Collaborative selling: 5 tips to boost your sales performance

The amount of time B2B buyers devote to their salespeople is plummeting. Sales teams are finding it increasingly difficult to capture the interest of their prospects. There's plenty to worry about!

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But in practice, some salespeople still manage to perform very well.

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Their secret? They manage to collaborate with their prospects throughout the sales cycle. These are the kind of people who still have a bright future ahead of them.

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In this article, we reveal the 5 methods used by the best collaborative salespeople.

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And we detail the steps you can take to make yourself more collaborative.

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The behavior of B2B buyers has changed radically: they now spend just 5% of their time interacting with salespeople (1), and 87% of them demand self-serve in their buying journey (2).

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Many people now believe that interacting with a salesperson is less and less necessary.

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And yet, the best salespeople still get the most out of the game by adding value for their prospects: guiding them through the buying process and co-constructing innovative solutions with them.

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They achieve this through a collaborative approach, positioning themselves as partners rather than salespeople.

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• What are the methods of the best collaborative salespeople?
• How can you introduce collaboration into your sales cycles?

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These are the questions we answer in this article.

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What are the methods of the best collaborative salespeople?

Depending on your business, the collaborative approach takes different forms. But the most successful sales teams share common reflexes.

We've broken them down into 6 practical tips.

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1. Create a climate of trust with your prospects

Transparency is an indispensable pillar of collaborative selling. Be honest with your prospects and, above all, demand the same in return to build a mutually balanced relationship.

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In addition, take care to pass on as much of your expertise as possible throughout the sales cycle. Be proactive and go beyond what they usually expect from a salesperson (the famous "extra-mile"). In this way, you'll build your credibility with your prospects and become a reference they'll consult for guidance on their issues.

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Practical tip:

69% of B2B buyers compare several suppliers before buying (3). It's therefore highly likely that your prospect will be talking to you and your competitors simultaneously.

To send them a strong signal of trust, proactively address all the options open to them. Including working with your competitors. Help them weigh the pros and cons of each option against their needs.

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Remember, you're not primarily fighting your competitors. You're fighting to bring the most relevant solution possible to your prospects. In this way, you'll cut the ground from under your competitors' feet, and your product will stand out as a matter of course.

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2. Explore your prospects' issues in detail

The discovery phase is the time to build with your prospects a shared understanding of the issues to be resolved.

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Don't botch it on the pretext of the sales cycle's need for speed. The finer your analysis, the more relevant you'll be for the rest of the sales cycle. This will enable you to create more value in each of your interactions with your prospects, so you can accelerate towards closing.

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Practical tip:

We've come across many B2B buyers who complain that they're confronted with stereotyped discovery phases: salespeople ask them questions designed to create a need (often artificially).

Discovery should not be about demonstrating the superiority of your solution ("why us?"). It should enable you to understand your prospects' motivations for transforming their organization ("why change?"). Work with them to understand where they are, where they want to go and how far they've come. In this way, you'll show them you understand what's at stake, and create maximum alignment.

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3. Customize your offer to the context of your prospects

A sale is the conjunction of :

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• A salesperson who knows his or her solution inside out
• Prospects, who have a precise understanding of their needs (4) but feel the need to be accompanied in their thinking.And they demand personalized support: 76% of B2B buyers expect their salespeople to adapt specifically to their needs (5).

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Your added value lies precisely in connecting your solution to your prospects' concrete issues. Connect your value proposition to their operations, organization, KPIs, objectives, etc. Contextualization is the key. In this way, you'll be able to offer solutions that are relevant to your prospects' daily lives.

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Practical tip #1:

How can you make sure you're sufficiently grounded in your prospects' real-life needs?

Record and analyze your pitches and demos. Take the last 3, for example: are they all unique, or are they generic? How many references do you make to your prospect's specific context? Aim for a minimum of 5 references, re-using what you've learned during the discovery phase.

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Practical tip no. 2:

Contextualization doesn't mean tailoring. To remain effective, build a common structure and adapt it with "drawer" modules that you use according to the situation. In this way, you customize your approach while keeping it "scalable".

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4. Involve your prospects in the sales cycle

Co-construct (really) the solution with your prospects. Solicit their expertise and integrate their contributions as much as possible. In this way, you put all the chances on your side to build a relevant solution right from the start.

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Practical tip no. 1:

To get your prospects actively involved in the sales cycle, give them regular hands-on responsibility for specific tasks.

Start with those that require the least effort (getting feedback from their team, sending you a presentation). Then train them to take on more important responsibilities (e.g. speaking together when you pitch the solution to their colleagues).  At the same time, you'll be able to gauge the quality of your champion (here are 5 practical tests to help you test your champion).

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Practical tip n°2:

Give your prospect as much ownership as possible of each deliverable in the sales cycle. For example, send your presentations and meeting minutes on collaborative documents (rather than in PDF format). This will enable your prospects to amend and share them internally, while allowing you to keep an eye on them.

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Be careful: involving your prospect doesn't mean leaving him in charge. You must remain directive, i.e. systematically in control of the sales cycle. The secret is to involve your prospect at the right time, on a defined scope and over a given time horizon.

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5. Maintain the link with your prospects over time

For many salespeople, closing is the end of the line.

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For collaborative salespeople, it's just a milestone in a long-term relationship they're building with their customers. Whether it's you directly or another team (AM / CSM), you need to nurture the relationship with your prospects over time.

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This is all the more important as B2B buyers are increasingly volatile: 80% of regular B2B buyers have changed supplier at least once in the last 24 months (6).

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Establishing a long-term relationship is all the more strategic if you operate a recurring revenue business model (such as SaaS). Controlling your LTV is crucial to your profitability. This means creating sales opportunities throughout the customer lifecycle and effective churn management.

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Practical tip:

Pay particular attention to your customers' onboarding, by setting up a clear onboarding roadmap:

As soon as the deal closes: organize a transition meeting with the AM / CSM teams

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• At M+1: ensure that onboarding has been carried out correctly
• At M+3: make an initial assessment
• Etc.

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Share this roadmap with your customers. In this way, you show them that you're close to them, and above all, you create upsell / cross-sell opportunities at regular intervals.

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What are the steps involved in becoming collaborative?

We've been asked this question many times since we launched Katalyz. The answer, of course, depends on your sales organization, but we recommend a 3-step deployment.

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Step 1: coordinate internal teams

To become truly collaborative, start by aligning with your internal teams before aligning with your prospects. Transmissions between the people in contact with your prospects/customers must be fluid.

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In the order of the customer journey, this generally means: Marketing team > Sales team > AM / CSM team. If necessary, other business teams can also be involved: for example, the Product team for customer discoveries.

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This internal coordination is the prerequisite of any collaborative approach. It's frustrating for prospects to realize that the teams opposite are not collaborating effectively. These failures are easily noticeable and dent the capital of trust they place in you.

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Step 2: learn to cooperate with your prospects

As a second step, rethink the prospect/customer journey: what concrete actions have you put in place to establish a climate of trust and build long-term relationships with them?

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This is crucial: 88% of B2B buyers only buy when they perceive their salesperson as a "trusted advisor" (7).

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To achieve this, schedule regular milestones throughout your sales cycle. Use them to take stock. In this way, you'll be able to maintain qualitative exchanges with your prospects during the next stages of the deal.

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Bonus: capitalize on the diversity of expertise within your team to build the most personalized buying experience possible.

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Step 3: actively involve your prospects in your interactions

Give your prospects enough latitude to be a force of proposition in your deals. Ask them, they certainly have interesting internal leads to share with you.

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Self-diagnosis: evaluate your team's collaboration

How well does your sales team collaborate?

Here's a self-assessment to guide you.

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Level 0 [∅]: no internal collaboration

Within your team, it's every man for himself. You don't collaborate with anyone on opportunities in your sales pipeline.

You can do much better!

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Level 1 [internal]: informal collaboration within the sales team.

Your team is encouraged to collaborate on deals, but it all relies on the goodwill of sales and you have no formalized process.

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Level 2 [internal]: formalized collaboration within the sales team

Your team has formalized processes that promote collaboration. In practice, you find that they are effective (collaboration helps you better convert prospects into customers).

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For example: you have team moments dedicated to sharing best practices and collaborating on sales opportunities, part of the sales variable depends on the performance of the whole team, etc.

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Level 3 [internal]: cross-team collaboration

Several teams, including yours, have formalized collaborative processes. Ideally, these processes involve all the people who work directly or indirectly with prospects/customers: the Sales team, of course, but also the Account Management, Marketing, Product teams, etc.

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Level 4 [external]: working with your prospects on sales opportunities

Mutual action plans are an integral part of your sales process, and you find that they enable you to engage your prospects effectively. You manage to make the action plan a living, collaborative document that doesn't end up in a drawer.

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Level 5 [external]: collaboration with your customers throughout its lifecycle.

You've drawn up a long-term collaboration plan with your customers. This plan involves all the teams who will be in contact with them, from the first contact through to its termination (account based selling).

Congratulations! You've become the musketeers of collaborative selling: one for all, all for one!

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You now know the methods used by the best collaborative salespeople, and how to organize the transition to more collaboration in your sales cycles.

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^{(1) Gartner
(2) TrustRadius
(3) Europages
(4) 70% of buyers define their needs themselves before contacting a salesperson. 44% identify specific solutions before contacting a salesperson. Source: CSO Insights
(5) Demand Base
(6) Accenture
(7) Linkedin}