A B2B sales process is a set of Repeatable steps that your sales team can take to guide them through their sales pitch. A sales process will help your business stay focused on sales and converting potential leads into customers.
A customer-centric experience means that your customers are always connected to brands through every channel they use – social media, mobile apps, online browsing, etc. This allows companies to create a more personal and engaging experience with their customers than ever before. This shift also necessitates that marketers, sales teams, and managers develop entirely new skills. In order to succeed in the world of B2B sales, it is necessary to be constantly adaptable and aware of the changing landscape.
What are B2B Sales?
B2B sales involve companies purchasing from other companies. It’s not a category but a practice. It covers the buying process of companies that purchase products and services from other companies. In other words, it covers the process of businesses that buy from other businesses.
This can include:
- Marketing
- Finance
- Legal
B2B Sales Examples
Viewing B2B sales illustrations aids in comprehending what B2B sales entail. B2B sales refers to any company that sells services or products to other companies. For example:
- Tire manufacturers sell their products to automakers.
- Supermarkets buy produce from farms in bulk to resell to consumers at a profit.
- Law firms that handle corporate cases.
- Marketing agencies sell their services to eCommerce firms to develop their brand strategy and content.
B2B Sales Strategy
Your business’ sales strategy should inform your sales process. The sales strategy is a set of guidelines that will help determine how your business will sell its products or services. Your business pitch should be designed to reach your target customers. Keep in mind who your target customers are and what they are looking for when crafting your pitch.
A sales strategy based on your business’s value proposition will help you differentiate your business from your competitors and make more sales.
B2B Sales Flowchart
A sales flowchart for a business-to-business (B2B) sale outlines the steps that each member of the selling team should take as the customer moves along the sales process. The flowchart uses binary scenarios (yes/no) to demonstrate how your team should respond to your prospect’s decisions and actions during each stage of your business’ sales process.
B2B Sales Process Steps
We will go through the steps of the B2B sales process so that you can follow best practices easily.
Set your sales goals.
If you want your sales team to be successful, you need to set goals for them. This will help keep your sales process focused, improve your sales strategy, and make your business more efficient.
Analyze your current sales performance to identify areas where you can improve. Would you like to close more deals? Increase sales leads? Identify new prospects. What are your business goals? What would you like to achieve?
Next, turn your business goals into SMART goals. When creating sales goals, it is important to make sure they are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound in order to increase the likelihood of achieving them. A more specific and attainable goal would be to increase monthly revenue by 7% by the end of Q3. You can increase your sales by running a promotional campaign during the second and third quarters.
If you want your business to be more efficient, have your sales team set SMART goals. Setting SMART goals has been found to decrease stress, improve workflow, and increase engagement in the workplace, according to a 2021 study published in the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology.
Involve all stakeholders in the process.
The sales team cannot create the sales process alone. Working together across all departments is key to success in business. Every department from IT to marketing to customer service has an important role to play. Stakeholders are people who are invested in a company, project, or goal. It’s important to know who the stakeholders are in each stage of the sales process so that you can keep them updated and ensure that they are happy with the product or service. If every department is included, it can help reduce risk and make sure sales go through successfully.
reserves time to converse with people who have a vested interest in his/her company and lays out the specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-sensitive goals for them, and afterwards decides what part each stakeholder will play in achieving the sales goals.
Outline the sales process.
Now that you know how your business stakeholders will contribute to the sales process, it’s time to create a sales plan for your business. This plan will outline the steps that need to be taken in order to successfully make a sale, from start to finish.
A sales process is a customer’s journey from becoming a prospect to completing a transaction. It is important to have a sales process that involves all of your business’ stakeholders in order to have a consistent process and have teams that are working towards the same goals.
The six stages of the B2B sales process are: prospecting, connecting and qualifying, researching, presenting, handling objections, and closing. The first step is to determine what tasks need to be completed during each stage of the sales process. Next, you will need to assign your business’ teams to each task.
Prospecting and Creating a Buyer Persona
The focus of the prospecting stage is finding potential customers that you can develop a relationship with and eventually persuade to make a purchase. Prospecting, or finding potential customers, can be difficult for salespeople. According to a survey, more than 40% of salespeople said that prospecting is the most challenging part of the sales process. Even though the prospecting stage is difficult, it is important for the sales process to be successful.
The first stage of your business’ sales process is prospecting, which involves researching your potential customer to see if your company can meet their needs and provide them with value. This research can be completed by conducting interviews with people in the same industry, by going to conferences and industry events, or by looking at LinkedIn, Facebook, and Quora.
You should focus on the prospects that are most likely to turn into customers. If you want to create a buyer persona that is effective, you should include information on the business demographics, objectives, and pain points of your ideal prospect. This way, you can figure out which prospects are more likely to need your product or service to solve their problems.
Connecting and Qualifying
The second stage of the sales process is focused on connecting with the most promising prospects and determining whether they are interested in learning more about your product.
When contacting prospects, it is important to ask qualifying questions about their budget, current spending, recent changes to their business, pain points, previous attempts to address those pain points, and other aspects of their business. This will help you better understand their needs and see if your product or service is a good fit.
As a business, it’s important to qualify your potential customers to save time and money. Those who are not likely to convert into customers and don’t require your goods and services should not be given attention.
Researching and Performing Market Analysis
Researching your prospect and their business is an important part of the sales process. If you want your team to be more familiar with their prospects’ needs and the specific challenges their businesses face, research is the key.
Looking into your potential customer’s business and conducting an analysis of the market can give you more information about the customer’s industry, users, and what your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses are.
Although it may take some time, doing research will help you show your prospects that your business is the best solution to their problems. This will also help you be better prepared to pitch your product or service.
Pitching Your Product or Service
Pitching your business’ product or service is crucial to the sales process. This is especially true when you are pitching to a prospect in a sales demo. At this stage, your sales representative demonstrates how your business’ product or service can solve the specific problems your prospect has.
Once a prospect officially becomes a lead, sales demos are usually presented. For example, a sales demo may be given or proposed to a prospect after completing a micro-conversion, such as contacting a member of your sales team or requesting a consultation.
Your sales representative can present sales demos through channels including phone calls, email, in-person meetings, and video conferences. When giving your sales demo, pick the delivery method that best suits your prospect’s needs.
What Is a B2B Sales Funnel?
The B2B sales funnel is a process that potential buyers go through when considering a purchase. The B2B sales funnel is the process that B2B companies use to sell their products, which is often different from the sales process that B2B companies use.
The B2B sales funnel is a set of steps used to determine how likely a person or account is to make a purchasing decision. This information is used by marketing and sales teams to tailor their approach.
In other words, the sales funnel is a way to measure how close a person is to making a purchase, based on their key behaviors, actions, and emotions during the buying journey.
If you want to sell something to a business, you have to go through seven key steps that most funnels have in common. here are some of the common ones we’ve found:
- Awareness
- Interest
- Decision
- Purchase
- Evaluation
- Delight/Dissatisfaction
- Repurchase/Attrition
How to Facilitate B2B Sales
To be successful when selling to other businesses, one must take into account various elements such as the seller’s skills, the sales methods used, how well the product meets the buyer’s needs, if there are any other similar products on the market, and if the buyer has both the desire and means to make a purchase.
To bring all of these parts together, a business brand will need to:
- First, build a B2B sales strategy that can quickly adapt to changes in the business world.
- Their teams and ideal customers need to determine which B2B sales techniques are best for them and their teams.
- The company makes playbooks and sequences for sales reps that are well-balanced.
- Measure and improve how well you do.
B2B Sales Job Description
The B2B market is a market in which businesses trade with each other, and is often a high-pressure environment. Deals often involve multiple people who need different types of information from vendors, as well as competition from other companies.
The people trying to break into new accounts have to be empathetic, have strong communication skills, and know how to sell, which includes being familiar with the different types of technologies used by companies and the internal policies of their target client base.
What Is a b2B Sales Development Representative?
A B2B sales representative is someone who specializes in building relationships with corporate decision-makers in order to sell them a product or service.
B2B sales representatives are skilled at convincingly selling to potential customers and knowing which solutions would be most beneficial to them. The team follows a unique selling process that includes skills like calling or emailing potential buyers and social media messaging to encourage them to find value in what you have for them!
Are There Different Types of b2B Sales Development Representatives (SDRs)?
There are several different types of salespeople, but they all have one thing in common: to get more customers for their company. Roles for sales representatives can depend on what your needs are, whether you need someone who specializes in inbound strategies or outgoing revenue generation tactics. Different areas that a company may choose to focus on can include things like leadership development, technical sales, or business development.
The level of experience of the salespeople varies, with junior professionals mainly focusing on raising awareness among potential customers, rather than actively trying to persuade them. Senior is focused on giving advice that is suited to each client’s individual problems.
The term “account executive” is sometimes used interchangeably with “sales representative,” but for the purposes of this article, we will only be discussing sales development representatives (SDRs).
What Does a Typical Day for a b2B Sales Rep Look Like?
On a daily basis, B2B sales representatives will be talking to potential customers on one or more platforms ( including the internet, cell phones, and social media). They’ll make calls to clients that are potential customers that are organized and stored in the “Sales Pipeline.” They will use a CRM software program to research new business opportunities throughout the workweek. The software program will update itself based on how people interact with each other and how they meet each person’s needs.
Why Are B2B Sales Reps Important?
Sales reps play an important role in creating and maintaining customer relationships, as well as generating revenue and increasing the value of the company’s product portfolio. The sales pipelines of companies are often a reflection of the profitability of the company. The employees’ performance is essential for the company’s success.
A sales representative is not just someone you hire; they are your most valuable assets.
The sales process in the B2B space is complex and requires the right people to manage it in order for your company to be successful. Competent professionals are necessary in this field to ensure that revenue opportunities are not missed and profitability is maximized.
THE PROBLEM: YOUR BUSINESS ISN’T GROWING AS FAST AS IT SHOULD!
Your sales have stagnated or decreased, and you can’t figure out why. Discover what’s holding you back from achieving predictable sales growth in your business.
If you want to grow your business, you need a proven plan and framework. That’s what you get with the 2X Your Sales Discovery Session.
Want to learn about a formula for Predictable Growth that will put your business on a 90-day path to 2X Your Sales?