Why ‘Tell Them Something They Don't Know’ Is Bad Advice in B2B Sales

Frank V. Cespedes; Tracy  DeCicco

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Article | Harvard Business Review (website)

Why ‘Tell Them Something They Don't Know’ Is Bad Advice in B2B Sales

by Frank V. Cespedes and Tracy DeCicco

Abstract

Common advice in sales is to provide insights to customers during sales calls. But this advice generally stays at the level of “tell people something they don’t already know” and results in sales conversations littered with many irrelevant factoids. This article provides examples of how salespeople develop and deliver resonant insights in customer conversations and why the framing of insights depends upon to whom they are talking and when in the sales cycle.

Keywords: Sales; Interpersonal Communication; Communication Strategy;

Format: Electronic

Citation:

Cespedes, Frank V., and Tracy DeCicco. "Why ‘Tell Them Something They Don't Know’ Is Bad Advice in B2B Sales." Harvard Business Review (website) (August 19, 2019).

About the Author

Frank V. Cespedes

MBA Class of 1973 Senior Lecturer of Business Administration

Entrepreneurial Management

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Article | Top Sales Magazine

Sales Methodologies and Selling

Frank V. Cespedes

Sales methodologies play an important role. A common approach in a sales force allows for consistency, dissemination of best practices, acceleration of learning, and it helps the firm to scale because management then has common metrics to monitor and evaluate. However, it’s rare that the same methodology is relevant across the buying situations encountered by salespeople in a market. This article discusses and provides examples of variables relevant to analyzing sales tasks and evaluating the relevance of a selling methodology: differences within an industry, within a category, and when target buyers change.

Keywords: methodology; Sales; Analysis;

Citation:
Cespedes, Frank V. "Sales Methodologies and Selling." Top Sales Magazine (November 2019), 26–27. View Details

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Article | Harvard Business Review (website)

How B2B Companies Can Win Back Customers They've Lost

Frank V. Cespedes and León Poblete

Most research and training in sales focus on acquiring new customers. But winning back previous customers is increasingly important: mergers, choice in supply chains, and uncertainty about trade wars mean that B2B customers are constantly re-evaluating relationships with suppliers and making changes. Meanwhile, large buyers account, on average, for over 25% of revenues at publicly traded firms, up from 10% in the 1980s. This article discusses how and why the process for reacquiring lost customers requires a different approach than acquiring new ones and illustrates the process and its implications via a case example.

Keywords: B2B; customer reacquisition; Customer Relationship Management;

Citation:
Cespedes, Frank V., and León Poblete. "How B2B Companies Can Win Back Customers They've Lost." Harvard Business Review (website) (June 3, 2019). View Details

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Case | HBS Case Collection | February 2016 (Revised April 2019)

InsightSquared: Developing the Sales and Marketing Plan

Mark Roberge, Tom Eisenmann and Frank Cespedes

Fred Shilmover and Sam Clemens prepared for their fourth quarter board meeting. They were excited to have scaled their software startup, InsightSquared, to $2 million in revenue and secured an $8 million round of venture capital. However, they disagreed on the path ahead, specifically on the sales and marketing plan. Shilmover preferred a sales-centric approach to growth while Clemens preferred a marketing-centric one. Which strategy was optimal for their venture’s next phase of growth?

Keywords: Sales planning; Software; Marketing; Sales; Planning; Growth and Development Strategy;

Citation:
Roberge, Mark, Tom Eisenmann, and Frank Cespedes. "InsightSquared: Developing the Sales and Marketing Plan." Harvard Business School Case 816-074, February 2016. (Revised April 2019.) View Details

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Why ‘Tell Them Something They Don't Know’ Is Bad Advice in B2B Sales

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