Employees of sales and marketing departments are constantly asking themselves: how to ensure the company’s growth? What arguments could convince business customers to make a purchase and how to increase B2B sales?
What new sources of lead generation to introduce and how to optimize the sales process? The high cost of reaching the customer, extended decision-making time in the B2B purchasing process, and caution in starting new business cooperation are everyday challenges for traders.
What Does The Sale Give?
For your company, it means, above all, higher revenues and development – the opportunity to invest and hire more employees.
Looking from the customer’s perspective, the purchase of a product or service itself is also a value, it gives a chance to obtain a solution that will allow the development of his company.
Who Do You Want To Reach?
If you want to increase B2B sales, consider the profile of a potential customer. Business customers are entrepreneurs or persons from the purchasing committee, organizations, and institutions.
Where To Start?
Analyze which channels will be the best for communication with a potential B2B client.
In the case of a B2C customer, contact can take place on a website, on social media, in an online store, or in a stationary store, which is a great convenience.
Inspiration can be found everywhere, but remember that B2B sales channels should be properly adapted to your business and target group.
Accurate knowledge of the services offered by the company will allow traders to respond to their needs and dispel doubts in a conversation with a business client.
Future contractors want to find out how your service will help them grow their businesses. Developing sales and service standards will increase B2B sales.
Consistency of messages generated by salespeople and the marketing department is also important. Properly selected KPIs – key performance indicators – are a great way to increase B2B sales.
Ongoing verification of the actions taken allows for quick reactions and possible modifications. You can efficiently correct broken ads or increase the budget for those that generate leads.
The Basis Of Effective Sales Is:
- The buyer persona is created by the marketing department together with the sales department. For a given product or service, the ideal customer may differ, so the more thoroughly we get to know its profile, the easier it will be to create an offer for your business.
- Prospecting is the search for potential customers, a clearly defined target group. Thanks to the acquired knowledge about a given contractor, the sales department will establish contact with him more efficiently and lead to the finalization of the transaction.
- Language tailored to the customer – B2B traders and marketers should present the offer in a way that is understandable to each customer.
- A well-prepared offer is a response to customer expectations. Use the language of benefits. Focus on the most important elements and highlight them. Make the visual form attractive. Before preparing the final version, check what companies with similar business profiles provide and at what price. It is important to recognize and take into account the USP of the product, what makes it stand out, and what is its unique value. Both marketing and sales activities should expose this information.
- Appropriate tools – without systems that will improve your work, there are no effective sales. A CRM system, a system for sending communications, or a tool for managing meetings with clients are must-haves for sales departments.
- Prepared and implemented processes – customer qualification, marketing communication management, sales processes, and after-sales processes.
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How To Increase B2B Sales?
Below you will find 15 ideas that will increase B2B sales in your company.
1. Matching communication to your target group – it is worth remembering that not every client is as familiar with the subject as a salesperson or marketing specialist. Using complex industry vocabulary can lead to misunderstandings. In the beginning, it is worth introducing the client to the topic and trying to use a language that he understands.
2. Cooperation between the marketing department and the sales department. Marketers can use content marketing to promote a given product or service. A potential customer, after getting acquainted with the offer, may have additional questions that will direct him to a specialist from the sales department. Check what type of contact will be most often chosen. Try a free consultation, a chat on the website, and the possibility of a quick connection with a consultant via live call.
3. Positive opinions on the website – obtain opinions from current contractors and, if possible, post them on your website. Also, reviews on Google Maps support sales and increase your credibility. A satisfied B2B customer can recommend your services through word-of-mouth marketing, and this is the best possible advertisement.
4. Use surveys. By regularly contacting a business client, you can get additional feedback that will help improve the work of your company. Send surveys both in the form of NPS and those examining the business needs of customers.
5. Content marketing – well-written descriptions of products and services, as well as a website that is ranked first in search engines, generate leads that over time become our customers. With the help of content marketing and the right SEO strategy, you will increase B2B sales by making the customer want your service.
6. Showing added value – in addition to solving the problem, show additional advantages of the product. Present the case study on the brand’s social profile or create a category of this type of entry on the company’s blog. Showing the services and products in practice, how they solved the problem of a particular contractor, and how they influenced the further functioning of his business will be an additional incentive to buy.
7. Training for salespeople and marketers – both internal and external. Specialized staff receiving new ways to increase B2B sales and new skills is also the development of your company. An educated team will strengthen the image and sales results of the company.
8. A well-prepared strategy and a clear goal for the marketing department mean higher quality leads are provided to salespeople. In this way, the effectiveness of their activities will also increase when they contact people interested in the offer.
9. Continuous development of the sales process. The use of the best-performing messages and the collection of good practices is a good basis for the development of the company. You can use them later during internal training for new traders.
10. Tools, i.e. everything that will allow you to integrate and strengthen the work of departments. These can be applications that will improve the exchange of information between marketing and sales. These should also be tools that will allow sales departments to manage potential customers – contacting them, assigning status in the sales process, and adding notes and detailed information. Consider any solutions related to the automation of the sales process.
11. Measuring the steps taken – phone calls, messages sent, number of meetings held, the time needed to respond to the client – allows you to verify the effectiveness of the plan and improve it if it does not bring the expected results.
12. A broader study of customer needs and behavior. Thanks to this, traders will present the offer more efficiently, knowing what are the most common problems in a given industry, and will have answers prepared in advance that will defeat any objections.
13. Social selling and a strong personal brand that allow you to build long-term relationships with contractors will increase the number of customers. Social selling is nothing more than creating engaging content on social networks, thanks to which you build your brand, which increases your authority.
14. After-sales service. Each finalization of the transaction is a profit for your company, but it is worth remembering about post-sale contact. A customer who has purchased a product often needs support in the form of implementation. Equally important is an efficient response to possible complaints and empathetic help. Acquiring new customers and ending contact after the purchase does not help in building the brand image. Maintaining a relationship with a regular contractor is a good way to increase b2b sales.
15. Sponsored ads and Website positioning. You can increase sales on your website: by displaying ads to people who belong to your target group, as well as by positioning pages. When you understand what aspects are taken into account in the purchasing process, you will know which keywords are most often entered in the Google search engine and you will optimize them. You can also adjust sponsored ads and remarket to your industry. Such actions will contribute to the increase of your website’s position in search results and will increase website traffic. By adjusting the content of advertisements to the B2B client, you will improve internet marketing.
What Else Will Have A Positive Impact On Sales Results?
- The expertise of your team is one of the features that will distinguish your brand and encourage customers to purchase the service.
- Website The client currently checks online offers before the meeting, so pay special attention to aspects such as content and page loading time. Don’t forget about mobile devices, the website should be functional for users and transparent. On average, 50% of B2B customers make purchases using a mobile phone.
- A free consultation helps increase b2b sales. In a physical store, customer service advises you before buying – you should also ensure this possibility on the website. Traders accompany business customers in the shopping path. It does not have to be a long conversation, it is enough to show that the specialists are available and will answer the questions of a potential business client. Presenting your offer more widely by a specialist will increase b2b sales because he will be able to learn more about the problems that potential customers have and indicate how your service will solve their problems.
- Appropriate follow-ups responding to the needs of business customers depending on where they are in our sales funnel. Also, after finalizing the transaction, try to maintain contact, it may encourage the B2B customer to make further purchases.
- Up-selling and cross-selling. You can also use up-selling, i.e. selling a better product at a higher price. On the Internet, it is a more complex procedure, and traders can take advantage of this form of sale. There is also cross-selling, i.e. bundling – when buying one product or service, the customer also selects additional ones that are complementary.
- Gaining leads during events, fairs, and conferences. Sales don’t end with internet marketing. Take advantage of the additional opportunities that arise during face-to-face meetings.
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How To Check The Effectiveness Of The Actions Taken?
Use the available online tools to analyze sources of lead generation, and customer behavior, and study the shopping path on the website to better match the offer or make changes to the construction of the website.
In the case of the sales department, it is worth checking not only the final results but also the quantity and quality of calls. The analysis of recordings will improve customer service and increase b2b sales.
Increase Sales With DMSales
By creating an account on the platform, you will gain access to functions supporting the sales and prospecting process.
LeadIn is greatly facilitated by the LeadIn plug-in, whose functions enable downloading and exporting business contacts to the platform from the LinkedIn website.
The Leadin assistant in the form of a plugin will also indicate the level of security of cooperation with a potential client, thanks to the Refer Score score both on the company’s website and on the company’s LinkedIn profile.
In addition, the DMSales system has the resources of business and consumer databases compliant with the GDPR, which system users can use on a license basis.
Another source of data is the mailbox – both general e.g. sales@, inquiry@, as well as your business e-mail box, from which messages in the form of inquiries or e-mail replies will be sent directly to the platform, which will greatly facilitate your contact management and communication.
Thanks to the proprietary identification script from DMSales, you will get to know the people and companies that visit your company website and plan how to contact them.
You can use the automatic sending of e-mails or text messages, or contact the people you meet by making a phone call. This feature allows you to turn anonymous website traffic into potential and then loyal customers.
Together with the DMSales system, you will plan automated communication with potential and current customers. You will prepare and send inspirational newsletters and follow-up sequences.
You will also manage after-sales communication depending on the customer segment and communication needs.
In the DMSales system, you can assign the acquired contacts to salespeople who can work in the system simultaneously with, for example, the marketing department.
The “mini CRM” module in DMSales allows you to add a status that determines the contact’s location in the sales funnel, i.e. at what stage of purchase it is currently.
It also allows you to post contact notes, as well as additional information relevant to the preparation of the offer.
The ability to record and listen to conversations with the contact will allow you to verify the arrangements with the customer, and from the perspective of the head of the sales department, it will allow you to check how the sales process is conducted by sales representatives, which can help increase efficiency.
DMSales allows you to get to know a business customer and their company using the Refer Score report.
Just a few clicks and the system will provide you with detailed information about the company – its technological advancement, financial situation, customer opinions, and forecasted development.
The DMSales system also has a data enrichment module that can help you increase b2b sales to existing customers or contacts.
By enriching the data, you will receive more information about contacts, which will allow you to reach them with an additional source, as well as prepare a more tailored offer.
Summary
Work on increasing sales in companies is ongoing and there is no single golden rule that will allow you to achieve better results.
What is crucial to achieving growth is certainly the right tools that will make work easier, more predictable, and more effective, as well as measuring activities that will allow you to verify and optimize the sales result of new and regular customers.
In the era of growing competition, it is important to implement and test several ways to increase b2b sales.
You can use the ideas presented above in your organization. If you care about the right tool that will support both the marketing team and the sales team, and additionally help you monitor the sales process.