We’ve seen hundreds of sales processes, and people often ask what they should be doing differently.

A great sales process is based on your audience, offer, and brand. But there are some challenges that we see most commonly.

Be careful not to skim over these too fast, but instead sit down and think through your sales process.

Here are the biggest mistakes we see in most B2B sales processes are:

1. Asking for too much commitment upfront before giving value.

If you ask the prospect to hop on a call before they have a good reason to… you’ll hear a lot of “No”s.

People are busy, there’s a lot of spam out there, and you’re just a random stranger to them. For someone to get on a call, there must be (1) something of value they’ll get by showing up to that call, and (2) a reason for them to trust you.

For most companies running an outbound sales effort, your prospect has probably never heard about you or your company before, and if that’s the case, then you have to pique their interest and build credibility before they’ll agree to a call. You can do this with a lead magnet or tripwire.

2. Pitching too quickly.

Don’t throw out a price or a package before you’ve diagnosed the prospect’s situation.

More importantly, not before the prospect feels like you fully understand their situation and needs.

Further, don’t assume they understand your solution – they probably didn’t read the PDF or watch the video you sent, and B2B products and services are often complex.

As soon as a dollar figure is mentioned, there is a psychological shift, and the prospect’s mind starts weighing the value. And online people negotiate less and are more likely to ghost you and go price shopping at your competitor if they don’t like your price.

So if your prospects are going cold, you may be going too fast for them.

3. Lack of follow-up.

Study after study shows that it takes 7-13 touchpoints to turn someone from a prospect to a customer, and you know deep down that you need to do a better job following up.

The best funnels use a multi-channel approach and a variety of content and calls-to-action because each and every person responds to different messages in different ways. Some people are glued to their Outlook Inbox and some scroll through their LinkedIn feed every day at lunch. Some may have a need arise at next month’s corporate strategy meeting… or next quarter’s.

So stay in front of them and build that relationship!

If you’re selling to cold prospects – any that come from a display ad or outbound campaign – then it’s 100% up to you to help people through the sales process.

Different people respond to different CTAs in different ways.

Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up!

So, what does work in B2B sales?

Every audience, offer, and brand is different, but there are some best practices that we’ve seen work well for many B2B sales departments.

Read this next: How to build a B2B sales process that works online.