With sales kickoff conferences in full gear, companies are preparing for a new fiscal year with audacious sales goals and the hopes to surpass even the highest quotas. You’ve bought your merch, you booked your team’s travel, but there’s one thing missing — a keynote sales speaker who can start your team off on the right note this year. Nobody motivates and educates sales teams like globally-recognized researcher, author, and advisor for B2B commercial executives Brent Adamson.

Renowned for his unparalleled insights into B2B sales, he co-authored the groundbreaking books The Challenger Sale and The Challenger Customer. Adomson's expertise extends to thought leadership in both B2B and B2C sales and marketing, where he has led progressive commercial executives over the past 19 years. A world-class facilitator and speaker, he addresses diverse audiences, from executive leadership teams to large keynote gatherings to intimate breakout sessions, showcasing his passion for "productive disruption."

Having served as the "chief storyteller" for Gartner, from 2003 to 2022, Adamson's research has focused on the dynamic intersection of selling and buying. His work has introduced influential concepts like Buyer Enablement, Sense-Making, and Customer Decision Confidence. Adamson serves as Global Head of Research and Communities at Ecosystems, a cutting-edge SaaS platform dedicated to helping companies identify and track dimensions of value creation with their customers. His impact spans decades, shaping the landscape of B2B sales and marketing through his groundbreaking contributions and commitment to understanding the evolving nature of commercial collaboration.

With decades of experience and years of research under his belt, he shares his most impactful advice for sales teams entering 2024.

Help Them Reach a Consensus

There’s almost always groundwork to be laid before we make a sale. Adamson says the most important piece of that is making sure your customer’s team is aligned on their wants, needs, and goals. Adamson’s years of research has helped him illuminate the five elements that a team must come to a consensus on before they’re ready to make a sale.

Objectives: Why are they needing the product/service they’re seeking out? What is the big end goal?
Tactics: How will they get there? Do they have a plan of action to reach their goal?
Metrics: How are they measuring their success or forward momentum?
Targets: What are the key indicators that will show they’re on the right track?
Timelines: Have they mapped it out on a calendar? Have they broken their big goals down into smaller increments?

These are some questions you can ask to encourage your customer to begin a conversation with their team if it’s clear they are needing a consensus. You can move your customer closer to the sale by helping to align on these pieces of information as they pertain to your product or service. Be a guiding hand in helping your customer get their team on the same page. Once these elements are agreed upon within the customer’s team, they will feel more confident in their own ability to make the right decision for their company.

Create Decision Confidence

The most important piece of selling Adamson found through his extensive research is not giving your customer confidence in you, but actually helping them find confidence in themself. It turns out, the biggest reason people don’t buy is because of a lack of confidence in themself and their ability to make large-scale decisions for their company.

This offers sales professionals a unique and interesting opportunity to release their self-consciousness and think about the person on the other end. We often get caught up in selling ourselves, our product attributes, and other reasons why we’re worthy. Instead, forget about yourself and learn about your customers.

Three large factors contribute to a lack of customer confidence — decision complexity, information overload, and value uncertainty. In his keynote speeches and training sessions, Adamson provides detailed tips for helping you overcome these factors and make the sale.

Bring Humanity to Your Selling

Adamson believes that at the end of the day, selling — whether it’s B2B or B2C — is about humanity. Authenticity and taking a genuine interest in your customer (not just the company) will set you apart from all the other account executives trying to sell the same thing.

If you can create a connection, and learn what makes your customer excited, nervous, and confident, you can speak to their needs on a deeper level they will understand and appreciate. Once you help them build confidence in themself, their position in the company, and their ability to do well, selling will come naturally.

Brent Adamson has spent his career selling and researching selling to bring insights like these and more to the keynote stage. Make this year’s sales kickoff conference the best yet and bring Brent Adamson for motivation and education that will carry your team to new heights. Contact Executive Speakers Bureau today to bring Sales Expert and Keynote Speaker Brent Adamson to your sales kickoff conference.