When it comes to expectations, B2B buyers and sales managers couldn’t be any different.
While managers expect their team to be efficient and bring in clients, buyers aren’t concerned about the efficiency of a sales cycle. They expect to get value out of the relationship.
Too often, salespeople get caught up trying to meet the expectations of their manager when they should be focusing on the expectations of the buyer.
Here are five expectations of buyers that your salespeople should be meeting.
1) Personal Accountability
Buyers want a relationship with their sales reps. They don’t just want you to pass them off to sales support all the time. They want to know that you’re “in” with them, for better or worse, throughout the sales relationship.
2) A Detailed Understanding Of Their Businesses
This shouldn’t surprise you. Even if you have 10 clients, each client should feel like you are a part of his team, not just a rep, and that starts with knowing your client's business inside and out.
3) Easy Accessibility
There is nothing more frustrating than being neck-deep in an emergency and your rep is nowhere to be found. Even if it’s not an emergency, clients expect prompt responses. Get back to them as soon as possible to make them feel valued and important.
4) Insights, Not Products
No one likes to be sold something over and over, especially when it feels like your time together could be better spent optimizing what you have already bought. Put simply--buyers expect insights, not products. A new product should be mentioned only if you truly think it’ll provide more value.
5) Creativity
If a buyer or someone on the buyer’s team could have figured out that same solution, then what use are you really? Clients need you to bring creativity to their problems, new solutions, and answers that couldn’t have been found in-house.
In the long run, meeting client expectations will help you also meet the expectations of your manager.
What else do clients usually expect of you during the sales process?