A strong post-sale engagement process is essential for companies looking to grow existing account revenue. In today’s world, the process extends beyond ensuring your customer is happy with the delivered project. It offers businesses a way to demonstrate their differentiation, reinforce their value, expand relationships, and grow profitable revenue.

Your Sales Model Dictates Responsibility

The positions within your company that are responsible for executing the post-sale process will depend on your sales model. But the consistent execution of an effective post-sale process can be critical for growing your business today and into the future.

In 2019 Deloitte Digital published a report called Experience Selling: The Future of B2B Sales, Five Steps to Transform and Deliver the Right B2B Experience describing the importance of aligning the B2B sales process with the customer’s buying journey. As defined by Deloitte, the B2B Buyer’s journey (see below) illustrates the need for B2B sellers to move beyond the transactional sale and into a role as a trusted advisor who helps solve business problems and works with customers to create continuous improvement. Many years ago, Wally Stettinius, the then-CEO of Cadmus Corporation, put it another way: “All sales reps can get you what you ask for, but only the best can sell you what you need.” Companies with direct sales reps who cannot shift to helping customers get what they need and not just what they ask for will be forced to compete primarily on their ability to make it easier for customers to buy from them transactionally.Strategies for facilitating transactions include branded web portals, eCommerce solutions, or in-house teams who can provide customers with fast pricing and streamlined ordering. You won’t need a direct sales team if this is your strategy.

When sales reps use a strong sales process, they develop a deeper understanding of the customer’s problems, the impact of those problems, and the value of fixing them for the customer. With this understanding, reps can make more valuable solution recommendations and justify them with a projected ROI. With knowledge of the customer’s current and desired state, reps can execute a post-sale engagement process focused on continuously improving both results and the processes used to generate those results. They fulfill their promise of a partnership by making the customer successful.

Evolve Sales Group Selling Process

Today, too many reps believe their value is in facilitating a project for their customer. They aren’t focused on the results the customer needs to achieve their goals. Their post-sales engagement process, if there is one, is focused on whether the customer is happy with the product or service they received. This focus doesn’t do much to differentiate them from any competitor capable of producing a similar product or delivering the same service. Reps who believe their customers perceive value in only their product knowledge and responsiveness leave themselves vulnerable to competitive reps who do those things and focus on improving customer results.  Great reps position themselves as trusted advisors, a critical differentiator with B2B buyers. The Global Sales Report published by LinkedIn in 2020 found that 88% of B2B buyers only buy from sales reps they consider trusted advisors.

The Objectives of a Solid Post-Sale Engagement Process

The post-sale engagement process accomplishes the following:

1. Confirms the customer’s satisfaction with the product/service sold or identifies issues so they can be researched and resolved quickly.
2. Discusses opportunities to streamline the process for both the customer and the seller. This is critical today because of the labor shortage and a world where fewer people are expected to do more work.
3. Confirms the results of the project and makes recommendations to improve future outcomes.
4. Confirms that the buyer and her organization have realized value from the seller’s expertise and focus on improving results, and they want to continue the relationship.
5. Introduces insight to help the customer tackle another pressing challenge.
6. Determines the next steps for the customer and rep to address the next challenge, starting a new buying and selling cycle.

A Post-Sales Engagement Process Maintains Momentum

In today’s world, reps may have to work just as hard to get the attention of an existing customer as they do a prospect. B2B decision-makers don’t have the time for reps to “check-in” or “meet to get an update on how things are going.” A robust post-sale engagement process maintains the momentum from one project to the next. Avoiding a hard stop at the end of a project means the rep won’t have to chase the customer for the next conversation. Instead, the next sales cycle is initiated by introducing new insight during the post-sale process of the previous sale. More opportunities are uncovered early, allowing the rep to set a buying vision for their customers. A Forrester Research study of executive buyers found that 74% of their purchase decisions went to the seller who initially helped establish the customer’s buying vision.

A study by Lee Research in 2016 found that only 8% of B2B buyers claimed they were strongly satisfied with their customer experience. However, B2B companies believed 80% of their customers were very satisfied. This gap occurs when both sides need clarification about what they want from the relationship. This vast difference is likely tied to a difference in perception. Research from the Rockefeller Group found that 68% of customers leave their vendors because they don’t think they care about them. The customer defines care as “help me solve my business problems and stay with me and make me successful.” Too often, the seller’s description of care is defined as responding “quickly (getting) the customer what they asked for.” Research from Gartner suggests that getting customers what they want isn’t all that easy either. 77% of B2B buyers found their latest purchase “difficult” or “very complex.”  It turns out B2B customers aren’t happy with the number of emails it takes to conduct business and get answers they would have preferred to look up online. Using a post-sale engagement process demonstrates both a commitment to improving the process of working together and the fact that the seller cares about the customer’s need for tangible results and is working hard to help them accomplish their goals.

Selling the Value of Your Process

Things are changing rapidly in the business world. Decision makers are dispersed and difficult to reach. Most organizations have open positions they can’t fill, further taxing their staff. All businesses are looking for ways to get more done with fewer people. Solutions that automate processes from manufacturing to sales are being considered by companies big and small.  Your customers seek ways to eliminate manual tasks in their internal processes and with their vendor partners. Helping customers figure out what they need quickly and giving them a path to continuous improvement of both results and the processes they use to get there will resonate with decision-makers today. It will differentiate you from competitors who may still think their job is to “get what the customer asks for, fast.”. None of that matters if it doesn’t work. Your customer will not buy again if what they purchased before didn’t accomplish its objective.

Absolute satisfaction with vendors comes from the results the products/services generate for them and the ease of working together. Reps who share the post-sale process early in the sales cycle can confirm their differentiation and gain the customer’s commitment to participate fully in the post-sale engagement process. Sharing your process differentiates you from competitors who don’t have one and improves the chances of winning future business.  Executing the post-sale process with every sale builds loyal customers who want to buy again.

Who is Responsible for Post-Sale Engagement?

Depending on your sales model and the services your sell, the person responsible for executing your process may vary.  Typically, sales reps own the process for the customers assigned to them. For your best customers who buy high-value solutions like marketing strategy, direct mail programs, omnichannel campaigns, large environmental graphics projects, and branded portal solutions, the post-sale engagement process should include pre-arranged virtual or in-person meetings with all key stakeholders. Customer service reps may handle the post-sale process via phone for smaller accounts with less complex needs. For very large accounts buying both complex solutions and smaller projects, owners may join with sales to handle the post-sale engagement meetings with senior stakeholders, while customer service or account managers execute the process for smaller or less complex purchases.

The Future

According to Harvard Business Review, 73% of the stakeholders involved in B2B research and decision-making are millennials aged 25-39, with one-third being the sole decision maker. As baby boomers retire, this percentage will grow rapidly. Millennials are tech-savvy and have high expectations regarding technology, customer service, and the overall buying experience. They expect convenience, customization, and personalized experiences that provide them with value. Millennials have grown up in a digital world, and they seek out Amazon-like experiences in their B2B purchases. They aren’t tied to their email like their Boomer counterparts and prefer texting. They see processes that require multiple emails to research, buy and track a print project through a sales rep as tedious. In fact, according to Forrester, 44% of Millennial decision-makers want a “seller-free” experience mainly because they don’t see where the sales rep is adding any value.

As the share of Millennial decision-makers grows, companies will face many more customers who want a “seller-free” experience because they seek to streamline buying. B2B eCommerce has already eclipsed B2C digital commerce, according to Gartner. And they forecast that by 2025, 80 percent of B2B sales transactions between buyers and suppliers will occur via digital channels. These statistics mean buyers seek better ways to get what they need. They want simple transactions to be easy and direct. And when they do interact with a salesperson, they want a trusted advisor. They want someone who will help them solve problems and improve results over the long haul, not just make a sale.

Post-sale engagement is essential for businesses looking to build lasting customer relationships. The need for a dedicated post-sale engagement process will increase as more tech-savvy Millennials with high expectations for convenience, customer service, and overall buying experience enter the decision-making ranks. Businesses that invest in their overall sales process, especially their post-sale engagement process, will be rewarded with customer loyalty, increased sales, and higher margins. Aren’t those things you’d like to see now?

For help defining your post-sale engagement process or your overall sales process, reach out to [email protected] or use the contact form below.