B2B sales, defined as selling from one business to another, requires a slightly different approach to selling to the public. B2C (business to consumer sales) generally involves a shorter sales cycle with only one decision-maker. By contrast, when a business makes a purchase, there will usually be more than one stakeholder involved in making the purchasing decision. This, and the need to carefully consider before committing to an extra expense, means you’ll rarely make a B2B sale from a single call or meeting.
The nature of the pitch will also differ. Consumers often make purchasing decisions based on emotion, a need for status, and other personal motivations. Businesses want to know about return on investment. They want to know whether the product they’re buying will boost efficiency, for example, and they want facts that show how gains exceed costs.
Does a B2B Sales Funnel Differ From a B2C Sales Funnel?
In its most simplified form, a B2B sales funnel will be the same as a B2C sales funnel. However, the elements each phase consists of will be different. To demonstrate this, we can examine a typical sales funnel from a B2B perspective.
Awareness
Consumers generally become aware of products through advertising, web searches, or social media. While companies might also find out about your business in this way, individually targeted selling and pitching have a greater role to play. For example, if you’re selling advanced fleet tracking systems, it makes sense to find out about businesses that have substantial fleets and sell directly to them.
Once you’ve identified companies that could be excellent sales prospects, you can target and research them, discovering details like the size of their fleets, the routes they serve, and the names of their fleet managers. Armed with this information, you contact them, making them aware of your solution and how implementing it will benefit them.
Interest
During this phase, customers find out more about the business, its products and competitors. But, while consumers are generally satisfied with basic information like price comparisons, a few tech specs, and reviews, businesses will need more.
Apart from showing them case studies and research results, this is a time to offer them customised information, showing how your product might help their individual businesses. For instance, you might send through a tailored proposal document, highlighting any unique features that will address their pain points.
Consideration
A consumer thinks things through on their own and may even opt for a purchase on the spur of the moment. Businesses, on the other hand, will enter a consultative process. For example, a fleet manager may consult a CEO about a product they think is worthy of consideration. Help them by providing the materials they need to make the case for your product.
Next, there may be meetings involving all the relevant decision-makers. If you can be present, whether in person or virtually, you can present compelling reasons to adopt your product plus any additional supporting evidence. All the same, there are likely to be questions and requests for more information.
Intent
While moving consumers from intent to purchase to the actual sale is usually just a matter of adding a reminder or seeing if there are any final objections, businesses will want more from you. They’ve decided they’d like to buy your product, but they will want a finalised proposal, possibly with adjustments to suit their context. You may also be required to run demonstrations of your product in action or offer a free trial or samples so that they can verify whether your product lives up to its promises.
Evaluation
For consumers, the evaluation phase could be as simple as reviewing their shopping cart and going to checkout. Businesses, on the other hand, will still be examining your proposal and may be considering alternatives. It will be important to remain in touch, answering any final questions, addressing obstacles, and responding to any concerns raised.
Purchase
When consumers make a purchase, you need only confirm the sale and provide an avenue they can use to follow up on details like delivery or call for support. Businesses will expect more, particularly when they have purchased a big-ticket item or a complex product. For example, they may need you to train their staff to use your product or, at the very least, determine whether they are gaining the expected value from their purchase.
Loyalty and Advocacy
Many sales funnels omit this important step. However, it’s an accepted fact that customers who bought once may buy again, and satisfied customers who feel they have a relationship with your business are less likely to support your competitors.
Both B2B and B2C sales funnels should include this element, and in B2B sales, relationship-building is frequently hand-tailored to suit specific clients. In B2C sales, personalisation is also important, but it can be automated to a greater degree.
The nature of relationship-building content, even when it is bulk content, will also differ. B2B customers support you because you are a specialist in a specific field, and they will be interested in your perspectives. For example, if you sell HR software, newsletters with actionable HR advice will be welcomed. Beyond this, your goal is to become more than just another supplier. Instead, you aim for partnership. In general, businesses are receptive to this approach.
Types of B2B Customers
It’s important to know your customers, and different types of B2B customers have different needs. You can use this as a broad guide to your sales strategies, but you should also carefully research individual inbound or outbound customers. We can broadly classify B2B customers as follows:
- Producers/service providers
- Resellers
- Governments
- Institutions
They all have some things in common. They’d like to work more efficiently, save costs, and deliver quality. And, they will prefer to forge long-term supplier relationships. The extra effort that goes into B2B selling will be worthwhile as long as you deliver the results you promised.
In the private sector, business is characterised by competition, and products that strengthen your customers’ competitiveness will be of interest. This will be less interesting to government bodies and public institutions. Budgets, however, are often a key concern for them.
Ultimately, nothing beats researching sales prospects thoroughly in an attempt to identify possible pain points you might be able to address. Research your competitors carefully so that you can be confident you’re offering extra benefits. Quite simply, B2B buyers want products that will make their work easier, better, and cheaper and they want to be sure that their choice is better than any alternatives.
Extra B2B Sales Tips to Help You
Apart from access to customer profiles created during your research, sales enablement, making resources available to help your sales team provide what customers want, will be very important. To make a strong case for your products, your team will need extra materials like whitepapers, proven research results, presentations, and all the facts and figures your B2B customers will want to see before making a purchasing decision.
You should also use inside sales and, at times, outside sales to optimise results. Inside sales allows your agents to work with customers remotely and handle more customers in a day. Sometimes, you can handle the entire sales process remotely.
Outside sales means that you meet with customers, and in some instances, you’ll need to add it into the mix. For example, you may need to inspect the customers’ premises to develop cost estimates and show them what you propose to do, or they may invite you to make a presentation to their management team. It’s resource intensive since it involves travel, but it can be a great way to build relationships.
How to Save Time on B2B Selling
“Time consuming” should be part of the B2B sales definition. Before you contact anyone and deliver a pitch, you need a coherent sales strategy and the materials that help your team to execute it. Actioning a sales strategy provides its share of headaches for business owners. It’s frequently said that B2B sales will require at least seven interactions, often spanning months, and your customers won’t be impressed if there are any dropped balls.
You already have a lot on your plate just running your business, and your key strengths may not be sales-related. Of course, you could hire a top-flight sales manager and recruit a sales team; provide the necessary office space; and equip them with the hardware and software needed to manage customer interactions.
Or, you could simplify it all and outsource. But who can you trust to represent your business to its customers and advise you on the ideal sales strategy?
RSVP offers outsourced sales solutions that work. We’ll get to know your business and your target market. And we’ll put our London-based business and its extensively-trained agents to work winning you customers. Throughout, we’ll keep you in the loop with data and analytics that you can use to fine-tune your business strategy.
Still unsure? Take a look at what we did for Virgin Wines. Selling is our expertise, and the results speak for themselves. Get the conversation started today. Enjoy a better tomorrow.