Why Do Your Clients Buy? Sales Intelligence Will Tell You

In the last post, I showed you reasons why a company’s prospects did not buy from our prospect. Today, I’ll show the top reasons they purchased from anyone at all.

Below, you will see a chart of the most often mentioned reasons for selecting a vendor. While price/cost is still high on the chart, in a B2B setting, a significantly higher percentage were more interested in the ability of the solution (in this case, a technology offering) to meet their needs.

Notes to Consider
• Respondent companies were able to choose more than one reason
• Percentages don’t necessarily add to 100% due to an abbreviated list of most common responses
• The above-mentioned responses include wins and losses for our prospect

If I am involved in sales in any way, how much more encouragement do I need to make sure that my sales reps LISTEN to the clients, ASK probing questions of the prospects about their needs and then MAP my solution to as many as possible?

Once I have taken that step, I would look for intelligence on my competitors. I want to know how they are mapping their solution to those same needs. I want to take the purchase decision away from cost and other factors and straight into solving their problems as elegantly as possible. If you are able to build an individual value proposition on the things that matter most, you are likely to do much more with your pipeline in short order.

BTW, the above-mentioned results are simple to gather. Ask your clients and lost prospects. They’ll be happy to tell you how your competition performed. And, if you would like a cleaner, more consistent and reliable set of data, look into a 3rd-party vendor. Odds are, your results will provide an ROI story of multiples over the expense.

And, as usual, I’ll throw in my shameless marketing plug. Primary Intelligence is ready to serve your needs. We have done more sales intelligence work than anyone else. We’ll evaluate your business, suggest a plan and follow up with recommendations, training and change management. If you need answers, give me a call (801-838-9600 x5050, cdalley@primary-intel.com)