In B2B sales, it is essential to acknowledge that your target audience wants to be approached with relevant offers at the right time and not when it is convenient for your sales reps.
Unfortunately, it is not as simple as it sounds. A Forrester study found that 68 percent of B2B buyers do not want to deal with sales reps because of the lack of value they provide, and have little or no patience for generic or ill-timed pitches.
The reason is clear: even though B2B stands for business-to-business, it is still very much human-to-human.
However, with highly technical products, a platoon of decision-makers, and huge budgets at stake, the B2B buying experience has traditionally been complicated.
Moreover, there is no shortage of options in the market. If one company is not equipped enough to minimize specific B2B customer pain points, there will always be another company that can do it efficiently and cost-effectively.
In a nutshell, success in B2B sales lies in getting personal
Personalization is the key to helping you stand out from the B2B buying landscape competition and perhaps the only way to keep up with evolving customer expectations and demands in this day and age.
You may have the best product in the market. But if you cannot connect with your target audience and compel them to see your offering, nothing matters. In this article, we will discuss five tips you must follow to close more deals faster.
1. Understand your target audience
Any B2B company that attempts to work with another company—regardless of size—can enhance the value they bring to the table by helping the prospect deconstruct their customer journey—from initial consideration to post-purchase.
Having a discovery call with your target audience would make a world of difference. Fetch answers for the pain points bothering them, whether they have used another vendor previously, and how much they are willing to spend.
Find out what happens with notable parties (competitors and suppliers) outside the company. Get a list of stakeholders of the company you want to do business with.
Set up a DealRoom customized for every B2B buyer based on the inputs gathered in the discovery call to make things easier for yourself and your sales team.
Upload relevant documents into the deal room, such as price quotes, contracts, and sales collateral.
Create a collaborative environment with your sales, finance, marketing, and operations teams for a deeper connection with your prospects through focused nurturing.
2. Approach your prospects with a level of insight
You see, though the modern customer can gather a lot of information online, they still crave expert input—someone who knows the territory inside and out and keeps up-to-date with the latest industry news. That is where you step in.
Once you have all the data in one place, creating an offering that best suits your prospect is easier. Force them to face facts. For instance, how does their bottom line get hampered when a specific tool is not deployed?
How have their competitors made progress in using a particular software? How can your offering help them become better at what they do?
Instead of shooting in the dark, pinpoint the areas for improvement to your target audience and showcase to them how you have the ultimate solution in your arsenal.
3. Demonstrate your value offerings early
In all honesty, B2C buyers decide to purchase from a company impulsively. For instance, if they like a pair of shoes on Amazon, they would usually not wait for months to place an order. However, that is not the case in B2B.
Even though you are dealing with humans, there is a stark difference between what they want right away and what they could potentially buy from you.
Essentially, your target audience wants an opportunity to experience a service or product in action early on. You could offer them a free 14- or 30-day trial, money-back guarantees, Proof of Concept (PoC), assessments, and so on.
Besides, provide them with gap analysis reports or assessment tools to help them see how your solution can best help them achieve their goals.
4. Create a customized website experience
Treat the website visits from your target audience as if you are giving them a personal tour. Believe it or not—your website can be an opportunity for you to speak directly to your prospects and guide them to the info they are looking for.
Showcase relevant pieces from your content library for different buyer personas in sidebars or as sticky banners throughout the website. WPForms, for example, engages website visitors to sign up to build forms.
In addition, take the personal approach up a notch and address your high-priority website visitors directly. You could use tools like Marketo and Bound to track visitor IP addresses or systems and create content personalized just for them.
If you are not keen to integrate third-party tools for in-depth tracking, take the native support for A/B split testing. Put your personalization gimmicks through the test.
5. Opt for out-of-the-box sales outreach
Sure, website visits are essential, but you cannot simply rely on someone to land on your website and fill out a contact form. Sometimes, you have to take the first step.
Obviously, sales is not new to the concept of initiating a conversation with the target audience. Sending a unique message that aligns with your prospects’ values will want them to keep talking to you.
One solid idea for tailored outreach is a personalized direct mail campaign. Show your target audience that you took the time to learn more about their business and find a gift that delights and compels them to get in touch with your B2B company.
This includes the information you gleaned from the discovery call and/or your research off the internet. Suppose you have found a blog post on how your prospects are committed to sustainability and environmental consciousness.
You can then identify a gift wherein sustainable elements are at the forefront—for instance, a notebook made from 100 percent recycled paper and fruit jam sourced from local farms.
In the note, you can highlight your initiatives for contributing to the environment, like reducing carbon footprint, besides talking about your product or service.
Such a level of personalization will help you form a broader connection with your target audience, which will result in higher sales.
Over to you
Sales as a function is truly thrilling. They say if you genuinely believe in your product or service, it gets easier to sell that to others. But that is only one side of the coin.
Remember: your target audience is not obliged to maintain a dialogue with you if you cannot provide bespoke value to them throughout the sales process.
When appropriately employed, personalization can boost revenues by 15 percent, improve the efficiency of marketing spending by up to 30 percent, and minimize acquisition costs by 30 percent, as per McKinsey. The numbers say it all.
Therefore, take the opportunity to adopt smarter technologies to better understand your target audience and close deals faster.
