The stormy years of 2020 and 2021 have become the driving force behind profound shifts in many aspects of life. As a result of the pandemic, we have witnessed businesses adjusting to the new reality by consolidating their operations, moving their operations online, reorganizing employees, and coming up with digital-based methods for interacting with their clients.
All of these shifts have had an effect on business-to-business sales. So, let’s go through various B2B sales tips to help you boost your sales figures this year.
1. Take full advantage of LinkedIn.
With over 830 million users, LinkedIn has become a great marketing approach for B2B leads since its founding in 2003. This platform differs from other social media in that its users are business-focused within a certain industry.
Everyone on LinkedIn is there for business communications, so bear in mind that your B2B target audience is there as well, eager to view your offerings. Unlike Facebook and Twitter, professionals use LinkedIn for dynamic communication while growing their brand and reputation.
Your content will be seen on LinkedIn, unlike Facebook, which uses an algorithm to choose what appears in your connections’ feeds. Moreover, LinkedIn users are focused on professional opportunities, and their attention isn’t readily diverted.
Clearly, investing in a campaign where you’ll use LinkedIn for sales is a smart step. If possible, you should also find and use LinkedIn sales tools to help you automate various dull tasks and improve your overall efficiency.
2. Follow up on cold pitch emails.
The majority of follow-ups are impersonal and forgettable. Even worse, companies become anxious about sending a second or third email following the first.
Many feel that a prospect is uninterested if they didn’t respond to the initial email. And although this may be true occasionally, it’s not always the case.
There are multiple reasons a prospect may not react to your initial cold email:
- It may have been identified by a filter and sent to the spam folder of the intended recipient.
- The email may have ended up in the recipient’s inbox, but the subject line failed to attract their attention.
- You may have composed the ideal cold email, but the receiver was preoccupied with their work and forgot about it.
But this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t send it at all. To help yourself craft better follow-up emails, you should use a simple follow up email template. It will help you cover all of the important information, draw attention, and secure a deal later on.
3. Be patient.
A B2B sale requires communicating with multiple decision-makers and touchpoints prior to closing.
When you pressure a buyer to make a rapid decision, it demonstrates that you haven’t researched the company’s internal processes. In addition to coming out as an amateur, you wind up driving prospects away.
When you devote time to understanding a business, you discover its triggers and obstacles. Therefore, you should focus on gaining buy-in from other stakeholders to expedite the process after establishing contact.
For instance, if you’re selling logistics software, request a meeting with the warehouse staff to discuss the obstacles they face, assemble all the facts, and present a convincing case to the executives.
4. Have a firm price sheet and don’t budge.
Price differentiation is one of the most common B2B sales mistakes. Sales representatives frequently believe that the lower their price quote, the easier it will be to persuade the prospect.
But if your product can accomplish what it claims to, there’s no reason to underprice yourself. If you fear that discussing price would interrupt a conversation, here’s a secret. In sales, confidence is a powerful and contagious weapon. Stick to the predetermined price sheet and lead the conversation with the product’s features and significance.
If you can persuade a prospect of the merits of your product, price becomes secondary. In this manner, you won’t only close larger-value contracts, but you will also establish an attractive brand image.
B2B teams have plenty to learn from Apple’s B2C marketing techniques. Concentrate on what matters most to clients, strive to execute better than everyone else, scale quickly, and remove pricing from the discussion.
If you’re uncertain about your price approach, build a three-tier plan to provide the consumer with extra options. However, ensure that you don’t overwhelm them with information and that you adequately explain each layer.
5. Social selling.
With the meteoric explosion of social media, it became evident that selling your services or products directly often leaves you lacking in one crucial area, which is brand knowledge and recognition.
Social selling, on the other hand, enables you to progressively warm up your prospects by sharing valuable information, demonstrating your knowledge in online groups, responding to people’s questions, etc.
In other words, you’re becoming a corporation that attracts prospects, one that is regarded as an industry expert. So, when consumers require a product or service similar to yours, they will readily recognize your brand among the thousands of other companies on the market and choose yours.
Final words.
The global financial crisis has taught us a simple but important lesson. We must be adaptable if we want to adapt our business operations. In addition, we should all be receptive to new concepts and solutions. Following these five tips will allow you to remain at the forefront of innovation and consequently grow your business.
