In this post we will look at the results of research done by the Megadeals team, showing the 7 most common challenges for B2B companies doing enterprise deals and Megadeals.
#1. There’s a dependency on 1 or 2 rainmakers that creates bottlenecks in the dealmaking.
This is a bandwidth issue, common even in large corporations. The Rainmaker Dependency creates bottlenecks hindering businesses from scaling and maximising their growth.
As the rainmakers are not able to work with a multitude of large deals simultaneously, their companies end up working less orchestrated, pursuing the deals with less qualified teams, even though that it means a higher risk of failing.
#2. Messaging is often created in silos, ad hoc, and individually instead of IN teams and cross-functionally.
Too few companies collaborate in the making and shaping of the Messaging Architecture and its content. Most companies have worked out brand guidelines and also corporate values and behaviours, while the messaging architecture is often made in ad-hoc processes, by individuals. Not working together and not understanding the need to communicate in a structured, systematic manner therefore creates messaging that lacks vital parts (that would engage stakeholders at different levels) or is commonly only communicated to the top of the funnel.
#3. Most companies are too LEAD CENTRIC, with the marketing team usually spending too much time, money, and other resources (TOP OF THE FUNNEL) rather than partnering with sales to close deals (full funnel).
The sales professionals are commonly left on their own to try to influence an entire ecosystem of stakeholders and decision-makers, let alone identify who and where they are (Account Intelligence) which is a tedious tasks in itself.
The high performing megadeal organisations on the other hand build a marking machinery around their rainmakers, with powerful messaging turned into content in form of videos, ads, posts, articles etc. distributed through a mix of channels and techniques (Martech or Marketing Technology) targeting stakeholders in the client ecosystem. The best performing organisations create full funnel content to scale the customer facing organisation and to "infiltrate" the target accounts.
#4. Many companies lack a systematic approach to industrialising marketing and sales for large complex deals.
Industrialising your sales and marketing includes creating and executing Full-Funnel Content, Account-Based Marketing, and Enterprise Social Selling. This in turn means you need to staff up with a multitude of competences, experts and technologies. Most companies don't have the resources to do so and even large corps. still come up short all too often.
#5. Most sales professionals are too analog and dependent on physical touch points such as f2f meetings, emails and calls.
Digitalisation has changed the landscape of industry after industry, requiring everyone to “Become More Media.” Gone are the days when a salesperson kept contacts in a filofax and communication was analogue only. The great sales professionals of the past have either adapted, or are not so great anymore.
The most successful sales professionals of today know how to utilize both analogue and digital channels and techniques. They apply a hybrid approach in order to reach and influence stakeholders with the most appropriate messages thus landing a high percentage of large and complex deals.
#6. most sales professionals talk about their companies, not about what's important to prospects.
Most sales professionals are still talking about how great their companies are, the benefits of working with them, and how great the features of their services or products are.
The most successful sales professionals on the other hand have a well developed messaging structure and are instead focusing on what really matters to decision makers; their target segments, the customers’ change drivers, category choices and sub category choices.
#7. Marketing money and people usually sit in the Business areas/product centers, instead of being closer to the deals.
This challenge is particularly common in large companies where marketing is separated from sales with the consequence that communication is not aligned nor systematised.
When companies do want to systematise their marketing and sales around enterprise deals and Megadeals it's common to look for outside help. Typically choosing between buying from scattered vendors, such as, for example, a sales coach, a social selling coach, a PR firm, a marketing agency. Or, they go to a vendor that has built a discipline covering marketing, social selling, sales, etc around large deals.
The struggle when you buy from many different vendors is that it’s hard for the company to make it a team play, and it’s also hard to onboard new team members.
To find out more about common challenges, the research behind the information gathered, or if you want to know more about #Megadeals overall. Don’t hesitate to contact us, or order the Megadeals book.
