Francesco Gizzi
Sales
B2B sales strategy: how to build one that works
In many B2B SMEs, sales work like this: the owner brings in the most important customers, one or two salespeople handle the leads that come in, and end-of-quarter forecasts are given verbally, with a fair dose of optimism. As long as the market is strong, the system holds. When it slows down, or when the company wants to grow faster, all its limits come to the surface.
A B2B sales strategy replaces improvisation with explicit choices: which customers to sell to, what to promise them, with what process, with what forecasts and with what team. It is not a document for large corporations. Quite the opposite: in small companies every lost deal weighs more, and having a method makes the difference.
In this article I show you how to build a practical sales strategy in five building blocks, with a worked sales forecast example. It is the method I use with companies that want to make sales more predictable without turning everything upside down.
What a B2B sales strategy is (and how it differs from business development)
A B2B sales strategy is the set of choices that determine how a company turns a market into recurring revenue. It answers five questions:
- Who do we sell to? The customer segments on which to focus time and resources.
- What do we promise? The value proposition for each segment.
- How do we sell? The process, the stages of the deal and pipeline management.
- How much will we sell? Forecasts, built on data rather than gut feeling.
- Who does what? The sales organization, roles and incentives.
It is often confused with business development, but the two work on different levels. Business development opens up new paths: new markets, partnerships, new lines of offering. I cover it in the article on business development to open up new opportunities. Sales strategy works on the market you have chosen and asks how to sell into it in a systematic, repeatable and measurable way. When you take a product into a new market, the two meet in a go-to-market strategy.
Who to sell to and what to promise
Customer segmentation
The first mistake I see in SMEs is selling to anyone who asks for a quote. It looks like prudence, but in reality it scatters the sales team's time across customers who generate little or will never close.
The starting point is the customers you already have. Take the list from the last two or three years and rank them by margin generated, not by revenue. Then look for what the best ones have in common. The most useful criteria are usually these:
- industry and size of the customer company;
- the problem or event that prompted them to buy, such as a regulation, a growth phase or a change of supplier;
- who makes the purchasing decision and who influences it;
- length of the sales cycle and average contract value;
- cost to serve them and likelihood of repeat purchases.
From this you get two or three priority segments, with an ideal customer profile for each. Everything else does not need to be turned away, but it does not receive active investment. With a proptech startup, for example, we went from 0 to 40 B2B customers in 6 months.
Value proposition
Each segment needs a value proposition that a salesperson can deliver in thirty seconds. A template I often use is this: for [segment] facing [problem], we offer [solution] that delivers [measurable result], unlike [current alternative], as shown by [concrete proof].
The most neglected part is the proof. Everyone says "quality, reliability and service". A customer case study, a figure on delivery times, a specific guarantee are arguments the customer can verify. A good value proposition also changes the way you handle price objections, because it shifts the discussion from cost to results.
Sales process and pipeline
A sales process is a sequence of stages with clear criteria for moving from one to the next. Without criteria, each salesperson interprets "advanced negotiation" in their own way, and the pipeline becomes a list of hopes. An example of stages for a B2B sale of medium complexity:
- Qualification. The customer fits the ideal profile and there is a real need.
- Discovery. You have spoken with the decision maker and you know the problem, the indicative budget and the timeline.
- Proposal. You have sent an offer built around the need that emerged, not a price list.
- Negotiation. The customer is discussing specific terms and has named a decision date.
- Close. Contract signed or deal lost, with the reason recorded.
Every stage must leave a trace in the CRM. On that basis you can read the indicators that really matter: stage-to-stage conversion rate, average cycle length, average contract value, loss reasons. If 60% of proposals are lost on price, the problem may not be the salesperson but the qualification or the value proposition.
The pipeline should be reviewed every week, deal by deal, with one simple question: what is the next concrete step and when will it happen? A deal with no dated next step is not a deal, it is a contact. Lead generation, on the other hand, depends on the agreement with marketing, which I explore in the article on aligning marketing and sales.
Sales forecasting: a practical example
A reliable forecast comes from the weighted pipeline: the value of each deal multiplied by the close probability of its stage. The probabilities should be derived from historical data, not estimated by eye. Let's look at an example with hypothetical numbers.
A B2B technical services company has a target of €300,000 in new contracts for the quarter. The pipeline with expected close within the quarter looks like this:
- Qualification: 20 deals, total value €300,000, probability 10%, weighted value €30,000.
- Discovery: 12 deals, €216,000, probability 25%, weighted value €54,000.
- Proposal: 8 deals, €160,000, probability 50%, weighted value €80,000.
- Negotiation: 4 deals, €88,000, probability 75%, weighted value €66,000.
The total pipeline is worth €764,000, about 2.5 times the target. Put like that, it sounds reassuring. But the weighted forecast is €230,000: there is a €70,000 gap. Had the salesperson looked only at the total, they would have declared the target achievable.
The forecast brings out the decisions to take straight away. Accelerate the 12 deals in discovery, because those in qualification are unlikely to close within the quarter. Check the close dates of the 4 in negotiation, which are worth almost a third of the forecast. And increase new qualified opportunities for the following quarter. Above all, resist the temptation to close the gap with end-of-quarter discounts, which lower the margin and teach customers to wait.
How to make forecasts more reliable over time
The first forecast built this way will be inaccurate, and that is normal. It becomes reliable through three habits. First: at the end of the quarter, compare forecast against closed, stage by stage, and update the probabilities based on actual results. Second: ask each salesperson to distinguish between "committed" deals, which they would put their name to, and "possible" deals, which depend on factors outside their control. Third: every month, remove deals that have been stuck for too long, for example more than twice the average sales cycle. After two or three quarters the gap between forecast and result narrows, and management can plan hiring, purchasing and cash with far more peace of mind. To read these numbers without scattered spreadsheets, a KPI dashboard for marketing and sales fed by the CRM is the most practical tool.
The sales organization
The best strategy fails if nobody has the time or the role to execute it. An SME does not need complex org charts, but it does need a few clear choices.
- Separate customer acquisition from account management. Winning new customers and looking after existing ones are different jobs. Even if the same person does both, it pays to set aside distinct time for each activity.
- Assign customers by segment. Dividing by territory alone works less well in B2B. A salesperson specialized in one industry learns the customers' language and problems faster.
- Free up the owner. If every important deal goes through them, growth has a ceiling. You need a gradual path to transfer relationships and know-how.
- Tie incentives to margin. Rewarding revenue alone pushes people to sell at a discount to the wrong customers.
- Set a rhythm. Weekly pipeline review, monthly results review, quarterly strategy review.
Mistakes to avoid
- Confusing activity with results. A hundred calls a week are useless if they target the wrong customers.
- An inflated pipeline. Keeping dead deals open makes everything look under control until the last month of the quarter.
- No analysis of lost deals. Loss reasons are the cheapest source of improvement there is.
- The same value proposition for everyone. A generic offer convinces no segment very much.
- Hiring before you have a process. A new salesperson dropped into an undefined system takes months to become productive, and often leaves.
Where to start
If your company's sales still depend too much on the owner or on a few salespeople, the first step is simple: analyze your customers from the last two years by margin and reconstruct the stages of your last twenty deals, won and lost. You will already find half the answers.
If you want to build a complete B2B sales strategy, with segments, value proposition, process and forecasts, you can find my approach on the sales consulting page. Write to me and tell me how you sell today: we will start from the numbers you already have.
FAQ
What is the difference between sales strategy and business development?
Business development opens up new paths, such as markets, partnerships and offerings. Sales strategy defines how to sell systematically to customers in the market you have chosen.
How large should the pipeline be compared with the target?
It depends on your company's historical close rates. More than the total value, what matters is the probability-weighted pipeline, which gives a far more realistic forecast.
Does a small company need a written sales strategy?
Yes, even in a simple form. A few pages covering segments, value proposition, sales stages and indicators are enough to make sales less dependent on individual people.
What data should I start from to build a sales strategy?
From the list of customers over the last two or three years, with revenue and margin, and from the history of deals won and lost. If this data does not exist, collecting it is the first step.