B2B customers are some of the most challenging customers to close in eCommerce. Around 50 to 70% of them conduct their own research before contacting a sales team. If they see something they don’t like about your business, they could lose you a potential client. So, what is the best B2B sales strategy to ensure that does not happen? There is no one perfect answer. B2B customers need thorough convincing. That is why we have compiled the best B2B sales strategies you can use during your B2B sales process.
Learn all about B2B sales, how it differs from B2C sales, what the process is like, what strategy to use, and tips on improving your B2B sales strategy for maximum effectiveness!
What Is B2B Sales? – Difference From B2C Sales
B2B or business-to-business sales is the sale between two businesses. Most are familiar with B2C or business to customers, where a company sells its products to customers. However, in B2B sales, you are interacting with another business entity.
Unlike in B2C sales, B2B sales are higher in value. An individual customer might buy one or two products at a time, but B2B businesses usually buy in much larger quantities. For example, a company might purchase products in bulk for resale.
In B2C, a business usually has to sell to one customer. However, this is entirely different when two different companies interact. B2B sales have to consider multiple buyers instead of one. The high-value transaction means that B2B sales have to be carefully planned by many different decision-makers before the transaction goes through. That means B2B sales take a lot longer to complete than B2C businesses.
This is mainly because the B2B market is comparatively smaller than the B2C market. B2C customers might range in the thousands. However, B2B customers might go over 10 different clients. You can attribute this to the smaller number of businesses available to do business with. That is why marketing and B2B sales are more targeted to help solve another business’s problems.
Understanding The B2B Sales Process: 6 Steps And What You Need To Do
Let’s say that you are looking to start a B2B business. So, what does a B2B sales process look like? Here are the steps in a B2B sales process and insight into how you can better close the deal with your clients:
Step#1 Researching Potential Clients For Your Business
This initial step in the B2B sales process is finding the clients that need your product or service. When identifying these potential clients, you are looking for the ones who most benefit from your business. This step involves researching a client’s needs, challenges, pain points, target markets, etc. These insights will help make it easier to approach the client because you want your business to provide the solution to them.
Step#2 Initial Contact With Potential Client
Of course, the clients won’t know about your product and how it will solve their problems without contacting them. So once you have identified the target client, you need to make the initial contact with them. There are various ways your business can do this. You could reach out via email, phone calls, face-to-face meetings in networking events, etc.
The key is establishing a connection and introducing yourself and your business to your clients. Your initial contact should focus on building rapport, understanding the client’s needs, and laying the groundwork for further discussions. B2B business relationships are longer lasting than others, so a good first impression goes a long way in establishing a healthy B2B relationship.
Step#3 Presenting The Solution You Provide
After the initial contact, the next step is to present your product or service to the clients. Here, you need to show how your product can help solve the problem your business client is facing. This can be through presentations, demonstrations, and proposals where you show off what your business offers to the client. Your goal is to communicate your product’s value and the benefits your company provides for the client’s business.
Step#4 Answering The Clients’ Questions
After presenting your business side, the client will likely ask you many questions. You can prepare as much as you want for their questions, but each client’s business will differ. That means they might ask you unique questions related to their business. This step lets you show your in-depth knowledge of your business and how it fits your client’s business best. Actively listening to what your clients are asking and answering them precisely is how you can ease client’s hesitation and prepare for the negotiation phase of the B2B sales process.
Step#5 Discussing Pricing And Negotiating Terms
When your clients are happy with your products and services, it is time to negotiate the terms and conditions of doing business together. Here, you will likely finalize agreements, determine how both companies will collaborate on the project, and outline how long the deal will last. Discussing prices is difficult as B2B clients are sensitive to prices they are uncomfortable paying. That is why you must be as transparent as possible and show flexibility in discussing the terms and conditions so that both parties benefit equally.
Step#6 Following Up On Your Sales
Even after the sale, the B2B sales process is not yet complete. Such a sales process is never complete unless your client stops doing business with you. To keep them as your clients, following up with your clients after the sale is crucial to your business’s success.
Following up can take various forms, including emails, phone calls, or in-person meetings, depending on the client’s preferences and the complexity of the sales process. You can demonstrate how your product is helping your client or connect with them to find out if you can address any issues. This last step can be the difference between a one-time or loyal client. And this relationship could result in referrals to other businesses that could be your future clients.
10 Best B2B Sales Strategy To Increase Your Sales
There are strategies you can implement to help you succeed in your B2B sales process. Here are some of the best B2B sales strategies to increase your sales:
Strategy#1 Use a customer-centric Approach
B2B customers are difficult to convince. Many people are behind the scenes making the decisions, and multiple decision-makers will complicate closing the deal. That is why you should implement a customer-centric or a customer-first approach to your B2B sales process.
This means you put your customers first and consider how your product will help them. Wherever they are on their buyer’s journey, you want to ensure they understand how you will benefit them and increase their sales. Put your customers’ needs and pain points first, and you will have a more successful B2B sales strategy.
Strategy#2 Sales And Marketing Team Collaboration
You make your B2B sales strategy successful by ensuring the marketing and sales teams work together. Both teams are working on the same thing: getting potential leads to become repeat customers. However, the sales and marketing teams often compete against each other because they do the same job in different ways.
When they work together, you have the best of both worlds. The sales team can use the marketing team’s content to align better with potential leads. It keeps the customers engaged with your company’s services while increasing customer retention. So, ensure your sales and marketing team are on the same page.
Strategy#3 Sales Enablement To Convert More Leads
Your sales and marketing team working together is great, but you must enable them to do their job as efficiently as possible. That is where sales enablement comes in. It is when you provide your team with all they need to convert leads into customers.
Sales enablement includes providing necessary data and analysis, complete reports on past and present sales of customers, content to support B2B sales strategies, and much more. This information is required for your team to succeed in what they are doing. Sales enablement gives them the insight to handle the client with a perfect strategy to help your business grow in sales.
Strategy#4 Utilize Buyers Persona
The importance of a B2B buyer’s persona is often overlooked. You have to deal with multiple decision-makers when closing a deal with a client. A well-crafted buyer persona for your B2B lead can help you target the key decision-makers more effectively.
The B2B buyer persona is not only about targeting the right person on your client’s side but will also help you understand the people you don’t want to market to. It will help you target your client’s challenges and goals and optimize your B2B sales process for success. So, make a buyer persona for your potential clients to help increase your B2B sales.
Strategy#5 Market Solutions Not Features
You might be proud of the features you provide with your products or services. However, B2B clients might be utterly uninterested in what your product does. Instead, they seek to solve their business problems with your help.
For example, your B2B client faces issues with their team’s performance. Showing them how your product or service will help increase their productivity by streamlining certain operations can help your B2B sales strategy be more effective. You show the client how your product’s feature is helping them instead. With such a demonstration, they can better visualize how your product is bringing in the results they are looking for.
Strategy#6 Segment Your Customers Accordingly
Even B2B clients differ from each other. Some clients you may encounter as a B2B business include startups seeking to enter the market and established brands searching for operational solutions. Targeting the right customers with the right strategy means segmenting your customers.
B2B segmentation can effectively stream your marketing efforts for your sales team. When the proper marketing reaches the right customers, it makes it more likely for your sales pitch to resonate with the client. As such, the sales team can quickly sell the product to the client, leading to a successful B2B sales strategy.
Strategy#7 Cater To Existing Customers
When hunting for new leads, don’t forget to cater to the customers you already have. Returning and loyal customers make up the bulk of your sales. One way of doing so is to provide them with meaningful follow-up by showing them the data-driven sales optimization you provide.
The existing clients can also help you reach new customers as well. If satisfied with your product and services, they are more likely to refer your business to their connections. In this way, catering to existing customers lands you loyal customers and potential new leads.
Strategy#8 Consider Multi-Channel Marketing
Your business might be doing email marketing or content marketing to help reach potential customers. However, if you only do single-channel marketing, you leave out a section of your customers because they are not engaged with your marketing. Here, you should consider multiple channels of marketing that make sense for your business.
A successful marketing strategy on multiple channels gives you more reach. New and old customers will see your marketing efforts and be interested in doing business with you. So utilize your social media, email, content, and all necessary channels to market your business for higher visibility to strengthen your B2B sales strategy.
Strategy#9 Focus On Account-Based Selling
Just like how clients are different, you need to handle clients in various ways as well. This is where account-based selling can help you achieve more B2B sales. It focuses your B2B sales strategy on marketing for that business instead of treating it like another business on the market.
Account-based selling can help with customer retention as well. Since you are focusing on business like a separate segment, you know exactly how to market for them. You are tailoring the marketing for them in such a personalized manner that other companies cannot compete with your methods.
Strategy#10 Use The Right Apps For Your Sales Strategy
The right tools to handle the customer segments can help optimize your B2B sales strategy. It can help both in client acquisition and streamlining selling your products.
For example, let’s say you are a B2B wholesale eCommerce business. You have a Shopify store where you sell your bulk products with multiple variants. However, Shopify 3 options per variant do not allow you to sell how you want for your business. For a solution, you head to the app store to find an app to help sell your variants better so your clients can make orders much more manageable.
Here is an example of such a variant builder app for your B2B eCommerce store and how it can help your Shopify store’s shopping experience:
The Shopify store exceeds the Shopify variant option limit with the app. The app displays the variants in a custom variant display where all the sizes and colors are listed on one product page. You can also see that each variant is priced individually. The B2B customer in this store can choose how many variants they want to buy by selecting the quantity via the buttons or the quantity input field. Furthermore, you will observe a restriction rule at the bottom, which grays out the checkout and add-to-cart buttons.
So, how does this help with B2B sales strategy, and how can you benefit from an app such as this?
- Shopify’s variant option limit no longer restricts your shop, and you can show all the product variants you want on one page.
- Having all the variants on one page improves the shopping experience by presenting all the choices.
- Customers can choose the variants they need for their business through simple inputs.
- The per variant prices also ease decision-making for the B2B customers as they can see the final prices reflected in their choices.
- The bottom message reflects a maximum order quantity (MOQ). An MOQ allows your B2B wholesale store to control and manage inventory better, ensuring customers order the right products for their bundle. MOQ is not a native option on Shopify, but this app allows your store to set an MOQ as you see fit.
- Until this restriction rule is satisfied, customers cannot add products to their checkout page. This ensures customers are ordering the right amount and helps reduce shopping mistakes.
Tools are there to make B2B sales strategy more accessible to customers. The example above shows how you can use a tool like the Shopify app to help increase sales. Instead of focusing on what the app does, you highlight how your store’s shopping experience is far better than that of other eCommerce stores. Your B2B business gets to stand out, and you give your customers an unmatched shopping experience.
With just one app, you have optimized your B2B sales strategy to bring in more customers, improve sales, and provide an unforgettable shopping experience. That is why it is so vital that you align your B2B sales strategy with your customer’s needs and wants.
7 Tips To Help Improve B2B Sales Strategy
So now that you have the best B2B sales strategy, here are some tips that will help you improve your strategies:
- Research, Research, Research: Nothing beats researching your clients. Get to know them as best as possible to implement the right strategies for your business.
- Go Straight To The Decision-Makers: Don’t waste time marketing to those who don’t make decisions. Instead, market and use your B2B sales strategies on decision-makers.
- Be Clear And Precise In Your Marketing: Precise marketing will make it easier for B2B clients to understand your services and improve your sales strategies.
- Show The Results Of Your Product: Turn your marketing focus on how it will improve your client’s business.
- Plan For The Future: Make sure to have plans for the future. This can include future products and services you can provide your clients. Using your research, you can expand your business and increase sales in the long run.
- Be Patient With Your Customers: B2B clients take time in their decision-making. Be patient with them and give them the freedom to decide based on your sales strategy.
- Price Accordingly: Don’t worry about your product prices. As long as you provide quality products, you will attract customers who appreciate your business over low-quality ones.
Bottom Line
The best B2B sales strategy is to consider the customers first. You want to make your sales pitch in such a way that is completely personalized for them. Additionally, these strategies will help optimize your B2B sales process so you close on clients effectively. Remember to tailor your strategy to your client’s needs, and you will improve your sales.
