Issue 3 - The Buying Committee Breakdown: How to Get the Whole Team to Closed-Won.

This week’s edition: Battling the buying committee, plus the headlines you need to know about, a new case study, and a poll you’ll want to share your feedback on!

The buying committee has grown to an average of 11 people. How do you land collective buy-in from that whole boardroom?

Earlier this year, Paul Petrone wrote about inflated buying committees in his article Buying Committees Are Getting Bigger. Here Are 3 Smart Ways to React. In it, he noted that the average committee size has crept up to 11, and his source says roughly a fifth of survey respondents say the committee is more than 16 people.

If one’s company, two’s a party, and three’s a crowd, what does that make 11-16+ people? Overwhelming. That’s what it is.

As the estimated value of the deal rises, so does the headcount of the buying committee. Working with one or two champions feels like small rocks in comparison. Fortunately, there are ways for sales teams to build an effective strategy here, regardless of how many people enter your Zoom lobby.

Here are 3 tactical tips to help you better manage the buying committee.

Trendy sales strategies come and go, but these pointers withstand the test of time. Let's look at the perks first. By mastering the art of managing the buying committee, you:

• Accelerate deals and increase your pipeline velocity.
• De-risk your deals.
• Increase your overall win rate.
• Boost internal buy-in and smooth the implementation process.
• Increase retention and reduce churn.

1. Touchpoints for everyone, every step of the way

Everyone on the buying committee is there for a reason. If not everyone is on that initial call, ask who is missing and ensure they are included in the follow-up. Getting to know the whole committee will increase your chances of a successful close.

Once you conduct your research on everyone through LinkedIn or your sales intelligence tool, map them for full visibility on your side. On the initial call (and calls moving forward) don’t forget:

• The round of introductions. Who is everyone, and what do they do?
• To include everyone in all follow-up communications.
• To connect with everyone on LinkedIn (more on this later).
• Adding them to your CRM and opportunity.

2. Provide value for each member of the team

Now, we go beyond a simple hello with each team member. This stage of getting to know everyone is also called “multithreading,” and it’s the best way to stay high-touch throughout the pipeline.

Reach out to everyone individually, and start by identifying what value means to each stakeholder. Speak their language. This could look like:

• Sending them articles that pertain to their role or industry.
• Build a business case that aligns with each stakeholder's needs and risks.
• Introducing them to someone on your side with the same job profile. Also called profile-matching.
• Use technology to learn from customer interactions and flag important concerns and questions from call sentiment.
• Building rapport and a strong banter via LinkedIn.

3. Communicate the post-close plans

If you execute the first two strategies well, you can set yourself up for a strong and forward close. Here’s how you could go above and beyond to bring it to closed-won.

• Present a concrete roll-out plan. Build a few slides that show them what the workflow will look like with your product implemented.
• Describe what onboarding support looks like and how to benchmark and measure ROI.
• Gather case studies and other social proof to build your case here.

What if there was a solution to help execute all 3 of these tips:

Pod is a tool developed with sellers in mind. Here's how it can help you with all things buying committee:

• Pod analyzes all customer interactions, including email, notes, call transcripts, etc. It identifies stakeholder sentiment and recent trends and synthesizes concerns, questions asked, and areas of excitement expressed by the stakeholders.
• Pod also helps you flag topics related to MEDDPICC, BANT, and all your favorite qualification frameworks so you can fill in the gaps in all stakeholder touchpoints.
• You’ll be able to identify the best strategy to address concerns and objection-handle while getting committee buy-in, ultimately de-risking your deals and increasing your likelihood to win them.

Bite-sized stories

Headlines of the week

• Job openings unexpectedly rise
  
• SaaS and Healthcare investors trade views on industry themes
  
• US Startup funding drops 38%, while unicorn creation soars

WebFX + Pod

"This is a great tool for any salespeople that use Salesforce. Once you use it, you'll understand why it adds a lot of value," - WebFX's Eric Roberts.

Does your pipeline need acceleration? Read more here.

Thanks for reading! If you like this newsletter and want to offer a little support, you can:

  1. Tell a friend about Pod

  2. Forward this newsletter with an invitation to subscribe

Couldn't make our last LinkedIn Live Event? Catch the recording here

‍