B2B buying (and selling), like everything else in life, is not static and predictable. Impacted by numerous variables in the national and global business climate, B2B buying is guaranteed to change over time and, so it seems, not for the better. Among the most costly changes that have overtaken the current B2B sales environment is a longer and more complex sales cycle. As documented by market researchers at Gartner, B2B purchase decisions now typically involve 5–11 stakeholders. Review and evaluation of aspiring vendor proposals can range from 3–18 months depending on the dollar amount of your sale. Factor in the demands of prospective buyers, who’ve come to expect personalized engagement at every touchpoint in the sales process—demands that have been fed by artificial intelligence powered software—the complexity of B2B selling has intensified.

To keep up, Freelance professionals have had to adapt their sales process to the expectations of the evolving business environment and get their marketing playbook up to speed. It is imperative that Freelancers sell their (online) prospect inquiries in the way they want to be sold as they make their way through the buyer’s journey.

Examine Top-of-Funnel performance

A scattershot approach to inbound marketing will not suffice. Only an efficient strategy, beginning with the first round of marketing content that constitutes your top-of-funnel (TOFU) outreach, that’s designed to grab the attention of prospects searching for a solution to solve a problem or achieve a goal. You must provide an appealing pitch and marketing info that convinces prospects that the info is worth the time it takes to skim through. If info that seems to indicate that your solution might be the right one, but you don’t make a strong case and it doesn’t stand out, you risk losing those who would be interested in your solution, if only they knew what it’s all about. Your objective in TOFU is to make prospects linger, check out your info, and envision how your solution might be effective for their needs.

Give your solutions a high-functioning TOFU pitch + collaterals—they are the best tools for the job and developing those resources to support your in-bound marketing will pay off. An “all things to all people” generic message with a diffuse user case that does not clearly identify pain points by definition will not capture the attention of prospects on a buyer’s journey. You need information that cuts to the chase and leaves no doubt regarding the outcomes and results that your solution will achieve. You’ve got to get this right, because as Gartner has found, 67% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free sales experience, increasing the importance of consistent qualification, follow-up and digital engagement throughout the sales process.

Populating your TOFU with the right content enables B2B prospects to feel in control of the sales process, which is what they prefer, and minimizes the time spent answering questions and explaining the strengths of your service or product. It’s in your interest to limit whatever has the potential to lengthen the B2B sales cycle and add more days to a process that has become demonstrably longer. Wouldn’t you rather spend time identifying decision-makers, maybe getting a chance to meet one or more of them, confirming what your prospect wants to achieve when using your solution and otherwise getting closer to getting paid?

4 tactics to shorten the length of your B2B sales cycles

Your sales funnel is meant to ensure that prospects on a buyer’s journey understand your organizations’ capabilities and can envision why your solution can be expected to deliver the necessary results. Starting at the TOFU stage, your marketing info must communicate the pain points that your solution will effectively address. Eliminating wasted time is a valuable achievement that enables a shorter sales cycle by making sure the prospect isn’t chasing rainbows. During conversations with the client, you can flesh out more details and learn more about the project and client expectations, in their own words.

I. Shortening B2B sales cycles begins with the quality of leads entering your pipeline. Let’s begin at the beginning. It’s in your interest to reach out to prospects who have a need for your solution and TOFU is the stage where leads are qualified. Describing the motivations of typical prospective buyers of your solution reduces prospect confusion, saves would-be buyers and yourself from the wasted time and disappointment of incorrect assumptions and helps prospects travel more efficiently through each stage of the buying journey. Use your value proposition to start building a persuasive business case during the TOFU stage. Encourage prospects to estimate what the problem or not-yet-achieved goal is costing in revenue, time and/or risk. Work with the project contact to quantify what it costs to let the problem continue unresolved today, in revenue, time, or risk? Use that info to contrast the expected value that your proposed solution will deliver—what measurable value will your solution create? A good project contact will advocate for you and share some insight into what the decision team and other pivotal stakeholders want to hear and the language that will resonate with them.

II. More contacts on the client side = more allies for you. Working with just one contact at your prospect’s organization, while common, leaves Freelancers in a vulnerable position. All your eggs will be in one basket. Think about it—the life (or death) of your sale will be in the hands of one individual and that’s a real risk. That person has complete control and you are unable to make a move without him/her. If project progress stalls, you have no other in-house ally to tell you what’s really going on and no one to advocate for you. When there is only one voice, one perspective, that comes from the buyer’s side, things can easily get off track. A busy week, a vacation, even a promotion—everything could stop until the project contact returns. If a sales deal that is already in motion and 50% or more on the way to closing, if the sales rep has just one official inside contact to support his/her solution, the proposal is vulnerable to an extended B2B sales cycle.

Deals where the sales rep has three or more contacts involved on the decision team successfully close at 67% of sales opportunities, while just 23% of sales close successfully for single contact. The good news is that multi-contact relationships can potentially shorten the B2B sales cycle length and simultaneously improve your win rates. If you know who’s on the decision team, you have a better chance to provide those stakeholders with information that’s personalized and crafted to answer the questions and concerns they’re inclined to have. You’ll build greater confidence in your solution and encourage a yes vote for yourself when the vendor is chosen.

Incidentally, this scenario gives you another reason to keep up with networking, to develop relationships that bring in referrals. Even if your friend on the inside is not on the committee, that person might still be able to help you monitor what’s happening with decision process and figure out where you stand and how you might strengthen your position.

III. Confirm buyer intent and plan. In the first prospect meeting, invite him/her to describe the pain point or goal and listen carefully to how s/he expects the chosen solution to produce the result or outcomes—what will the prospect’s company look like in the immediate aftermath of project completion and what will it look like 12 months later? In other words, your objective is to confirm whether or not you are able to deliver the desired resolution. Needless to say, you must get that squared away up front.

During the second conversation with your prospect, it is necessary to clarify four critical factors. Sales proposals where all four are confirmed by the second prospect conversation/meeting will close 30 to 40% faster than deals where this information is revealed over six (or more) weeks.

• Budget: what do they plan to spend and is that amount in the right ballpark for you?
• Timeline: When is the project deadline and when do they expect work to start?
• Decision authority: How many steps and approvals are involved, and who has the final sign-off? Can you meet anyone from the team?
• Need: Is there consensus that the project is needed? Is the pain point too big to ignore, is the goal mission-critical?

IV. Arm your project contact with tools that sell your proposal. You only get one chance to sell your proposal to the prospect’s decision committee and you won’t even be in the room. It falls on your project contact, the decision team member who brought you in and is your primary contact. It will give you peace of mind if you help your project contact to sell the decision committee on your proposal. Unfortunately, you will not be invited to attend meetings with the committee, or meetings run by make-or-break stakeholders, in particular the Chief Finance Officer, who wants to make sure that the Return on Investment of your proposal is acceptable. Your project contact will probably appreciate clear and concise talking points that you can provide in the following documents:

• One-page pitch: A buyer-focused summary the project contact can take to decision committee. You’ll succinctly and clearly explain the business case, project timeline with milestones and the cost of inaction.
• Objection responses: Prepare responses to the three most common internal blockers the project contact is likely to face.
• Mutual Action Plan: Set clear project milestones, document who owns what responsibilities and due dates, to keep both sides accountable and the sale moving forward.‍

Mutual Action Plans are the single most effective tool for ensuring that your big sale moves forward—hopefully with a signed contract for you! Looking organized and prepared can only make you and your solution look like the best choice. When your project contact has agreed to specific milestones by a specific date, and the deal has a credible timeline, it ensures that the proposal is actionable and beneficial to the company.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Sean Anthony Eddy for iStock