Boost Your B2B Sales: Key Strategies for Success

Take a Customer-Centric Approach

If asked, all B2B businesses would say they put their customers first. However, only a few will use this as a focused strategy. Nevertheless, it’s worth considering. A customer-centric approach can set you apart as a company that truly cares about its clients.

To be a customer-centric business, you need to:

• Have a deep understanding of your customer’s business

• Be an excellent listener and understand what customers want from you

• Be proactive at asking for feedback from customers, even when it’s negative

As you can see, much of this is about developing a continual feedback loop between you and your customer. The more you can understand what they want and any gaps, the easier it will be to fulfill them.

The result is high satisfaction scores and more opportunities for repeat business. So, it’s got a positive effect on your profit numbers. You’ll also be seen as a trusted partner rather than a distant and forgettable supplier.

SEO

Modern B2B businesses need a strong digital footprint to capture new leads, especially in a global marketplace.

However, if you are going to use SEO for sales, you need to avoid focusing too much on traffic numbers and more on targeted traffic. After all, it’s the decision-making you want.

To target the right people via SEO, you must determine:

• How to build a high-quality, technically robust website that search engines love

• You targeted keywords

• The content you publish

• How to convert leads once they arrive on your website

Good SEO involves a lot of testing. By reviewing the traffic you get and how it converts, you can refine your approach, such as publishing more relevant content.

You’ll also need to do extensive upfront research, which will determine the best keywords to target. Effective SEO for B2B sales means investing in research tools and analytics.

LinkedIn Networking

LinkedIn has long been a favorite tool for sales executives, and it’s easy to see why. It offers one of the best digital networking forums. Here are some ways to use LinkedIn for lead generation in B2B.

Have a Great Profile

If you want to look professional, work on getting your business and sales team to improve their profiles.

Descriptions should be succinct and compelling, focusing on the benefits you offer your customers and some evidence of expertise to back that up.

Be Active

Remember that LinkedIn is a social media platform, so you need to be active to gain traction.

Post regularly. Share interesting articles related to your industry and news stories about your business. Engage in conversations via comments to build a rapport with people.

Start Connecting Directly

Don’t try to connect with everyone in the hope that it will bring you a sale. Be strategic.

Research key decision-makers in your industry and prepare your opening message about why you are connecting. Remember that good networking is about what you can offer to others first, not what they can do for you.

Use LinkedIn Groups

Don’t forget to join some relevant LinkedIn groups. That will allow you to connect with more people in your industry. You can also use groups to improve your visibility.

Use Analytics

When you use any social media tool, it’s easy to think you are making an impact when, in reality, that impact is negligible. So always measure your results.

Use analytics tools to see how many leads you get from your LinkedIn campaign and how those leads convert into sales.

Try PPC Advertising

PPC stands for pay-per-click, and it’s the most common advertising option online since it can be cost-effective. If you are going to choose the advertising route, there are a few things you’ll need to decide first:

• Which platform to use

• The audience you wish to target

• Your budget

• Your ad creatives

• Tracking, analytics, and reporting

It’s common for big brands to use multiple platforms for their advertising. That’s why you may often see the same brand pop up when switching from one social media platform to another or after searching on Google.

However, you need to consider your budget. If you have a limited budget for targeting B2B leads, you might find it best to focus your efforts on one platform and master that.

Another point worth remembering is that your audience may be more active on some platforms than others, which is why it’s essential to do some audience research first.

Always invest in tracking your ads to monitor your conversion rates. Many modern ad platforms offer this as standard. It will help you test different ad creatives to determine which one performs the best.

Sell Using Social Proof

Social proof isn’t only for B2C businesses. They can also be an excellent addition to your sales strategy when selling B2B. Here are some ways to use social proof:

Create a Case Study

A detailed case study offers many insights for a potential client. It will tell them what results you can achieve and how you work.

That’s important to many businesses that want alignment on things like communication, pace of delivery, and approach. Use case studies to discuss a range of client work from different industries or products.

Showcase Your Clients

If clients allow, showcase your list of customers on your website.

People will buy from companies that already work with high-profile businesses. It shows you are trusted. If you can get a comment from those clients to act as a short testimonial, that’s even better.

Use Experts

If you are a relatively new business and lack testimonials, here’s an alternative to help boost business-to-business selling. Employ an industry expert to review your business’ services or products and provide their professional opinion.

Quotes from authority figures can carry a lot of weight for decision-makers.

Enter Awards

A prestigious award on your website and in your sales material can be a great way to boost sales. It’s also an excellent opportunity to network in your industry. Find out about local awards and apply for as many as possible.

Targeted ABM (Account-Based Marketing)

ABM will work well for your business if you have high-value accounts and want to increase the order value with those clients.

ABM is all about targeted and personalized buying experiences using an experienced account team, and it’s a simple process to set up:

• Identify your key accounts that show potential

• Assign those accounts to your sales team

• Created tailored messages and offers for each client

• Create an engagement strategy for each client

Throughout this approach, it’s important that your sales team works closely with your marketing team.

This will ensure that your messaging and offers are aligned. You don’t want your sales team to send an offer that contradicts something in an ad you’re running.

When identifying accounts, think about their future potential rather than what they are worth right now.

You could have a client who has made one small order from you but has the scope for many more. Or you may want to target an account with a prestigious and recognizable brand, as it could boost your credibility as a business.

Using your sales team to work one-on-one with the clients will help you engage with them and create personalized offers, as all will have different demands and priorities.

The sales executive can get to know the client, identify their pain points, and discuss how you can help solve them.

Try Interactive Demos

If you have a product that’s difficult to describe on paper, why not introduce interactive demos into your sales pitch?

An interactive demo means investing in technology like AR (augmented reality) or VR (virtual reality) to help bring a product to life for customers. Here are some ways you can use interactive demos:

At a Trade Show or Conference

If you have already attended trade shows or conferences in your industry, you can spark interest by offering an interactive product demo.

Before the event day, use social media to let your audience know you’ll have a demo available and encourage people to sign up in advance.

Offer a Virtual Demo

Create a virtual demo online and invite current leads to view it. That is a helpful option if you have remote or overseas customers.

Host a Website

If you don’t want a virtual demo on your website, you could host a webinar instead. This approach is beneficial because it’s live and allows you to talk about your product and its benefits. It also allows potential customers to ask questions.

Have a Demo Day on Site

You could create an event at your office and invite current clients and potential customers to view your product. Use interactive technology to make the event fun and entice people with swag bags of branded merchandise and some food and drinks.

Think About Cross-Selling

B2B sales aren’t always about selling to new customers but about how you can increase revenue from your existing client base.

One of the best ways to do that is through cross-selling or upselling. If you get this right, you’ll have happy, satisfied customers who will be loyal to your business. Here are some B2B sales tips to help you achieve that:

• Use analytics to work out buying patterns from your customer base

• Put together a bundled or upsell offer to target clients

• Offer educational content or free training to help clients understand the benefits of new products or services

• Offer personalized options for clients based on their needs

Remember that customers sometimes aren’t aware of your entire product catalog, and it’s up to you to tell them more about what you do.

They might also not realize they could benefit from something you offer, which is why educational content can be helpful. Sometimes, the easiest way to sell something is to explain how that product would work for that business, ideally by showing your client the before and after.

Consider Collaborations With Influencers

Influencers have helped B2C businesses skyrocket their sales, and similar results could be seen with B2B.

The difference between the two is that you’ll unlikely choose the latest gen-Z influencer and will go for someone who is more of a specialist or expert in your industry.

Thought leaders, scientists, and entrepreneurs could all be valuable influencers, depending on your industry.

The influencer model allows you to create more reach for your brand. But you’ll need to follow a few steps to make it work for you:

• Create a compelling offer for your product or service

• Shortlist potential influencers

• Approach influencers with an offer and tell them about your brand

• Schedule a date for the campaign

• Develop marketing material together with your influencer

• Launch your campaign at a high-profile event like a conference

• Look at your results of the campaign and consider a long-term influencer-led strategy

Always think of your influencer as a long-term partner. They are your ambassador, so they must be able to sell your product or service as passionately as one of your top sales executives.

You’ll also need to consider some compelling incentives to involve them in your campaign, but for many businesses, the long-term financial benefits outweigh any cost.

Strategies to Boost Sales in B2B Companies

Don’t let a sales dip cause you sleepless nights. There are plenty of tried-and-tested strategies that can help boost sales in B2B. Bookmark these to consider them for your next sales push.

What’s most crucial about these strategies is that you can track your efforts and focus on the ones that work best.

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