Cultivate potential customers who doubt your product for the time being. Use social proof when appropriate (and inappropriate). Automate everything that can be automated. Listen to the most downloaded B2B sales podcast in the world.
For example, if you work in the sale of B2B furniture, implementing a quarterly call cycle with prospective customers to share the most recent designs or features that come with each season's pieces could be a useful exercise. A scheduling tool like Meetings can completely eliminate this waste of time. Meetings integrates with your favorite calendars, including Google Calendar, Office 365 Calendar and Hubspot CRM, so potential customers can see your availability and book the time that suits them best. In a recent survey on marketing graphics, 46.6% of the companies surveyed said it takes seven months to sell to a new customer.
That's a setback for most companies, to say the least. Accelerating the B2B sales cycle and establishing meaningful connections when many stakeholders are involved is a challenge, but doing so can significantly improve your bottom line. Companies must realize that they can accelerate the B2B sales process. Here are five ways to do it.
Your marketing efforts should generate leads that stick. Consider CRM software that can help you identify qualified leads from the rest. A CRM system can help you focus on the leads that are most likely to convert into customers, so that you have more time for other stages of the B2B sales cycle. The digital world is growing rapidly and B2B marketers can take advantage of it.
Digital marketing can be very specific and help attract high-quality potential customers thanks to the number of tools available. Whether on Google Ads or LinkedIn, you can use social listening to identify who is right for your products or services. LinkedIn is an excellent source for generating leads for B2B companies, since it has more than 740 million professionals, making it an ideal medium for your B2B content strategy. Marketing and sales teams must work together.
As is often the case in B2B or industrial marketing, the sales force works independently. Your marketing efforts must be in sync with your sales strategies. Suppose a buyer contacted you on LinkedIn because of your content, and then you talk to a seller whose argument doesn't match your marketing message, and you'll be confused. Optimizing the B2B sales cycle will require time and energy.
Every new potential customer is an opportunity to improve the process. The B2B cycle is long and complex, and simplifying it would require analyzing the gaps and weak links in the sales process. But, as we know, there are many sales and marketing steps that are used to “get the customer” and “close” the sale, especially for B2B companies. By contrast, most B2C offerings, such as those for hygiene, retail or online shopping, have a short sales cycle that is often repeated much more frequently than B2B cycles.
After extensive research and in-depth conversations with marketing professionals with experience in B2B sectors, I have discovered these six marketing tactics that will not only help reduce the length of the sales cycle, but also attract a wider audience throughout the cycle and increase total sales. So what if there were a process to accelerate your B2B sales conversion cycle? Our team of specialists has created the right framework so that you can accelerate your B2B sales cycle without eroding the value of your business. How many times has your team been unable to make it through the final price negotiations? Most of the time, if you meet all of the customer's other needs, their budget stops being an issue. And that also applies to committee-led B2B sales cycles.
B2B buyers answer to a purchasing committee, their management, possibly their regulators and even their customers (indirectly, for the price of their products). By providing the value proposition in dollars instead of trying to justify the cost, you're effectively doing their homework for them (reducing that time in your sales cycle). Once they're convinced that your team can deliver on this value proposition, they can use the same argument to get buy-in. Okay, if you've made it this far, we need to confess something to you.
We didn't tell you the whole truth with the headline. If you have experience in B2B sales, you know that there are no “quick solutions”. However, there are many “somewhat quick” solutions that, together and over time, will accelerate your sales process. Get inbound B2B leads by combining marketing and appointment setting strategies.
Studies have found that 61% of B2B sellers send all leads directly to sales. This practice slows down the sales process because tracking the sales flow is difficult when you include unqualified leads. The same study explained that only 27% of those potential B2B customers will be truly qualified. But don't despair if not all the potential customers are of quality.
Capturing leads generates 20% more sales opportunities. Early in the sales process, your company must identify potential weaknesses and obstacles that may prevent sales. Jordan's research has shown that companies with a well-defined sales process earn 18% more revenue than companies with an informal sales process. Your sales process, Jordan says, should reflect your buyers' process.
Every step of the sales process should show incremental commitment. Analyze the different stages of the CRM process and decide which tasks can and should be automated. Automating sales activities helps both to score leads and to improve the sales process, ensuring that potential customers are not ignored or forgotten. By automating lead acquisition activities, such as email campaigns and follow-ups, users have demonstrated a 14.5% increase in sales productivity.
Now sales reps can spend more time focusing on well-qualified leads. Use the tips mentioned above to improve and accelerate your sales process. Harvard University estimates that more than 25% of sales cycles take 7 months or more to close. With this in mind, don't be discouraged if the process takes too long, continue refining and improving the cycle to achieve your optimal level of productivity.
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