• B2B sales process

In business-to-business (B2B) context, the sales process is not always linear, and it is frequently marked by ambiguity, complexity, and evolving stakeholder dynamics. Understanding uncertainty from the perspective of the salesperson is critical not only because it affects decision quality, behaviour, and performance, but also because it influences the relational and cognitive mechanisms underpinning the entire sales process. 

Sales professionals are under constant pressure to deliver revenue targets, respond to the evolving customers’ priorities, and support their organisations in staying ahead of competitors. This pressure is amplified by inherent uncertainty that is woven into the modern sales work. Rapid changes in technology, economic and political climates, societal trends and other domains have created a complex network of interconnected elements that shape modern business environment and increase the number of factors that salespersons need to consider when carrying out sales activities. 

Nearly every choice a salesperson confronts is marked with uncertainty. When sales professionals engage in sales activities that are designed to identify potential customers, build strong relationships, uncover customer needs, and facilitate purchase decisions, an assessment needs to be made on when to pursue a lead, how to engage a prospect, what verbal and non-verbal cues are critical, how to reconcile divergent interests, how the offer will be evaluated by different decision-makers, and where in the sales process the highest interpersonal and informational uncertainty will surface. 

The B2B sales process is commonly conceptualised as a series of sequential stages, where each stage is characterised by distinct objectives that guide salespersons behaviour whilst simultaneously presenting unique challenges and opportunities. These stage-specific objectives define both the basis and the boundaries of uncertainty as each sales activity is shaped by the varying degree of knowledge gaps, assumptions, behavioural expectations, and dynamics within buyer-seller relationship. Thus, uncertainty is not uniformly distributed across the sales process, but it manifests distinctly at each stage, shaped by the clarity of objectives, availability and reliability of information, salespersons’ professional judgement and understanding inherent unpredictability of human behaviour in inter-organisational setting.

While uncertainty can manifest itself in various forms, identifying its presence is essential for swift adjustments in strategy, resource allocation, and client engagement. Acknowledging uncertainty requires a conscious recognition of ‘not knowing’ and it triggers cognitive processing aimed at reducing uncertainty or copying with its implications. Salespersons need to assess what is ‘known’ and what is ‘not known’, estimate the significance of the ‘unknown’, and determine whether this is resolvable through action or adaptation. 

Uncertainty appraisal is a metacognitive task that dictates how attention, working memory, and affective resources are allocated throughout the sales process. This cognitive engagement is not merely reactive as it is possible to anticipate uncertainty and prepare for it. Thus, it is important to distinguish between different forms of uncertainty: expected uncertainty, unexpected uncertainty, and volatility. Expected uncertainty arises in the noisy but stable environments that allow probabilistic reasoning and proactive preparation.  Unexpected uncertainty reflects moments when established rules and assumptions no longer apply, thus requiring a rapid re-assessment and reactive response. Volatility, on the other hand, involves high frequency of change that demands ongoing mental flexibility and continues learning. Nonetheless, volatility holds a form of consistency in its unpredictability, thus making it possible to approach volatility proactively as pattens of change can be identified and anticipated. 

While knowledge-centric perspective on uncertainty targets limitations, gaps, or imperfections in knowledge held by the salespersons, contextual perspective allows to locate the source of uncertainty in a broader environment (i.e. systemic conditions) and differentiate information-based uncertainty (‘what’), understanding-based uncertainty(‘how’), timing-based uncertainty (‘when’), and complexity-driven uncertainty (‘why’). These perspectives are complimentary as uncertainty in sales is shaped by both the salesperson’s knowledge limitations and the contextual volatility of the selling environment. 

The deliberate acknowledgement of uncertainty facilitates purposeful information seeking, encourages sense-making, and supports mental rehearsal of possible sales scenario. It also reinforces customer centricity, and, perhaps most importantly, cultivates self-awareness by unveiling individual biases, emotional triggers, and habitual pattens of interpretation. 

Recognising uncertainty is not a sign of weakness or indecisiveness, but rather a strategic competence that increases tolerance for ambiguity and activates a series of adaptive processes that sharpen focus during customer interactions. In this view, uncertainty becomes a source of learning and competitive advantage rather than paralysing obstacle. 

The master’s thesis is available on Theseus: https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025052615918

References

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