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Who couldn’t use an arsenal of effective selling techniques? If you truly want to
improve how you sell, look no further than this research-backed collection of the very
best B2B sales techniques.

What makes these sales techniques “the best?”

The short answer is that these techniques aren’t based on personal experience,
unexamined folklore, or any so-called “best practices.”

One thing that’s clear from our research with B2B DecisionLabs is that the right
answer is often the most counterintuitive. When you choose to follow best practices,
you might be using the most popular method, but not necessarily the approach that
works best.
Best practices also are inherently “lagging practices.” It can take years to identify
something as a best practice, and by that time, it’s a common practice.
Science, on the other hand, is objective and timeless. It’s entirely focused on the buyers
and their behavior. The science doesn’t lie. Even if these sales techniques look
unfamiliar and counterintuitive, each one has been vetted by behavioral research
studies and shown to be the best approach when selling to B2B decision-makers.

So, without further ado, here are ten surprisingly effective and persuasive sales
techniques, backed by science and research.

1. sell to your buyer’s situation (not their

disposition)
The B2B buying process has become increasingly complex over the last decade. In
2015, an average of five to six people needed to sign off on each purchasing decision.
Today, Gartner reports that “the typical buying group for a complex B2B solution
involves six to 10 decision-makers.”
In other words, you’re not just selling to one person—you’re driving consensus among
multiple stakeholders. Those stakeholders may not share the same title or demographic
information, but they do have one thing in common: their situation.
People don’t buy from you because of who they are, their demographics, or their job
characteristics. They’re more concerned with whether or not their current situation is
putting their business goals at risk.

2. disrupt your prospect’s status quo

Many sales reps assume that the sales process is linear—a set of repeatable steps that
every prospect goes through during the sales cycle. And, at some point, it concludes
with the prospect choosing either you or your competitor.
The truth is, those aren’t the only two endpoints. There’s a third option for your buyers:
“no decision.”

Studies show that at least 40 percent of deals in the pipeline are lost to “no
decision” rather than to competitors. That’s because of something called Status Quo
Bias—your prospect’s natural aversion to doing something different than what they’re
doing today.
As the outsider, you’re fighting inertia—your buyer’s natural tendency to stay with their
current situation. To persuade them to change and choose you, you need to disrupt
your prospect’s status quo, drive the need for change, and create a buying vision that
differentiates you from your competition.
Keep in mind, however, that you can’t just start touting your solutions’ features and
benefits. Your prospect won’t care about your solution if they don’t first see the need to
change.

Instead, focus on creating the urgency to change by establishing that your prospect’s
status quo prevents them from reaching their most important business goals.

3. introduce unconsidered needs

If you base your approach on what your prospects tell you their needs are, whether
through voice of the customer research or discovery questions, you’re then inclined to
connect your solution’s specific capabilities to those identified needs.

The problem is, your competitors are responding to those same inputs
from their  prospects and customers. So, you end up delivering commodity
messages that won’t differentiate you.
When prospects hear and read similar messages from you and your competitors, they
see no contrast between their choices. There’s no compelling reason or urgency to
change, so the buyer opts to stick with the status quo.

Telling your buyer about pain points they already know about doesn’t make you a
trusted advisor—it makes you a tape recorder. To create the urgency to change and
overcome Status Quo Bias, you need to introduce prospects to Unconsidered Needs—
unmet or yet unknown problems or missed opportunities that are holding back their
business.
Research conducted by B2B DecisionLabs  found that a provocative message that
begins by introducing an Unconsidered Need enhances your persuasive impact
by 10 percent.

4. tell customer stories with contrast

Unconsidered Needs are potent tools to show your prospects the need for change. But
what comes next? How do you build a buying vision that connects to your solution?

To create a powerful perception of value in your sales conversations, you need to

highlight the gap between the “before” story (the flawed current approach) and the
“after” story (the improved new way). It’s that contrast that creates the urgency to
take action in the mind of your buyer.
The same general principle applies when you’re trying to justify the purchase decision
to executives. When you 1) identify missing gaps or opportunities that affect their
highest-level strategic goals, and 2) justify the business impact of the decision by telling
a customer story with contrast, they feel more urgency to make a decision now.

5. avoid the parity trap in sales conversations

When you’re selling your value proposition to prospects, how much overlap is there
between what you can provide and what your competition can provide?
Most B2B salespeople admit that overlap is 70 percent or higher. In competitive
categories, many companies can feasibly do the job with similar capabilities and pricing.
And if your buyers don’t see enough differentiation between you and other choices,
they’re more likely to run a side-by-side bake-off based on price.

That’s the last place you want to be.

Salespeople fail to articulate value when they commit the three deadly sins of sales
messaging:

 Providing too much information

 Not describing value from the buyer’s perspective
 Failing to identify what’s different about them
Rather than competing within that “value parity area,” focus on what you can do for the
customer that’s different from what the competition can do. This is your Value
Wedge, and it’s where you find your distinct point of view.

Your Value Wedge must meet three essential criteria:

1. It’s unique to you. Communicate a message that’s completely different than
your competitors.
2. It’s important to the customer. Provide value by highlighting gaps and
opportunities in the way your prospect is doing things today, and then show
how your approach will resolve those issues.
3. It’s defensible. Document proof points to demonstrate how other companies
overcame similar challenges by adopting your proposed solution.
When you create a solution story that meets those three criteria, you offer a distinct
point of view that sets your solution apart from the competition and communicates real
value to your prospect.
When you’re telling customer stories, include financial proof to underpin the
buying vision. But don’t be afraid to link that data with emotion. One way to
do that is to talk about people affected by the challenging environment they
were working in. Then talk about how their lives became better, easier, or
less stressful after using your solution.

6. make your customer the hero

There’s a large body of research about the cognitive effects of stories for motivating
behavior change. And in a selling context, stories are a powerful way to illustrate your
solution’s value to your prospect.
Every story needs a hero—someone you relate to as they overcome obstacles on their
journey toward happily ever after. But who’s the hero of your story? And does that
change depending on how you phrase your message?

It seems logical to show your prospects and customers that you understand their world
by positioning yourself as a member of their tribe. The word “we” implies that the
provider and buyer are “in it together.” But research shows that when you use this type
of we-phrasing, your buyer will be less likely to take action.

A typical hero’s journey goes something like this:

1. The hero is a character who struggles with a problem
2. The hero meets a wise mentor who understands their problem
3. This mentor gives the hero new insight, provides a plan, and drives them to
action
4. Armed with newfound confidence and a plan, the hero faces their problem
5. The hero overcomes the problem, realizes their potential, and reaches their
goal
In your story, your buyer is the one who needs to save the day, not you. Your role is
that of the mentor. You’re there to help your prospects and customers see what’s
changed in their world and how they can adapt to survive better and thrive.

So, position your buyer as the hero of their own story by using “you-phrasing.”
According to B2B DecisionLabs research, changing the pronoun from “we” to “you” in
your pitch can add urgency and make your prospect feel more personally responsible
for solving the problem.

You-phrasing compels your prospect to question their status quo, paints an achievable
buying vision, and holds your prospect’s attention in a way that separates your
message from the competition.

See the research report, The Impact of You-phrasing on Customer

Conversations, to learn more.
7. avoid the hammock during sales presentations
Your buyers will pay attention to about 70 percent of the information from the
beginning of your sales presentation, and their attention peaks at the end. But in the
middle, their attention wanes, and if you don’t spike their attention and focus, they’ll
remember very little.

When plotted on a graph, this trend forms a hammock shape. This “hammock effect”
persists in all lengths and types of messages, including email, phone calls, virtual sales
meetings, and proposals.

After your meeting, the first thing your buyers recall will naturally be the last thing you
said. But what about all those juicy details in the middle?

To overcome the hammock effect and fight the brain’s natural tendency to tune out,
you have to spike attention in the middle using “grabbers”—that is, specific selling
techniques designed to grab your buyer’s attention and get them re-engaged in the
conversation.

One example of a grabber is a Number Play. In a Number Play, you write down three
numbers before explaining them. Then tell the story behind the numbers, gradually
revealing their meaning. The story should be short, focused on your buyer’s world, and
offer insight into the challenges your solution addresses.

Here’s an example of a Number Play grabber:

You sell workforce management software, and your prospect is currently using multiple
systems and manual processes to manage their workforce—which is causing errors.
You write down the numbers 3, 1.5, and 70 to help tell your story. As you give your
pitch, you reveal that the numbers have the following meanings:

 3 = “A three percent error rate, which is the lowest you can get when using
manual processes and multiple systems. This is substantial, and it will never
go away unless you change your systems and processes.
 1.5 = “1.5 million, which is the amount that 3 percent error rate is costing
you each year. This means four or five full-time employees are manually
working to correct the errors.
 70 = “70,000; this is the amount needed to defend the average wage and
hour lawsuit. In today’s competitive marketplace, this isn’t a good use of
your limited resources.
“To change these numbers, you need to validate your data at the source—which is
what our software can help you do.”

For more on how to keep your audience focused and engaged during virtual
meetings, get our e-book, Virtual is Vital: How to Make Virtual Sales Calls
Engaging and Memorable.

10. don’t challenge existing customers

According to analysts, as much as 70–80 percent of the average company’s revenue
comes from existing customers.

Yet, most sales and marketing leaders (nearly 60 percent) see no need to take a
different approach between customer acquisition and customer expansion . More
than half believe the same provocative messages and sales techniques they use with
new prospects are still applicable in a renewal scenario with customers.
Despite this pervasive belief, B2B DecisionLabs research shows that customer
retention and expansion conversations require entirely different messages and skills. In
fact, using a provocative, challenging message when you’re trying to renew or expand
business with your customers will increase the likelihood that they’ll shop around by at
least 10-16 percent.
The study demonstrated the impact of Loss Aversion, a behavioral concept important
to Prospect Theory. Pioneered by social psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel
Kahneman, Prospect Theory states that humans are two to three times more likely to
make a decision or take a risk to avoid a loss than to do the same to achieve a gain.
When you’re trying to justify the decision and close the deal, frame the status quo as a
risk to be avoided.
Risk is one of the few subjects that doesn’t get delegated down. When you introduce
risk and then create a buying vision for the executive to solve that risk, you light up
their brain to think and act more urgently.

appeal to emotions (not just data)

There’s a longstanding myth that executives are strictly rational in their decision-
making, influenced only by data, quantitative results, and ROI. But that’s simply not the
case.

Even at an executive level, people make subconscious, emotional decisions before the
brain’s rational and analytical part takes over to justify the decision. In fact, a B2B
DecisionLabs research study found that executive decision-makers are just as swayed
by emotionally charged factors as anybody else.
In the study, executives chose between two recovery plans after an economic
downturn. The messages were mathematically identical, but they framed the status quo
as either a gain or a loss.

 Gain frame message: This plan has a one-third probability of saving all
three plants and all 6,000 jobs but has a two-thirds probability of saving no
plants and no jobs.
 Loss frame message: This plan has a two-thirds probability of resulting in
the loss of all three plants and all 6,000 jobs but has a one-third probability
of losing no plants and no jobs.
The results? Executives were 70 percent more likely to choose a risky option when
the status quo was framed as a loss to be avoided.
create price uncertainty during sales
negotiations
Traditional sales negotiation training teaches salespeople to “power up” or seize the
upper hand in a negotiation. But that approach isn’t as effective as it used to be.
Your buyers now have all the power. They approach negotiations armed with the
confidence to demand discounts—and walk away when they don’t get them. So, how
can you leverage your low-power position and protect your value during tough
negotiations?

One way to reframe your buyers’ perception of your value is to introduce Unconsidered
Needs (remember those?). This approach creates price uncertainty by disrupting their
perceived value of your solution. In other words, you increase your value in your
buyer’s mind by bringing to light insights and opportunities that they didn’t know were
important to them.
Creating price uncertainty is the first step. But what happens when buyers start making
demands and asking for discounts as negotiations drag on?

As deals get increasingly complex, late-stage negotiating tactics become increasingly

irrelevant. Your ability to create profitable outcomes depends on how deftly you
navigate crucial moments of the sales process—moments that have the potential to
change the nature of your opportunity to close the deal profitably.

To help you close more deals from a low-power position, consider the concept of Pivotal
Agreements. The five types of Pivotal Agreements are value-based exchanges that you
can use to advance your deals while protecting your margins.

When you’re the outsider, engaging new prospects, it makes sense to use a
provocative, challenging approach that introduces Unconsidered Needs, disrupts their
status quo, and persuades them to choose you.

But when you’re the insider, you are your customer’s status quo. You need to reinforce
their natural Status Quo Bias and defend the reasons why you’re still the safest choice.