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Leverage P3 Selling to Improve B2B Sales Success with Greg Nutter, Ep #381

P3 Selling

Why did Greg Nutter write “P3 Selling: The Essentials of B2B Sales Success?” What are the key concepts? How can they help B2B sellers be more successful? B2B sales are far different from B2C. So to be effective with B2B sales, you need to do things differently. Greg’s three-step process, when done correctly, can help you improve your sales success. Learn all the specifics in this episode of Negotiations Ninja.

Outline of This Episode

  • [1:49] Learn more about Greg nutter
  • [2:32] Why Greg wrote “P3 Selling”
  • [3:20] P#1: Problems
  • [6:10] Creating awareness of problems
  • [10:32] Tying it back to the need
  • [12:46] Problem importance = Impact x Urgency
  • [14:29] P#2: People
  • [17:23] P#3: Process

P#1: Problems

Greg emphasizes that B2B selling is about creating awareness. It’s about getting people to recognize that they have a problem that needs to be solved. Getting prospective clients to own that they have a problem is the starting point for selling or negotiating.

It’s not just recognizing a problem but recognizing the importance of the problem. What is the impact? What is the urgency? Is it a small problem or a large one? Until you get someone to build awareness around the problem, you can’t really discuss price and urgency. You have to create lightbulb moments.

P #2: People

You need to understand who is impacted by the particular problem. Many sellers sell to one or two people in a company. But there are usually 8–10 people involved in every B2B purchase. If you’re only communicating with two of them, you’re only understanding the perspectives of two of them.

You need to understand everyone’s perspective to be able to influence them and share the right message with them. Many decision-makers come into the process with a bias. They have an idea of how a problem will be solved. If you don’t understand those perceptions and try to influence them, you’re at risk.

Lastly, when it comes to negotiations, remember that everyone has different levels of influence. You have to estimate someone’s decision influence to prioritize who you need to understand, influence, and message to.

P#3: Process

You need to understand the customer’s buying decision process. There is a corporate buying decision process (with purchasing, legal, IT, etc. involved.) and an individual process. It doesn’t matter what the seller is doing but what the buyer is doing

  • What does the buying process look like individually and corporately?
  • Where are they in the buying process?
  • How are you positioned in that process?
  • What should you be doing?

What you do has to align with where the purchaser is in their decision process. If you know, you’ll have to talk to purchasing and go through negotiation early in the process; it helps you position yourself.

Greg states that selling in B2B is no longer a relationship game—it’s a science. The people who believe that they can thrive and perform by just being “nice” are gone. If you want to achieve success in high-level sales, you must be process-oriented. You need a framework to navigate buying decision processes. Learn more about leveraging Greg’s P3 selling process in this episode.

Resources & People Mentioned

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