MAIN INSIGHT 42
Angelene Woodland
CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER
What can businesses learn from B2C sales to improve their B2B sales?
Whether it’s B2B or B2C, making a purchase is a very human affair and in recent years we’ve seen B2B and B2C sales become far more aligned with one another. For companies with both B2B and B2C customers, it is important that your messaging is consistent to both parties and shows that you understand them. Anything that a business can do to better understand the need state of their customers, regardless of B2B or B2C, so that they can properly root their proposition in customer insight, will help the business achieve sales. Whilst this is a relatively new approach for B2B sales, this has been the norm in B2C sales for some time.
To create a proper record of your customers and to learn as much about them as possible, it is crucial to invest in a robust CRM system. As you add more data over time you will be able to segment your buyers based on their job roles, levels of influence and much more. By learning as much as possible about each segment and creating a unique, highly personalised sales playbook for them, you will start to see a noticeable increase in conversion rates.
Will human interaction soon be redundant in B2B sales?
In B2B sales, there will always be a role to play for human interaction and conversation. Where the situation has evolved though is knowing the appropriate time for human intervention on a buyers’ journey. It is becoming increasingly common that buying journeys now start when the prospect sees a piece of relevant and timely content online that is specific to their goals or challenges, instead of being approached coldly by a salesperson. So with this in mind, you need to map out buying journeys assuming that you can’t control when a prospect will first learn about you. As you continue to map out the different journeys for different personas you may have, you can start to see at which stages of their journey a prospect would get the most value from speaking to a member of your sales team. But remember, whether it’s through a piece of digital content or a conversation with a sales representative, it is crucial that you show understanding of your customers and the problems they face, before offering a relevant solution.
In B2B sales, there will always be a role to play for human interaction and conversation. Where the situation has evolved though is knowing the appropriate time for human intervention on a buyers’ journey.
Businesses are adopting digital-first sales and marketing strategies because it offers a relatively low cost way to distribute information to a wide network of people in a short space of time.
Is digital marketing the holy grail for marketers?
There will always be a trendy new marketing tactic for marketers to be distracted by and miss the big picture. Digital marketing is definitely more than just a trend, but it has become somewhat of a misdirection for many firms. Businesses are adopting digital-first sales and marketing strategies because it offers a relatively low cost way to distribute information to a wide network of people in a short space of time. But this approach runs a high risk for businesses of simply getting lost in the noise. Instead, business leaders should look to create a problem solving mindset throughout their companies. Doing this will help you really get into the head of your customer and ensure the proposition for your product or service directly addresses the problems they are facing. This will help you to supply only highly relevant content to your prospects, which will ultimately help to improve your sales close rates. Digital technologies can support this process by showing insight on which types of content are being engaged with most, and then advise you what the most appropriate next piece of content to serve would be.
The British Business Bank is a government-owned national economic development bank. Their mission is to make finance markets work more effectively so smaller businesses can prosper and grow and to support the transition to a net zero UK economy.
