B2B Sales: From "No" to "Yes"

No company survives without customers.

Obviously.

The more you align all your sales efforts with the needs and wants of people who buy your products or services, the more successful you’ll be.

Also obvious.

And yet, when it comes down to the day-to-day, a lot of SDRs and AEs just don't "get" who you're trying to sell to.

Lots of companies use ideal customer profiles to solve this problem, but most ICPs don’t go deep enough, or connect directly enough with what sales teams really need, which is empathy.

Empathy is defined as the capacity to see things from somebody else’s point of view — to put yourself in their shoes and walk around for a while.

Empathy doesn’t come naturally to everyone, which is why details make such a big difference.

Even though the trend in ICPs is to include just a few facts like account size, industry, occupation, "buying committee role," etc., it's actually all the other kinds of details that help you figure out how to sell somebody on something:

• A personality description.

• A set of drives and motivations.

• A specific lifestyle choice.

• A cognitive style.

• A behavioral tendency.

These kinds of details are what brings about those “A-Ha!” moments where you suddenly understand where somebody is coming from and what angle to take to engage them, nurture them and close them.