Why B2B deals stall (and the fixes).

I've watched the same B2B deal pattern repeat across two decades. The stall point is nearly always the same, and it's almost never the service/product.

Your lead gen agency has found you a great lead.

It's a good fit.

It passes sales qualification.

You get through round one.

Into the final five.

Into the final three.

Loads of investment and late nights.

And you fail (but they dress it up with 'came a close second').

Why? Someone always has an inside track. And if it's not you, then your chances of winning are slim...because the buyer has trust in someone else. They hate punts that might reflect badly on them. Which is a problem if your business is relatively new on the block.

Early stage scale-ups have three options to improve win rates. They all revolve around building trust. And I've proven they work.

1. If you're under immediate pressure to win large orders:

Hire sales team members with networks in your target sector. It's expensive. And what you're really hiring is temporary access to their black books...which they can take away again. Incentivise them to close deals. Big. Time.

I've been this hired hand. It's a fun job. Meet your friends, have a chat, be the one with inside track when they put out RFPs, get paid well, leave.

Warning: these people are hard to hire. Consider only when you've worked your existing accounts and don't have sufficient network of your own.

2. If there's sales pressure but winning new labels creates breathing space.

Offer a low cost entry point that proves the value of what you're providing. Effectively, this is a 'paid sales' endeavour to prove your credentials and establish trust.

a. Proof of concept...to prove results and build a business case.

b. Scale-up...backed by business case.

c. Route for client to take in-house (clients love this option, but rarely use it).

I've used this approach to beat off bigger competitors. Accounts won this way have lasted for +ten years. Why? Trust. Repeated delivery. More trust. Everyone knows what they must do to win. It's a great formula for all parties.

3. Be visible. Be memorable. Be distinctive...so they think of you when the time is right.

There's a reason why we love brands. Trust. Low risk. Colleagues won't question your choices.

But brand building takes time. Years. Which is an issue for time short scale-ups.

And we live in a world of AI content overload.

What can you do?

Ditch the spammers, the 'lead gen' agencies. Unless you're making sufficient sales this way (I seriously doubt it...but most learn the hard way).

Position to standout from competitors, not bland in with them. This is where most trip themselves up. They look at everyone else, see blues, so select blue. The opposite of what competitor analysis should have told them.

Be brave. Embrace difference. Look, message, feel, methods. Hire someone who knows to help you (me).

Start now. Stay the course. Because it will take time (& money). But this is your most secure route to long term growth.

Which means you may need to combine this with options 1 and 2.