It’s no secret, selling to B2B customers is tough.
Over a course of time, B2B sales have changed. The days when a salesperson was incharge of the buying process are long gone.Currently, buyer’s prefer to conduct research and select what to buy on their own without any influence.To keep closing new deals, a salesperson needs to understand the dynamics of modern B2B sales. Then, you need to learn and implement the sales strategies that will help you achieve your goals
And that’s exactly what we’re going to discuss in the blog.
B2B Sales
B2B sales refers to companies who primarily sell products and services to businesses, rather than direct to consumers (B2C). B2B sales have higher order values, longer sales cycles and are often more complex than B2C sales.Earlier, B2B sales used to be easier
If a person needed to buy a product , they’d reach out to a potential vendor and deal with a sales person, who’d pitch them with the best options to choose. And if the buyer is happy with what he/she heard, one would make a purchase.
It was a relatively predictable straightforward process, in which marketing was responsible for filling up the sales funnel with leads, and then for sales teams, they were responsible for moving them down the sales funnel and into a sale.
Compare that with the buying process a B2B buyer go through today:
They research it online, then,
They reach out to friends for recommendations, and check what others say about a particular product or service on social media, forums, and other online sources,
Read online reviews,
Based on all information make a decision, and only then,
They might reach out to the company to complete the buying process.
That’s a big change!
Businesses have changed how they make a decision to purchase new products or services. They now base a buying decision on internal research, friend recommendations, and scouting many other web sources.Buyers can easily research about a product digitally with unlimited access to various websites, forums, social media, and free trials.
Because of this, the roles of sales and marketing have significantly changed, with marketing teams taking over many and major aspects of the sales process. This means the role of sales has been reduced to assisting in the final stages of the process and making the actual purchase.
A new B2B buyer has emerged
Modern B2B buyers are younger and tech-savvy.
This is a big shift and it brings a number of challenges for modern B2B sales teams to overcome.Younger professionals are prone to using digital technologies and online reviews in the buying process, in turn revolutionizing how they purchase products or services.
For one, they prefer to conduct research themselves, and use the wealth of content available online and offline to help them on their purchase journey.
The B2B buyer journey is evolving into more digitized, less predictable, and more complex. The challenge for B2B marketers is to support a self-guided journey involving numerous personas on accounts and increasingly expanding buying teams.
As companies speed up the adoption of digital technologies, it is likely you will be interacting with increasingly tech-savvy customers. As a result, you can no longer contact buyers using traditional tools. Now, Marketers need a more innovative approach to selling.
What is B2B marketing?
B2B marketing refers to the marketing strategies implemented by firms selling their products and services to other businesses. B2B marketing often relies on educational information to communicate with business clients. This is because buyers seek expertise when dealing with other businesses. So, B2B marketing needs to be more personalized.
Types of B2B marketing:
There are different B2B marketing strategies.Companies tend to focus on B2B marketing channels that produce more leads,however, prioritizing the ones that produce the highest ROI for your company makes sense. The following are a number of strategies that you can mold and adapt to suit your specific needs and target audience.
1. Email Marketing: Email marketing is the most cost-effective and efficient way to reach potential clients and, as a rule of thumb, has the highest return on investment (ROI) in B2B marketing.Email marketing gives you direct access to buyers without relying on any middle party, which makes email marketing the cornerstone of any marketing operation.
2. Content Marketing: Content marketing strategies have been one of the most reliable tools at a B2B marketer’s disposal.If customers regularly see your firm creating a top-quality industry content and thought-leadership, their trust in its products and services increases accordingly.
Remember that your content marketing isn’t restricted to written blogs; you should also focus on white papers, images, infographics, and videos that you can share to engage and retain your audience.
3. Social Media Marketing: Online presence on at least one of the top social media websites is important. In the B2B marketing space, LinkedIn and Facebook are the most used social media platforms. Companies use these platforms to achieve the same goals they seek to achieve through other forms of digital marketing — high engagement and advertising. However, B2B companies need to find a middle ground between creating engaging content and ensuring they don’t ruin their audience’s experience on any platform.
Conclusion:
The growing number of companies in B2B suggests a bright future for marketers than a sales person in this space. Yet, as we’ve seen over the past few years, a combination of different societal factors has transformed the ways B2B marketing engages with customers.As buyers are more willing to access digital spaces, marketers must make the most of their potential by implementing various marketing strategies.