B2B Sales
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Your team’s pipeline looks healthy. Demos are booked. Proposals are going out. But at the end of the quarter, the win rate remains flat. Sound familiar? Stagnant win rates are becoming more common, even in growth-stage companies. The average B2B sales win rate has dropped slightly year-over-year, hovering around the low-to-mid 20s. The culprit is not just tighter budgets. The problem runs deeper.
You’re Selling to the Wrong People
Buying committees have grown. An average B2B deal now involves 6–10 decision-makers. If your reps are only engaging one champion, you’re at risk. Multithreading (building relationships with multiple stakeholders) is no longer a “nice to have.” It is table stakes.
Your Discovery Process Is Too Superficial
Many teams are rushing to demo. That’s a mistake. A study showed that high-performing reps spend twice as much time on discovery as average reps. Without deeply understanding the prospect’s buying triggers and success criteria, deals stall or go dark.
Messaging Isn’t Aligned with Today’s Buyer
Today’s buyer is self-educated. By the time they talk to sales, they’ve already formed opinions. Boilerplate value propositions don’t cut it anymore. Customization, especially based on industry, role, and pain point, is critical. And no, adding the company name to an email doesn’t count as personalization.
Pipeline Quality Is Inflated
Reps may be under pressure to fill the pipeline, but too many unqualified deals can cloud forecasting and dilute focus. A trimmed b2b sales pipeline pipeline of real opportunities often outperforms a bloated one. Discipline in disqualification is a competitive advantage.
So, What Can You Do?
Here are some key pointers that high-performing sales execs take into account to improve win rates.
- Train for deeper discovery. Use tools like Gong or Chorus to review how top reps uncover pain.
- Push for multithreading early. Make multi-stakeholder engagement a stage-gate for progressing deals.
- Revamp your messaging. Align it with current buyer research and objection trends.
- Clean your pipeline. Reward truth in forecasting, not optimism.
Flat win rates don’t mean your product or people are broken. But they do mean it’s time to evolve. The market is changing. So should your approach.
