How Customer Collaboration Shakes Up B2B Sales

According to a recent survey by Harvard Business Review, 88% of executives believe that customer engagement can significantly impact their business’s bottom line. However, when collaboration in sales comes up, most people refer to in-house cooperation. Plenty of tools enable this, such as Gong or Salesforce, but only some let a team work with the customer to build the perfect deal. 

As we head into 2024, it’s time for more sales teams to extend this collaborative spirit to customer interactions. 

Enhancing Deal Champion Confidence in the Solution

Collaboration breaks the conventional vendor-customer dynamic and makes it a joint endeavour, as the sales rep works alongside the deal champion to build the perfect deal. The relationship instils confidence, ownership and conviction in the deal champion. 

This is known as the "IKEA Effect", where individuals value things they build themselves more than when readily provided. In the sales world, engaging deal champions in crafting solutions nurtures a stronger attachment and confidence towards the deal. By doing this, sales professionals increase the likelihood of closing (up to 14%) and position themselves as valuable partners in the customer's journey, helping elevate the sales discourse.

Building a Business Case to Navigate the Buying Committee 

Enterprise budgets are getting tighter, and CFOs have more influence now than since 2008. Collaborating to build a mutual business case can be the difference between getting a deal past a buying committee. The more you collaborate with your customer, the more relevant the deal is to their business. Working closely with the deal champion gives you insights you otherwise wouldn’t have. As Keenan pointed out in Gap Selling: “Understanding the customer's world isn't an option; it's a necessity.”

More importantly, the deal champion presents to the buying committee. There’s a 0.88 correlation between the champion’s perspective and the deal’s chance of success. In other words, the more your champion believes in the deal, the greater the deal's chance of success. The more involved your deal champion is in building the business case, the better they are positioned to communicate it to the economic buyer – meaning that you’re more likely to secure a close. 

The Human Aspect

Building a solid customer relationship begins well before a sale, especially in enterprise sales strategies, where the sales rep must act in an almost “consultative” capacity. In these instances, reps must place themselves in the customer's position and demonstrate a deep understanding of their business hurdles, competitive landscape, and growth plans. This creates a space where reps can present ideas and solutions. 

Furthermore, a strong relationship can be the difference between closing and not. 25% of sales reps found mutual trust the most critical aspect in winning a deal. Working with your customer to build the perfect deal necessitates close contact, transparency, and frequent dialogue, thereby actively building trust.  Since only 3% of people see salespeople as trustworthy, this is vital. 

At a human level, people appreciate being involved. As Dale Carnegie once said, “Make the other person feel important-and do it sincerely.” 

Minoa

Collaborative selling boosts the deal champion’s confidence in the solution, understanding of the deal, and the human connection between the vendor and customer. We built Minoa with customer collaboration in mind. 

Its easy-to-use templates allow the deal champion to deliver an ROI story. At the same time, its ability to track various business scenarios enhances building a solid business case for the buying committee – from the ground up. Unlike many current tools that are internally focused, Minoa paves the way for fostering a stronger seller-customer relationship, making it a timely addition to the toolkit of modern sales professionals aiming for meaningful and successful engagements.

If you’re interested in increasing the role of customer collaboration in your sales processes, please book a call.