The Real Numbers Behind B2B Sales Success  

Is Your Team Ready for this?

Most CEOs are frustrated by the length of time it takes to close a new deal. They ask me, “how can it possibly take so long?”.   Like any process challenge, understanding the numbers is crucial. Below I have laid out the average activity levels in the B2B market. Understanding this is crucial to setting forecasts and expectations but also in properly resourcing the business development activities in your firm. We often think of sales as a single linear process where we will close 2 out of 10 prospects. What we don’t often calculate is the huge number of interactions required to get that single deal. Let’s break it down: Here is a simple sales progression based on current B2B industry averages. Each stage yields a certain percentage of companies that move to the next stage and shows how one new deal is generated.                                                           

                                                                   Interactions   

• Lead Identification                           (159)
• Lead Qualification – 40% yield      (40)
• Engagement – 70% yield                  (24)
• Needs analysis – 40% yield             (17)
• Proposal – 50% yield                            (7)
• Negotiation – 30% yield                       (3)
• Closing -30% yield                                  (1)

    Total interactions                                       250 

So, if you start with 159 leads, you’ll end up with 1 closed deal. And along the way to that single deal, you will have 250 interactions with those 159 firms. 

PLUS

 For each successful interaction, there will be at least three attempts to connect: emails, moved meetings, vacation alerts, etc.  So, in fact, we will require over 750 activities to get a deal  (3 x 250). And add to that the time for research, meeting preparations, proposal and contract creation and so forth. 

How many deals are you going to close this year? Do you have the horsepower to do the work? Ten deals = 7,500 activities! Staggering isn’t it. 

Next week we’ll talk about ways to reduce the effort and speed up the process. 

If you’d like to workshop this process with your team, let me know and we can set up a call to explore. 

Andrew