--- title: 5 Ways to Make Your B2B Sales Conversations More Valuable description: Five simple but effective ways in which you can make your B2B sales conversations dramatically more valuable for everyone involved. --- This is a search field with an autosuggest feature attached. - There are no suggestions because the search field is empty. # 5 Ways to Make Your B2B Sales Conversations More Valuable ![Bob Apollo](https://app.hubspot.com/settings/avatar/78fa41976d534cacbb0e22e151bc6816) Post by [Bob Apollo](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/author/bob-apollo) February 17, 2011 ![Conversation](https://www.inflexion-point.com/Portals/41408/images/Conversation.jpg?width=205&height=169&name=Conversation.jpg)There’s no doubt that the internet, Web 2.0 and business social networks are having a dramatic impact on B2B buying behaviour. Buyers can discover a lot more for themselves, and often defer any engagement with sales people until later in their buying journey. But the quality of your sales conversations still has a pivotal role to play in most high value, complex B2B sales environments. In a world of increasingly well-informed prospects, how can you ensure that these **sales conversations still count**? I’d like to offer five concrete recommendations. ## 1: Prepare the Ground Do your research upfront. It’s wasteful and - *more important* - **disrespectful **to use the conversation to discover information you could have uncovered with a few minutes investment researching the company’s website, reviewing the prospect’s LinkedIn profile, or doing a few simple web searches. Focus instead on trying to understand the implications of what you have learned, on discussing the importance of what you’ve learned to your prospect and their organisation, and on uncovering information you could not have gathered through any other means. ## 2: Anticipate Important Issues Use your research to identify [key trends](https://www.inflexion-point.com/how-we-do-it/4-catalysts-for-change/) that may be affecting their industry, and to uncover [trigger events](https://www.inflexion-point.com/how-we-do-it/4-catalysts-for-change/) that indicate a change in your prospect’s circumstances - a new executive hire, a recent earnings announcement, a new product introduction... they can come in many forms. Review your prospect’s website and press announcements to identify key corporate initiatives - what goals have they established? What priorities have they set? What announcements have they made about corporate strategy? Identify the issues that are most likely to be important to them. ## 3: Bring a Fresh Perspective Don’t just tell them what they already know. Develop a fresh perspective. Bring a provocative point of view that could stimulate them to think differently. Share what your company has learned from working with other organisations that have faced similar circumstances. You can achieve a great deal by planning and posing intelligent questions that cause them to stop and think before they reply to you. When your prospect takes the time to consider their response, it’s a good sign that you’ve asked them something they may not have considered before. ## 4: Make Them Want to Learn More Executives hate being sold to. But they love learning something valuable. When I research the buying process for clients, I hear one thing consistently from their prospects: "*as long as I'm learning something, I'm listening. But the moment the conversation morphs into a sales pitch, you've lost me...*" One of your key goals must therefore be to make them believe that if they continue to engage you in conversation, they will learn things which are to their advantage - and which are directly relevant to helping them achieve their objectives. You want them to want to advance to the next step in their [buying process](https://www.inflexion-point.com/how-we-do-it/5-buying-decision-process/) with you. ## 5: Start With the End in Mind Of course, although most of the above is about making the conversation as valuable as possible to them, it needs to be valuable to you, as well. You need to go into the conversation with a crystal-clear sense of what you want to learn from them, and what you need to know to qualify them as a potential customer. You need to have your next steps thought through and well prepared. If they qualify out, you need to find a way of disengaging with them in a positive and polite way. If they are not ready to engage in a buying cycle yet, but are otherwise well qualified as a future prospect, you need to nurture their interest. And if they are well qualified and ready to move forwards, you need to anticipate what their buying journey is likely to look like, and to offer them compelling reasons to move forwards to the next step in their [buying decision process](https://www.inflexion-point.com/how-we-do-it/5-buying-decision-process/) with you. ## Final Thoughts Focusing on what’s valuable to the participants inevitably makes for more valuable conversations. I hope that these 5 recommendations can help your sales organisation to be better prepared. They reflect the winning behaviours that I’ve observed in today’s top-performing B2B sales organisations. I’ve captured many of their best practices in a **20-point self assessment checklist**. You can [download it here](https://www.inflexion-point.com/is-your-business-capable-of-generating-more-momentum/). Please take a few moments to complete it. I think you’ll find at least one idea that will help you create an even stronger foundation for the future. ###### Tags: [B2B Buying Process, ](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/topic/b2b-buying-process) [Complex Sales](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/topic/complex-sales) ![Bob Apollo](https://app.hubspot.com/settings/avatar/78fa41976d534cacbb0e22e151bc6816) Post by [Bob Apollo](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/author/bob-apollo) February 17, 2011 Bob Apollo is a Fellow of the Institute of Sales Professionals, a regular contributor to the International Journal of Sales Transformation and Top Sales World Magazine, and the driving force behind Inflexion-Point Strategy Partners, the leading proponents of outcome-centric selling. Following a successful corporate career spanning start-ups, scale-ups and market leaders, Bob now works as a strategic advisor, mentor, trainer and coach to ambitious B2B sales organisations - teaching them how to differentiate themselves through their provably superior approach to achieving their customer's desired outcomes. [Follow me on my website](https://www.inflexion-point.com) [Follow me on LinkedIn ](https://uk.linkedin.com/in/bobapollo) [Follow me on Twitter ](https://twitter.com/bobapollo) ### Comments ###### Related Articles ### [B2B Sales: Are You Playing Buzzword Bingo With Your Prospects?](https://www.inflexion-point.com/Blog/bid/67325/B2B-Sales-Are-You-Playing-Buzzword-Bingo-With-Your-Prospects) Posted by **[Bob Apollo](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/author/bob-apollo),** **Jul 21, 2011** If you’re in any business involving technology, there can be a terrible temptation for your sales people to fall back on ... ### [The 4 dimensions of an ideal B2B customer...](https://www.inflexion-point.com/Blog/bid/50898/The-4-dimensions-of-an-ideal-B2B-customer) Posted by **[Bob Apollo](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/author/bob-apollo),** **Nov 16, 2010** What does your ideal customer or prospect look like? The question is an important one, because too many sales pipelines are ... ### [B2B Sales: Your Most Valuable Prospects Have Tried and Failed](https://www.inflexion-point.com/Blog/bid/73281/B2B-Sales-Your-Most-Valuable-Prospects-Have-Tried-and-Failed) Posted by **[Bob Apollo](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/author/bob-apollo),** **Sep 22, 2011** There’s been much talk recently (and I’ve been guilty of some of it myself) about the need to provoke your prospects with ... 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