you can imagine, this approach to sales produces a highly stressful scenario, and the stress is amplified when there is a lack of modern tools and processes available to support the work. Around 35% of reps churn away from companies each year, and whole B2B sales teams are being replaced every three to four years.

 As older Sales professionals age out and are replaced by younger generations that value work-life balance over company loyalty, this high churn percentage is expected to increase.

The legacy approach to Sales Ops represents a horrible waste of resources and is frankly inhumane as far as a career path choice. Include in the scenario that nearly 90% of Sales professionals who leave their jobs cite inadequate compensation, and you have a hiring and retention nightmare.

How to fix this:

For a B2B SaaS company to thrive in the modern economy, the legacy approach to managing B2B Sales teams must be abandoned. This will likely require a cultural shift that roots out any toxicity, failures in leadership, and barriers to team cooperation.

Sales professionals need to stop being viewed as “consumables.” Instead, they should be treated as the high-value professional team members they are. That means putting in place higher base salaries and more attractive commission plans that meet or exceed market averages. There should also be clarity around what a sales rep will earn and opportunities for lateral and upward career advancement.

Providing impactful support to your salesforce also means consulting with Sales reps to learn precisely what they require to succeed and providing them with the best digital tools and training they require to win.

3. You’re Not Giving Buyers What They Want

Digital transformation has forever changed the landscape of B2B Sales. Gone are the days when a sales rep was the first or only stop on a B2B buyer’s purchasing journey. This reality has caused significant disruption for companies that still adhere to a legacy Sales Operations model. They are being outpaced by competitors that realize that the key to winning customers is to give them what they want when they want it in the sales journey.

As mentioned before in this article, sales reps make up less than 20% of the resources a would-be customer consults before finally committing to making a purchase. According to Gartner, the majority of their purchase activity is comprised of the following:

• 27% - Independent learning online
• 18% - Independent learning offline
• 31% - Consulting with internal partners and stakeholders

By the time a prospect enters your sales funnel, it’s safe to assume they’ve completed most of the pre-sale education they’d need to be interested in what you offer. Yet, most B2B SaaS companies manage to lose the sale. This is primarily a result of ignoring the prospect’s needs. 

For example, case studies are an asset commonly requested by buyers, yet 78% of leads and customers say that B2B sellers fail to forward this content when requested. When buyers agree to meet with a sales rep, they have specific expectations, and it appears overwhelmingly that they aren’t being met.

Below are several other points of concern worth mentioning:

• 77% of buyers say that Sales reps don’t understand their specific issues or how to solve them
• 75% appear to have little to no knowledge about a buyer’s specific business
• 57% Lack knowledge about a buyer’s industry
• 70% seem unprepared for the questions the buyer asks them

The reality is a growing number of buyers (over 40%) prefer a rep-free buying experience. When they engage a sales representative, their information needs are very specific. Too many sales reps fail to prepare or provide the right content for meetings or try too hard to sell when the buyer doesn’t want or need that type of interaction.

How to fix this:

Recognize that while Digital Transformation and the abundance of online and offline content have made customers more independent, they haven’t rendered sales professionals obsolete. Buyers still need to engage sales reps, but it’s vital that you know what they need and want to hold their attention and fill any information gaps they are experiencing.

A growing segment of B2B buyers want a smooth, frictionless experience, that means providing them with automated purchasing options instead of forcing engagement with a sales agent. Make sure your website, mobile app, and other digital selling tools offer that ability.

Before you begin targeting a prospective buyer or logo, ensure you have absolute clarity on your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and that you understand their industry and challenges. Conduct appropriate research on your customer and their company prior to any engagement and be prepared to answer any questions about solving their pain points, and be prepared to back it up with proof.

Your Next Step

If improving B2B sales for your SaaS company has been a challenge for you, we hope this article provided some valuable insights. If you’re ready to take the next step toward improving your sales process, let us help. Our CRM is designed specifically for helping SaaS companies like yours modernize Sales, marketing, and Customer Success Operations. Schedule a demo with us today!

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