Many large, multinational companies fail to reach and profit from middle-market customers. Yet the opportunity is enormous: In the U.S. alone, middle-market companies purchase more than $6 trillion a year in goods and services. Sellers with a big middle-market customer base can grow along with their clientele. The fundamental problem is that many multinationals don’t have a full-fledged strategy for selling to midsize companies, as they usually do for sales to enterprise and small business clients.

The amount of product and service information available to B2B customers—reports, blogs, display ads, email marketing, and more—has become overwhelming, leading to indecision and a sharply reduced likelihood of making a substantive purchase.

The best reps have turned this conundrum into a prime selling opportunity. Above all else, they help buyers make sense of the information they’ve encountered. Their approach is a form of sensemaking, and it encompasses three broad activities.

Business customers increasingly control how they buy. They expect to engage with the companies they buy from through a coordinated blend of human and digital experiences and sales channels. It’s challenging for companies to create a fully-integrated experience. Especially when dealing with many prospects and customers (e.g., small and medium-sized businesses), it’s difficult for sellers to tailor solutions sufficiently to match each customer’s situation. And sellers often struggle to make the most of their sales engagements without access to marketing intelligence from digital interactions.