Yesterday, the students of the January session and the Akimbo team were at the conference organized by Station F on the theme “How to Scale your B2B Sales with Stripe, Uptale, OVH & Zendesk”. A look back at the 10 ideas to remember and repeat every morning.
1. Business is not business and B2B sales
B2B Sales is generating revenue X on a date Y with a number of client companies Z. In other words, it is a quantitative performance, not a feeling based on 30 meetings with potential prospects. An agenda full of breakfasts and lunches does not bring in turnover as such.
We talk about it a lot about the Akimbo Bootcamp to become a Business Developer!
2. Wait before hiring your first Sales
Far too many co-founders forget: 1) that they are the 1st Sales of their startup; 2) that it is above all they, then the product, then their existing customers who are the first vectors of sales. As Sylvain Rouri (OVH) said: “Wait, wait, wait before your start hiring Sales people”. Coming from a Chief Sales Officer, the advice has something to score 🙌.
3. High Touch vs Low Touch In B2B Sales
You need to know yourself and assume your role model. Broadly speaking, there are two main B2B solution models: High Touch & Low Touch.
- High Touch: complex solution, which requires recurrent and intensive customer interaction with personalized advice and onboarding.
- Low Touch: simple solution, rather transactional sale, low average basket.
Once your model is defined, adapt your entire Sales organization and your processes to this model. In concrete terms, a Low Touch model requires a self-service approach where prospects subscribe to the offer by themselves. As Guillaume Princen (Stripe) said: “Revenue = Pipeline x Talents”.
4. Enterprise vs Startup in B2B Sales
Selling to an SMB target and selling to an Enterprise/Key Accounts target is undoubtedly day and night. Too many startups are abandoning the segment Enterprise because it's a world they don't understand. If you want to focus on this segment, consider:
- add services to your offer — implementation, training, etc.;
- make your offer local — website translated into the language of the country;
- Play on social proof — big accounts are watching carefully what their competitors are doing.
The best thing is always to be able to identify your Ideal Customer Profile.
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5. B2B Sales requires making strong choices
Not making choices or making choices that are not taken for granted is the most common and the most dramatic mistake entrepreneurs make. It's the best way to kill your startup. So test and assume: change it Pricing (see below), focus on the 20% of customers for whom your startup is essential, eliminate the free trial phase, etc.
6. Educating the customer in B2B Sales
One of the roles of Sales is to create value for its customer by educating them about a problem, a market or an issue (information, best practices, contacts, etc.). But for that you need feedback and data, so:
- Focus on the Value business vs business volume;
- Use CRM to find out why your startup is winning or losing a deal.
7. Proof of concept (POC) in B2B sales
One of the mandatory steps in selling to large accounts is often the POC. Don't refuse POCs when customers ask you to, BUT :
- Set an agenda together;
- validate specific (quantitative) evaluation criteria;
- Don't give anything without getting something in return.
8. Change the price in B2B Sales
The closest 20 to 30% growth in turnover are in the Pricing : in the short term, increasing prices is the easiest victory an entrepreneur can get. You need to iterate on pricing, just like you iterate on the product. But once you have decided to test pricing, don't negotiate: lowering your price means lowering your value.
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9. End users matter in B2B Sales
In many cases, B2B startups forget to talk directly to end users to focus only on the decision maker (s). However, they represent an enormous source of information and potentially recommendations. Recommendation applicable to all: meet several end users before meeting the decision-maker, and open a free conversation with them where you can already provide them with value.
10. Playing against the competition in B2B Sales
When competing, know:
- when to say no to a prospect and why — when you seem poorly positioned in relation to their needs and competing offers;
- Define your 2-3 differentiating elements that make your offer unique;
- let your team — Sales and others — shine rather than your product;
- Position yourself above the competition rather than in front of it.
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