The Role of Sellers in B2B Buying

I made over 100 purchase decisions as a B2B buyer, but I can count on one hand the times sellers TRULY enabled our team to say yes. Here are 6 ways the top 1% of AEs use Champion Enablement to prevent no-decision: 1. They Don’t Skip Co-Creating Compelling Business Cases Most AEs spend hours preparing, attending, and summarizing calls. They think it’s time well spent. The truth is, none of it matters if your Champion fails to put a compelling case in front of their exec team. And most don’t know how. Facilitating that step is the best use of time with your champion. More than any demo or presentation. 2. They Facilitate Internal Buying Discussions Most AEs spend their time selling TO their Champions (e.g. share info, give demos, support a trial). That’s nice, but it misses the point → Creating an internal version of you. You truly unlock the power of having a Champion when you sell WITH them (as Nate Nasralla calls it): Strategize, discuss risks, co-create internal buying tools, and help prep their internal discussions. 3. They Tailor EVERYTHING (Leaving the Generic Stuff to Marketing) Most AEs share resources to solve an Information Starvation problem (e.g. long whitepapers and ebooks). However, the problem isn’t Starvation, but Indigestion (credit to Nick Cegelski). You truly enable Champions by Tailoring and Sense-Making resources: a comparison, requirement builder, use case/architecture, TCO/RO, etc. 4. They Collaborate on Solving the Problem (Not Pitch a Solution) Most AEs love to share their solution. They come up with the use cases and demo them. They work with SEs on a solution and present it. That’s all good, but where you truly build commitment is by doing it WITH your champion. Instead of presenting, try having a Use Case Workshop. Instead of building the Solution, bring it half-baked and complete the rest together. 5. Build Mutual Plans for Success (Not Next Steps) Most AEs miss the point of having a committed champion → Having someone ‘on your side’. They always treat them like after the first call and lock only a single next step. They’re afraid they’ll disappear. But a true champion is here to run the marathon with you. Help them do that by co-planning the entire process, from a successful rollout backward to where you are today. 6. Test, and Build Commitment and Influence Most AEs’ idea of a champion is having a Main Contact. That's a mistake. Your main contact might not have enough influence, or commitment to pull it off. Don’t limit yourself. Test and actively build champions. Assign them specific tasks, such as gathering internal data or facilitating intros to execs. If they fail, try to add others who’d potentially do better. TAKEAWAY: Most buyers lack experience in making complex purchasing decisions. If all you’re doing is giving demos and sharing info with your main contact… You’re not doing your job. With AI becoming capable of doing a lot more for buyers. There’s no better time to learn these skills.

More Than Just Selling... There was a time when B2B sales meant one thing: ➡️ Show up. ➡️ Pitch hard. ➡️ Overcome objections. ➡️ Close the deal. If you could talk fast, pressure well, and outlast the buyer, you won. That era is gone... And the professionals still clinging to it don’t realize they’re already invisible. Today, selling is no longer the job. It’s the byproduct. Because the modern buyer doesn’t need a salesperson to access information. They need someone who can interpret it. 🚫 They don’t need persuasion. ✅ They need perspective. 🚫 They don’t want to be “handled.” ✅ They want to be understood. B2B sales has evolved from transactional execution to strategic partnership. And the expectations have changed accordingly. Buyers now expect you to: 💡 Understand their business before the first meeting 💡 Anticipate risks they haven’t articulated yet 💡 Translate complexity into clarity 💡 Align solutions to outcomes, not features 💡 Stay present after the contract is signed In other words… They expect real leadership. The old model rewarded closers. The new model rewards problem solvers, system thinkers, and trusted advisors. That’s why the most effective sales professionals today don’t sound like salespeople at all. They sound like: - Consultants - Operators - Strategists - Executives They ask better questions than their buyers. They see around corners. They connect dots others miss. And here’s my take on it... If your value disappears the moment pricing is discussed… You were never selling anything meaningful to begin with. Modern B2B sales is more than just selling. It’s diagnosing before prescribing. It’s teaching before pitching. It’s building confidence before asking for commitment. And for sales leaders, the mandate is clear: Stop training your teams to close harder. Start developing them to think deeper. Because the future belongs to the professionals who don’t just move product. They move businesses forward... "Lead Different. Sell Smarter. Win with Purpose."

“Asynchronous selling” is quietly becoming a key component of buying motions in B2B — whether sellers have caught up or not. Today’s buyers (yes, including enterprise) don’t want to wait for a calendar invite to make progress. They want to explore with their own team, on their own time and schedule, across time zones and without friction. That means a whole lot of the buying journey increasingly happens without a seller present in real time. The key word in that last sentence is “present”.   The best teams are designing for this reality, where buying is enabled with proactive and strategic seller expertise, guidance and support.  Self-serve ways to understand value, align internally, and answer hard questions long before a sales call happens.  Think short, role-specific video explainers; interactive demos and proof points; ROI models buyers can run and share internally; clear next steps that don’t require emailing a rep; and fast, intelligent responses when buyers do raise their hand — whether that’s at 9am or 9pm. Platforms like Consensus didn’t create this shift, but they reflect it: enabling buyers to move forward asynchronously while still capturing insight, intent and momentum for sales teams. Sellers, please don’t freak out.  This isn’t removing you from the process but rather recognizing where you are most valuable (and where buyers are better off working independently). The average B2B sellers only spends 25-30 percent of their time actively selling. Imagine what just a couple points of improvement could do to your sales team’s productivity and results. The best sellers welcome buyer enablement advances, allowing them to focus their active selling time on the interactions where they are needed most (and where they can have the biggest impact). This improves the overall process dramatically for sellers and buyers.  Reps show up later, but better informed. Buyers arrive aligned, educated, and focused on decisions instead of discovery.  Marketers can focus on and impact revenue velocity through the entire funnel. The open question for B2B teams in 2026 isn’t whether buyers prefer this model. They already do. The question is whether your go-to-market motion is designed to support a buyer who wants to make progress without waiting on you — and still feel confident choosing you when it counts. 

The new "cheat code" for sellers I was having a conversation with Kerry Cunningham on Linkedin when he made the comment “connection made via social is a 'cheat code' for sellers” and he is right There’s a strange paradox unfolding in B2B buying Buying groups are forming opinions and making decisions far earlier than ever before, long before they’re willing to sit through a pitch And when they do finally agree to a pitch? It’s no longer about evaluating options It’s about validating the choice they’ve already made In other words: By the time sellers show up, the real selling is already over That’s why the smartest, highest-performing sellers have stopped trying to fight this shift Instead, they’ve embraced a new cheat code, one that works precisely because it doesn’t look like selling at all Social Connection: The New Advantage Sellers Don’t Talk About Enough There’s a huge opportunity hidden in plain sight: connection made through social Not the superficial connection of liking someone’s post or dropping a “great insights!” comment, but the deeper connection that comes from being consistently present, relevant, and useful in someone’s professional world When you show up this way, when you help buyers make sense of their roles, challenges, opportunities, and trends, you become part of their thinking before they ever enter a buying cycle You influence quietly, consistently, and without agenda And here’s the irony: Your influence grows fastest when you’re not trying to sell Buyers don’t want pitches early in the journey But they do want help navigating uncertainty They do want ideas that change how they frame a problem They do want clarity in a noisy market Show up like that and you become something no sales pitch can ever replicate: trusted What Meaningful Contribution Really Looks Like This is where many sellers misunderstand the assignment Meaningful contribution is not talking about your product It’s not posting your latest feature release It’s not explaining why your solution is "the leading" anything That’s noise, and buyers have infinite sources of noise already Meaningful contribution is when you help buyers: think differently see something they missed understand a shift happening in their world avoid a trap others fall into benchmark themselves against best practices uncover problems earlier gain confidence in their next step You don’t need a pitch to do any of that You need presence, insight, and generosity Do those consistently…and you’ll be influencing buying decisions long before you even know there is a buying decision happening The question is: were you part of shaping it? In today’s market, the sellers who influence upstream are the sellers who win #Sales #Marketing #SocialSelling #Leadership #Speaker

In enterprise b2b sales, if your pipeline depends on inbound, you are already behind. By the time a referral, form fill, or RFP reaches your inbox, the customer has already mapped the problem, compared options, and decided what “value” should look like. You are no longer influencing the outcome. You are reacting to it. Ouch! Inbound feels comfortable because it looks busy. Dashboards light up, activity metrics rise, and it feels like progress. But activity does not equal control. It only gives the illusion of one. The truth is, when you rely on inbound, you are often stepping into a deal that has already been defined by someone else. Real control happens much earlier. Long before a prospect calls, clicks, or submits a form. It occurs when you are part of shaping how the buyer thinks about the problem itself. That is where modern enterprise selling truly begins. 🔥 1. Seeing what others miss Sandler suggests that the best sellers uncover opportunities before it is visible. They look for pain points that the customer has not yet recognized or articulated. Instead of waiting for interest to surface, they create awareness through discovery and curiosity. That early insight builds trust and positions them as advisors, not vendors. 💡2. Leading before the buyer defines the problem According to Sandler’s principles, selling does not start when a deal appears. It begins when a seller helps a buyer make sense of confusion. The most effective enterprise sellers help customers name the problem and quantify its impact before a solution is even discussed. When you lead at that stage, you set the narrative for every conversation that follows. 🎯 3. Building urgency through understanding Sandler implies that great sellers do not create urgency by pushing timelines. They make it by revealing what is at stake. They help customers connect pain with consequence and consequence with action. When a buyer truly understands what inaction costs, urgency becomes natural and authentic. Every major sales study points to the same truth. Teams that create their own opportunities close faster, protect margin, and forecast with more confidence. Deals that start early stay more predictable and less price-driven. Prospecting is not old-fashioned. It is the most strategic capability in modern sales. Because when you engage before the buying process begins, you are not just filling a pipeline. You are shaping demand, defining success, and earning lasting influence. If your growth strategy depends only on inbound, you are scaling luck, not leadership. 🔥 Be early. 💬 Build trust. 💡 Create intent. 🎯 Influence how success is defined. That is how modern enterprise sellers win. Follow and repost if this resonated with you.

False Beliefs in B2B: Sellers "Move" Buyers Through the Funnel Post 7 in a series on common B2B practices — the folk theory behind them, what the evidence shows, and the better theory that explains what's really happening. 🧙 The Practice or Belief That a deal moves through the pipeline by virtue of a sales motion — discovery, demo, proposal, negotiation. Stalled deals need more/ better sales activity to advance. 🧙 The Folk Theory Behind It The seller is the driver of the buying process. The buying journey is a funnel the seller lures a buyer into and shepherds through; that discovery uncovers need for buyers. The demo creates conviction. The proposal frames the decision. Negotiation closes it.  When deals stall, the diagnosis is flawed seller execution rather than buyer-side issues. 💡 What the Evidence Really Shows The average buying group consists of 10 people, each with their own experiences, risk tolerances, political agendas, and relationships with competitors. Marketing tactics don’t address these internal dynamics. Sellers are often too late to impact the buying journey and the final purchase. Sellers face stalled deals due to internal negotiations among stakeholders, which they are largely uninvolved in and unable to influence. 💡 The Supported Theory of B2B An organization enters the market when a functional leader believes acquiring a solution would benefit them. Usually, there’s an incumbent solution, but the journey begins with the hope of a new solution providing value. Internal consensus on the business case and the best solution provider drives and often undermines buying journeys. Deals stall within the buying organization due to changes in the provider organization or the buying group’s inability to reach consensus. Seller implications: Late in the journey, sellers can help nudge the buying group to consensus by providing content, data, reference points, and frameworks to persuade skeptical buying group members. Marketing implications: Investing in content and tools that help buying groups reach internal consensus is highly valuable. It helps buyers move themselves through their journeys toward acquisition. Read the Defense of Theory in B2B: https://lnkd.in/gqask53S #B2Bmarketing #demandgeneration #consensus #buyinggroups #funnel Sara Boostani (Frazier), M.S. Kyle Dugan

One of the biggest mistakes I see sellers making is disappearing between meetings. A buyer agrees to a first meeting. Then a second. Then a third. And in between? Silence. No value. No insight. No momentum. Just a calendar invite for the next call. The best sellers that I have ever worked with understand that deals are won and lost between the official meetings. While your buyer is navigating internal politics, evaluating alternatives, and building consensus, you should be helping them move forward. Some simple actions that create momentum: 👉 Share a relevant article that supports a challenge they mentioned. 👉 Introduce them to a customer with a similar business problem. 👉 Send a short video summarizing key takeaways and agreed actions. It could be shared with the broader consensus team. 👉 Connect with additional stakeholders involved in the decision. 👉 Share proof points that reinforce confidence in your approach. 👉 Engage with their content on LinkedIn to stay visible and relevant. 👉 Provide industry trends or competitive insights they can use internally. 👉 Send a concise recap email that helps them socialize the opportunity with colleagues. None of these activities feel like selling. That’s the point. Modern buyers need help making a decision. The sellers who create value between meetings build trust, maintain momentum, and make it easier for buyers to achieve consensus. Curious. Do you do any of these or anything else between meetings that consistently helps move opportunities forward? #B2BSales #BuyerExperience #SalesLeadership #RevenueGrowth #EnterpriseSales #Sales

Stop hiring Relationship Builders into complex sales roles. There, I said it. ... In a huge study of B2B sellers, Relationship Builders made up 4% of high performers in complex sales. 4% The highest-performing profile were sellers who teach buyers something new, tailor insights to the stakeholder, and take control of the sale. In a simple sale, relationships carry the day. The decision is linear, and likability greases the wheel. Complex sales are a different species. Multiple decision makers with competing agendas. Long cycles. A CFO who has never met you and does not care that you brought donuts to the office last Tuesday. (The donuts were good though.) In complexity, the seller who wins is the one who brings an insight the buyer's own team couldn't generate internally. Someone who understands the buyer's industry, their competitive pressures, and the economic cost of indecision. ... David Epstein in his book 'Range' draws a distinction between "kind" and "wicked" learning environments. Kind environments have clear rules, fast feedback, repetitive patterns. Golf. Chess. High-velocity inside sales. Complex B2B selling is 'Wicked'. Ambiguous paths, delayed feedback, shifting dynamics, stakeholders with conflicting motivations. In kind environments, narrow skill wins. Repetition creates mastery. In wicked environments, breadth of knowledge wins. Pattern recognition across psychology, business strategy, economics, and human behavior. The Relationship Builder thrives in the 'Kind' environment. Friendly. Accommodating. Consistent. In the 'Wicked' environment, they get eaten alive. And we wonder why the pipeline is thin. ... The hard truth is that most companies hire for personality and hope skill and gravity develops later. It rarely does. Expertise is built deliberately. It comes from studying the buyer's world. From understanding competitive dynamics, economic cycles, and the psychology of organizational change. Relationship Builders are lovely people. I mean that. They'll take your client to lunch, remember their kid's birthday, send a thoughtful card. They'll also lose a $2M deal to a seller who walked in with a valuable and uncomfortable point of view. Seneca wrote, "It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare. It is because we do not dare that things are difficult." That's what separating yourself in complex sales requires. Taking a jarring and contrarian point of view is daring. Challenging their assumptions takes preparation. Telling them their current approach is costing them money takes conviction. But that's where the complex deals live. Build sellers who know more about the buyer's world than the buyer does. Give them permission to walk into any room and command attention with insight. Expect it. Train it. Charm fades. Expertise compounds. ...

Modern B2B buyers have changed. They’re empowered and independent. By the time they ever speak to your sales team, they’ve likely already made up their mind. How so? Research shows B2B buyers may be 57–70% through their buying research before contacting a vendor. - They’ve read your content - Combed through reviews - Checked out competitors - And maybe even asked peers for input. This means two things: (1) You must influence the decision before that first sales call. - Have a founder-led brand on LinkedIn. - Provide tons of value via blogs, whitepapers, webinars...whatever helps educate your market. - Rank well on search for topics in your space. - Let prospects “try before they buy” with free tools or trials. (2) By the time you do talk, drop the salesy pitch. They don’t need basic info. They need nuanced answers and trust. A salesperson now is more of a consultant, helping clarify and confirm a decision. So make sure your marketing and sales are aligned on messaging, so there’s no disconnect. And focus on building trust early (testimonials, case studies, transparency in pricing). If you’re not part of that first 70% of research, you simply won’t be in the running. In short: be discoverable, be helpful, and be credible long before a direct conversation. The new buyer’s in control: meet them where they are. If you want to start now, here's a free tool that makes it very easy for you to get a head start: https://lessbusy.com/ Start showing up before they’re ready to buy.

No doubt, when progressing a sale along a customer's buying journey, one side knows more than the other. Who should be involved, how it should best play out, what obstacles must be addressed? All these things are subject to pretty significant levels of asymmetric information. Traditionally, however, we've largely assumed that that asymmetry skews in favor of the customer. After all, it's their organizational buying journey. Who better than customers to navigate their organization and drive real deal progress. This is why many commercial leaders have spent years aligning sales process to customers' buying process--typically starting by "mapping the customer's buying journey." But here's an interesting--and increasingly relevant--question: What if customers themselves don't fully know what that buying journey should look like? What if they're facing any number of obstacles and challenges that they themselves hadn't anticipated--possibly because they've never bought this solution before, or haven't made a similar purchase with the same people in a long time. The way this challenge manifests? With, arguably the four worst words in B2B sales: "It turns out that..." Painful. But this is exactly where asymmetry of information skews the other way, landing us in a place where, quite likely, sellers understand better than buyers themselves better ways to navigate their own internal decision complexity. And in that asymmetry there is opportunity. Opportunity to show up differently. To provide real value through coaching and guidance. To engage in Framemaking. The Framemaking Sale, by Brent Adamson and Karl Schmidt: Pre-orders available now. The book lands Sept. 9.