B2B sales have never been simple, and in recent years they have become even more complex. Long cycles, multiple decision-makers, increasingly similar solutions, and better-informed buyers have made the decision-making process more rational, comparative, and often unpredictable.
Still, many companies insist on treating B2B sales Like a "turbocharged" version of B2C sales, relying solely on lead volume, pre-written scripts, or generic price and functionality arguments, the result is quickly apparent: a bloated pipeline, low conversion rates, recurring losses to competitors, and internal rhetoric based more on assumptions than facts.
This guide was created to be a roadmap for B2B sales. Here, you will find:
- A clear overview of how business-to-business sales work.
- What really matters in the B2B purchasing decision?
- How does a buying committee work and why does it redefine the game?
- Key successes of companies that sell well in B2B.
- Common mistakes that hinder growth.
- And why the win-loss analysis It is one of the most underutilized and valuable techniques in the Brazilian market.
If you seek to understand How to increase B2B sales In a sustainable way, this is the starting point.
What are B2B sales and why do they require a different logic?
B2B (business-to-business) sales are commercial transactions carried out between companies. In practice, this means that you are not selling to an individual making an emotional and immediate decision, but to an organization that needs to justify that purchase based on multiple criteria.
Some characteristics make the process of B2B sales singular:
- Longer sales cycles
- Higher average ticket price
- Greater perception of risk
- Involvement of different areas
- Decision based on business impact, not just personal preference.
While in B2C the central question is usually "Do I want it?", in B2B it transforms into:
"Does this make sense for the company, now and in the medium term?"
This difference completely changes the way you sell.
What really matters in the B2B purchasing decision?
Many companies believe they lose B2B business primarily because of price. In practice, price is rarely the single factor that determines the final decision.
In B2B sales, the most relevant criteria are usually:
1. Clarity of value for the business
It's not enough to explain what the product does. It needs to be made clear:
- What strategic problem does it solve?
- What risk does it reduce?
- What an opportunity it unlocks
Companies don't buy features. They buy... measurable impact.
2. Trust in the supplier
In B2B, the supplier becomes a partner. The buyer's unspoken question is:
"Can I trust that this company will deliver on its promises?"
This is where factors like the following come into play:
- Market reputation
- Real cases
- Consistency between marketing, sales, and product.
- Security in business discourse
3. Adherence to the internal context
Even the best solution can fail if:
- Not fitting into the company's current situation.
- Demanding overly significant cultural changes
- Demanding resources that the client does not currently have.
B2B sales are deeply contextual.
4. Risk perception
The higher the ticket price and the impact of the decision, the greater the fear of making a mistake. That's why B2B buyers look for:
- External validation
- Peer opinion
- Concrete evidence
Ignoring this is a common and costly mistake.
B2B purchasing committee: who decides, who influences, and who blocks the process.
One of the biggest differences between B2B sales and other models is the presence of purchasing committee.
What is a purchasing committee?
It is the group of people who, directly or indirectly, influence purchasing decisions within a company. Depending on the size of the organization and the type of solution, this committee can have from 3 to more than 10 people.
Most common roles on a B2B purchasing committee
- End userWho will use the solution on a daily basis?
- Technical influencer: evaluates technical criteria and feasibility
- Area Manager: analyzes operational impact and priorities
- Financial: evaluates cost, ROI and financial risks
- Final decision-makerThe person who signs or has the final say.
The most common mistake in B2B sales is selling well to only one of these people and ignoring the others.
Why does the purchasing committee change everything?
Because each member:
- It has different kinds of pain.
- Use different criteria.
- It speaks its own language.
A proposal that delights the user may scare the finance department.
A technically perfect solution may not be a priority for the board.
Winning in non-B2B requires orchestrate the decisionIt's not just about convincing a contact.
✅ Key successes of companies that sell well in B2B
When analyzing more mature B2B operations, certain patterns consistently emerge.
1. Well-defined (and constantly reviewed) ICP
Companies that sell well know exactly:
- For whom does it make sense to sell?
- For whom no he does
They understand that growth isn't about selling to more companies, but about selling to existing ones. right companies.
2. Real alignment between marketing, sales, and product.
In B2B, misalignment is costly. Successful companies ensure that:
- Marketing promises what the product delivers.
- The salesperson understands the real limitations of the solution.
- Sales feedback goes back into product and strategy.
3. Structured, not improvised, sales process.
B2B sales don't scale through individual heroism. They scale through:
- Clear stages
- Objective criteria for advancement
- Continuous learning from losses and gains.
4. Actively listening to the market
Companies that thrive in B2B don't assume. They ask. And more importantly, they analyze what they hear in a structured way.
❌ Common mistakes in B2B sales (and why they repeat themselves)
Even experienced companies make recurring mistakes.
Focusing solely on lead volume
More leads won't solve a flawed sales process.
Without qualification, the team sells more and closes fewer deals.
Ignoring lost deals
Most companies only analyze the customers who have won.
Lost deals are recorded in the CRM with generic reasons such as:
- Price
- Timing
- Competition
This impoverishes the learning process.
Talk more than listen.
Lengthy presentations, poor diagnostic analysis, and excessive technical jargon alienate decision-makers.
In B2B, whoever asks the best questions usually wins.
Treating an objection as a problem
Objections are signs of misdirected interest.
Ignoring them or combating them with pre-written scripts is wasting valuable information.
Win-loss analysis: what it is and why it's still underutilized in Brazil.
A win-loss analysis It is a structured methodology that seeks to understand, from the Real voice of the customerThis explains why a company won or lost a deal. Unlike internal reports or insights from the sales team, it comes from those who actually made or influenced the purchase decision.
In more mature markets, such as the United States and Europe, win-loss analysis is already part of the strategic routine of sales, marketing, and product teams. In Brazil, however, it is still a relatively unexplored practice, generally restricted to companies that are more advanced in market intelligence or have complex sales cycles.
The paradox is clear: precisely in contexts where B2B sales are longer, more competitive, and more costly, most companies still make decisions based on... internal assumptions, not based on external evidence.
How does win-loss analysis work in practice?
The methodology is based on external, structured, and impartial interviews with decision-makers involved in recent negotiations. These decision-makers are divided into two groups:
- Wins: customers who have closed a deal with your company
- LossesProspects who opted for another supplier or decided not to proceed.
The key point here is impartiality. Interviews should not be conducted by the salesperson responsible for the account, precisely to avoid biases, defensive responses, or embarrassment on the part of the interviewee.
The goal of win-loss analysis It's not about validating internal hypotheses.It doesn't even confirm narratives already established within the company. On the contrary, it exists to confront these hypotheses with the reality experienced by the decision-maker.
During the interviews, the aim is to understand, in a deep and comparative way:
- What criteria really mattered in the final decision?
- How did your company compare to direct competitors?
- What was perceived as a distinguishing feature and what went unnoticed?
- What risks were considered (and by whom)?
- At what point in the process did the decision begin to lean?
These answers almost never appear in a CRM.
Why are CRM and internal reports not enough?
CRMs are excellent for organizing pipelines, contact history, and sales process stages. The problem is when they start being treated as... source of absolute truth about the reasons behind the decisions.
In practice, the reasons recorded in CRMs tend to be generic:
- "Price"
- “Timing”
- "Competition"
- "Project frozen"
These categories say little or nothing about what really happened.
What the team white What led to the loss of a deal is rarely the same as what the decision-maker experienced.
Win-loss analysis breaks through this internal noise and reveals, for example:
- Pains that were never verbalized during the sales process.
- Messages that the team believed to be clear, but that They didn't make sense to the client.
- Strategic advantages that existed, but were not perceived as relevant
- Positioning failures in relation to competitors.
- Real reasons for loss that go far beyond price, such as insecurity, lack of clarity, misalignment with internal priorities, or distrust in after-sales service.
In many cases, the decision-maker didn't even see the company as a finalist in the competition, something the pipeline doesn't show.
Why is win-loss analysis still underutilized in Brazil?
There are several recurring factors that explain this low adoption rate:
- Culture of guessworkMany companies still rely more on individual experience than on structured qualitative data.
- Fear of hearing uncomfortable truths.External feedback does not always confirm the internal narrative.
- Confusion between informal feedback and methodology.Listening to a customer in a timely manner is not a win-loss analysis.
- Lack of process and specialized partnerWhen done in an amateurish way, the analysis loses value.
The result is a vicious cycle: the company loses business, explains the loss superficially, and repeats the same mistakes in the next quarter.
Direct benefits of win-loss analysis for B2B sales.
When applied correctly, win-loss analysis generates direct and measurable impacts across different areas of the business:
- Improving sales pitch, with arguments more aligned with what really matters to the decision-maker.
- Fine-tuning of the ICP, identifying clear patterns of who buys, who doesn't buy, and why.
- Increased conversion rateby eliminating recurring friction points in the sales process.
- Reducing future churnby aligning expectations from the commercial phase onwards
- Better integration between sales, marketing, and product., all operating from the same truth
- Decisions based less on guesswork and more on real market evidence.
More than explaining the past, win-loss analysis guides future decisionsShe transforms every victory and every defeat into actionable intelligence.
Ultimately, the truth is rarely in the pipeline.
She is engaged in structured, external, and honest listening.
How to use these learnings to increase B2B sales.
The question that remains is a practical one: How to increase B2B sales Based on all of this?
Some paths are clear:
- Reviewing your ICP in light of real profit and loss data
- Map the purchasing committee and adapt your communication accordingly.
- Structuring a business process that learns from mistakes.
- Replace assumptions with qualitative market data.
- Incorporate win-loss methodologies into the strategic routine.
Companies that do this not only sell more.
They sell better, with less waste and more predictability.
Where B2B sales stop being about luck and become a strategy.
B2B sales don't fail for lack of effort. They fail for lack of clarity.
Clarity about who buys, why they buy, how they decide, and what truly matters in their choice. When a company replaces guesswork with listening, opinion with evidence, and volume with strategy, the game changes.
Selling to other companies isn't about convincing them. It's about... to understand deeply and act on that basis.
If this guide serves as a reference whenever you think about B2B sales, then it has already fulfilled its purpose.
