If you try to apply what you learn in virtually any copywriting book or course in a B2B context, you will fail miserably.

The same is true for most sales hacks and closing techniques.

On a surface level you might think “it’s all just human nature, right?”.

But in all of my experiments the answer was a resounding “Nope”.

Why?

In B2B sales you’re dealing primarily with extremely smart, busy professionals that have tons of experience.

They see right through it when you try to do use AIDA, SPIN selling, or fake scarcity.

They’ve seen it all and often used it themselves before.

These standard sales techniques will hurt more than they help.

Instead, the key factors in B2B sales are competency and honesty.

Nothing kills my interest quicker than booking a sales call only to be greeted by a fulltime closer who has absolutely no technical competency who tries to pull some cheap tricks on me.

The key thing prospects are looking for in a sales call is reassurance that your product will solve their problem.

Not in the form of surface level phrases but by providing the exact details of how the problem will be solved.

The deeper someone can understand my challenge and then explain the technical details of how they can help me, the higher the chances I will buy.

At my agency, we’ve tested both.

Having someone just focused on taking sales calls vs. having other team members who actually do the work on the backend take sales calls.

Looking back it’s obvious why the second option is superior.

Someone who actually does client work can always casually reference recent experiments and results.

“Oh yeah, last month we tested X for one of our clients who also targetes Y. We noticed Z.”

That’s the kind of stuff prospects want to hear in a call.

Memorized case studies simply do not have them same effect.

We also tested every single copywriting formula you can imagine.

AIDA, PAS, BAB, whatever.

The winning formula was always simply explaining the offer and its benefits in the most straightforward way.

“I’m reaching out because X. I’m confident we can help because Y. Worth a chat?”

Also definitely do not try to write at a 5th grade reading level like all copywriting gurus recommend.

You need to signal competency and you can’t do that if you’re writing like a teenager.

Honesty + competency.

That’s really it.