Using Along to align with buyers in B2B sales processes 💰
Along is created out of the need for alignment between different stakeholders of a B2B sales process. In order to find a solution, a selling organization and a buying organization need to find common ground before having a deal. In the current tool landscape, this process is spread out in different tools and channels. Usually, a sales rep qualifies prospects and tries to move them down the sales funnel with the help of emails and attachments that are combined with video calls. This process often includes a lot of back and forth on different aspects and details of the deal. This typically includes sending various versions of documents and other sales materials, looping in stakeholders on the seller and buyer side as well as getting approvals from decision makers.
The primary tool to handle all of this is email and the result is multiple threads with patched up recipients that leaves most of the deal participants confused. Here is some more info about the amount of potential stakeholders in a B2B sales process.
As a result, sales reps often suffer from long sales cycles, lower conversion rates and complicated onboarding processes.
Along solves this problem with a collaborative interface between sellers and buyers that features a shared task list at its core. We call it "the road to purchase", but there are multiple names for it as you can read below 👇
- Mutual Action Plan (MAP)
- Mutual Evaluation Plan (MEP)
- Joint Execution Plan (JEP)
- Mutual Success Plan (MSP)
- Mutual Plan (MP)
- Mutual Timeline (MT)
- Shared Project Plan (SPP)
- Blue Sheet
- Close Plan
- Work Backwards Plan
Besides the immense benefits to use a shared task list for aligning on a solution between multiple stakeholders, there are additional trends that benefit our solution. A Gartner study on the growth of buying teams shows that the amount of buying groups has increased >8x over the last 20 years along an increasing complexity of the buying process. Needing only the approval from the C-Suite in the early 2000s, sellers today need to involve end users, finance, procurement, contractors, IT, HR, legal, data security or even customer experience in the deal.
Having spoken to >100 B2B sales organizations, it becomes clear that almost all experienced sellers use Mutual Action Plans (MAPs) as they understand sales as collaboration. A MAP requires work on both sides, but inexperienced sellers are sometimes scared to demand something from their buyers. Understanding how MAPs work will lead you to opening up more to your buyers problems. You start to listen and create a plan for answering that doesn't feel like work. Sales become a cooperation instead of a top-down dictation that will scare a lot of buyers away.
Using Along, you can align with your buyers on the same page and build a scalable process for understanding and solving whatever problems lie ahead!
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