Knowing how to sell in B2B — from business to business — and succeed can be a challenging task for many professionals. After all, the relationship with customers is completely different from that practiced in B2C, which involves selling a business directly to the end consumer.
In B2B, you need to invest heavily in following up and gaining the trust of the lead so that they become a customer. This is because contracts are longer, sales are (at best) recurring and the need for support is much greater.
So, what is the secret to success in doing all this and still having time to prospect, work on the product mix, monitor data and close sales? That is what we will talk about in this content.
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Changes in B2B sales
Anyone who works in what database does telegram use business-to-business sales knows that many changes have occurred in recent years. The market, which used to revolve mostly around in-person visits made by sales representatives, had to adapt to the effects of a pandemic.
It was also necessary to reorganize operations to balance costs and resume processes during and after periods of isolation. Consequently, as in most other areas, B2B sales took an inevitable turn: online .
To give you an idea, before the pandemic, online B2B transactions totaled R$100 billion. In the post-pandemic period, this number reached R$260 billion — an increase of 62.5% , which surpassed shopping malls!
While many believed this would be a passing trend, online has become a reality. In fact, Gartner, a leader in generating data and insights from research, predicts that 80% of B2B interactions will take place through digital platforms by 2025.
But what about in-person visits?
As we already know and always reinforce here, in-person visits will never cease to be important . They are what nurture relationships with customers, differentiate businesses from their competitors and strengthen ties.
However, it is undeniable that these visits need to become increasingly strategic. That is, focused on specific objectives, such as:
strengthen the relationship with curve A customers;
transform customers from curve B to curve A;
avoid inactivity;
prospect relevant clients;
work better on the product mix, among others.
Read also:
→ Learn how to create a strategic and efficient visit itinerary in 6 simple steps
With so many important tasks to complete, visiting customers who buy frequently and are satisfied, for example, can be a waste of time .
Secret revealed: how to sell in B2B?
What no one tells you about the success of business-to-business sales today and in the future is that you don’t have to — and shouldn’t — choose between in-person and online . However, you also shouldn’t ignore the relevance that digital sales have had in recent years (and the data above proves this).
Doing so is following the same path as large companies that ignored digital transformations over time, such as Kodak, Blockbuster, Atari, Blackberry. And we know what happened to these big names, right? Some of these companies were even leaders in their sectors…
Therefore, to stay in the current market — whether you are a representative or sales manager — the secret is to combine in-person and online sales .
Tips for starting to sell B2B online
Now that you know the path to increasing profits, it's time to check out a step-by-step guide — or rather, a real guide — to achieving success.
Focus only on strategic visits
If the key is to combine in-person and digital sales, without a doubt, the best way is to ensure that the sales team makes the most strategic visits possible. Defining them means:
map your customers;
understand your sales cycles;
check if they are buying frequently;
study inactivity rates;
and still work on prospecting.
Suppose you don’t sell online yet or you do so timidly… Via WhatsApp and email , for example. It’s not possible to have access to all the information above using these two relationship tools, right? After all, their focus is not on selling, but on communicating .
Therefore, the first step is to obtain a technological resource that will help you organize your commercial operation . CRMs, a sales system , ERPs and other innovations will be key at this point. They will help you separate your customers into portfolios, monitor sales cycles and indicators and, of course, issue orders.
Remember: to stay relevant in the market, it is essential to rely on technology . So, this is an investment that is worth it!
Use dedicated tools
As you can see, email and WhatsApp are customer relationship tools – not B2B sales tools. Therefore, if you want to be successful selling online, it is essential to work with a dedicated tool for this.
In this case, the best option is to hire an e-commerce platform . That is, a portal/virtual store where you can display your product mix. But it is not enough to simply upload photos of your product and advertise it in a kind of online catalog .
The never-before-revealed secret to selling in B2B and increasing profits
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