What Most B2B Companies Get Wrong about Sales

This analogy will take me a while, but let me try:

We talk about last-mile transportation. These electric scooters or bikes that you can rent with an app.

The idea is, if you have a long commute to work, you take a train for most of the way. And then when you get out at your stop, you can rent a scooter or bike for that last mile from the train station to your office.

Now, in b2b, sales should be the last-mile transportation. And marketing, should be the train that gets people *almost* there.

Marketing should get a prospect 90% of the way, and only the remaining 10%—the couple of individual concerns and specific technical questions—should be handled by sales to finish off the deal.

But most companies use sales for the whole journey, the whole 100% of the buying journey.

That’s like renting an eclectic scooter for your full 1.5 hour commute.

Why is that a problem? Sales is high-touch, time-intensive and it doesn’t scale because it’s 1-on-1. So it’s expensive.

Just as renting an electric scooter for your whole commute will be more expensive than taking the train for most of the journey and then only using the scooter for the last 10%.

But most B2B companies do this:

They exclusively rely on high-touch and time-intensive b2b sales for the whole buying journey: from first contact to signed contract.

Here's what to do instead:

Use marketing as your “train” by
- generating awareness
- explaining the product
- highlighting the features
- addressing questions and concerns
- building trust

Once your prospects are 90% there, your salespeople can answer highly-specific questions to complete the last 10% to close the deal.

This reduces sales cycle length and saves you money. Because marketing scales, sales doesn’t. The same product video can be watched by 100s of prospects.

Don't make the whole journey by scooter. Make use of the train. You still need the scooter, but only for the last mile.