From Problem to Product: A More Effective B2B Sales Strategy

The best sales reps treat prospects like people, not personas. 

Is it just us, or does that feel…kinda groundbreaking? 

Here’s the thing. Too many sales professionals approach a sale from their perspective; what they think the buyer wants, how the buyer fits into their persona list, what they think is the best solution. 

Now, it might feel like you know best – you are the one selling the product, after all – but take this approach too stringently, and you’ll only hold yourself back. The best B2B sales strategy is to think buyer-first. Make the effort to understand their pain points and speak their language, and you’ll see much better results, much faster. 

Hint: doing so gets a lot easier when you’re working with accurate, enriched lead data – delivered in real-time through tools like the Surfe Enrichment API.

And that’s exactly what we’re going to talk about in this article. We’ll be exploring the tools and mindsets that help the best sales reps make every message land, so you never miss the mark again: 

• The Buyer’s Matrix: Empathy That Drives Revenue
• Problem-Based Selling: Sell the Pain, Not the Product
• Speak Like Your Customer (WWYCS?)
• Features Don’t Sell – Impact Does

By the time you’ve finished reading (in just 5 minutes) you’ll have the tools to truly understand how your buyers think, speak, and make decisions – and a much more effective B2B sales strategy to boot.  

Ready? Let’s get started.

The Buyer’s Matrix: Empathy That Drives Revenue

The best B2B sales strategy is built on empathy. Pure and simple.

If that sounds a bit vague and fluffy, it shouldn’t. We’re talking about tactical empathy, which involves knowing what matters to your buyer before you open your mouth (or hit the reply button). 

Enter: the Buyer’s Matrix. It’s your shortcut to tactical empathy, to actually understanding what drives a decision – so you can stop pitching blindly and start selling with purpose.

Here’s what you should map out for each persona in your Buyer’s Matrix:

• Their role and responsibilities: what do they actually do all day? Who do they report to?
• Success metrics: what outcomes are they measured against? Revenue? Retention? Career progression?
• Frustrations and blockers: what’s slowing them down, burning them out, or making their job harder than it needs to be?
• Current strategies: what tools or tactics are they already using, and why aren’t they getting the results they want?
• Change mindset: are they actively looking for a solution, or still clinging to the status quo?

When you have clear answers to these questions, your messaging stops sounding like guesswork and starts sounding like insight.

Before you reach out, run a demo, or jump into discovery, build a Buyer’s Matrix for the persona you’re targeting. Whether it’s a Junior Manager buried in manual tasks or a VP looking for more visibility, this simple framework helps you tailor your message in a way that actually lands.

Do this consistently, and you’ll find it easier to build urgency and trust with your buyers. And in B2B sales, that’s what opens doors (and wallets).

Problem-Based Selling: Sell the Pain, Not the Product

Here’s a simple truth behind every effective B2B sales strategy: people buy to fix problems, not to add more tools. We know, we know, absolutely shocking – right? 

Ok, we’re kidding – but it is very easy for us sales pros to get caught up in the latest cool thing our tool does, without thinking to connect it to a buyer’s pain points. 

Instead, think about how you can unsell the status quo. Make the pain of staying the same feel riskier than making a change. 

This means showing buyers what’s broken – even if they haven’t spotted it yet. For example: 

• The problem isn’t manual CRM updates.
• The problem is manual CRM updates eating into selling time, which leads to missed quota, which leads to burned-out reps. 

In every message, demo, or follow-up, tie your product to a clear pain point – and walk your buyer through to the real impact. If you can make your buyer feel the problem, they’ll want the solution.

Speak Like Your Customer (WWYCS?)

Pssst – want to know one of the fastest ways to lose a buyer’s attention?

 Use language they’d never say out loud. 

A solid B2B sales strategy means speaking like, you know, a real human being  – preferably one who’s had a long day, missed lunch, and is three tabs deep in Salesforce.

Would your prospect say  “I’m looking for a scalable revenue enablement layer”? Of course not!  Instead, they’d say “I just need to stop wasting time chasing data.” 

See what we mean? If it wouldn’t come out of your buyer’s mouth, it shouldn’t go in your pitch. 

So where do you find the right words? This one’s simple: listen to your customers, scroll their LinkedIn posts, rewatch your call recordings, and steal shamelessly from the way they talk about their problems.

Keep a running document or Slack channel of language from real customers. Use it to update playbooks, pitch decks, and cold outreach as you go.

Features Don’t Sell – Impact Does

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: your buyer doesn’t care about what your product does. They care about what it does for them.

Benefit-first pitches are always going to get a reply over feature-first pitches. Let’s take an example: 

You’re talking about your tool’s feature that lets you sync LinkedIn contacts to your CRM in one click (no idea where we got that example from 😉).

Cool feature – but so what? 

Don’t stop at syncing. Instead, move on to explain how that saves time, which allows you to do more outreach, which fills your pipeline, which increases your revenue, which makes you less stressed and improves your reputation. 

Keep drilling until you hit the emotional or professional outcome that matters, and then make sure every pitch, email, and demo connects to it. 

Tip: asking ‘So what?’ is a great litmus test for messaging. If you can’t spot the emotional or professional outcome in your pitch, rewrite it.

Let’s Wrap It Up! 

Know your buyer as well as you know your product, and you’ll have a B2B sales strategy that delivers every single time. 

Build empathy with your Buyer’s Matrix, speak their language, and tie features to what matters most to them, and you’ll understand your buyer in no time at all. And the faster you understand them, the faster you close – and the more trust you’ll earn along the way, too.

B2B Sales Strategy FAQs 

What Is a B2B Sales Strategy?

A B2B sales strategy is your game plan for selling products or services to other businesses. A good one doesn’t start with pitching features, though – it’s actually about understanding your buyer. The best strategies focus on real problems your prospects face and position your product as the fix. That means mapping out buyer pain points, speaking their language, and tying every message to what they actually care about (hint: it’s not “seamless integrations”). After all, a strong B2B sales strategy evolves with your buyers and gets sharper with real-world insights.

How Do You Create a B2B Sales Strategy That Actually Works?

Start by saying goodbye to guesswork. A winning B2B sales strategy is built on tactical empathy: knowing what your buyer wants, needs, and is sick of dealing with. Create a Buyer’s Matrix for each persona by mapping out their goals, frustrations, current tools, and mindset. From there, shape messaging around real pain points, not product features. Use customer language (not jargon), connect your product to real outcomes, and update your approach based on insights from actual users. If it sounds like something your buyer would say, you’re on the right track.

Why Do Most B2B Sales Strategies Fall Flat?

Because they focus too much on the product, and not enough on the person buying it. Most B2B sales strategies are too internal – they assume what the buyer wants, use brand speak instead of human language, and lead with features instead of outcomes. The result? Messaging that feels generic, irrelevant, or just plain boring. To fix that, you need to understand your buyers on a deeper level: what stresses them out, what success looks like, and what’s holding them back. Once you get that, you can make every pitch feel like a no-brainer.

What’s the Role of Customer Insights in a B2B Sales Strategy?

Customer insights are the secret weapon behind every effective B2B sales strategy. Talking to your existing users helps you uncover what really matters – what problem they were solving, what scared them about switching, and how they describe your product in their own words. Use this feedback to sharpen your pitch, your playbooks, and your cold outreach. It’s the difference between “We’re a data enrichment tool” and “We give you your time back, so you can finally hit quota.” See what we mean?

How Can I Make My B2B Sales Messaging More Effective?

Speak like your buyer, not like a brochure. That means no buzzwords, no fluff, and definitely no “scalable revenue enablement solutions.” Use the “Would they actually say this?” test on everything. Then, connect your features to outcomes that matter – like time saved, pipeline built, or stress avoided. Want to make it even better? Build a Buyer’s Matrix and tailor your messaging to the goals and blockers of each persona. When your sales messaging feels personal, relevant, and easy to understand, it gets replies. And replies turn into deals.