Sensemaking for Sales

Unravel the art of sensemaking in sales. Discover how this cognitive process can transform your sales strategy, enhance customer relationships, and drive business growth. Let's delve into the world of sensemaking and its profound impact on sales performance.

The amount of product and service information available to B2B customers has become overwhelming

Too much information exists for buyers to make sense of it on their own

Best sales reps turn this conundrum into a prime selling opportunity
Optimize limited customer contact to make the conversations they do have more useful and successful
Help customers prioritize perspectives, quantify trade-offs, and deconflict competing viewpoints
Use sensemaking

Sensemaking in Action

Dealertrack, which sells dealer management software (DMS) to auto and equipment dealers, knew that clients fail to significantly upgrade their DMS systems for three reasons:

They rarely replace the systems, so learning about the various vendors, solutions, and features can take months
Their decision-making is rarely linear. Dealers might revisit decisions and take one step forward in the buying process only to then take two steps back.
To better guide clients through their deliberations, dealertrack reimagined its fundamental role in the discussion. It shifted from providing information to sensemaking.
People reach a moment when they’ve hit their capacity for learning, after which each new insight, perspective, or data point makes it harder to make a choice.

Sensemaking sellers increase the size of the pie

Sensemaking is designed to increase the likelihood that a customer won’t settle for a smaller solution at a lower price-or worse, make no decision at all.

Earns customers’ trust and makes customers feel more confident, which makes them more likely to make higher-risk decisions.

Customers are more likely to make high-quality, low-regret purchases when they are sure they have asked the right questions, prioritized the correct information, and identified consistent patterns

Complex B2B buying decisions are consequently driven less by what customers know and more by how confident they feel in their ability to make good decisions.

A lack of self-confidence impedes big deals more often than a lack of confidence in a particular vendor does

Clarifying information

Sensemaking sellers are adept at clarifying complex problems, explaining technical information, and turning abstract concepts into understandable, shareable, and compelling insights

Why Sensemaking Makes Sense

Customers who report overwhelming amounts of information are 54% less likely than others to make a high-quality (premium price point, large-scope solution), low-regret purchase.

Things typically end poorly when a customer senses that a rep has failed to provide complete and accurate information because the rep is focused on meeting their own needs.

Collaborating on customer learning

Sensemaking reps help guide buyers on a learning journey, not tell them what to do

They offer a framework for learning that makes customers feel in control
Confidence increases the chances that buyers will make a decision rather than delay or stand pat

Sensemaking organizations focus on their strengths

They ensure that customers perceive decisions, interpretations, and choices to be their own

Efforts to get customers to consider-much less favor-a set of strengths must be sufficiently subtle or convincing, or both, that they don’t seem completely self-serving

Sensemaking Versus Traditional Approaches

There are three ways in which reps engage customers with information: giving, telling, and sensemaking

Sensemaking significantly increases the likelihood to buy.
When customers are struggling with too much high-quality information and looking for a way to move forward, having a rep place even more on the table, with little guidance on how it fits or why it matters, only makes things worse.

Connecting Customers with Relevant Resources

Sensemaking reps curate the information they share for utility and clarity, including only what will help customers advance with increasing confidence along their purchase journey.