The 3 Pillars Every B2B Sale Needs

Relevancy means your product or service actually resonates with your target audience's specific problem. Not a generic business pain. Their exact, current reality. Think about it this way: if you're a last-mile delivery company, you're not going to sell to a software company. They don't ship physical products. No matter how good your service is, it's irrelevant to their business model. But relevancy goes deeper than industry fit. It's about whether your solution matches:

• Their specific pain point (not just "category fit")
• Their workflow and tools (does it integrate with how they work?)
• Their team's capabilities (can they actually implement it?)
• Their outcomes and goals (does it move their key metrics?)

Most sellers confuse "ICP fit" with true relevancy. Just because someone is a "SaaS CEO with 10-50 employees" doesn't mean your product is relevant to them. You need to understand their actual challenges, not just their demographic profile.

Timing means the business is at the right stage to feel high importance and high urgency for your solution. Not "someday." Not "eventually." Right now. This is where most B2B sales break down. You can have perfect relevancy - your solution exactly matches their problem - but if the timing is off, they won't buy. They'll say "maybe next quarter" or "let's revisit this" or the dreaded "sounds interesting, let's stay in touch." Here's a real example of timing in action: Take two e-commerce shops, both selling similar products. One is brand new with zero daily sales. The other has 100 daily sales and growing. Both might need a last-mile delivery solution eventually. But their timing is completely different:

• Shop with 0 sales: The founder is probably doing deliveries themselves. They don't feel urgency because they can still manually handle it. There's no pain yet.
• Shop with 100 sales/day: They're drowning in logistics. They need a scalable solution yesterday. Their operations are breaking down. The pain is acute.

Same product. Same problem category. Completely different timing. The first shop might say "this looks great, we'll definitely need this once we scale." But they won't buy. The second shop will sign a contract this week.

Most sellers try to "create urgency" through manufactured scarcity or aggressive follow-ups. That rarely works in B2B. Real urgency comes from the buyer's situation, not your tactics. Here are the buying signals that indicate strong timing: Growth signals:

• Recent funding round
• New executive hires
• Team expansion (especially in relevant departments)
• New office openings

Change signals:

• Leadership transitions
• Company rebrands or repositioning
• New product launches
• Market entry or expansion

Pain signals:

• Job postings for roles your product could eliminate or support
• Public complaints or discussions about current solutions
• Technology changes (migration projects, new tools adopted)
• Regulatory or compliance pressures

Intent signals:

• Researching your category (content downloads, searches)
• Engaging with competitor content
• Attending relevant webinars or events
• Visiting your website multiple times

The best salespeople don't "create urgency." They identify prospects who already have it and help them solve it faster.

Trust might be the most important pillar of all - especially in B2B sales where deals involve multiple stakeholders, long-term commitments, and significant risk. Your buyers are asking themselves critical questions:

• "Will I be satisfied with the value for money?"
• "Will this person just disappear after payment?"
• "Are my payment details and data safe?"
• "Will this decision make me look good or get me fired?"

There's a classic saying in B2B: "Nobody was ever fired for buying IBM." (Or Mercedes. Or Salesforce. Or any established brand.) That's trust at work. Buyers choose the "safe" option because their personal reputation is on the line. When you're an early-stage company or unknown brand, trust is your biggest obstacle. You can have perfect relevancy and timing, but if the buyer doesn't trust you'll deliver, they won't sign. They'll go with a more expensive, less ideal solution from a brand they recognize.

Early-stage companies face a catch-22: you need customers to build trust, but you need trust to get customers.

Here's how to break the cycle:

1. Leverage your network
   Your first customers should come from people who already trust you personally. First or second-degree connections know:
   • You'll answer when they call
   • You won't disappear after payment
   • You genuinely care about their success
2. Offer satisfaction guarantees
   

   Remove all risk from the buyer's side. Tell them: "I'll invoice you only if you're satisfied. If you're not happy, no invoice. No questions asked."

   I've done 40-hour projects on this model. Some didn't pay. But the ones who did became my biggest advocates.

3. Do white-glove onboarding
   Make their success inevitable. Handle data migration, setup, integration - everything. Make it feel instant for them, even if it takes you days in the background.
4. Show your work transparently
   Share your roadmap. Respond quickly. Be honest about limitations. Over-communicate. This builds credibility faster than any case study.
5. Get customer references early
   Your first happy customer is worth more than 100 website visitors. Turn them into a reference, a case study, a testimonial. Their trust transfers to others.

Most sales intelligence tools help you find people who match your ICP profile - demographics, firmographics, technographics. But they don't tell you if those people have all three pillars:

• Relevancy? Sure, they match your basic filters. But do they actually have the specific pain you solve?
• Timing? No idea. The data is static. It doesn't show if they're ready to buy right now.
• Trust? Zero help here. You're still a stranger sending cold emails.

That's why most outbound has a 1-2% response rate. You're reaching people who might have one pillar (relevancy), but probably missing the other two. The future of B2B sales is contextual intelligence:

• Understanding not just who fits your ICP, but who's experiencing the problem right now
• Identifying buying signals that indicate urgency (hiring, funding, tool changes)
• Finding warm paths to build trust (mutual connections, shared communities)

This is the shift from "spray and pray" to "know and show" - knowing who's ready and showing them you understand their situation.

Let's see how this framework works in real scenarios:

Scenario 1: Perfect Relevancy, Wrong Timing

Prospect: Series A SaaS company, 20 employees, perfect ICP fit for your sales intelligence tool.

Reality: They just signed a 2-year contract with a competitor three months ago. They're not switching anytime soon.

Result: No matter how relevant your solution is, timing kills the deal. Save this for 18 months from now.

Scenario 2: Great Timing, Missing Trust

Prospect: Just posted a job for "Sales Operations Manager" and their LinkedIn shows recent funding. Perfect timing signals.

Reality: You're a cold email from a stranger. They've never heard of you. Zero trust.

Result: They ignore your outreach or respond with "not interested." You had timing but no credibility.

Scenario 3: All Three Pillars Aligned

Prospect: A second-degree connection (friend of a friend) just raised Series A and is hiring SDRs. Your mutual connection vouches for you.

Reality: You have relevancy (they need prospecting), timing (scaling sales now), and trust (warm intro).

Result: They take the call. You close within two weeks.

This is why your first customers should come from your network - it's the only place where all three pillars naturally exist.

Here's how to use this framework in your sales process:

1. Audit your current pipeline
   For each prospect, honestly assess:
   • Relevancy: Do they have the specific problem we solve? (Not just "could use us")
   • Timing: Are they experiencing urgency right now? (Not "might need us later")
   • Trust: Do they have a reason to believe we'll deliver? (Not "hopefully they'll trust us")
2. Prioritize prospects with 3/3 pillars
   These close fastest. Focus here first. Don't waste time trying to convince people missing two pillars.
3. Build specific plays for 2/3 situations
   
   • Have relevancy + timing, missing trust? → Lead with social proof, offer guarantees, find warm intros
   • Have relevancy + trust, missing timing? → Stay in touch, wait for trigger events, nurture relationship
   • Have timing + trust, missing relevancy? → Might not be worth pursuing. Don't force fit.
4. Source better at the top of funnel
   Instead of just filtering by demographics, start with signals that indicate timing (hiring, funding, tool changes). Then check for relevancy and find trust paths.
5. Adjust your messaging for each pillar
   
   • Relevancy messaging: "Here's the specific problem we solve and how"
   • Timing messaging: "Here's why this matters right now for your situation"
   • Trust messaging: "Here's proof we deliver" (social proof, guarantees, mutual connections)