This article starts with a definition of B2B sales, goes through the challenges faced by B2B sales organizations, and presents ways to increase and improve sales. Click here to navigate directly to a more specific topic of your choice:
- What is B2B sales
- Specificities of B2B sales
- Consultative vs. traditional B2B sales; solution focus more important in more and more industries
- Organisational sales capability vs. individual sales capability
- Creative vs. consultative B2B sales
- Outsourcing B2B sales - is it possible?
- The challenges of recruiting B2B salespeople in an era of skills shortages
- A growing number of B2B sellers prefer entrepreneurship to traditional employment
- A modern B2B sales process starts with understanding your target audience
- The importance of positioning and the ideal customer in B2B sales
- An evolving interplay between sales and marketing
- The most common challenges in B2B sales
- The most common ways to increase B2B sales
- Why multichannel is important for B2B sales
- Using sales technology as part of modern B2B sales
What is B2B sales?
B2B sales, or business-to-business sales, are sales between businesses. It refers to a situation where a selling company offers products or services to a buying company, rather than to private consumers, as in B2C (business-to-consumer) sales.
In B2B sales, products or services are often more complex and the sales process is longer than in B2C sales. In B2B sales, the decision-making process usually involves several people and involves many steps, such as identifying needs, making offers, negotiating, and drawing up contracts.
Examples of B2B sales could be a software company selling business applications to another company, a construction company selling building materials to another company, or a consultancy company offering its services to other companies.
Specificities of B2B sales
B2B sales differ from B2C sales in several ways and have their specific characteristics. Here are some examples:
Long sales process: B2B sales processes are often longer than B2C sales processes. They may include needs identification, product demonstrations, negotiations, contracting, and finally the purchase transaction. This is because B2B products or services are often more complex and expensive.
Multiple decision-makers: the B2B sales process often involves multiple decision-makers, each with their own roles and responsibilities. This can include senior management, buyers, technical experts, and other key people in the company.
Large deals: B2B sales transactions are often larger than B2C transactions. This is because businesses purchase larger quantities or more expensive products or services.
Customized solutions: unlike B2C sales, where products are often standardized, B2B sales often require customized solutions to meet the specific needs of a particular customer.
Customer relationships: B2B sales are often based on long-term customer relationships. It is important to build trust and understanding of each other's business between seller and buyer.
Training and support needs: B2B sales may also require training and support to help customers understand how products or services work and how to use them effectively. This is particularly true when selling technology products or services.
These are just some examples of the specificities of B2B sales. Every B2B sales company has its own unique way of doing business.
Did you know that we at Sellai offer B2B sales as a monthly service.
Consultative vs. traditional B2B sales: Growing importance of solution-centricity in many industries
Consultative B2B selling, also often referred to as solution selling, is an approach where the salesperson acts more as an advisor or consultant than as a traditional salesperson. The aim is to gain an in-depth understanding of the customer's business, its challenges, and needs to provide tailored, effective solutions.
Here are some of the characteristics of a consultative B2B sales approach:
Deep understanding of the customer: a consultative salesperson spends a lot of time getting to know the customer's business, its challenges, and opportunities. This may include understanding the client's industry, market trends, competitive landscape, and internal processes within the organization.
Customer-centricity: a consultative salesperson focuses on the needs of the customer, rather than the characteristics of the product or service. The goal is to provide a solution that meets the customer's needs and helps achieve business objectives.
Solution selling: in consultative selling, the salesperson aims to provide solutions to the customer's problems, not just sell products or services. This may involve tailoring products or services or even developing a new solution to meet the customer's needs.
Long-term relationships: consultative selling aims to build long-term relationships with clients. This means that the salesperson is involved throughout the sales process, helping the customer with onboarding and providing support to maintain the relationship.
Trust: a consultative salesperson seeks to build trust with the client. This is achieved by demonstrating expertise, understanding the client's needs, and being open and honest in all encounters.
Consultative selling is a highly effective approach to selling complex or high-value B2B products and services and can help build long-term, profitable relationships with customers.
Organizational sales capability vs. individual sales capability in B2B sales
Organizational and individual sales capabilities are separate but complementary concepts in B2B sales.
Individual sales capability refers to the skills, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of an individual salesperson that affect their ability to sell products or services. This may include the ability to understand customer needs, negotiate effectively, manage time, build and maintain relationships, and close deals. An individual's sales skills can improve through training, experience, and continuous learning.
Organizational sales capability, in turn, refers to the ability of the whole organization to support sales and create the conditions for successful B2B sales. This includes sales strategy, sales processes, technologies and tools, training and development, sales and marketing collaboration, leadership and culture, and a customer-centric mindset. The organization's sales capability is enhanced through continuous improvement, innovation, and the application of best practices.
The sales capabilities of these two levels are closely linked. For example, an organization can support an individual's sales performance by providing training, mentoring, and effective tools. On the other hand, an individual salesperson's sales performance influences the sales performance of the organization, for example, by sharing best practices with the rest of the team, promoting a positive culture, and thus helping the organization as a whole to achieve its sales goals.
What is the difference between traditional “hustler” B2B sales and consultative B2B sales?
There are many differences between traditional "hustler" B2B sales and consultative B2B sales. Here are some of the differences:
Approach to selling: In traditional "hustler" selling, the salesperson aims to get straight into the sales process and close the deal as quickly as possible. In consultative selling, the salesperson seeks to understand the customer's needs and challenges before proposing a solution. A consultative salesperson spends more time getting to know the customer's business and better understands how their product or service can help the customer achieve their goals.
Customer relationship: in "hustler" sales, the customer relationship is often transactional and focused on a single sale. In consultative selling, the aim is to build long-term relationships based on trust and reciprocity.
The sales process: in traditional sales, the salesperson tries to get the customer to make a buying decision as quickly as possible. In consultative selling, the sales process is often longer because it involves identifying needs, developing solutions, and providing ongoing support. In addition, in B2B consultative selling, several people are involved in the buying decision, which increases the complexity of the sale and lengthens the buying cycle.
Value creation: in "hustler" sales, value creation is mainly generated through the characteristics of the product or service. In consultative selling, value creation is based on providing solutions to customer problems or challenges, which may include strategic advice, customized products or services, or ongoing support.
The role of the customer: in traditional sales, the customer is mainly a passive recipient to whom products or services are sold. In consultative selling, the customer is an active participant in the development of solutions, in the internal sales of the buyer organization, and in the decision-making process.
These differences reflect different sales philosophies and strategies that can be effective in different contexts. While consultative selling can be an effective approach in complex B2B sales situations, traditional "hustler" selling can be effective in simpler, more transactional sales situations.
Outsourcing B2B sales - is it possible?
B2B sales can be outsourced. This means that a company hires an external service provider, such as a sales agency or freelancer, to do some or all of the sales work.
Outsourcing can be an attractive option for many reasons. For example, if a company is unwilling or unable to invest in its own sales team, or if it does not have the necessary expertise in certain sales areas. Outsourcing is also an effective way to scale up and enter new markets quickly and to try out new sales strategies with lower risks. It is important to note that outsourcing and other means of increasing sales are not mutually exclusive, but tend to support each other and help diversify business risks in a changing environment.
However, here are some things that a company should consider before outsourcing its B2B sales:
- Loss of control: by outsourcing sales, a company may lose some control over the sales process. This can be a challenge if the outsourced provider does not adhere to the company's standards or values.
- Quality: an outsourced sales team may not understand the company's products or services as well as an in-house team, which can affect the quality of sales.
- Customer relationships: there can be distance between the outsourced sales team and the customer, which can affect the customer experience and loyalty.
- Costs: while outsourcing can save costs in the short term, it can be more expensive in the long term, especially if it does not deliver the expected results.
A company needs to weigh up these factors carefully and make outsourcing decisions strategically. It is also important to choose the right outsourcing partner whose sales processes, values, and quality of workmanship will ensure a good customer experience for your end customers.
Sellai has been doing outsourced B2B sales for clients for years, managing the sales pipeline from appointment booking to closing the deal.
Watch this video to find out how Sellai helps customers grow through consultative B2B sales.
The challenges of recruiting B2B salespeople in the era of a skills shortage
Recruitment faces several challenges, especially now that there is a shortage of talent in various sectors, including B2B sales. Here are some examples:
Finding the right skills: B2B sales requires both hard and soft skills. Salespeople are often required to be entrepreneurial, risk-taking, proactive, enthusiastic, have an understanding of the client's business or product, and have the ability to negotiate and build relationships. In addition, especially in Finnish companies, several years of work experience and a university degree in commerce are often added to the list of requirements. These qualities can be difficult to find in one person.
Competition for talent: In the era of skills shortage, companies are competing for the same talent. This means that companies need to work harder to attract and retain top salespeople, including by offering competitive salaries, good working conditions, and opportunities for career development. The focus on recruiting top talent has shifted permanently from qualifying candidates to competing for the best talent. Professionals are not prepared to spend time on multiple rounds of recruitment and need to be actively enticed to change jobs through incentives. So you could say that recruitment is sales.
Generational differences: Younger generations, such as millennials and Gen Z, are looking for different things from work than older generations. For example, they value work-life balance, telecommuting opportunities, or company ethical values more. Companies need to understand these differences to attract and retain younger salespeople.
The complexity of sales roles: Technological developments have changed and complicated sales roles. Today's salespeople are often expected to have skills in areas such as CRM systems, data analysis, digital marketing, and product development. This can make finding the right salespeople even more challenging.
Managing the employee experience: In times of skills shortages, employee experience has become a key competitive factor. Companies need to invest in creating a good working environment and culture to attract and retain the best talent.
In addition: the average time between the decision to start the recruitment process and the first day of work for a salesperson is six months, and it takes 6 to 12 months for the induction process. Typically, a job change takes place every two years. This leaves relatively little effective playing time for the effort involved.
Each of these challenges requires strategic thinking and proactive planning. Successful recruitment in times of talent shortages requires both traditional recruitment strategies and innovative approaches such as social media recruitment, employee ambassador programs, and flexible working conditions.
A growing number of experienced B2B salespeople prefer entrepreneurship to traditional employment
B2B salespeople's interest in entrepreneurship can be due to a variety of reasons. Here are some of the factors that attract B2B salespeople to become entrepreneurs:
Freedom: Being self-employed can offer greater flexibility in terms of working hours and location. As an employee, you often encounter bureaucracy; as an entrepreneur, salespeople can choose when and where they work, allowing them to work around family life and children's hobbies, for example.
Decision-making power: Entrepreneurs can make their own decisions about their business. They can decide who they want to serve, what products or services they sell, and how they price them. On the other hand, they can choose not to serve people they don't get along with. This decision-making power can be attractive to experienced salespeople who want to be involved in strategic decision-making.
Income level: Being self-employed can offer the opportunity for higher earnings and motivate you to work harder, as the reward is based on your own expertise and workload, rather than, for example, on apparent years of experience or relationships with employers.
Creating your career path: Entrepreneurship also allows you to create your own career path. Salespeople can develop their businesses in a direction that is relevant to them, rather than having to adapt to a career path set by the company.
Personal growth and development: Entrepreneurship challenges people on many levels and offers many opportunities for personal growth and development. It can provide the opportunity to develop a wide range of skills such as leadership, negotiation, problem-solving, and time management.
Risk management: In an employment relationship, your livelihood depends on a single job title. An entrepreneur may have several clients, so the end of one assignment or client relationship does not jeopardize his/her livelihood.
However, it is important to note that entrepreneurship also brings its own challenges, such as financial insecurity, increased responsibility and workload, and potential loneliness. It is therefore important that sellers consider this option carefully and prepare for these challenges before becoming self-employed.
Are you already an entrepreneurial B2B salesperson? Join our international community of B2B salespeople now! You can be self-employed, but you'll have the support of the international community of other experienced B2B salespeople.
A modern B2B sales process starts with understanding your target audience
Understanding your target audience is very important in B2B sales for several reasons:
Identifying needs: By understanding the needs and challenges of their target audience, salespeople are able to adapt their offerings to meet those needs and deliver real value to customers.
Adapting your communication: Once you know who your potential customers are, what they value, and what their business challenges are, you can tailor your message to their perspective. This will help you show that you understand their problems and address them effectively, creating a stronger connection.
Better relationship building: By understanding your target audience, you can better build and maintain customer relationships. This leads to more loyal customers and long-term relationships.
Efficient use of resources: By knowing your target audience, you can target your marketing and sales efforts more effectively, avoiding wasting time, energy, and money on the wrong customers. On the other hand, by focusing on those customers who get the most value from your company's services, you can also increase prices.
Product development: Understanding the target audience also helps in product development. By knowing your customer's needs and preferences, you can develop or adapt your products or services to better meet those needs. If you try to serve too many different customers in the same way, you will end up with a bad result for the customer. Serving everyone does not serve anyone.
Understanding the target audience requires thorough research and constant updating of information, as customer needs and behavior can change over time. It also requires collecting and analyzing data on customers, markets, and competitors. Even though it can be time-consuming, the benefits of audience insight make it a key part of a successful B2B sales strategy.
The importance of positioning and the ideal customer in B2B sales
The importance of successful positioning and defining the ideal customer in B2B sales is significant. Both help a company target its marketing and sales efforts effectively and are an important part of the company's overall strategy.
Positioning refers to how a company defines itself and its product or service in relation to competitors in the market. It explains why the company's products or services are unique and why customers should choose them over other alternatives. Good positioning helps you to differentiate your strengths from those of your competitors. An informed customer will always compare alternatives. You can't control it, but you should influence what the customer compares your service to.
Positioning affects how you communicate about your business and your products or services, how you price your products, and what kind of service you offer. It also affects your brand and reputation, which are important factors in B2B sales, where buyers carefully assess suppliers' reliability and ability to deliver on their promises.
Read our blog post on positioning a B2B company!
An ideal customer (or ideal customer profile) refers to which organizations or individuals a company considers to be the best potential customers. Identifying this profile helps to target sales and marketing efforts effectively, as it allows the company to focus its resources on those customers who are most likely to appreciate the value it offers and with whom it can build long-term, profitable relationships.
Defining the ideal customer takes into account many factors, such as customer size, industry, geography, budget, purchasing process and decision-making, and the needs and challenges that the company's products or services can solve. Once you know who your ideal customers are, you can design and implement sales and marketing strategies that meet their needs and preferences. This improves the customer experience and sales effectiveness.
The evolving interplay of B2B sales and marketing
Close cooperation between sales and marketing, often called "smarketing" is crucial in B2B sales and can have a significant impact on the success of a company. Here are some of the key implications:
Efficiency and productivity: When sales and marketing work together, they can share information and resources more effectively, which can improve the productivity of both. For example, marketing can deliver higher-quality leads to sales, and sales can provide feedback to marketing to help tailor messages and strategies.
A better customer experience: A coherent communication and strategy between sales and marketing can lead to a seamless customer experience, which is important in B2B sales where buying processes can be long and complex.
More precise segmentation and targeting: By sharing information, sales and marketing can create more accurate customer profiles and target groups, helping to reach the right people with the right message.
Growth in turnover: Studies show that companies where sales and marketing work closely together often achieve higher growth rates and better profitability than companies where they work separately.
To improve cooperation between sales and marketing, it is important to establish clear roles and responsibilities, common objectives and metrics, and promote open and continuous communication. CRM systems and other technologies can also help integrate and share information between the two departments.
The most common challenges in B2B sales
B2B sales face many challenges, many of which are related to the complex sales environment, long sales cycles, and demanding customer base. Here are some of the most common challenges:
Lead generation and quality assurance: Finding quality leads can be challenging in B2B sales. This often requires complex marketing strategies and investments in areas such as content marketing and search engine optimization. A skilled salesperson often spends more time on homework than on the contacting work itself.
Long sales cycles: B2B buying processes can be long and complex, with multiple decision makers. This can make the sales cycle unpredictable and stretch the resources of the sales team.
Understanding customer needs: In B2B sales, products and services are often complex and technical, and salespeople with a more technical background often fall into the trap of listing technical features rather than identifying customer needs.
Competition: Markets are often competitive and customers have many choices. Differentiating from competitors and presenting a unique value proposition can be challenging. On the other hand, in an increasingly competitive global market, the customer's attention is divided between more and more vendors every year, so there is little time to consider your solution.
Price pressure: In many B2B markets, price competition is fierce, which can put pressure on profitability.
Maintaining customer relationships: Building and maintaining customer relationships can be challenging, especially as customers increasingly expect tailored service and support.
Making the most of technology: Sales technology, such as CRM systems and automation, are increasingly important in B2B sales, but they can be challenging to adopt and leverage. Many sales organizations still struggle to maintain simple documentation, for example, causing sales productivity to plummet as volume increases.
Managing and training the sales team: Leading, training, and motivating sales teams is an ongoing and time-consuming challenge. Salespeople need to keep abreast of changes in products, services, and markets, and they need to continuously develop their sales skills.
Overcoming these challenges requires strategic planning, efficient use of resources, continuous learning and adaptation, and a customer-centric approach.
What are the most common ways to increase B2B sales?
Increasing B2B sales often requires a wide range of both strategic and tactical measures. Here are some effective solutions:
Expanding our customer base: A company may seek to expand its existing customer base by offering value-added services or cross-selling other products and services. This is also known as "deep selling".
Entering new markets: a company may seek to grow by entering new markets or industries, or by expanding geographically.
Optimizing the sales process: A company can improve its sales process by improving lead sourcing, shortening sales cycles, improving lead qualification, or leveraging sales technology.
Reassessing the pricing strategy: A company can review its pricing strategy to see if it is competitive and offers the best value for both the company and the customer.
Improving the collaboration between sales and marketing: Closer collaboration between sales and marketing can help target communications and sales efforts more effectively.
Improving the customer experience: By providing excellent customer service and customer experience, a company can improve customer loyalty and increase referral marketing.
Product development: A company can develop new products or services, or improve existing ones, to better meet customer needs and differentiate itself from competitors.
Education and development: By investing in the training and development of your sales team, your company can improve their skills and effectiveness.
These are just a few examples, and the best strategy depends on the company's situation, objectives, and market. It is important to regularly assess your sales performance and strategy, and be ready to make changes if necessary.
Why is multichannel important in B2B sales?
Multichannel is important in B2B sales for several reasons:
Differentiation: A typical B2B decision-maker receives numerous sales inquiries. A salesperson who spends weeks on the phone talking about his company and products will lose out to a salesperson who can ask thought-provoking questions and take a multi-channel approach. A company with a professional sales force will have a competitive advantage and be able to charge a higher price simply because the customer experience is better.
Customer choice: B2B buyers use multiple channels to research, contact, and buy. They might start their research on a website or social media, contact you by email or phone, and finally make a purchase either in person or online. By being accessible across multiple channels, a business can better meet customer needs and provide a seamless customer experience.
Targeted communication: Different channels offer the possibility to target communication and marketing to different audiences. For example, LinkedIn may be an effective channel to reach high-level decision-makers, while buyers looking for technical information may find a company website or blog articles.
Increased visibility: Multichannel helps to increase your company's visibility and reach more potential customers. The more channels a company is present on, the more likely it is to reach the right buyers.
Coordinating sales and marketing: A multi-channel approach helps sales and marketing to work together more effectively. For example, marketing can generate leads through websites, email marketing, and social media, while sales can use these leads for contacts and sales meetings.
Efficiency: Multichannel also boosts sales. For example, automated email campaigns and chatbots can handle some of the contacting, allowing salespeople to focus on negotiation and relationship management.
While multi-channel offers many advantages, it also requires resources and coordination. Companies need to ensure that their communications are consistent across channels and that their IT systems are capable of supporting a multi-channel approach. It is also important to monitor and analyze the performance of different channels to optimize strategy and investment.
Using sales technology as part of modern B2B sales
Modern sales technology offers many opportunities to improve and enhance B2B sales. Here are some recommendations on how to make the most of it:
Utilize Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools: CRM systems such as Pipedrive, Salesforce, HubSpot, or Microsoft Dynamics are essential tools for B2B sales. They help you track sales leads and opportunities, manage customer relationships, and analyze sales data.
Use automation: Automation tools can improve the sales process in many ways. For example, automating email marketing can help send targeted messages to leads at the right time, and chatbots can handle simple customer service tasks. On the other hand, even simple contract and message templates can greatly improve sales efficiency.
Make use of social selling tools: Social selling tools, such as LinkedIn Sales Navigator, can help you reach potential customers on social media and target your communications more effectively.
Use technology for prospecting: Don't spend your time hunting for phone numbers, emails, and titles on the internet... Combine prospecting technologies like ZoomInfo, Vainu, and Cognism with AI tools like Bard and ChatGPT.
Use analytics and reporting: Analytics and reporting tools can help you understand sales performance, identify trends and opportunities, and make informed decisions. Advanced analytics tools, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, can also provide deep insights and predictions.
Integrate systems: Ensure that different sales technologies can communicate with each other. For example, integrating CRM, email marketing, and website analytics can help provide a single view of the customer and improve the customer experience.
Continuous training: Ensure that your sales team has the skills and knowledge to use sales technology effectively. Provide regular training and support, and encourage the team to take advantage of new tools and features.
It is important to remember that sales technology should support the company's sales strategy, not define it. Sales technology is a tool that can be used to enhance sales and improve the customer experience, but it is not a substitute for personal contact and a relationship with the customer.
We hope this article gave you new ideas for developing B2B sales in your organization or inspired you to become a B2B sales entrepreneur.
If you want to start accelerating your organization's growth with our B2B sales service, feel free to contact us! 🚀
.png)
