Kent Business Solutions

6 Surprisingly Effective Tips to Help You Win More Business...

6/16/2021

Embrace a Paradox Mindset for Successful B2B Selling

One thing I love to do is highlight the good things my alliance and referral partners are doing for businesses. This week, my guest blogger is sales expert Henning Schwinum, co-founder of Vendux.

Without further ado, let’s get on with his topic: To Win More Sales, Stop Selling!

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A paradox is a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition, like:

Less is more
Save money by spending it
If I know one thing, it's that I know nothing
This is the beginning of the end

Every one of those, when investigated or explained, proves to be well-founded and true. The purpose of using a paradox is to grab attention, provoke thinking, and in the end, develop a new approach. Doing this in sales—whether as a team, leader or with clients—creates success.

Just think of the yin and yang principle: everything in this world consists of two opposite elements that are partially conflicting and partially complementary. In sales, you can actually use paradoxes to your advantage—call it a Paradox Mindset and embracing it can lead to great results. Consider these tips:

1. Fire Customers to Become More Profitable

Rank your clients by profitability, and you will find that those with the lowest price and a high-maintenance” attitude are unprofitable. Get rid of them.

2. To Win More Sales, Stop Selling

When people feel like they're being sold, they react negatively and put-up barriers. Focus on helping your prospects achieve their business, professional and personal objectives—not making a sale.

3. To Speed Up your Sales Cycle, Slow Down

The more quickly you push to a close, the higher resistance you encounter. Go one step at a time. When your prospects know you want to help them make the right decision, not a rash one, the process moves faster.

4. To Make Decisions Easier, Offer Fewer Options

When you increase the complexity of the decision, you decrease the likelihood of winning the sale. To help your prospects move forward, give them less to choose from. A good rule of thumb is to have at least three choices, essentially giving clients a small/medium/large range. That's enough for potential customers to feel like they can select their best option. Keep it simple.

5. To Be More Natural, Prepare Like Crazy

If you're not ready with the right message, questions, or presentation, you'll stumble or be stilted in your meeting. Being caught off guard leads to erratic decisions. Even with a lot of experience, nothing beats preparation.

6. To Get Bigger Contracts, Start Smaller

When you pursue "the big one," decisions are more complex and costly, making it much tougher to get approval. Reduce the risk by starting small and proving your capabilities. Then, it's easy to grow.

Consider the Paradox Mindset a useful skill and encourage discussions about paradoxes within the team. And when tempted to make an ‘either/or’ choice, reframe the question in terms of “both/and”: how can we achieve “both X and Y?”

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Speaking of paradoxes, so many business leaders know they need to start improving their businesses, but don’t know where to start.

That’s why I created the FIRM Fitness Assessment. It’s a 100% virtual tool that gauges the fitness of an organization and at the same time, pinpoints where to start at making improvements.

Interested in learning more? Then take my FREE business assessment that will give you a taste of what it’s like. Click the button below to get started!

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The author, Henning Schwinum, co-founder of Vendux, helps companies with a capacity or capability void in sales and sales leadership by facilitating the perfect match with an experienced and immediately available sales leader.