Imagine a cutting-edge enterprise software suite designed to seamlessly integrate supply chains across global networks, involving multiple stakeholders from IT, Operations, Finance, and Procurement. Marketing and selling such a solution takes more than showcasing features or benefits; it requires navigating complex decision-making processes, overcoming competing priorities, and demonstrating transformative customer value. One valuable B2B sales strategy approach lies in the concept of customer-centric insights selling. Before we explore this concept, let’s review the challenges of selling complex solutions.

The stakes are high in selling consultative and complex products and services. According to Statista, on average only 2.46% to 3.26% of leads or prospects your sales team contacts will convert into paying customers. Gartner’s research shows 77% of B2B buyers state their last purchase was complex and time-consuming and 95% of buying groups report having to go back and revisit decisions at least once as new information emerges. Lastly, Ebsta and Pavilion report “salespeople should be building relationships with as many as 10 different stakeholders.” These statistics highlight the uphill battle Marketing and Sales teams face when addressing customer pain points and/or aspirations while trying to differentiate their offerings in a competitive landscape.

Data-Driven Insights: Key to a Powerful B2B Sales Strategy 

These complex solutions take a customer-centric approach that often requires consultative selling, which focuses on building trust, understanding the customer’s unique needs, and acting as a trusted advisor.

An example: A sales professional leads a conversation with thoughtful questions, uncovers inefficiencies in the customer’s current process, and collaboratively designs a roadmap for improvement.

What consultative selling is not: A sales pitch centered on product features with little regard for the customer’s unique circumstances.

This approach emphasizes collaboration and long-term value creation rather than transactional interactions. Oftentimes, salespeople in an industry come with extensive experience they rely on for selling. While intuition and experience are valuable, data-driven insights enable more confident decisions faster. This is why we believe insights selling provides one way for B2B companies that rely on consultative selling to succeed in this intricate environment. Let’s break down what we mean by insights selling.

Insights reflect actionable, data-driven observations that reveal untapped opportunities or unrecognized challenges. They go beyond surface-level information to provide a deeper understanding of the customer’s business, industry trends, and potential threats or opportunities.

An example: “Our analysis shows that supply chain delays have increased costs by 12% for companies like yours. Implementing predictive analytics could reduce delays by 30%.”

What an insight is not: “Our solution is faster and better than our competitors’.”

By merging data-driven insights with consultative selling, sellers shift from being product advocates to strategic trusted advisors who deliver meaningful value.

You’re 5 Steps Away from Better Sales Via Insights Selling  

To successfully adopt customer-centric insights selling, we recommend taking a structured approach. Here is how we might apply a five-step approach to the earlier example of an enterprise supply chain solution:

1. Understand Your Customer’s World
   • Action: You conduct deep-dive research into the customer’s industry, competitors, challenges, and goals. Your Marketing team leverages tools like industry reports, news articles, and social listening platforms.
   • Application: Your market research reveals the prospect’s industry is grappling with rising fuel costs, causing supply chain disruptions. Its competitors are adopting technology to counteract these challenges.
2. Develop Data-Driven Insights
   • Action: You apply analytics to the data to uncover patterns, trends, risks, and opportunities the customer might not yet recognize.
   • Application: Your data science team analyzes the prospect’s operational data to show how predictive analytics could reduce downtime by over 20%, translating into millions in cost savings.
3. Craft a Compelling Narrative
   • Action: You and the rest of the leadership team connect insights to the customer’s strategic priorities and business outcomes. You use the insights to frame the conversation around their goals, not your product.
   • Application: Present a story: “We helped a company in your industry reduce delays by 30%, enabling them to launch products three months ahead of schedule and gain market share.”
4. Collaborate and Co-Create Solutions
   • Action: Your Sales team works with the customer to design a tailored solution based on the insights provided.
   • Application: Your Marketing team creates a workshop your Sales team facilitates to model how the supply chain solution can address specific pain points and deliver measurable business results.
5. Establish Metrics for Success
   • Action: You and the customer define clear measures to determine the impact of your solution and continuously provide value.
   • Application: Some potential measures you consider together might include a reduced downtime target, lower transportation costs, and improved supplier reliability.

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More Sales, Growth Require Upstream and Downstream Marketing 

As you can see, Marketing plays a key role in insights. Effective insights selling requires support from both upstream and downstream Marketing capabilities. As part of the upstream, Marketing focuses on market research, competitive analysis, and customer segmentation to uncover valuable insights. In this phase, Marketing develops thought leadership content, such as white papers or case studies, that Sales teams can use to spark insightful conversations.

ROI calculators, demo scripts, and the workshop to support the sales process fall into the realm of downstream marketing. Campaigns to nurture relationships and reinforce the value of insights-driven solutions post-sale are also part of the downstream.

Data-Driven Insights Transform Your New Sales Process to Epic 

Insights selling is more than a methodology; it’s a mindset shift. By deeply understanding the customer’s world, delivering data-driven insights, and collaborating on tailored solutions, sales teams can shorten sales cycles, improve close rates, and create lasting partnerships.

As the selling environment for complex and consultative products continues to evolve, adopting customer-centric insights selling will be essential for any B2B company that wants to stay ahead of the curve. Are you ready to transform your approach? Contact us today to discover how our enterprise software suite can empower your sales strategy with insights for selling.