Business Growth Ideas-Ways B2B Companies Can Thrive In A Virtual Selling Landscape.
Nowadays, we have experienced a time when e-commerce sites and paid searches can compete with human sales reps on conversion metrics and traditional sales roles in the modern era are receiving success.
Forrester Research predicted in 2017 that one million salespeople would be out of work this year, and given the recent spike in COVID-19 cases and the prospect of prolonged shutdowns, this number has little chance of improvement, which means the transition to digital is starting to come quicker than we anticipated.
Hence the salespeople who have evolved to an acceleration approach in this first hypothetical scene will have the advantage and keep their jobs.
Now the term Accelerators are those salespeople who can deliver value by providing critical information related to solutions - not available online.
In other words, these sellers in this first virtual world use their empathy and business acumen to make the value "personal" to the buyers of their products and services.
Therefore, since these vendors are able to offer experience and knowledge that their potential prospects lack, these vendors are able to truly impact the business outcomes of B2B clients.
Why selling accelerator is superior to other methodologies
During the financial crisis of 2007-2009, a major shift occurred in the purchasing behavior of B2B consumers.
This shift in behavior shows that while both buyers and sellers had previously focused on specific solutions and products they offered, customers changed their tunes during the downturn.
They are more willing to pay a premium and buy - but only if the seller can really accelerate the achievement of the desired business results.
For this, the buying cycle has also changed and has become unpredictable.
Although companies are striving for flexibility, they are becoming slower in making purchasing decisions. This is because when there are many stakeholders with competing requirements and changes in company priorities, the pace of business seems to be accelerating every day, yet the deluge of information and evolving things has made it difficult for buyers to come to a decision quickly.
Nowadays with the economic uncertainty represented by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is crucial that buyers invest wisely in solutions tailored to their circumstances and goals.
This is the most important reason why selling solutions is not just enough to reach customers nowadays.
Instead, customers in the B2B landscape are looking for salespeople who focus on overall business results. Thus, our research shows that consumers would really be willing to buy more (and even at a higher price) if salespeople could back up their sales presentation with their customers' business results.
Hence, salespeople who have demonstrated an understanding of their customers' business priorities, goals, and challenges are more successful in selling as market KPIs show a clear correlation between sales results and the customer's business success.
However, the question that remains to be answered is how can sales implement an accelerated sale with this new hypothetical streak brought up by the recent COVID-19 pandemic?
Three Business Growth Ideas to Build an Accelerated Sale in a Virtual Scene
As one of the most popular vendors of the Salesforce Alternative CRM software platform, we've noticed that the top three behaviors customers want to view from vendors all reveal an improved acceleration-based approach that integrates clients' business goals rather than just a solution approach (short-term fixes).
Hence, customers need sellers today who can embody these traits while quickly adapting to the B2B virtual selling landscape that includes:
1. Demonstrate an enhanced understanding of a customer's business goals, priorities, challenges, and opportunities, since nothing can stop a potential customer faster than sellers who haven't done their homework.
This is because any B2B customer who spends their valuable time listening to a presentation to agree whether a product or service is a good fit for their company, would never want to encounter an unprepared seller. Instead, they will appreciate sellers who ask smart, business-focused questions and reps who speak the language of a potential customer that makes it clear that both the seller and the customer operate from the same side of the table.
It is now becoming more important in virtual interaction, where creating a dialogue that can promote high impact can be more difficult and therefore accelerated sellers need to be more efficient not only in understanding the business outcomes of their potential customers during their virtual engagements but also in designing their sales presentations accordingly.
2. Accelerators vendors must also maintain an appropriate sense of urgency, showing customers that their business objectives are the top priority for the vendor, especially in the midst of the economic downturn we are facing now.
This is because if the sellers don't share that sense of being serious about solving the prospect's goals, the potential customer may not feel that the seller is actually invested in their mission. Hence, accelerator sellers in the B2B scene need to accelerate discovery time, prove their work by aligning internal stakeholders, and respond to questions from potential client within an hour if at all possible.
In addition to this simplification, their demos and experiences will also help increase a potential client's time and make it easier to share with executives.
The main idea for business growth here is that in the digital realm, accelerators sellers should create more frequent, stress-free and targeted virtual touchpoints, so that potential customers feel closer to the sellers, which can help sellers meet needs in a much more flexible way.
3. Last but not least, sellers in the current B2B digital landscape must demonstrate a clear understanding of market dynamics as each customer has a slightly different market position.
We say this as one of the leading sellers of easy-to-use CRM tools, as we note that sellers should never assume that just because they sold to a similar company, the new prospect in their pipeline shares the same market position as they found it in a customer before.
Hence, to help their clients succeed, sellers need the right business acumen to understand all the resources that the prospect's company offers, which also includes the prospect's financial objective, strategic initiatives and even the client's clients.
Conclusion
As a no-knowledge solution in the B2B landscape is one that the customer can easily bypass, so focusing on the above behaviors will not only better equip sales teams to bridge the value gap with their expectations, but will also make the new prospects in their sales pipeline share the same market position as Found it in the client before
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