Tired of working tirelessly every day only to have your B2B sales leads leave you in the dust? Yeah, so are most sales teams!
As a result, you’re not only frustrated, but you’re always thinking ‘If only my leads listened better’, or ‘If only my leads weren’t so distracted’, or worst of all ‘If only my competition wouldn’t have stolen them’.
Sound familiar?
Here's the thing... While it is common, it isn’t normal to have leads slipping away so frequently. Also, the true reasons why they keep on slipping are probably not even close to what you think they are!
To set the record straight, we're sharing the 8 real reasons why you’re not closing deals with B2B sales leads, even after putting in maximum effort.
Additionally, we're also sharing exactly what to do to start closing consistent deals for good!
No more putting in endless work only for prospects to walk away from you… These are the 8 real reasons why you don't close deals and how to never be left in the dust again.
Here’s Why You Think B2B Leads Don’t Close Deals With You
Before going into the actual reasons why new leads don't close deals with you, let's cover the untrue reasons why leads don't buy from you.
If you're like many sales pros struggling to close deals with B2B companies, you might be blaming your situation on one of these 5 reasons, including:
- They can't afford you
- They're choosing your competition over you
- They already have a product or service provider who does what you do
- They don't think they need you
- They want results sooner that when you can deliver
Straight-up... You probably believe that the reason why you can't close deals is because of something that your leads are doing wrong or not seeing the right way.
Moreover, you believe that the reason why you can't close deals is because of something solely wrong with the leads!
Not only is that not true, but the truth is actually the exact opposite.
The real reason why you consistently fail to close deals with your B2B sales leads is because of flaws on your own execution of the sale. It has nothing to do with the lead and everything to do with you.
That being said, each of these 8 reasons why leads don't buy from you are reasons having to do with errors on your end, and your end alone.
No more blaming your situation on leads… It’s time to take back your power and start closing consistent deals for good!
Here Are the Real Reasons Why B2B Leads Don’t Buy From You
At the end of the day, the real reason why your B2B sales leads don’t buy from you is because of something that you're doing wrong, not something that they're doing wrong!
While it's a hard pill to swallow, the good news is that, when you're the one making the mistake, you're the one who has the power to change the situation for good.
Moreover, you're not at the mercy of your leads... Rather, you're in charge of whether or not the deals are closed.
Furthermore, here are the 8 real and true reasons why leads don't close deals with you, plus exactly how to start immediately closing more deals. Only you and your sales reps have the power to turn these 8 potential scenarios around!
1. You’re Too Complex
How many times has something like this happened to you: You're walking into an electronics store hoping to buy a new computer. You're immediately approached by a sales rep who escorts you over to a section that’s full of beautiful computers. All of a sudden, the salesperson starts hitting you with endless complicated terms like 'motherboard', 'random access memory', 'ethernet', 'processor speed', and so on... While you were initially confident that you'd walk out with a computer that day, you start thinking to yourself... 'Do I really need a computer with all of these features?'. Before the salesperson knows it, you're walking out the door because you need to think more before making a decision.?
The reason why you walk out the door in these types of situations is because you're overwhelmed with the complexity. With more complex features to consider, it becomes challenging to make decisions.
All you wanted was a computer that would fit your needs, but now the complexity of it all is making you second-guess your decision-making!
That being said, if you're overwhelming prospects with complexity right off the bat, then expect them to walk right out the door.
What Do You Deliver?
When introducing yourself to leads, focus on a single key product or service that you sell. Instead of telling your prospects that you do X, Y, Z and offer A, B, and C features, point your finger towards a single solution that is easy for them to digest.
This single deliverable should:
- Make up the majority of your revenue; and
- Be something that your prospects are currently looking for.
Your single deliverable is not an outcome, but an actual deliverable. For example, let's say that your business sells email marketing services in order to generate new business. The deliverable is the email marketing services... not the outcome of generating new business.
Before making your way further down the sales pipeline, you need to make it clear that email outreach marketing is your key service. While you might offer other side services such as developing marketing strategies and coming up with full-scale marketing campaigns, neither of those are your key deliverables! You can focus on side-services and outcomes later down the line, but not right off the bat.
The idea is to get rid of the weeds to show off your key product or service at center stage. Because, the less complex you propose your deliverable, the less likely potential customers are to get confused and jump right out of the sales cycle.
2. Making the Sales Process About Yourself
Do you know what the purpose of the sales process is?
It's very simple: The process is about your customers and understanding them.
Unfortunately though, many sales reps make the process all about themselves! Instead of getting to know the leads, all they do is talk about themselves.
Not only does this totally turn the prospects off, but it creates even more challenges for you later down the line.
If you want to convert more leads into paying customers, then stop making things all about you.
The Process Is About Understanding Your Leads
Picture this: Let's say that you walk into your doctor's office for a check up on some back pain that you're having. Now, what does that doctor do when they walk through the door…? Do they immediately dominate the conversation, or do they let you do the talking?
If they're an expert doctor, then they'll ask you questions related to your symptoms such as, 'When did you first start having pain?' and 'Can you show me exactly where you're having pain?'. Only after they've asked plenty of thorough questions and given you plenty of room to talk will they offer a diagnosis and propose solutions.
Don't you think that if a doctor simply diagnosed you and proposed solutions without ever asking you questions that you'd be really turned off and go elsewhere for a second opinion? Of course you would!
Just like how a doctor makes appointments about understanding patients, you need to make the selling process about understanding customers. From B2B lead generation to closing deals, everything needs to be about understanding them!
The easiest way to do that... Just ask targeted questions and then actively listen.
By doing so, the prospect will walk away feeling like you care about them and you'll gain the necessary information to properly diagnose and treat them with your solutions.
3. Looking Exactly Like Your Competitors
Do you ever feel like you're not being true to yourself?
Do you ever feel like it's better to play it safe by blending in with your competitors instead of really going for it to stand out?
For obvious reasons, business to business leads have little reason to buy from you if you're the spitting image of your competition.
However, believe it or not, but if you're like many B2B sales and marketing teams, you spend a lot of time backing into the weeds instead of really putting yourself out there! The most likely reason why is because you're afraid of standing out. In your mind, it's a safer bet to blend in with everybody else than it is to stand out.
While blending in with the competition alleviates fear and provides momentary comfort, it'll give little reason for prospects to buy from you.
Lean Into What Makes Your Company Different
Instead of backing into the weeds, make it clear exactly what makes your company unique.
More specifically, lean into your company's brand message in both your B2B marketing and sales strategies.
The idea is to make your brand's personality ooze throughout every piece of your business! Whether it's your landing page, content marketing, or specialized sales process, the prospect should walk away thinking to themself, 'Wow they're different!'.
Lean Into Your Personality
Would you believe me if I told you that almost four out of five decision-makers at B2B companies agree that there isn’t enough personalization and customization in most buying processes?
Not only is that a hard fact, but having little personalization is an easy-out for leads.
While there are many ways you can create a highly-personalized experience, one of the best and easiest ways is to simply show off your genuine persona.
Instead of acting like the ultra professional sales rep who you think you need to be, lean into your genuine personality!
Not only will that create a highly-personalized buying experience, but it'll also help you:
- Build trust with leads;
- Establish solid customer relationships; and
- Set the stage for potential referrals down the line.
As much as you think that you need to be somebody else to be successful, the truth is that you probably just need to be your genuine self. Leads want to get to know the real you, not the robot version of you!
4. Letting Prospects Window Shop Your Deliverable
Do you ever feel like prospects are simply window shopping you?
For example… Do you ever pull a lead into your sales funnel, have an initial sales meeting, do some follow-up, and for some reason just have this feeling that they're looking but not actually interested in working with you?
If so, you're not alone! Perhaps the worst part about this is that you put in tons of work to show what you’re made of only to have them treat you like you're a gift shop owner.
From now on, no more being window shopped!
From the moment you initiate sales lead generation to the moment you close the deal, don't set yourself up to fail by letting prospects fool you into thinking that they actually want your solution when they’re really just window shopping.
Prospects will almost never buy from you if you turn yourself into a window shop worthy vendor.
Did You Hype Up Their Sense of Urgency?
At the end of the day, you can use all the best B2B lead generation strategies in the book, have the best cold calling techniques ever, and be on top of your game with inbound marketing, but if you don't hype up your lead's sense of urgency, they’ll still reduce you to a gift shop owner!
This is simple: Why would somebody buy something from you if there wasn't anything at stake on their end?
For example, let's say that you're a social media marketer and, after getting to know the prospect, you see that their business is on the verge of being trumped if they don't make immediate and specific changes to their social media platforms.
Don't you think that telling them that hard truth would push them over the edge to buy?
From now on, use urgency as a simple motivator to buy. Unless you give them a reason to buy, you'll reduce yourself to a window shopping gift shop owner who’s gifts, while nice, don’t seem to serve much of a purpose.
NO Free Initial Proposal
Are you sick and tired of putting in hours of work creating proposals for leads who simply use them as an opportunity to window shop you?
If so, then simply stop sending them for free.
Instead of wasting your time developing proposals that never get you anywhere, spend more time getting to know your leads!
From now on, if a lead suggests that you send them a proposal, respond by saying something along the lines of, 'A proposal? I barely even know you! How could I create a proposal when I still don't understand you and your needs? Why don’t we set up a meeting for tomorrow to talk more about you and your goals?’.
Remember, the selling process is not about you. Rather, it's about understanding the customer. Therefore, spend more time getting to know the lead instead of sending a proposal that they'll likely throw out anyways.
5. Assuming That Prospects Understand Their Pain Points
Do you honestly believe that your leads truly understand the pain point that you're trying to help them solve? More importantly, when you first connected with them, do you believe that they even knew that they had a problem in the first place?
The hard truth is that 90% of your leads don't just not know how to solve their pain point, but they don't even realize that they have one in the first place!
If prospects did know that they had a problem, then why haven't they fixed it yet?
The moment you believe that the prospect knows what their problem is and how to fix it is the moment you lose the sale!
Seriously, if you ever catch yourself asking the prospect to explain their problem to you, then consider them already out the door. If you show them that they understand their problem better than you, then there's no point in having you in the picture.
It’s YOUR Job to Understand the Ideal Customer’s Problems!
If prospects understand their problems and how to solve them, then you serve no purpose in the equation.
Think of it like this... Let's say that you walk into an orthopedic surgeon's office because you're experiencing extreme knee pain. Instead of asking you questions about your symptoms, the surgeon turns to you and says, 'So what's your problem and how do you think we can fix it?’.
Don't you think that you’d be turned off? Aren't you there for them to tell you what the problem is and how they're going to fix it?
Of course you are! Because, if you did know how to self-diagnose and operate on yourself while awake, then you'd certainly do that instead of spending the money on surgery.
Just like how a surgeon doesn't let patients tell them what the issue is, you shouldn't let your prospects tell you what their problems are and how to solve them.
6. Not Understanding the Prospect’s Vision
Every successful business is built on a clear vision. Not only are businesses built on visions, but fulfilling that clear vision is the entire purpose of starting a company in the first place.
That being said, it's crucial to understand your prospect's ultimate vision that they're trying to create through their business. If you don't understand their vision, they will ditch you for somebody else because:
- They won't feel understood;
- They'll see you as self-centered; and
- They won't see you as capable of helping them reach their ultimate conclusion.
Unless you understand the vision that they're trying to manifest, what use are you to them?
That's like only understanding a situation on the surface without ever understanding what's going on underneath.
Bottom line: The only way to convince a lead to work with you is if you show them how solving their specific problems will bring them closer to manifesting their ultimate vision.
Are You Selling the Pathway or the Optics?
Let's imagine that there are two sales reps selling the same CRM software to two leads in their target audience. The first salesperson tries to win the first lead over by diving into all the tech specs of the software, including its marketing automation and streamlining features. Meanwhile, the second salesperson asks the second lead questions about their vision, and then demonstrates how the CRM's features will bring them closer to fulfilling that vision.
Which sales rep do you think walked out of there with a closed deal?
Remember, your job is to understand how solving the prospect's problem fits into the grand scheme of things, and then selling them on that.
At the end of the day, they probably don't care about the tech specs and the ins-and-outs of your solution... However, they do care about whether or not they'll manifest their company's vision!
From now on, instead of selling optics thinking that they’ll woo leads over, sell them the pathway to their vision.
7. Not Controlling the Selling Process
In short: If you're not in control of the selling process, then your lead will be in control of it. And, nothing good ever happens when the lead is in control.
Why?
Because, let's not forget that 90% of leads don’t have any clue what their problem is or how to solve it in the first place. And, that's why you're there!
Therefore, if they take over the selling process, what makes you think that they will go down the entire sales pipeline and close a deal with you when they have no idea why they're there in the first place?
Not having control over the sales process is probably the most common reason why so many B2B salespeople don't close deals with even their most qualified leads. Not only that, but it's what most commonly leads to the dreaded prospect ghosting.
8. Being Seen as a Vendor Instead of an Expert
Are you sick and tired of being referred to as a vendor by your B2B sales leads when you know darn well that you've worked your tail off for them and gone above and beyond the status of a vendor?
Not only do you probably despise being referred to as a vendor, but being referred to as one is a solid sign that the B2B lead is ready to ditch you!
The reason... Vendors are liable service providers, and that's not what prospects are looking for.
Instead of looking for vendors, they're looking for experts who add value to their company instead of taking it away!
Consider this... According to Salesforce, almost 80% of business buyers say that it's absolutely critical to interact with a salesperson who is a trusted advisor - not just a sales rep - who adds value to their business.
When it comes down to it, B2B companies want experts who are like assets to their company, not vendors who are liabilities.
Therefore, do everything in your power to rise to the status of trusted advisor instead of just a vendor. Vendors are replaceable, experts are irreplaceable. If you're an expert in the lead's eyes, then they'll see you as somebody who they can't go on without.
Have the Confidence of a Surgeon
So, how do you come across as an expert in your prospect's eyes?
While there are several ways, the best way is to exhibit the confidence of a surgeon.
Think of it like this... When people undergo surgery, they're putting their life in the hands of the surgeon. Despite the risks involved, thousands of people willingly undergo surgeries on a daily basis? Why?
The reason why is because surgeons are seen as experts thanks to their undeniable confidence. Nobody ever doubts their abilities because they don’t doubt their own abilities.
That being said, you need to build killer confidence!
Here's the catch though... The reason why most sales pros struggle with confidence is because they're constantly overwhelmed with fear. And, the hard truth is that confidence and fear cannot coexist.
Therefore, the key to upping your confidence is to learn how to manage your fears. Only until you do that will you be seen as an irreplaceable expert who leads can't afford to lose.
Final Thoughts on Why B2B Leads Really Don’t Buy From You
No more making excuses or saying things like, 'If only my leads would just listen to me!!!', because when it comes down to it, the reasons why leads leave you in the dust are because of errors on your part!
Thankfully, turning the tide for good comes down to whether or not you make the changes. You're not at the mercy of your high-quality leads! Rather, they're at the mercy of YOU.
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