Failure in many business environments means just that: failure. In B2B sales, however, things are a little different. In fact, failure is a natural \u2014 and indeed positive \u2014 part of B2B sales. Why? Because if you\u2019re closing every single lead, then chances are you\u2019re not reaching out to enough prospects. Instead, you\u2019re \u2018playing it safe\u2019; you\u2019re cherry picking the most qualified leads, and ignoring other potential opportunities. But no matter how natural failure is, it can still be an intense fear for some sales reps.<\/p>\n
\u2018Failure\u2019 in terms of B2B sales, can relate to many different issues. A sales rep may be afraid of failing to qualify a lead, and being presented with the dreaded two-letter word: \u2018no\u2019. Or it may be a fear of getting the \u2018yes\u2019 and failing to meet expectations. It could be a fear of failing to hit targets or earn commission.<\/p>\n
Here are some ways to help overcome a fear of failure in B2B sales:<\/p>\n
Remember that modern B2B sales isn\u2019t really about \u2018sales\u2019 at all. As strange as it sounds, the ongoing consumerisation of B2B sales means that today\u2019s businesses aren\u2019t just looking for a sale; they\u2019re looking to build relationships and interact and engage with their suppliers. Closing deals is just one part of the process, so if you\u2019re not achieving that, it\u2019s time to look into other ways you can bring value to the business; developing a new outreach programme, conducting on-site visits, client analysis, and so on.<\/p>\n
Modern B2B sales has come a long way from the days of the pushy reps who wouldn\u2019t take no for an answer. In fact, many businesses are starting to focus less on outbound sales, and more on inbound sales, thanks to new techniques such as content marketing and digital advertising that bring clients to you, not the other way around. Businesses that contact you are doing so because they want to, and they know that you have the potential to help them achieve their goals. Failure isn\u2019t personal; it\u2019s fact-driven.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re working in B2B sales \u2014 a direct revenue-generating department of the business \u2014 you may feel that you\u2019re at greater risk not only of failure, but of the impact of failure, too. Today, this simply isn\u2019t true. In fact, there\u2019s a book by author Daniel Pink (\u2018To Sell is Human\u2019) which estimates that 40% of ANY professional\u2019s time is spent on sales; selling ideas, selling problem-solving solutions, selling new processes or approaches. Everyone sells, and everyone will fail at some point. You\u2019re not alone.<\/p>\n
In B2B sales, we can look at failure in one of two ways. We can see a failure as a failure, or we can see a failure as a unique chance to learn. If you fail to qualify a lead, don\u2019t simply close the book. Instead, ask yourself why you didn\u2019t close; why you weren\u2019t the right option on this particular occasion. While examining our weaknesses can be difficult to do, the advantage is that it creates insight, offers a chance for you to reevaluate, and provides the opportunity to tweak processes for a better result.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Failure in many business environments means just that: failure. In B2B sales, however, things are a little different. In fact, failure is a natural \u2014 and indeed positive \u2014 part of B2B sales. Why? Because if you\u2019re closing every single…<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4646,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[205],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onsightapp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4644"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onsightapp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onsightapp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onsightapp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onsightapp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4644"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.onsightapp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4645,"href":"https:\/\/www.onsightapp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4644\/revisions\/4645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onsightapp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onsightapp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onsightapp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onsightapp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}