BEBEDC sales techniques

The BEBEDC sales technique is a method for verifying the key points of a B2B sale, a sieve for selecting the applications and bids that can yield the highest returns. It’s a method for building a quality pipeline.

The BEBEDC technique

• Contact needs
• Issues: the customer’s problem and how much it will cost if it is not solved
• Budget: is there a budget and how much is it?
• Deadlines: what are the deadlines?
• Decision-makers: who will sign the contract, are we in contact with them?
• Competitors: who are the competitors? will they bid and on what terms?

Requirements

Needs differ from customer to customer, but they can be classified according to the SONCAS method:

• Safety
• Pride
• New
• Comfort – convenience
• Silver
• Sympathy

You must master the art of alternating between open and closed questions, listen for 70% of the sale and speak for only 30%.

Issues

A customer’s stakes are what they stand to gain or lose by not solving their problems. The higher the stakes, the stronger your position, as the customer has to make a decision. The worst thing for a salesperson is to come across a customer who refuses to accept your solution, believing that everything is fine with the current situation.

Budget

You can ask yourself a number of questions:

• Does the customer have the budget?
• Does the customer need credit to obtain the budget?
• Is the budget available immediately or spread over several months or even years?

Ideally, of course, the customer should have a budget immediately available.

Deadlines

The shorter the customer’s deadlines, the more they have to decide and buy, so this is an advantage, if at least you can deliver on time. Ideally, you should be able to do better than your competitors.

Decision-maker

You need to know who the decision-makers are and meet them.

The various customer players are :

• The user whose motivation is the practicality of the solution
• The prescriber who advises the decision-maker
• The payer, the person who signs the cheque
• The decision-maker is the most important player, the one who signs the contract and instructs the payer to sign the cheque.

Competitor

Identify and profile your competitors:

• Forces
• Weaknesses
• Sales pitches
• Price list

This will enable you to adapt your sales pitch and decide on a price that is both competitive and gives you maximum margin. It’s best to use the PSAI sales technique, which takes competition into account.

In a nutshell

The BEBEDC method is not suitable for all sales, but is particularly suited to B2B and complex sales. It’s a good reminder of the key points to check for long-process sales, and a filter for selecting the best customers and creating your sales funnel.