Data driven customer insights in the B2B sales process at high technology scaleups

Abstract: When scaling a company it is important to implement customer insights to achieve growth of revenue. Understanding and defining a suitable B2B sales process has also been shown to play an important part in enhancing sales, and traditional processes include multiple steps performed by sales representatives. One step revolves around the presentation of the offered product or service. For sales representatives to present a product or service successfully they must acquire or have deep knowledge of the customer, such as their industry trends and general business. This can be achieved by acquiring customer insights that are data driven. Adopting data driven customer insights has also been proven to increase sales. Therefore, this research investigates the connection between the B2B sales process and the generation and implementation of data driven customer insights. In particular, this research explores the steps included in a B2B sales process at a high technology scaleup and hence how data driven customer insights can enhance the presentation step in the B2B sales process.  The research is carried out through a case study at a case company labelled as a high technology scaleup. Interviews were conducted with sales representatives working in the commercial team at the case company. The result from this research finds that six steps are included in the B2B sales process at high technology scaleups. The steps are as follows: Lead generation, First meeting, Assessment, Contract proposal, Negotiation and Closed deal. The second step includes presenting the offered product or service, which this research identified as most challenging for the sales representatives to execute successfully due to the technical complexity of the product/service. Findings from this research shows that data driven customer insights can be used to simplify this step in the process. For example, data driven customer insights can help personalize presentation material and enable rapport building. In addition, data driven customer insights help align expectations between buyers and sellers during the first meeting, thus increasing the likelihood of reaching a closed deal.