There’s no denying it, it’s more and more difficult to make B2B Sales. It can feel virtually impossible at times… Selling was never simple, of course! 😓 That’s why we have created the ultimate prospecting guide. ⚡
Today’s purchasers prefer to perform their own research and make their own purchasing decisions, free of vendor influence. 🤔 So here are 5 Top Strategies to help you keep up with the current times! 👇
What are the stages of BtoB sales?
Before rushing into definitions and technical terms, let’s talk about the essential steps for a successful BtoB sale.
Step 1: Define your persona
Since you have been with us for so long (or at least we hope you have), you must have noticed that when you do something, you need to know for whom you are doing it. And it is essential to create a persona. In fact, if you have the right product but the wrong persona, well, you have the wrong product. That’s why it’s imperative to know who you’re selling to. You will need information such as:
- Name and surname (even if fictitious).
- Age.
- His/her location.
- His/her gender.
- His/her family situation 💍.
- His/her behaviour on the Internet.
- His/her use of social networks.
But don’t forget to note what your product or service will bring to your target.
Step 2: Generate leads
This is when you start sending your different campaigns (email, SMS, Google ads or networks) to your prospects in order to reach them. This is when you start collecting data. You will be able to reuse this data to make even more targeted campaigns.
Of course, this is the time to do some A/B testing so that you can be sure that your messages are impactful.
Step 3: Qualification
Okay, you have data, but this time you’ll have to qualify it. You will present your products or services to people who have shown an interest in you. You will then be able to collect telephone 📱 numbers, contact details, etc.
Step 4: The offer
This is the time to show what you have under the bonnet. Yes, you will have to make a commercial offer to your prospects, through calls to action for example. They have heard of you, you have targeted them, you have aroused their curiosity… Now they just need to buy. And then you have to move them through your conversion tunnel.
Step 5: Retention
This is the end of your conversion tunnel. If your customer has bought from you and is satisfied, they will continue to buy from you and perhaps even become a promoter, i.e. they will tell other people about your product and they may try your solution.
What is B2B sales?
Often known as business-to-business sales, B2B refers to companies that sell products and services primarily to businesses rather than to individuals (B2C). B2B sales are often more complex than B2C sales, with higher order values, longer sales cycles, and longer sales cycles. 🌀
BtoB sales has evolved substantially in recent years, and previous BtoB sales methods are no longer viable. But what does this mean? 🧐
Examples of B2B Sales
There are 3 big categories of B2B Sales, it all depends on the business model or the type of product you sell. 🎁
1) Supply sales
The vendor sells consumables that are used by another company. This includes everything from office supplies to employee uniforms and equipment. 🦺
They use a similar procedure to B2C companies. The distinction is in the quantity and buying authorization.
Instead of a single ink cartridge being purchased, an employee will purchase 50 ink cartridges and will require clearance from a manager or decision-maker. Office Depot, a major supplier of office and equipment supplies, is an example of a business that specializes in B2B sales. ✍
2) Wholesale / Distribution sales
Other businesses buy critical manufacturing or retail components from the wholesaler. 🍎 These can be raw goods, or raw materials for the manufacturing sector.
A wholesale food distributor like Metro is an example. They sell necessary food items to restaurants and fast food establishments, who subsequently resell the items to customers at a higher price.
3) Professional services / Digital software
Instead of selling a product, the service provider sells a service. 💆♀️ Many companies require products and services to meet the needs of their own workers.
A B2B sales approach could include commercial real estate, catering, and rental equipment.In the case of tax accounting for example, this could be an accountant who works with a small business or an accountancy firm that works with a larger company. 💯
It could also be a software-based service, such as Quickbooks tax accounting software. Or Waalaxy, our CRM for automatised LinkedIn prospection. 🚀 Rather than building CRM and content management software in-house, many B2B purchasers turn to third-party vendors (like us). 😉
B2B vs. B2C sales: What’s the difference?
There are 7 main differences between BtoB and BtoC sales. 👀
B2C sales occur when a company or salesperson sells directly to a customer. The term B2C stands for business-to-consumer sales. In B2C, a company sells services or products directly to the users. For example, a hair salon sells services for people who are going to get their hair cut. 💈
They are often lower in scope than B2B sales and include simply the consumer’s decision. Therefore, the B2B sales industry is a larger pool with bigger fish and, of course, higher expenditures than the B2C sales market. Therefore, their target buyers are completely different. 🦈
1) Higher transaction value on average
While a B2B sales pipeline might be small, such as ordering office supplies, it can also be thousands or millions of dollars in size. B2B offerings have a higher price point, and the solutions are larger and more complex. 💰
This isn’t the case outside a select B2C businesses like real estate, automotive, and luxury products, which are pretty straightforward offers. 🚗
Otherwise, the B2C seller can sell only one product to one end user, but business usually buy in bulk, this makes the profit of each purchase higher than buying in B2B. 📈
For the example of the grocery store for a restaurant, if they buy their produce from standard supermarkets, they are going to spend more. Rather than if they buy it directly from the farmers or a specialized grocery store that sells in bulk.
2) Sales cycles take longer
B2C consumers, except for the three B2C businesses described above, make purchasing decisions based on emotions and short-term, transient needs: A phone case, a charger, or a laptop are all good examples. 💻
B2B purchasers, on the other hand, are frequently seeking for a measurable advantage or a rational solution to a critical problem. B2B buyers do not make impulsive purchases, like B2C buyers often do, it often requires the buyer’s rationality instead. 💡
They also need the permission of numerous decision-makers, so with many stakeholders involved and higher prices/volumes, it just takes longer to complete a sale. On average, it takes 4-7 months to close a high stakes B2B sales, which is huge! 😯
3) Several stakeholders are involved
Each decision in B2B sales has an impact on the company’s bottom line, and purchasing decisions progress up a ladder of approval. On average, for a complex B2B transaction, there will be around 6-10 decision makers involved. 🐌
This indicates that a successful transaction requires an unanimous “yes” from all decision-makers. The greater the deal’s worth, the greater the number of “yeses” required. That’s why B2B requires greater strategy than B2C sales! 🎯
Unlike B2C sales, where the seller only needs to convince one person to buy their product or service directly. B2B sales require the validation from multiple touchpoints of the company in order to close the deals, it isn’t done in a single transaction like B2C do. 🤫
4) Pricing is more flexible
For BtoC customers, the price is established beforehand so there’s not so much room for negotiation, the buyer accepts the price and makes the purchase. 💲
Whereas, in BtoB sales the pricing strategy is different, and it can be negotiated depending on the size of the order or other factors like method of payment. For example, if the order is paid by cash they can get a 10% reduction and with payments by card only 5% is applied. 🙏
In the case of softwares, like Waalaxy, we use a pricing system based on the number of licences purchases. If the buyer wants to buy more than 5 plans, then they can create a Team and pay a centralized amount, instead of individual plans.
5) More complex payment process
Generally, for B2C sales, the customer pays upfront and in one time. However, in B2B sales the payment can be delayed, it can be once the products are delivered, or it can be delayed to 30-60 days payment cycle. 😬
Furthermore, for our automation software, we have 3 types of payment cycles either a monthly, quarterly or yearly subscriptions. The monthly and quarterly plans are automatically renewed unless the subscription is stopped by the user, and for the yearly plan it’s only one payment at once, but it will be renewed as well, once the year of subscription is over. 👍
6) Pipeline is renewed constantly
Given the fact that B2B sales are more complex, and generally take a lot of time… and patience! Salespeople need to have new prospects constantly feeding their pipeline of deals. These long sales cycles mean that the sales team need to collaborate with other colleagues, marketing teams, etc. in order to have qualified leads incoming regularly. 🌱
7) Buyers do their homework
Buyers in the B2B market are extremely picky. They are not only selective in whom they do business with, but they are also formulating their own purchasing criteria without the assistance of salesmen. 🙅♀️
This is why content, like specialized blogs, have become such an important component of B2B sales. We can say B2B deals are riskier, but they bring higher rewards. At the same time, customer service of B2B companies is usually more customer-centric, focused on customer satisfaction and retention. 💯
This doesn’t mean that B2C do not care about their customers, because they do too! Usually, they take good care of the “few” customers they have, because it’s easier to keep up with their demands. 🤭
How the B2B sales process works?
- 🔎 Do your research:
In order to do sales, you need to know your market, your competitors, and your buyer persona. This way, you will know if your product or service fits into the marketplace, and what is your value proposition.
- 🧐 Find your customers:
You need to identify who are the decision-makers and target them, you need to qualify your prospects to ensure they have the need, the interest and the budget to buy your product or service.
- 📣 Conduct your outreach:
Once you have identified your market, your competition and your ideal customers, you can reach-out to them. You can use inbound or outbound marketing strategies to do so.
- 👂 Pitch your leads:
Show your potential customers why they need to use your product or service, rather than another, in order to solve their problems. Your “elevator pitch” needs to be adapted and personalized for every lead.
- 🌱 Follow up:
Make sure to follow up with potential customers in case they need extra information about the product or if they requested to be called back a few days later to discuss further.
- ⚡ Close the sale:
This is the easiest step, if the prospects are interested in buying, then all you have to do is sign the proposal or contract. If they’re still hesitating, try to find a solution or compromise in order to close the sale.
Despite the fact that B2B sales are more complicated than B2C sales, many of the same methods apply. You still need to create leads, establish contact, bring their product or solution in front of the consumer, and close the deal to be a good salesperson.
There you have it! 🤲
The evolution of the B2B sales process
A couple of years back, when someone required a product or service, they would contact a salesperson who would present them with all the finest possibilities. They would then make a purchase if they were satisfied with what they had heard. 👂
As simple as that!
It was a reasonably simple process in which marketing was in charge of filling the sales funnel with leads. Also, the sales teams were in charge of getting those leads into a sales pipeline and pushing them down the funnel toward the sale.
Very straightforward, right? 🤨
However, the internet has increased the complexity of the current BtoB purchasing process. 😬 Nowadays, it looks more like this:
- A person or a company recognize a need or pain point,
- They research it online to learn about all possible solutions,
- They ask friends for advice, and search what others have to say about a certain solution on social media, forums, or other online sites.
- Then, they look up a specific solution online and read the reviews.
- They may also click an ad providing a solution during the sales process,
- Finally, they make a purchase choice based on all available information,
- And only then contact the company to complete the deal.
Now that’s a real change! 😓
The increase of collaboration
Furthermore, sales and marketing teams are getting increasingly intertwined. Both now play a coordinated role in generating leads and closing agreements. We could even say that the salesperson is no longer closing deals alone, and plays a bigger role in the support and advice after the purchase choice has been made. 🤩
Consequently, buyers have unparalleled degrees of control in today’s B2B sales process. They have complete control over how they enter and exit the funnel, how they retreat from the point of purchase, and how they change between stages. ✔
The B2B sales process has evolved from a linear funnel to a multichannel strategy with a dynamic number of interactions with buyers. 😵
Tips to do successful B2B sales
Need more tips in order to make successful BtoB sales? 😉
- Make consumer conversations more personalized. Make use of technology to personalize at a large scale.
- Never scrimp on ongoing seller education. B2B buyers are astute; they want to work with people that exhibit knowledge and sensitivity.
- Active listening, critical thinking, and asking the proper questions will help you establish genuine connection. Opt for omnichannel marketing (social media, email, events, sales calls, etc.).
- Form a well-rounded sales teams, to oversee operations and contracts.
- Beyond CRM and marketing automation, there’s a lot more you can do. New technology, such as sales engagement platforms, should be embraced. Make better decisions with the help of data.
- Positive customer feedback should be encouraged, monitored, and shown. Customer success stories should be highlighted, and case studies should be included in your sales strategy.
- Ensure that all customer-facing teams, from marketing and sales to customer success, are fully aligned with the same strategy.
Businesses today want a collaborative approach from their B2B partners, with a less transactional and more consultative focus. With that in mind, the tips above will help you enhance your B2B sales approach and ensure a positive experience for all parties involved. 💯
Taking all of this into account, what can B2B businesses do to improve their sales funnel? 💪
What is a B2B sales funnel?
To have a better idea of what it is, here is each detailed step of a B2B sales funnel:
- 🧐 Awareness of the brand:
The prospect is aware of the business problem that their purchase must address and is searching for solutions online. Using the analytics of their journey across your website, you can begin to develop a profile of them.
- 👁 Interest in the service or product:
Once the prospect has determined that your solution may be able to answer their problem, they will want further information. This is where you may start the engagement process with content and a call to action (CTA).
You’re pushing people to engage directly with your firm by allowing them to download an e-book or register for a webinar. Once they’ve done that, you may want to follow up with an email or a phone call to consolidate that initial contact. However, tailor the experience for them as much as possible before you do so.
- 🤔 Consideration:
You’ll almost certainly need to show a demo of your product or provide evidence of the efficacy of your service now that you’ve gotten the prospect to this step of the sales funnel. Because the prospect is thinking about making a decision, now is a good opportunity to find out if they’re the only one making the decision or if there are others participating.
- ✍ Decision-making:
The prospect is ready to commit at this point, but they require some further confirmation that they are making the right choice. You can supply client testimonials as well as specification papers that pertain to their stated requirements. Any usual concerns, such as cost or schedule, can be overcome by a well-trained business to business sales representative.
- 🤑 Purchase:
You did it! Your prospect decided to buy your product or service, over the other ones offered in the market. So what comes next is very important to keep your customers coming back for more.
- 🔎 Evaluation:
Your customer is going to judge the product or service delivered to them, did they receive it when they expected it, they will see if their expectations were met and leave a review accordingly. Remember nowadays, prospects look for reviews online to see if other buyers were happy with their purchase or not. So be careful of your reputation!
- 👍 Satisfaction or 👎 Dissatisfaction:
If the customer was satisfied with the service or product, then they will leave a positive review and even recommend your brand to their network. However, if they were unsatisfied, they will leave a negative review, and in this case you should reach-out to them and try to find a solution, like a credit for a next purchase, free items, refund etc.
- 💲 Repurchase or 😥 Attrition:
Once the purchase is over, then can either repurchase your product and keep on using your products or services, until they become brand ambassadors. Or, they can just disappear and never come back again… you need to make sure you take all the measures to prevent this churn, or attract new customers in order to keep your business flow going.
The B2B sales funnel vs. the B2B sales process
The B2B sales funnel relates to the buyer’s journey, as opposed to the B2B sales process, that we saw earlier, which focuses on the seller’s perspective. By identifying the cognitive or emotional phases that a prospect goes through in the buying process, the sales funnel may be used to visualize their proximity to or likelihood of making a purchase. 🤝
Bonus: infographic of the BtoB Sales funnel bellow! ⚡
Now that we have this down, let’s have a deeper look at how to do B2B sales! 🤩
How to do B2B Sales?
B2B businesses must do the following to make all of these moving pieces 🧩 operate together:
- Create a flexible B2B sales approach.
- Determine which B2B sales strategies are most effective for their teams and ideal customers.
- Make sure their sales reps are following well-calibrated playbooks and sequences.
- Performance is measured and improved.
By following these guidelines, you will improve your sales performances. 🤩
The seller’s expertise, sales process effectiveness, product/market fit, available alternatives, and the buyer’s purchasing capability and willingness to adopt are all elements in the B2B sales approach. 🤲
Let’s have a look below at the strategies that have been proven to work for us in B2B sales! 😉
5 B2B sales strategies that work
There are plenty of B2B sales strategies and techniques from which to pick. While they all promise to be effective, not all will work for your company, sales team, or target market. Some approaches may work well in one area but not in others, while others may only function if they are tailored to the types of customer accounts in your portfolio. 💼
The following are 5 of the most effective B2B sales strategies and methodologies. 👇
#1 Social Selling / Inbound Sales
Make contact with the people who make the decisions. A effective B2B sales representative develops relationships with executives at their clients’ businesses. This is due to the fact that such managers are often the ones who make purchase decisions. 🤴
Instead than wasting time prospecting for employees with no purchasing power, sales and marketing teams should find a means to speak with managers who make purchasing choices. 💰
LinkedIn is the best network to do that. That’s why we have created this article to show you how to do it! 🤩
#2 Is cold calling outdated?
While many marketers despise cold messaging, it is an important component of the sales process. A marketing call may be positively received by businesses that actually require the goods and services you’re giving. Prepare yourself mentally to make cold calling to strangers and follow up as needed. The brave marketers are the ones who close the transactions. 💪
You can go check out our article on cold messaging & cold calling to get inspired! ❄
#3 Outbound prospecting
Outbound prospecting involves sending a message to a large number of people in the goal of converting them into customers. This method is based on the idea that the larger the group to which you send your message, the greater the return. 🤑
Traditional marketing methods such as direct mail, events, billboards, cold phoning, newspapers, and radio are generally connected with outbound marketing. 🧲
Outbound marketing, on the other hand, can be used with more modern technology such as pay-per-click advertising and spam emails. Consumers are frequently unaware of or uninterested in the product being sold. 🤷♀️
Prospects may be watching TV or browsing a website when they are interrupted by an advertisement demonstrating why they should purchase a specific product. 👀
Nonetheless, advertisements continue to appear in their daily lives, and they are drawn to a need that was not immediately apparent. 🤨
If you want to master LinkedIn Ads and not get scrolled down, here’s the complete guide with all the details you need to know! 🤫
#4 How to write a B2B Sales email?
At Waalaxy, transactional emails are part of our core marketing strategy! We use them to send out tips to our users, or to offer them better solutions. 📧
Our CRM has a small learning curve, so having weekly emails with best practices gives the users and extra push to try the tool a little further, by using more advanced options. 💪
You could also use your prospect’s database in order to send out “cold emailing“, this is not the same as the transactional emails explained above, because their purpose is to get the potential customer using the tool for the first time by enticing their curiosity or pointing out a need. 🥶
Whereas, “transactional emails” are for users that already know the tool, so you want to nurture them with added value content. 🤲
Here’s a template of the promo code emails that we use, as well as our ultimate sales email guide! 🔥
Prospecting Approach: Promo Code
Subject line: Hello {{firstName}} how are you?
Catchphrase: I saw you were interested in Waalaxy, but the price wasn’t right for you. There’s a big promo here!
Content – applying the AIDA method.
A for Attention: You haven’t seen the 30% off Waalaxy promo yet?
I for Interest: Waalaxy Business costs you only $28 per month instead of $40!
D for Desire: You still can:
- Send personalized campaigns: LinkedIn + Sequential Emails. 🚀
- Automate lots of smart ways to contact new prospects with Auto-import. 😲
- Find, download, contact thousands of new prospects with Email finder. 💌
- Contact our chat composed of beautiful humans. Much better and nicer than a chat bot. Plus they’re available 7 days a week. 🤗
A for action:
Want to enjoy it before it’s over too? You still have 4 days to decide!
Give it a try already. It doesn’t cost you anything 😉
See you in the chat!
#5 B2B Sales demo / pitch
A fresh, straight-to-the-point sales pitch is one of the most powerful sales tools in a marketer‘s inventory. Before you start phoning potential consumers, practice your sales pitch several times. 📞
This will help you boost your confidence, when you feel that you have finally nailed it, you can try it with a few potential clients, and adjust it over time if needed or depending on the feedbacks you might get. 😌
Also, do not hesitate to offer demos of your products to the “warm prospects“, this might be the final information they’re looking for. Plus, they will feel special if they receive a personalized demo and might be more inclined into buying your product, after seeing a tutorial or getting a free trial/sample. 🙌
In our company, we estimate that around 1 in 4 demos turns into a customer afterwards, which is about 20-30% conversion rate! 😍
How to generate leads for B2B Sales?
Firstly, you might be wondering what does “lead generation” mean, right? 👀
All operations that allow the formation of more or less qualified business contacts are referred to as lead generation (usually called prospects). These leads might or might not turn into actual customers. 😥
Although we primarily discuss lead generation in the context of BtoB marketing, the principle may also be used to BtoC markets with a long transition period (automotive 🚗 , higher education, engineering, and interior design, to name a few).
The term “lead generation” refers to leads that go beyond mere advertising or marketing relationships, with commercial contacts being recognized and qualified in most cases. The abbreviation “lead gen” 👽 is frequently used to refer to lead generation operations, such as:
- Content marketing.
- Cold calling or emailing.
- Events or showcases.
- Exporting leads on LinkedIn.
We will talk more about the latter in the next part! 👇
Lead generation using LinkedIn
The majority of individuals are unaware that LinkedIn includes special B2B features. This feature makes it a very effective platform for professionals looking to grow their business and achieve bold objectives. 🎯
We frequently think of it as a destination to go while looking for a new career challenge. Or, as a tool that recruiters use to find candidates. However, LinkedIn isn’t just a job board. Salespeople, who understand the power of networking it has, can use it to sell products or services to globally connected markets. 🌍
LinkedIn is the principal source of B2B contacts for many of its members. It’s a channel that’s exceptionally effective for finding new prospects quickly and creating bonds, that otherwise would be hard to achieve on other channels. 🙌
Furthermore, LinkedIn is used for business development by people all over the world. Finally, it’s a fantastic method to learn more about industry decision-makers and get some fresh ideas. 💡
As you may know, it has over 600 million members globally. Thus, there will definitely be opportunities for your industry. 🔥
On the platform, decision makers frequently ask inquiries. So this is your opportunity to connect out to influential people by delivering relevant content. They are frequently willing to share their personal email address in exchange for this valuable information. 🤫
Use LinkedIn for sales team is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! 🍀 When making a purchasing choice, one out of every two B2B buyers consults LinkedIn.
👉 If you want to know more about importing these valuable connections to your own B2B sales process, go read this article!
Measure your B2B sales KPIs
After starting your B2B prospecting campaign, you might be wondering how to measure its performance? 🤩
Well, the following are some of the most common B2B sales KPIs in order do to that: 👌
- Number of quotas attained,
- Deal size on average,
- Velocity of the sales process,
- Monthly generated leads,
- Percentage of wins.
Sales organizations evaluate and measure key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess whether a B2B sales strategy or a specific sales sequence has a beneficial influence on a business. 🎯
KPIs are agreed-upon measurements used to evaluate the performance of a sales team in many areas such as profitability, sustainability, and efficiency. They’re also utilized to spot trends and assess individual sellers’ productivity and performance. 📈
What are the B2B sales challenges?
The days of a salesperson overseeing the purchasing process are long gone. 😬 As a result, current B2B sales teams face a variety of hurdles to overcome:
- Since there is more information available, prospects can go through the sales process without needing to interact with the seller. Thus, salespeople have less influence over the buyer’s decision.
- Sales and marketing teams misalignment, with duties in the new sales process generally unclear.
- There’s a lot of competition for a few potential clients.
- Adoption of technology is met with resistance.
- Buyers are wary of marketing and sales communications, as well as the reliability of sales in general.
- And, rather than salespeople, social media and peers have a significant impact on purchasing decisions.
However, using the 5 strategies presented above, you will be able to tackle these challenges with flying colors! 🎉
The future of B2B Sales
Any successful B2B sales strategy aims to gain more clients, especially long-term customers. That’s why it’s critical to prioritize relationships above sales, provide long-term solutions tailored to the client’s requirements, and use the correct technology to support your B2B sales efforts. 🤗
Businesses who can do all of this are well-underway to take on this massive and rapidly expanding market. 👀
B2B sales is changing at a breakneck pace. The distinction between inside and outside sales is blurring, and consumer sales best practices — particularly when it comes to personalization — are becoming commonplace in B2B. ⚡
This is where marketing automation tools come into play, with Waalaxy CRM you will be able to plan your prospecting strategy on multiple channels, in order to maximize the chances of getting qualified leads and closing deals! 👽
Ready to start your free trial? 🚀
Try Waalaxy Now 👩🚀Conclusion
In order to recap, here are the main topics that were addressed in this article: ⚡
- What is B2B sales?
- B2B vs. B2C sales: What’s the difference?
- How the B2B sales process works?
- Tips to do successful B2B sales
- What is a B2B sales funnel?
- How to do B2B Sales?
- 5 B2B sales strategies that work
- How to generate leads for B2B Sales?
- What are the B2B sales challenges?
- The future of B2B Sales
Wow, I know it’s a lot to grasp! 😳 But I promise you that B2B sales are not as hard as they sound. You just need to have the right strategy and put it to work as efficiently as possible.
There are many tools that can help you achieve your targets, but we recommend you give a try to Waalaxy, since the majority of B2b sales are found on LinkedIn and the emailing strategy is proven to be the most effective of all. 😉
I hope that this article helps you have a more detailed comprehension of the different types of B2B sales and how to manage the changing market, that is being affected by technology… However, if you learn how to use technology to your advantage, it will become your greatest ally. 🦾
With this, I say: “Mic drop, I’m out!” 😋
Thank you for reading until the end! ♥
FAQ of B2B Sales
B2B sales meaning
As a reminder, “B2B sales” means a relationship, scenario, or marketplace between two or more business entities referred to as “business-to-business” (B2B). A business-to-business (B2B) company sells to other businesses. 🤓
The following are some examples of B2B sales: 😉
- Organizations that supply businesses with professional services (such as market research or office supplies).
- Companies that manufacture/distribute raw materials to manufacturers.
- Businesses that give digital/software services to businesses (e.g. our CRM).
Not to be confused with “B2C sales”! 🧐
B2B, or business-to-business, sales are distinct from B2C, or business-to-consumer, sales. 🤝
B2C refers to when a company sells a product or service directly to customers, who subsequently use it. A clothes business, for example, sells things directly to customers for them to wear. 👗
When comparing B2B and B2C sales, there are a few key factors to consider: 💡
- More decision-makers are involved.
- Bigger transactions.
- Longer sales cycles.
- Prices are more flexible.
- The payment procedure is more difficult.
There you have it! 😘
How to start B2B Sales?
Here’s an example of a BtoB sales cycle with 7 stages: 🚀
- Research / Preparation.
- Prospecting.
- Handling Needs.
- Sales Pitch / Presentation.
- Objections / Negotiation.
- Closing.
- Follow-up.
To be successful, B2B selling is a complex process that needs a well-designed and implemented B2B sales plan. It follows a certain procedure and employs a variety of sales strategies for different buyer personas and prospecting scenarios. 🤠
The stages in your sales process will vary depending on your industry, company, and sales organization, but a B2B sales cycle normally has 5 to 8 stages, as detailed above. 👍
Those are the basic steps you need to master in order to start B2B sales correctly! 🔥
Increase B2B Sales with A/B testing
Furthermore, you can increase your BtoB sales by performing A/B testings, in all your marketing campaigns. 🧐
A/B testing is a straightforward and scientific method. Because it is based on quantifiable outcomes. It entails writing two separate messages (message “A” and message “B”) and sending them to a representative sample of your prospect base. 👏
As a result, you’ll be able to figure out which message or sequence is the most effective. You can use the message on the rest of your prospect list once you’ve identified the one that works best. ⭐
In order to illustrate this, we performed our own test, using a small prospect sample. So we separated a prospects list in two, and sent a scenario with “visit + connection request” and another one with only a “connection request”, to see which one would perform better. 🤔
These were the results: 👀
- For sequence A, with visit + connection request, we got 55.3% acceptance rate.
- And for sequence B, with only connection request, we got 41.8% acceptance rate.
So it seems that the campaign with a visit before the connection request, got +13.5% higher acceptance rate than the campaign with the connection request alone and no visit done beforehand. Which is huge! 🤯
This is just one example of the A/B tests you could do using Waalaxy. 💫
How to improve the B2B Sales experience?
- 🤗 Get to know your potential customer:
The finest B2B salespeople spend time researching their potential customers. They are aware of a prospect’s pain points as well as a pricing point that may be appropriate. This allows them to start a sales conversation with a prospective solution that feels tailored to the business customer. 👍
- 🌀 Make sure you’re ready for lengthier sales cycles:
A business-to-business sales cycle differs from a business-to-consumer sales cycle. In order to make decisions, businesses usually need a lot more internal touchpoints. Other businesses only make purchases at specified times during the fiscal year. Be patient and considerate to your client’s unique requirements. 🤲
- 👽 Use automation tools:
Make your sales process as smooth as possible by using automation tools. For instance, LinkedIn automation enables you to carry out the four basic types of marketing actions, namely: profile visits, follows, connection requests and messages. At a fraction of time! ⚡
You’re now ready to tackle B2B Sales, like a pro. 😎
