The New Sales Imperative

B2B customers are deeply uncertain and stressed. With virtually infinite information available on any solution, a swelling raft of stakeholders involved in each purchase, and an ever-expanding array of options, customers are increasingly overwhelmed and often more paralyzed than empowered. The authors’ solution, developed through work with hundreds of sales organizations globally, is a proactive, take-charge prescriptive approach that sweeps away obstacles and guides customers through decision making. Companies that have mastered prescriptive selling share a set of practices: They work to understand customers’ purchase journeys; identify significant customer challenges at each buying stage; arm their sellers with tools to help overcome each challenge; and track customers’ purchase progress so that they can intervene to keep the process on track.