How to Streamline B2B Sales Processes

The average B2B buyer is drowning in information. Research shows: Only 17% of the buying journey is spent meeting with vendors. The rest? Sorting through conflicting information. Trying to make sense of mixed messages. Drowning in content from multiple sources. I watched a deal implode last week. The prospect said: "We went with someone else because their solution was simpler to understand." Not better. Not cheaper. Simpler to understand. This made me curious. So I reviewed our process: - 17 separate emails with attachments - 9 automated follow-ups - 3 technical documents - implementation guides That's 29 separate communications. All living in different inboxes. All requiring different logins. All telling slightly different stories. No wonder they were confused. We were creating cognitive overload. The human brain can only handle 5-9 pieces of information at once. Yet we bombard prospects with dozens. Yesterday, I tried something different: For a new enterprise opportunity, instead of our usual process, I created a single digital space: - One URL they could always return to - Information organized by stakeholder role - Content that appeared in logical sequence - No unnecessary details until requested The feedback was immediate: "This is the clearest sales process I've experienced. I actually understand what you do now." They signed in half our usual sales cycle. Most sales teams obsess over: • What information to share • When to share it Almost none think about: • How to organize it • How to reduce cognitive load Your prospects aren't rejecting your product. They're rejecting confusion. Create clarity, win more deals. The simplest story usually wins. Agree?

Most leaders try to fix problems by adding more. ➕ More features. ➕ More resources. ➕ More cost. But in complex sales and business growth, adding 'more' often makes problems worse — bloating offers, slowing decisions, and creating friction. The leaders who consistently win work differently. They strip things away first. 🪶 I call it the 'Breakdown–Build-Back (BBB) Model'. A two-step framework I’ve used and taught to transform deals, operations, and go-to-market strategies. 💡 Why It Works Most constraints in business are inherited, not real. - Legacy processes that no one remembers justifying - Feature lists built for 'average' customers rather than a specific one - Assumptions repeated so often they’ve become 'truth' The BBB Model dismantles these false constraints and rebuilds only what drives measurable value. It works because it focuses attention, resources, and alignment on what matters most for the outcome, not the baggage that’s been carried along. 🛠 The Model 1️⃣ Breakdown - Deconstruct the challenge into its smallest components; whether that’s a product, a sales process, or a negotiation package. - Separate the essential from the assumed. - Use data and direct customer input to identify what actually creates value. 2️⃣ Build-Back - Reassemble only the components that deliver impact for this specific deal or market need. - Substitute, simplify, or eliminate low-value elements. - Align stakeholders early so the rebuilt solution is executable. 📌 Real Example I watched a senior exec face a multi-million-unit notebook order with three constraints: - Strict technical specs - Minimal features - A price point close to commodity-level Instead of starting with “how can we cut costs?” they began with 'Breakdown' — mapping every component: display, casing, ports, keyboard, storage, assembly, packaging. Then they moved to 'Build-Back' — cutting unused ports, simplifying casing, streamlining packaging, and preserving core specs. ✅ 20% cost reduction ✅ Price target met ✅ Margins protected ✅ Deal saved 🚀 How BBB Applies to Sales & Growth 1. Solution Design – Craft offers that meet buyer priorities with precision, not excess. 2. Negotiation – Remove low-value elements to meet price points without gutting profitability. 3. Market Entry – Launch lean, focused offers that win early adoption and scale faster. Why it’s powerful: When you stop treating all features, processes, and 'requirements' as sacred, you start to see where speed, simplicity, and cost efficiency live. This creates competitive advantages in margin, agility, and deal velocity. And this is critical for enterprise sales, where complexity kills deals. Did this resonate? If yes, please follow me and repost.

Sales cycles grew an average of 27 days this year: - Cycles in H1 2023 were an average of 134 days (4.4 months) - Compared to the 107-day (3.5 months) average in H1 2022* *data from the excellent Capchase report, 'B2B SaaS Sales Cycles in 2023' Which is (obviously) a big problem. Because a 25% jump in cycle times is *the same thing* as having just 9 months to close 12 months of revenue. Like getting your 2024 quota… …then being told to hit that target in September. Not December. In other words: A whole quarter was stolen from most sales teams this year. Which is why 84% of leaders in the study said shrinking cycles is a priority. So, what’s the secret to cutting cycles times? Well it’s not about applying more force or pressure. It's about applying a little “WD-40” to cut out friction in the *buying* process. The trick is knowing where to apply it. _______ 1/ Update your pipeline stages to focus on specific *buying* behavior. 2/ Create specific exit criteria for moving deals from stage → stage. 3/ Look for the longest stage-to-stage time. 4/ Ask: what’s happening in the buying org? What's preventing them from moving forward? 5/ Pinpoint the doubt / uncertainty / confusion that's happening. 6/ Intentionally address the answer to # 5 in the prior stage. 7/ Repeat # 1 - # 6 above from the longest → shortest stages. _______ Here's a visual of what this could look like. Notice two big ideas: - You can’t troubleshoot what you can’t isolate. - Slowdowns are about what happens inside the buying org. Which are two big misses in most sales process design: - Stages are too clumped up, without clear exit criteria. - Stages are based on a seller's activity, not buying behaviors. And if you're an AE reading this, thinking, "Uhh, great, but I can't change our CRM stages..." that's okay. You can still take and apply the concept to the process *you* choose to design and run inside your own accounts. Which is the difference between deals closing in '23, vs. pushing to '24.