Why Reps Struggle to Build Consensus

(This is the first in a series of blog posts on our latest research: Creating Customer Consensus.)

There is an increasing number of customer stakeholders involved in a purchase decision. And that’s the reality all of us in sales live with almost on a daily basis—of building consensus amongst an ever increasing list of stakeholders. Admittedly, it is not a new challenge. We have been dealing with a dramatic rise in decision-makers and influencers for a while now, exacerbated by the increased scrutiny brought about by the economic downturn. But with the economy better (arguable still), how has this changed? That’s the question we set out to answer this year and here is what we found:

Despite the improved economy, number of stakeholders involved continues to rise. In a recent member poll, nearly 80% of sales leaders report that the number of customer stakeholders involved in a typical deal continues to rise. The average B2B decision-making group includes 5.4 buyers. And salespeople need to get a “yes” from each of these stakeholders to be able to close a deal. Aggravating that challenge is the fact that at times you don’t even know who these 5.4 stakeholders are and what they care about.
It is not just the number of stakeholders that makes consensus hard. It is also the diversity of stakeholders. 75% of respondents in our recent poll indicate that in any given purchase decision, the stakeholders involved come from a wide variety of roles, teams, and locations. This means that not only are there 5.4 people involved, there are 5.4 different perspectives. So if you sell IT solutions, you used to sell to the CIO and his or her team. But as most IT solutions today touch other parts of the business, your reps now have to sell to CMOs, COOs, Heads of HR, and more, depending on who’s using the system. Plus, the broader scope and bigger footprint of your solution probably means talking to the CFO, Procurement, and almost certainly legal. Each of these stakeholders is different from each other in terms of their priorities, goals, perspectives, and even has different levels of knowledge about your proposed solution.

And that’s the challenge of customer consensus today. It isn’t so much a quantity problem. It’s a diversity problem.

So how do you resolve this challenge? Stay tuned as we reveal solutions and best practices in our forthcoming blogs!

CEB Sales members, be among the first to learn more about this research by registering for one of our upcoming sessions. Also, listen to the event replay that highlights the study’s key findings.