In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks with the co-author of the international award winning sales novel The Wentworth Prospect: A Novel Guide to Success in B2B Sales, Wayne Moloney.
Wayne and Josh explore some of the biggest issues in B2B sales today. Wayne shares that people are forgetting the basics. There are a lot of snake oil tricks returning to this space and it’s becoming more prevalent and annoying than ever. Spam bots generate blatantly faked “personalized” messaging and blow up our inboxes inordinately. The basics haven’t changed, Wayne shares. The technology and tactics have changed, but a strong foundation starts with the same basics.
The first basic principle is to build strong relationships. Many sales “gurus” say relationship selling is dead. Relationship selling is about building strong and trusting relationships that come with tangible outcomes. You’re not just a ‘business-to-business’ organization, you need to be ‘business-for-business’. Sell your prospects tangible outcomes via strong relationships.
One method Wayne uses is traditional snail mail. You might delete everything that came into your email inbox, but it’s not likely that you’d throw away personalized, written correspondence. If you want to break through and forge relationships with decision makers, send a letter.
The next basic principle is to facilitate good planning. So many B2B business owners don’t actually plan for their goals and ambitions adequately. You need methodical steps and actionable tactics, not just a vague idea and a dream.
Marketers flock to great ideas until they’re ruined, Josh says. If you want to do phenomenal business, you can’t automate relationships. That’s a basic principle of marketing. Scripts ruin authenticity. You need to set objectives for a discovery call, but you should never have a memorized pitch. You need to sell what your prospect actually needs. Referrals are some of the best ways to generate revenue, but you’ll only get those referrals if you’re authentic and have real relationships with your clients.
As fat as prospecting is concerned, you need to start with clearly defining your ideal customer profile. Who is it you can work with that you really deliver value to? Can you teach them something they truly don’t know that can change the game for them? You need to qualify your prospects by ensuring they will benefit greatly from your offering. You need quality prospects over a large quantity of them. Less is more, go for quality over quantity and you will close more deals.
Check out Wayne’s website at https://waynemoloney.com/.
Check out The Wentworth Prospect: A Novel Guide to Success in B2B Sales on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Wentworth-Prospect-novel-guide-success-ebook/dp/B09DPDL9FX.
Check out The Wentworth Prospect on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-wentworth-prospect-edvance/.
Check out Wayne Moloney on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/waynemoloney/.
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