One of the prototypes, the blocker, is just a negative presence in the sale. How can salespeople overcome the discord and divergent interests of a purchasing group? To find an answer, the authors identified, through thousands of surveys, seven prototypes of B2B buyers. Discord breaks out, and the sale falls through.
Each arrives with their tailored perspective on the purchase, then discovers that there are 4.4 other different tailored perspectives on the same sale. The reason is that sooner or later, the 5.4 colleagues in the customer organization must come together and arrive at a consensus on whether or not to buy. Extensive research by the authors shows that the more tailoring is attempted for each individual, the lower the quality of the overall sale at the end of the process.
This is not only very time consuming and onerous but inefficient. The traditional approach would be to uncover the needs and tailor the product to every individual in order to ensure all “yes’s” to the sale when the group decides. According to the authors, the average B2B sale involves 5.4 individuals.
