MAIN INSIGHT 50
Paul Winnett
SALES DIRECTOR
How important is a personal connection in modern B2B sales?
The key to success in B2B sales has always been making sure that the customer is number one, but it’s only in recent years that this has become a widely accepted truth. Alongside this, maintaining a human approach across all of your communications has become vital following the global Covid-19 pandemic. In practice, this means actually picking up the phone to your customers or physically going to see them and having real conversations with them - hiding behind social media or email is simply not good enough anymore. As many organisations increasingly rely on digital communication tools and become faceless businesses, this more personal approach will help you to stand out in a positive way.
A great way to start making your communication more personal is to change the way that you think about them. Instead of trying to tell your customers something, like a new product launch example, focus on how you can create a conversation instead. An in-depth two-way conversation with a customer will reveal what is really going on in their world and how you can best serve them, which ultimately leads to a more meaningful, commercial relationship. Of course you can then follow-up on these conversations through digital communications tools such as email to confirm everything you’ve spoken about, but they shouldn’t be your primary method of communication.
Should businesses prioritise digital communications?
As we welcome Industry 4.0, businesses are looking for more data on what their assets and plants are doing. We are also seeing young people enter the workforce now who are truly digital natives - they have spent their whole lives using social media and having digital information readily available at their fingertips. Because of this, businesses seem to have adopted the mindset that their customers exclusively want digital communications. Our email inboxes seem to get busier everyday, so there is a real challenge to stand out. But the trouble is most businesses are trying to stand out in the wrong way - they are simply sending a larger quantity of communications in the hopes that one of them will get seen. If you actually want a customer to take notice of your communications, you need to do something different when trying to engage with them. Take time to speak with your customers, find out what matters to them and then serve them digital communications accordingly. Over time this will show your customers that you understand their world, can help them solve their problems and therefore build trust with them. Needless to say that once trust is established they will be far more likely to open your emails!
If you actually want a customer to take notice of your communications, you need to do something different when trying to engage with them.
Digital marketing should act as a teaser - give your prospects a taste of your offering, show that it is relevant to them and then follow-up with personalised communication over the phone or in person.
How can digital marketing support B2B sales?
For enterprise B2B sales, digital marketing should act as a teaser - give your prospects a taste of your offering, show that it is relevant to them and then follow-up with personalised communication over the phone or in person. When following up with a prospect, sales and marketing teams can collaborate to make sure that the approach is personal by sharing data on how the particular prospect has engaged with your marketing and website - have they downloaded a whitepaper? Did they spend a long time on a particular page? This insight will give you a clue as to the challenges they are facing and therefore how you can best help them.
Xylem is a leading water technology company committed to “solving water” by creating innovative and smart technology solutions to meet the world’s water, wastewater and energy needs. In a world of ever-growing challenges, Xylem delivers innovative water technology solutions throughout the cycle of water.
