How to Accelerate B2B Sales and Grow Your Brand Using a Holistic Approach

Sales is a systematic process, and it doesn’t matter from company to company. The company is different and the product offering is different, but the process of growing sales is the same.

Businesses have been shell-shocked from the onset of the pandemic. Until now, businesses still don’t see the acceleration where it needs to be in regards to complex sales and relationships that have to be built in the B2B world. If you are in B2B sales, you know you have to generate revenue. You have to create relationships.

But how do you do that?

You have to understand and take a holistic approach to sales. It’s not just about marketing versus sales anymore. It’s the overall system. It’s putting together sales, marketing, and now, revenue operations, understanding that it’s an ecosystem.

In this episode, Ken Lundin shares his wisdom on how you can accelerate B2B sales and grow your brand by taking a holistic approach to sales.

Ken Lundin, founder of Ken Lundin & Associates and creator of the Sales Alpha Roadmap, found his mission while standing in his front lawn in Atlanta in 2011, when he learned from the people who had purchased it that his house had been sold by the bank. With his business – and the last 6 years of his life – up in smoke, he took a mid-level sales position and over the course of the next 2 years was offered 2 promotions attaining the role of SVP of Sales within two years. With his unique perspective on thriving during difficult times and his considerable sales acumen, he soon became a consultant in order to bring his systematic process to other companies, helping them adapt to difficult changes and to thrive in uncertain times.

Undoubtedly, sales are much harder to come by in the “new normal” of the COVID era. On average, companies have less than 25% of their sales staff meeting quotas successfully. However, Ken’s process is rooted in an understanding that, unusual though it may be, today’s difficulties are not unique. Businesses have always and will always need to pivot the ways in which they connect with and sell to their customers as times change, and, with this need in mind as well as a keen awareness of what exactly is at stake for entrepreneurs, Ken is a man on a mission – and a man with a proven track record – to help businesses adapt and grow their sales in any market environment.

Podcast Timestamps/Outline

01:01 – Introduction

01:44 – About Ken Lundin and his background in sales

05:08 – Why are some people just waiting for things to happen?

07:55 – Lowering of standards and its impact on outcome. What might we have done?

11:21 – Band-aid solutions that don’t work

14:40 – How to tell a better story from a financial perspective

17:22 – The Sales Alpha Roadmap

22:31 – How to fix the rift between sales and marketing

26:41 – What should a B2B Digital Marketer be asking themselves right now?

29:54 – What are the common problems two-million-dollar organizations and two hundred-million-dollar organizations face?

32:20 – Asking the right questions

35:39 – Customer retention impact vs. new logo impact

42:26 – If you had no budget restrictions, where would you put the money?

46:31 – Connect with Ken Lundin

Memorable Quotes

“Virtual selling has made us lazy, and we’ve loosened the standards associated with how we present ourselves to our prospects, and therefore, we’ve allowed the prospects to commoditize us with all of our competitors.”

“Sales is a systematic process, and it doesn’t matter from company to company. The company is different and the product offering is different, but the process of growing sales is the same.”

“Marketing needs to redefine where it gets its impact and what attribution matters.”

“The number one thing Marketing can do for a company is to push back on whether or not the company is communicating the messaging in a way that the prospect would speak and care about it.”

“Before you even worry about budget, worry about what’s happening in the next 12 months and how what’s going on impacts how people buy from you.”

“It is more important to match what you do to how your buyers buy than it is for you to create your own perfect internal process.”

Episode Links and Resources

Ken’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kglundin/ 

Ken’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/kglundin 

Ken’s website: https://kenlundin.com/ 

Digital activity ROI assessment: https://b2bdm.com/digital-activity-roi/ 

More episodes related to B2B sales: https://b2bdm.com/sales-enablement/