There are usually 4 types of buyers in every B2B sales meeting. Each with their own distinct agenda and needs, your job is to win over each type of buyer in the room.
I use the acronym M.U.T.E.
M – Management: They’re looking for the best in class, high-level play because they’re making strategic decisions. They’re going to be thinking about growth, what their competition is using, and how it will help them reduce costs or expand market share.
They’re going to want to know what the competition is using and why.
U – User – The user buyer is a key title and the one that will be using your product in the day-to-day. They might not have a C-suite title, but they’re crucial to getting approval for your product. In my experience, this user is typically the one that pushed it over the line when it came to closing the deal.
Users want to know:
“Is this better than what I have now?”
“How is it better?”
“How long will it take to learn it?”
“If I am going to go through the effort of learning this new product/software, how will this make my job easier in the long run?”
T – Technical – The technical buyer is concerned about compatibility with current software/processes.
(Process, training, etc). When you’re talking to a technical buyer, you have to convince them that your software is better and give them a blueprint for where this technology is going in the future.
E – Economic buyer only wants to know one thing: Price.
They’re also concerned with how the value of the product factors into that. Price is the most forefront issue, however, you can overcome and block that price objection by positioning your value.
Position your value, not your price.
“If I buy this product, what is the breakeven point? How many months or years go by until I make my money back?”
“What is the Return on Investment?”
“What is the Total Cost of Ownership?”
(Price is what you pay one time, the total cost is what you pay over time.)
“If we buy this product, we’re going to pay $X price. There will be $X cost associated with that in the form of renewal, licensing, maintenance fees.”
Addressing the biggest financial aspects of a purchase helps your Economic buyer get the full picture.
Of all these buyers, sometimes there will be more than one of each in the room, and sometimes a single buyer will fall into more than 1 of these categories.
Here’s what you can do before your next meeting:
1) Make a list of which of these decision-makers are in the room.
2) For each of these types, list what would motivate them to buy
3) List out what they would NOT buy.
If you can address the reasons they should buy, and block objections on why they wouldn’t buy, you have a winning presentation.
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