One thing is clear: no company can grow without new customers. Especially in the B2B business, salespeople are increasingly facing challenges when it comes to acquiring new customers. Not only the duration of the sales process and the complexity of most products complicate the sales team’s daily work, but also the fact that more and more people, or decision-makers, are involved in the purchasing process. Another change to which B2B sales must adapt is that 70% of purchase decisions are already made before the first contact with the seller.
In the following article we put some useful tips together to make selling in the B2B environment easier for you:
Define your buyer persona
Before you start the sales process, you should define your target group and especially your buyer persona. The Buyer Persona identifies in particular the behaviour of the persons, the needs, the problems and the goals. The aim is to create a picture of the ideal customer based on sufficient research. After you have defined your buyer persona, you can work out the appropriate arguments based on this. This enables the sales department to enter the sales process much faster and in a more targeted manner and avoids wasting time with the wrong contact persons.
Avoid high complexity
In the B2B environment, it is not uncommon for products to be highly complex. Therefore many companies have to plan a high expenditure of time for a detailed explanation, consultation and support. But not only the information about the product takes a lot of time, also the individual adaptation, which most customers wish themselves. So try to make your products as simple as possible for your users.
Offer solutions
To stand out from the competition and win new customers, you have to show them the relevant added value of your product. Try to put yourself in the position of your potential customer and consider what problems he might have in order to start with your sales strategy exactly there. A particularly frequent reason why companies change providers is that they offer a better solution to problems which, for example, help to optimise certain processes.
Work close with the marketing team
Close and functioning cooperation between marketing and sales is really important. In consultation with both teams, it should be determined exactly how the generated leads from the inbound are further qualified and when they are ready for sales. Sales should also be involved when it comes to producing information and advertising materials. There he can certainly help with some insights. The close cooperation of both teams enables problem areas to be identified and resolved more quickly. Moreover, this open working method can save precious time.
Tip
Here you will find helpful tips on how marketing and sales can work better together.
Ask for feedback
- Don’t worry, no sales professional has fallen from the sky yet. That’s why it is important to constantly optimize your sales strategy. The Internet offers a wide variety of information sources, but who could give you better feedback than your already acquired customers?
Even the customers who didn’t make it to the end of the sales cycle can give you helpful feedback that you can certainly learn a lot from.
Sogar die Kunden, die es letztendlich nicht zum Verkaufsabschluss geschafft haben, können dir hilfreiches Feedback geben, aus dem Du sicherlich noch einiges lernen kannst.
