FundingStrat

 

What is B2B Sales?

 

B2B, short for Business to Business, refers to companies that sell their products/services mainly to other businesses, rather than consumers.  There are mainly three types of B2B sales: supply sales, distribution sales, and service sales.

 

Supply Sales

 

In supply sales, a business provides another with products it routinely needs to operate.  Think office supplies, equipment, workwear, etc.  Companies usually provide these orders in bulk and require management authorization.

 

Distribution Sales

 

In distribution sales, a wholesaler sells products in large quantities to another company, which turns around and sells these products to consumers at a markup.  Think a manufacturing company and a retailer, like a supermarket.

 

Service Sales

 

In this case, instead of a physical product, one business provides a service to another.  Think software, legal counsel, accounting services, business finance advising, etc.

 

What is B2C Sales then?

 

B2C sales (Business to Consumer) is when a business sells its products directly to the individual consumer.  It refers to any sales process that sells directly to cosumers, like GAP, Amazon, Zappos, Netflix, etc.

 

Where do B2B and B2C share similarities?

 

Both B2B and B2C sales require comprehensive knowledge and extensive experience about product, customers, and servicing them.  In both sales models, the process is centered around the customer.  The primary goal between sales reps in both B2B and B2C is transforming the prospect into a customer.

 

Also, in most cases, customers in both models are considerably well-versed in the products they intend to purchase.  With the advent of the internet, customers typically make an effort to gather as much information about products so they can make sound decisions at the time of purchase.

 

Key Similarities

• Excellent Customer Service and Experience required
• Consistent and Customer-centric Sales Process required
• Authenticity and Credibility required
• Customer Loyalty is an overarching goal
• Contemporary Buyers are more knowledgeable compared to prior generations

 

How do they differ?

Keep on Reading!

 

 

MEDDICC was pioneered by Jack Napoli, when he was at technology company PTC, in order to better pipeline and close bigger deals.  Other sales qualification frameworks got them from $0 to $100M no problem, but from $100M to $1 billion, there needed to be a better process created upfront.

 

In SAAS, MEDDICC has been a great framework for products that require transformation of behavior or incredibly high sales prices.  For Funding Pros, MEDDICC can be helpful in working with bigger deals, where the decision maker is not necessarily the owner of the company (office manager, bookkeeper, CFO, etc.), and what you have to offer isn’t exactly the kind of bank financing products they’ve been used to.

 

This is where really understanding exactly how a prospect buys, why they would buy, and who’s championing you internally is crucial to moving these type of bigger deals forward.

 

MEDDIC stands for:

 

Metrics – What is the economic impact of the solution?

 

Economic Buyer – Who has profit and loss responsibility for this?

 

Decision Criteria – What are their technical, vendor and financial criteria?

 

Decision Process – Then what happens / Define validation and approval?

 

Identify Pain – What are their primary business objectives?

 

Champion – Who will sell on your behalf?

 

Competition – Who are we competing against and why?

 

Here are examples of MEDDICC questions that have routinely been used:

 

Metrics

 

How would you measure the success of your project?

 

Which metrics are you already using to achieve your objectives?

 

Economic Buyer

 

What does success look like for you?

 

Who, in addition to yourself, is involved in making this decision happen?

 

 

Decision Criteria

 

How do you typically arrive at these decisions?

 

How do you typically calculate the ROI for a project like this to justify the investment?

 

 

Decision Process

 

Which personnel are involved and what are the steps to reach the decision?

 

What does the approval process for a program like this typically look like?

 

Identify Pain

 

How quickly do you need to act on this decision?

 

What are implications of not getting this done?

 

Champion

 

How does this person have influence?

 

What is his/her personal interest?

 

Competition

 

Who are we competing against?

 

What about them is appealing?

 

How can you start tailoring this approach to some of the bigger deals in your pipeline?

 

 

Recap:

On our Sales Process map, if each Stage is a mile marker on the highway to Funding, the roadways in between the markers are the Phases.

 

Here are all the Phases:

 

• Phase 1 – The Prospecting Phase

 

• Phase 2 – The Consulting Phase

 

• Phase 3 – The Application Sending Phase

 

• Phase 4 – The Application Reeling-in Phase

 

• Phase 5 – The Submitting Phase

 

• Phase 6 – The Closing Phase

 

• Phase 7 – The Contracting Phase

 

• Phase 8 – The Contract Reeling-in Phase

 

• Phase 9 – The Closing Stip Reeling-in Phase

 

• Phase 10 – The Funding Phase

 

Each one of these Phases has specific steps to complete to get to the next Stage, and there are Key Steps to take in each Stage to accelerate your sales cycles and closings.

This is what it looks like when we put it all together:

• Stage 0 – Start:

How do I know for sure I am at this Stage?

• We have prepared and are ready to engage our Lead, pick up the phone and make contact.

Next:  Phase 1 – The Prospecting Phase

 

• Stage 1 – The Prospected Stage:

            How do I know for sure I am at this Stage?

• The Lead has been pre-qualified and confirmed to be a Prospect worth pursuing.

Next:  Phase 2 – The Consulting Phase

 

• Stage 2 – The Consulted Stage:

How do I know for sure I am at this Stage?

• The Prospect has been consulted about their goals/needs/obstacles, how our solutions can help them achieve their outcome, and has confirmed they want a quote.

Next: Phase 3 – The Application Sending Phase

 

• Stage 3 – The Application Out Stage:

How do I know for sure I am at this Stage?

• The Application has been sent to the Prospect, and it has been confirmed it was received.

Next: Phase 4 – The Application Reeling-in Phase 

 

• Stage 4 – The Application In Stage:

How do I know for sure I am at this Stage?

• The Application is in with all supporting paperwork.

Next: Phase 5 – The Submitting Phase

 

• Stage 5 – The Submission Stage:

How do I know for sure I am at this Stage?

• The Funding Package/Application has been submitted to Underwriting.

Next: Phase 6 – The Closing Phase

 

• Stage 6 – The Pitched Approval Stage:

How do I know for sure I am at this Stage?

• The Approval(s) have been pitched and sold to the Prospect.

Next: Phase 7 – The Contracting Phase

 

• Stage 7 – The Contract Out Stage:

How do I know for sure I am at this Stage?

• The Prospect has demonstrated intent to fund, requested contracts and we have sent them out.

Next: Phase 8 – The Contract Reeling-in Phase

 

• Stage 8 – The Contract In Stage:

How do I know for sure I am at this Stage?

• The signed Contract is in.

Next: Phase 9 – The Closing Stip Reeling-in Phase

 

• Stage 9 – The Closing Stips In Stage:

How do I know for sure I am at this Stage?

• All closing stips UW need to fund are in.

Next: Phase 10 – The Funding Phase

 

• Stage 10 – The Funded Stage – End:

How do I know for sure I am at this Stage?

• The deal has funded, great work!

 

*Phase 5 – The Submitting Phase*

Keep on Reading!

 

 

What is a Compelling Event?

 

A Sales Compelling Event is a customer’s business pain that needs to be solved/opportunity that must be captured by a certain date, or else.

 

In other words, a compelling event has an economic owner, a defined date and is a direct response to a business pressure.  The action to deliver a significant business result, either to capture opportunity or to reduce pain.  The event itself defines the reason for the economic owner to act now.

 

Why are Compelling Events important?

 

Merchants have many compelling events (business pressures and opportunities) that are routinely spread across every calendar year.  Some are variable (showing up almost unexpectedly) and some are fixed (consistently and predictably occurring at various date-points).

 

Compelling events trigger buying decisions – drive funding decisions.

 

Knowing your way through the compelling events that are driving the funding decisions on the specific deal you are working on, as well as those that affect all of your prospects and customers routinely, allows you to consult them that much more effectively as their Trusted Advisor.

 

This in turn drives your efficiency on shortening sales cycles and helping more customers get funded.

 

Corporate Tax Deadline

Keep on Reading!

 

One week before the first Macintosh computer was supposed to ship, Steve Jobs’ engineers told him they were running behind and could not make the deadline.  On a very uncomfortable conference call, the engineers explained that they would need an additional two weeks’ work before it was ready.

 

Jobs responded calmly, explaining to the engineers that if they could make it in two weeks, they could surely make it in one.  There was no real difference in the timeframe, and, more importantly, they’d come this far and done such good work, there was no way they would not ship January 16th, the original ship date.

 

Jobs’ expectations and insistence continually pushed his engineers past what they thought was possible.  The engineers rallied and made their deadline.

 

Early in life, Steve came to find that reality was a collection of falsely hemmed-in rules and compromises that people had been taught as children.  Through continued practice, Jobs came to develop a much more aggressive idea of what was or wasn’t possible.  To him, the combination of vision and work ethic could make much of life malleable.

Keep on Reading!