How well do your salespeople understand your buyers?

According to a Forrester report, only 27 percent of buyers find that salespeople are knowledgeable about the buyer's specific business, meaning an astounding 73 percent of buyers don't think salespeople understand their company's needs. That's a problem.

When it comes to sales, how you converse with a buyer matters, and can be a key differentiator between your company and your competition. It's an art form and takes a certain skill set, practice and tools to get the job done right.

Sales reps need to converse with buyers in a way that will help bring out the true challenges their businesses are facing. This way, sales reps can tailor the conversation and solution to the prospect that can actually help.

Changing the landscape

According to Accenture research, buyer needs are changing quickly. Tech-savvy individuals are typically the ones connected and in control of the buying process. For the newly networked and connected business professional, the sales cycle is changing, because buyers are more well-informed and have done thorough research before even interacting with a sales rep.

But salespeople are not taking this same approach to research and preparation; 77 percent of executive buyers claim salespeople don't understand their company's issues, or how they can help.

The problem isn't that reps don't know what they need to do, but rather, they lack systems that will support them. I recently spoke to a VP of Sales who realized that his sales reps weren't connecting well with buyers because the right value wasn't being conveyed immediately. This put the company in that 77 percent, even though he knew that they were capable of providing the right value.

Perfect pitch

In order to be successful, sales reps must nail the pitch in that first and only chance they get. For this company, it meant serving up the right case studies that showed exactly how a company like the one they were pitching used their solution to solve the same problems.

If the right content is used intelligently at the right point in the sales cycle, then buyers will be drawn to the message. If no strategy is involved and collateral isn't used productively, prospects will immediately tune out reps the second they feel that the conversation is irrelevant or that their needs are misunderstood.

At the end of the day, buyers want value. More importantly, they want sales reps and companies to understand their specific business needs. Arm your salespeople with the content they need in order to show how your solution will best assist their buyers' needs, and you'll see deals close faster.

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