Top 5 New Trends in B2B Sales
Posted by Robert Hennessey on Sat, Feb 18, 2012
To maximize B2B sales staying up to date on the latest B2B sales trends is crucial to small business success. Doing so gives small business more influence with potential customers that might think that being small means you are not on the leading edge of the latest business trends. It also helps you garner more B2B sales because of the importance of these trends in converting more prospects into sales. To make 2012 a more fruitful year for your B2B sales, you may want to integrate the following trends into your B2B sales plans this year.
1. Integrate Mobile Alternatives
Technology is moving rapidly, and small businesses who do not keep up with this pace will fall behind. For this reason, your small business might benefit by matching the competition by offering convenient mobile access to all your company services. By being mobile friendly, you will be boosting customer convenience and encouraging them to choose your business over the competition who does not offer this convenience.
At bare minimum, your website needs to be mobile phone format enabled. With the explosive growth of smart phones, business people are almost as likely to be viewing your website from their smart phone as from their desktop computer or laptop. In addition, if your customers use your website to place orders or check service status, then you want to be sure your small business matches the competition by offering convenient mobile access to all your services.
2. Personalize Your Sales Campaigns
The strength of small business B2B sales should be your ability to make prospects feel like their business is personal and of high value to your company. Capitalizing on this small business advantage will not come from automated sales responses and scripted pitches. When conducting your B2B sales, attempt to customize each encounter according to the uniqueness of each sales prospect. Doing so will allow you to increase connections with prospects, while increasing your likelihood for growing your B2B sales. To get started you will need to spend time doing research on your sales prospects to uncover nuggets of information that might give you a better idea of how you can personalize your B2B sales efforts to gain a competitive edge.
3. Reassure the Buyer
Being a small business in these unsettled times, you have a responsibility to reassure your buyers of the safety and dependability of your company by letting them know you have a disaster back-up plan. The natural disasters from 2010 and 2011 caused many buyers to become wary of the dependability of certain businesses when disasters strike. Assure your B2B sales prospects of the integrity of your ability to operate under and recover quickly from a disaster. This will instill trust and confidence that your small business is as, or likely more reliable than larger competitors with far-flung supply chains in a worst-case scenario.
4. Take Advantage of the New B2B Sales Cycle
B2B sales prospects go to the Web first to research their business problems and potential suppliers to assist them in providing solutions. Because of this the B2B sales cycle once, being a purchase cycle of a few months to a year is actually becoming shorter. Businesses are now showing up to purchase near the end of the traditional B2B sales cycle in most industries. Why, because buyers now spend a lot of the time doing their due diligence online without directly involving suppliers so now when they contact you, they are ready to buy.
Knowing sales prospects are now looking to buy sooner rather than later you may want to offer special promotions and discounts when connecting with a sales prospect. In addition, be sure you are responding within minutes when you receive a sales lead from your website. Amazingly most businesses take a week to respond to a sales contact from their website.
5. Offer Contract Flexibility
In an uncertain economic climate, buyers are growing increasingly wary of buying commitments and deadlines. Although you want to avoid being taken advantage of, you might offer flexible terms and commitments to encourage buyers who might be anxious financially to go through with the sale. This can include payment plans, or offering less expensive alternatives to potential buyers. Essentially, you want to be flexible to give your buyer options to increase their willingness to commit to a sale, while also increasing the likelihood of greater sales later as the economy improves.
Takeaway
Recent trends in the world have naturally caused buyers to err on the side of caution in an attempt to gain security despite these inconsistencies. The most effective measure small businesses can take to increase B2B sales is to offer potential buyers a sense of security no matter what circumstances might arise in the coming year.
Realted Information
B2B Sales Lead Prospecting - Whitepaper
