A day in a buyer-first life

The gap between sales teams and their most important buyers is growing. In our latest States of Sales survey, 90% of C-suite executives said they no longer respond to impersonal sales outreach. Instead, they choose to engage selectively with reps that they already see as trusted advisors. The problem is, with the average sales professional now spending only 34% of their time selling, the opportunity to build such trusted relationships is increasingly hard to come by.

The solution lies in empowering sales teams with a buyer-first methodology that focuses on informed and customised outreach. Buyer-first sales teams identify opportunities to solve buyer problems rather than opportunities to push product features – and they build timing plans and schedules on buyers’ terms. This enables them to demonstrate value from the outset and helps them get maximum return on their efforts by reaching out at the right time. They’ve got greater potential to build relationships, and that potential is supported by data-driven sales organisations that assign books of business based on those in the best position to form trusted connections at an account.

From buyer-first principle to buyer-first practice

It’s a powerful idea – but then again, many ideas in sales sound powerful in theory. The question that sales leaders and their reps have learned to ask is: how does all this play out in practice? As part of our recent online Sales Leaders Summit, the VP Product Management for LinkedIn Sales Solutions, Lindsey Edwards shared the answer.

Lindsey talked through what a day in the life of a buyer-first sales professional looks like. It’s a story of what happens when salespeople are equipped with technology that’s always ready to tell them the next best move – and which keeps them constantly informed about the potential for building new relationships.

Meet Jack – a relationship manager with a buyer-first toolkit

It’s the start of the financial year for a customer services software company and one of its relationship managers, Jack, has just received his assigned accounts from Sales Operations as a CSV file. So far, so familiar. The difference comes when Jack uploads that CSV file to LinkedIn Sales Navigator. Doing so automatically generates an overview of his accounts that pulls in the latest data from the company’s CRM and crucially, up-to-the-minute data from LinkedIn.

This means that, for each account, Jack doesn’t just see key information such as the renewal date and the key influencers and decision-makers. He can also check the last time he reached out to them and other recent activity. And that’s just the start.

Shortly after Jack uploads his account list to Sales Navigator, he receives an alert. One of the accounts has a large renewal opportunity coming up in a month’s time – and the VP Marketing, one of the key decision-makers at the business, has recently left. This introduces a new level of risk, not least because of the strong relationship that Jack had built with this VP, Amy. When he checks the account, Jack sees that Sales Navigator has already identified the new VP Marketing, Mia, and he’s able to add her as a new contact in the CRM, directly from Sales Navigator.

Meanwhile, Sales Navigator adds Amy to a list of potential future opportunities, ready to alert Jack when she takes up a new role at another business. Given the strength of Jack’s relationship with her, such a move is likely to represent a valuable opening.

Identifying the right moment to reach out

Jack’s day is far from finished. He goes back to his account list and sees a real-time alert that LinkedIn data shows another one of his accounts is expanding headcount. It’s an indicator of a business in growth mode. Jack responds by using Sales Navigator to identify the key decision-makers at the business, and the contacts that he has an existing relationship with. He’s able to find a mutual connection, asks for a quick introduction and is able to secure a meeting. He’s off and running on a potential growth opportunity.

Equipping salespeople to think differently about opportunities

What makes Jack different from the many other sales professionals out there who are skilled in building relationships? It’s not that others are less interested in understanding a buyer’s needs and reaching out at the right moment – or less motivated to take action when circumstances at an account change. The difference is that Jack has a real-time source of insight that enables him to put these instincts to work in a targeted, efficient and highly effective way. He’s empowered to put the buyer first in the decisions he makes, without having to invest time speculatively in searching for opportunities to do so.

Crucially, he’s able to do this in a way that’s fully GDPR compliant, that leverages the most accurate, reliable source of data on account activity available – and that prioritises reaching out at moments when a buyer is most likely to appreciate it. If the insight that reaches you is buyer-first, then the actions you take as a result of it are bound to be so as well. And that’s the best course of action when it comes to closing the gap between buyers and sellers today.

If you’d like more insight on a day in a buyer-first life, then you can catch up on the full LinkedIn Sales Leaders Summit, on-demand.