Business Sales in 2021: Business Sales form an integral part of most companies’ survival, and we can all agree that the way we are used to generating business sales has evolved.
If you are in Business-to-Business sales, you have had a lot of learning and unlearning to do for you to adapt and get up to speed with your targeted industries.
“Back in the day”, just before the world went remote, If a person needed a product or solution, they’d reach out to a potential vendor and deal with a salesperson, who’d pitch them with the best options to choose. And if they were happy with what they heard, they would make a purchase.
Sounds simple, right? Well, things have made a complete 360 turn, and buyers have developed new habits.
Today, businesses now base a buying decision on internal research, including anything from Google search, friend recommendations, and scouting many other web sources (That’s right, digital!).
Buyers can now research a product digitally through websites, forums and social media.
As a result, sales and marketing roles have significantly changed, with marketing teams taking over many aspects of the sales process. This means sales have been reduced to assisting in the final stages of the process – evaluating potential alternatives and making the actual purchase.
This is a significant shift, and it brings several challenges for modern B2B sales teams to overcome.
Other Buyer Habits to Note:
1. Buyers demand to be served in the channels they prefer. – Some people prefer to read blogs and ebooks. Others want to ask questions on the chat and watch how-to videos: different buyers, different preferences.
2. Buyers no longer make impulse purchases. – B2B buyers are more inclined to seek answers at particular moments. As an example, someone might be more willing to ask questions on your company’s chat at the very moment they stumble upon quality content. It is best to have tools in place that help you respond to queries quickly.
3. Buyers value security and privacy – There’s no way around it. With B2B sales increasingly happening online and remotely, privacy and security issues will become pivotal to building trust with potential buyers.
The best way to understand your buyer is to conduct research. Each industry is different, and that is why conducting market research will never get old.
Once you have done your research and have identified all the new habits of your targeted industry, you need to find solutions and ways to over those sales challenges.
Ways to overcome modern sales challenges:
1. Embrace sales enablement to help prospects make better buying decisions
Just because today’s buyers prefer to conduct research online themselves, it doesn’t mean that they can’t interact with you during the process.
B2B buyers rely on the content to guide them through the buying process and gain the knowledge necessary to make an informed decision.
This means that your social media content strategy needs to align with your sales strategy. Prospects are seeing more of our content than ever before, and as we are sharing the right kind of content, we can generate better quality leads.
2. Teamwork makes the dream work
Sending your prospects relevant content will help you close more deals. But, that’s not the only way to use content to overcome modern B2B sales challenges.
Many B2B buyers want to interact with salespeople who listen to their needs and provide them with relevant information.
Have salespeople create and share content that’s helpful, informative and relevant to the buyer’s pain points, and allow them to publish articles on your company’s blog (and repost on their LinkedIn profile).
3. Align sales and marketing teams to work towards the same goal
According to various studies, sales and marketing misalignment can cost companies 10% or more revenue per year.
Sales and marketing alignment is potentially the most significant opportunity for improving business performance today. When marketing and sales teams unite around a single revenue cycle, they dramatically improve marketing return on investment (ROI), sales productivity, and, most importantly, top-line growth.
B2B sales have changed. It’s no longer as simple as waiting for prospects to come to you.
Instead, it would be best if you were proactive, find the channels where potential customers are, and share relevant content to address their needs.
If you still need help with levelling up your sales methods in 2021, get in touch with us for a training session: noleen@ladybugz.co.za