Anand Shah is cofounder and CEO of Databook, a revenue technology company.
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Closing large, complex enterprise deals requires a flawless combination of skill, insight and timing—and, more than ever, creativity. As companies shift strategic priorities at an unprecedented rate, sales teams need to look beyond their usual sales approaches to identify winnable deals. The key is business health—not just understanding which companies still have money to spend, but understanding how to make the right play to the right economic buyer to create and close opportunities in the pipeline.
A Case For Healthy Change
Revisiting past hunting grounds won’t get you far in the year ahead. My own company Databook’s buying decisions took about 25% longer in the second half of 2022 due to macroeconomic conditions. For sales teams, such a slowdown makes maintaining a robust pipeline incredibly challenging, with deals being delayed for a quarter or more—and engaging with new, more senior buyers who are closely scrutinizing spend decisions.
In addition, at Databook, we saw an unusually high percentage of organizations making rapid strategic shifts in the last quarter, with up to 30% of companies recently introducing new strategic initiatives in industries such as automotive and biotech.
I would say the long-term average typically sees about 10% of companies making that change on a quarterly basis. Initiatives that typically involve multi-year timelines—and their accompanying budgets—are being quickly shuffled to prioritize projects most likely to impact the bottom line. Companies are reassessing bulky technology stacks and looking for opportunities to streamline.
In this unpredictable environment, B2B sales teams must dive deep to assess the business health of prospects and customers and get creative in identifying new opportunities. The truth is that economic uncertainty is not a one-size-fits-all problem; teams need to assess each business individually to see who’s actually at risk—and who’s in need of help.
Armed with strategic, customer-specific insights, sales leaders can better understand which accounts make the most sense to pursue. Here are three places to seek robust opportunities.
1. Businesses Where Your Solution Can Produce Immediate Results
Companies under pressure are looking for quick ways to generate more revenue, cut costs, boost productivity or all of the above. Customers and prospects with budgets whose top priorities align with your solution should be high on the priority list. Skip generic presentations in favor of concrete use cases modeling rapid impact to the bottom line. Sharing benchmarking data from innovators in the sector can also prompt action from buying teams striving to stay ahead of the competition.
When planning your strategy, consider which goals specific buying teams and individual contacts are pursuing, and tailor your approach accordingly. For publicly traded companies, information from the proxy statement detailing executive compensation and incentives can shed light on which teams are tasked with which objectives. Given that layoffs and job moves are rampant, establish a sales plan to include economic buyers, like the CFO, earlier in the process to qualify the opportunity early.
2. Non-Traditional Industries Embracing Digital Transformation
While the ups and downs of major technology companies dominate the headlines, they’re far from the only firms investing in new solutions. In fact, IDC predicts that digital transformation investments worldwide will grow 16.5% between 2022 and 2024 and comprise 55% of all corporate IT spending.
Sales teams should pursue these dollars by reaching beyond traditional categories toward any company that’s aggressively pursuing digital initiatives. A number of sectors do well in a counter-cycle economy, such as consumer staples, healthcare, auto parts, food and beverage and agriculture. These companies typically have money to invest now and will be less concerned with tightening the purse strings, making them ideal prospects.
3. Companies Where The Clock Is Ticking
More than ever, it’s important to be aware of companies’ budgeting cycles. In an uncertain market, initiating sales motions too late is likely to cause deals to stall or push out several quarters, whereas planning in sync with key decision periods can yield more immediate results. Sellers should proactively hunt down data about a company’s fiscal year and spending cycles, which is typically available in publicly filed financial statements.
Additionally, dive into available customer intelligence to uncover the timelines for key initiatives within prospective organizations. If your solutions align with projects that are in the active planning phase—as opposed to strategies that are already in the execution stage—you’re more likely to win business. Tap resources such as quarterly earnings calls to uncover immediate and medium-range priorities.
Healthy Hunting
In a fast-changing, results-oriented environment, sales teams face a steeper challenge than ever when it comes to maintaining pipelines and winning deals. Armed with deep customer intelligence and the know-how to derive insights for sales planning, they can identify the healthiest prospects and business opportunities and create opportunities to engage strategically and prove the relevance of their offerings all the way up to the CFO.
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