In the Business-to-business (B2B) model, one business sells its products or services to another business. B2B strengthens relationships between businesses allowing them to grow. So, effectively promote your B2B business.
The question is what methods businesses should use in the current scenario. We’ll comprehensively guide you through these methods to successfully close sales for business growth.
Overview of B2B Sales Process
Before marketing, understand the entire B2B sales process. We’re providing you with an overview of the process.
B2B sales is a more complex process as compared to business-to-consumer (B2C) sales. It involves multiple decision-makers who are well aware of industry and business. B2B buyers are smarter and more careful about buying products than the end consumers.
B2B buyers look for certain factors of a product such as costs, seller’s repute, functions, and profitability.
The B2B buying process is much longer than the B2C buying process. It involves the following steps:
- Building brand awareness
- Guiding buyers about the benefits and solutions of products
- Demonstrating products and services
- Engaging buyers with content to convince them to buy
- Completing a sale
- Strengthening brand loyalty to increase customer retention and positive word-of-mouth marketing
Let’s read some tips and tricks that are useful in successfully completing B2B sales.
Understand Your Potential Customers
Target your buyers to sell your products and services effectively. Thoroughly study various aspects of their business. Gaining in-depth knowledge about your customers makes it easy for you to deal with them. It includes searching for their:
- Customers
- Products
- Relevant Industry
- Social Media Platforms
- Website
View Buyer’s Website
If your buyer has a business website, surf it. Their business website can give you a better idea of what they might require from you. You can view their mission statement, objectives, content, and products. By understanding their business objectives, you can step forward and provide them with assistance.
Company’s Products
What is the product or service of your target customer? Understand that. View their product catalogs. It lets you know the niche of products that your customers are selling.
Their customers
You should know who buys from your target company. Learn about their customers and the way they engage with their customers. Study the marketing tactics that they use to reach out to their customers.
You can guide them on how your product or service benefits them to satisfy consumer needs.
Researching Their Relevant Industry
Understand the industry in which your customers are working. For example, if you’re targeting a retailer who is selling apparel, research the apparel industry. Study the ongoing market trends of that industry. You can gain valuable insights into that industry. You can study their competition.
With this, provide a solution to your buyers that lets them gain a competitive edge over their competition.
Social Media Platforms
Subscribe to the social media platforms of your target businesses. Search their social media accounts on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter. View their YouTube channels. View their regular posts and the way people react to their posts.
Produce Relevant Content
The digital revolution of B2B business has changed the way buyers research a business. According to the Demand Gen Report survey, most B2B buyers rely on content before buying.
Focus on producing relevant content that educates buyers and provides them with useful information. Useful content can be in the form of articles, newsletters, and videos.
For example, testimonials are an excellent way to convince customers. The experience of customers who have used your products is very valuable. It helps to spread awareness, loyalty, and trustworthiness for your brand.
Another thing is to add personalized content tailored to match the needs of your target audience. Relevant content is going to help buyers during their buying and research process.
Leverage Omnichannel Marketing
The lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the supply chain. These circumstances forced a change of attitudes in B2B buyers. Online interactions began between businesses and they started coming online. Today, B2B buyers use more than ten digital channels to interact with sellers as per McKinsey & Company. So, use multiple channels to achieve success in your marketing efforts.
The most lucrative digital channel is online B2B marketplaces like Faire, SeeBiz, and Tundra. These marketplaces help connect a wide range of B2B buyers and sellers with each other.
Social media is a powerful digital channel to promote your business as well. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter help to generate leads. They also help to expand your business outreach to a wider audience.
Another channel is search engine marketing. According to 99Firms research, 93% of the online traffic is on search engines. So, they’re a convenient way to promote your business. The purpose of this marketing is to rank your website on the first page of search results. Ranking on the top of the results page is preferable as it pulls in the most traffic.
There are two methods of search engine marketing:
- Paying for displaying ads and for viewers to click on those ads
- Optimizing your website naturally on search engines through backlinks, title tags, and meta tags
Email marketing is also an effective marketing method to generate leads and return on investment (ROI). Email marketing generates an average ROI of 36 dollars per dollar spent as per Litmus.
Strengthen Sales Enablement
Sales enablement is very important in securing your sales deals. Sales enablement is the process of:
- Training your sales team
- Equipping them with complete information about buyers
- Delivering important content to the sales team for guiding customers
- Providing them with important tools and resources for sales processes
Your sales representatives represent your organization. They should be confident and fully aware to deal with the buyers.
Communicate with B2B Decision Makers
Decision makers are the stakeholders in a business who make the final decision of buying a product or service. Gartner’s study reveals that there are about six to ten decision-makers in a B2B organization.
If you want to make a successful sale then contact the decision-makers of a company. There is no use in putting in the effort to deal with buyers or purchase managers. They are only representing their company but have no authority in making the final decision.
Convince the actual decision-makers to buy your product or service. Conduct in-person meetings with them and present your case.
While traveling is a good option, it is no longer a necessity. Video conferencing is now more convenient for both sides. So, talk to them face-to-face and attempt to convince them with your offer.
Now the question is what your B2B decision makers need to convince them to buy from you. It includes a wide range of content including:
- Case Studies
- Customer Service
- Information based on data and research
- Order Fulfillment Time
- Product Features such as:
- Costs
- Demonstrations
- Descriptions
- Durability
- Profitability
Promote Your Unique Selling Proposition
A unique selling proposition or unique selling point (USP) is a tagline that distinguishes your products and services from competitors.
For example, M&M promotes its chocolate candies with the USP “Melts in your mouth, not in your hand.” And this USP really sells for them. As per Statista, M&M became the leading chocolate candy brand in the United States in 2017. It generated sales of $688.7 million that year.
USP raises the value of your products and services. To stand out among the competition, you should promote the USP of your business.
Provide Valuable Solutions and Results
No matter how excellent your product or service is, customers don’t buy it if they find no value. Instead of emphasizing product or service promotion, focus on providing value to your offering.
Knowing your target customers helps you to understand their pain points. Highlight their weaknesses and explain to them the benefits of your product to their business. If you convince them that your product is beneficial to their business, you’re about to close a sale.
Offer Flexible Pricing Options
When businesses buy in bulk, they expect to receive good discounts. Price and quality are important factors in determining the buying decision of buyers.
Some businesses prefer quality over everything else. They don’t compromise on quality and are willing to pay more for it.
On the other hand, upstart business ventures often rely on saving money. They prefer to buy products at cheap rates. Step down a bit from your price offerings and offer reasonable discounts to attract these buyers.
Make your pricing more appealing and flexible to buyers. Offer your buyers different pricing options. Flexibility in pricing options can help them in their buying decision. It’s effective in driving sales.
Conclusion
These steps are essential to increase your B2B sales and grow your business. Follow and implement these steps to get results.
