Crystal Resources

Elevate An Account-Based Selling Strategy With Crystal

Written by Crystal Resource | Mar 15, 2023 5:00:00 AM

Account-based selling, often used in conjunction with account-based marketing, is a highly personalized and targeted B2B outreach strategy where salespeople target entire companies, or accounts, rather than individual leads. After identifying a specific set of accounts based on an ideal customer profile, sales teams work closely with their marketing team to connect with decision-makers at key targeted accounts.

A B2B sale typically requires multiple stakeholders to agree on a single solution or vendor; therefore, it is essential that sellers first identify who all the stakeholders in the deal are and then understand how the solution fits with each individual stakeholder. By developing a personalized targeting strategy that authentically resonates with each, sellers can more effectively sell to all those involved in the buy.

A way to supercharge your account-based selling strategy is to take a personality-driven selling approach, which greatly enhances a seller’s ability to address the needs of different stakeholders. Using a personality-based approach allows sales reps to tailor their message and process to meet each buyer's individual needs and preferences. 

Crystal, the personality data platform, can aid in understanding each stakeholder's natural motivators, behavioral traits, and communication styles by identifying their unique personality type and delivering actionable insights. These insights can be especially impactful when strategizing ahead of a meeting.

Using Crystal for Pre-Call Strategy Sessions

The initial call with stakeholders is crucial to a sale; sellers must prep adequately to ensure their pitch is well-received. With each stakeholder having different behavioral traits, motivations, and preferences, sellers who can tailor their pitch to meet the needs of each stakeholder maximizes the chance of winning the deal– utilizing Crystal here significantly increases a seller’s ability to do so. When sellers take the time ahead of the call to align and strategize based on who will be present during the meeting, they can more confidently and efficiently navigate through delivering value, handling objections, and moving the deal forward.

Existing Crystal users have successfully implemented personality-data-driven techniques in their pre-call strategy sessions to dive into the personalities of all those involved in an upcoming call or meeting. They also use Crystal insights to create internal alignment before speaking with clients to ensure internal communication is all aligned. By involving Crystal in the strategy session, our users experience higher levels of engagement, connection, and rapport-building during these critical conversations.

Understanding how the involved stakeholders communicate has proven instrumental in their ability to resonate:

For example, I personality type personas will appreciate enthusiastic messaging with exciting visuals, whereas C personality type personas prefer lots of details and data when making decisions.

Preparing for an Enterprise Meeting Using Personality Data

DISC Type

DO

DON’T

Examples

D-Type Personalities

  • Allow some room for them to negotiate
  • Compare your pricing with competitors
  • Show how they can save more money in the future
  • Give in easily when they push back
  • Take a long time to follow up with requested information
  • Make them feel trapped with long-term commitments
  • Here’s how our pricing stacks up against our competitors...
  • What kind of ROI are you looking for?
  • Here’s the bottom line cost...

I-Type Personalities

  • Share pricing verbally first, then write it down
  • Explain your ability to be flexible
  • Share what their peers are paying for similar products
  • Focus too much on the logic behind your pricing
  • Be hyper-rational at the expense of empathy
  • Let a pricing conversation drift into a broader discussion
  • Let’s walk through the math together...
  • Here’s what some similar companies are paying...
  • I think we can come up with a creative solution...

S-Type Personalities

  • Explain how they can achieve more certainty in the future
  • Walk through the individual components first, then the total cost
  • Help them get approval from others for their purchase
  • Focus too much on competitors’ pricing
  • Give them too many decisions to make
  • Bring up pricing before they are ready
  • How important is long-term predictability?
  • Let’s go through all the options together...
  • Are there others we should run this by?

C-Type Personalities

  • Ask if they need any further information
  • Provide full item lists and breakdowns
  • Provide formulas, calculations, or visuals if possible
  • Throw out ballpark numbers
  • Leave out any details about cost
  • Get to the bottom line before explaining the logic
  • Here are the additional terms...

  • Do you need any additional information?

  • Here’s the full pricing breakdown...


Using Crystal to Develop Relationships with Key Stakeholders

To keep pushing a deal forward, sellers must continue developing relationships with multiple stakeholders following the initial meeting. Selling to multiple stakeholders rather than individual buyers can be difficult, as sellers must build trust and rapport with all those involved in the decision-making process. Developing such relationships requires salespeople to understand each stakeholder: their function within the account, involvement in the buy, how they like to receive information, communication preferences, and more.

Crystal, the personality data platform, utilizes DISC personality insights to quickly identify anyone’s natural personality, communication preferences, and motivations. By adapting their approach accordingly, salespeople can break through the noise and effectively tailor their communication and pitch to resonate with whichever stakeholder, regardless of their unique personality or function within the account.

Let’s see it in action…

DISC Type

Overview

How to Resonate with Them

D-Type Personalities

• Motivated by control over the future and personal authority

• Tend to prefer instant, concrete results and to have an advantage over the competition

• Communicate clearly and succinctly

• Focus on the value and competitive edge your product provides

I-Type Personalities

• Motivated by innovative, unique, creative ideas and excited by the future

• Tend to prefer building new relationships and experiences

• Communicate in a casual, expressive way

• Focus on what makes your product exciting and new

S-Type Personalities

• Motivated by peace, safety, and others’ wellbeing

• Tend to prefer security, reliability, and trust

• Communicate in a friendly and genuine way

• Focus on how your product has previously helped other customers reach their goals

C-Type Personalities

• Motivated by logic, information, and problem-solving

• Tend to prefer accurate information and quality solutions (quality over quantity)

• Communicate in a business-like, fact-based way

• Focus on the facts and provide plenty of data to back up any claims


Final thoughts

Supercharging your  Account-Based Selling approach with personality-driven techniques helps sellers gain a deeper understanding of their buyers and tailor more successful pitches. Crystal, the personality data platform, also provides valuable insights and coaching through each stage of the sale (beyond the stakeholder meeting) to ensure sellers communicate in a way that resonates with each of the key stakeholders involved in the purchase.

The Account-Based Selling approach depends on a personalized approach and the ability to personalize across multiple stakeholders to reach all those involved in the buy within a targeted account. Although selling to an entire account adds more complexities than selling to an individual buyer, tools like Crystal can streamline the process and give sellers confidence when navigating multiple stakeholders through a complex B2B enterprise sale.


Learn more how Crystal can enhance your Account-Based Selling strategy today:

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