How to Sell to Midsized Firms
Most sales training focuses on selling to large companies. However, many of the biggest and best opportunities exist in the mid-sized segment - firms that aren't even close to the Fortune 1000, but are big enough to justify a major sales effort.
Midsized firm are often frustrated by the way that their vendors treat them. For example, in the key area of buying information technology, a large majority felt that they were being "poorly served" by the companies that sell to them, according to a recent survey of 4,500 buyers by the market research firm IDC.
How, then, do can you sell more effectively to this important (and potentially lucrative) market. Here are some suggestions from Lee Levitt, director of IDC's Sales Advisory Service:
- RULE #1: Don't underestimate the prospect. A recurring problem, according to the IDC survey, was that vendors tend to underestimate the intelligence of their customer base, assuming that they know less than their enterprise counterparts, according to Levitt. "These buyers are more savvy, more technical, and more impatient than most sales organizations realize," he explains.
- RULE #2: Beef up your sales support. To profitably serve this segment, vendors must balance investments between outbound sales reps and phone-based and online resources, without giving up the relationship management that both reps and marketing automation systems can provide. "Not only do [customers] want a shorter sales cycle, they want more contact with technical resources," says Levitt.
- RULE #3: Adapt your sales process. Every buying organization has different expectations, and too often field sales fails to ask customers what they want or make an effort to truly understand their needs. "In looking for strengths, buyers are very clear about what they want," says Levitt. "Many of those desires are based on simply having sales take responsibility for providing not just any answer, but the right answer that meets the buyer's needs."
- RULE #4: Increase your technical know-how. Mid-market buyers give sales representatives poor marks on follow-up and follow-through, according to Levitt. Mid-market buyers see sales too frequently with incomplete information and a general lack of technical skills," he says. This lack can and should be corrected with additional training and coaching.
- RULE #5: Enhance your sales skills. The IDC survey also showed that many of the shortcomings midmarket buyers see revolve around poor communication. This implies that sales management must do more in increase the skills their people possess and apply every day in the field. "Building sales representative skills is paramount in achieving better performance in the mid-market," says Levitt.
- RULE #6: Optimize your sales process. To succeed in the mid-market, you need to optimize processes to reach buyers and engage them is critical. Taking stock of what already exists within an organization and what processes are well defined, and making that known to customers, will result in buyers knowing what to expect.
BTW, if you ever get a chance to hear Lee Levitt speak or (better yet) have a one-on-one with him, jump on the opportunity. He's incredibly smart, has a wonderfully analytical mind, and knows more about sales tech probably than just about anybody on the planet.
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