How To Make B2B Sales Resemble B2C Experiences in 2023

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Limitless resources underline the different approaches for B2B and B2C sales. That’s because, traditionally, it was perceived that B2B sales entailed a lengthier purchasing cycle, mainly due to higher costs of products and services and more stakeholders involved. But what if they could be more similar than we thought?

The pandemic accelerated the shift toward digital B2B transactions. And with that came the expectation that business interactions would have a similar level of ease, transparency, and personalization that B2C customers experience with e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Alibaba.

However, up to now, in order to incorporate elements typically associated with consumer sales, B2B salespeople have just resorted to excessive technology without considering each buyer’s unique journey. And according to Dr. Howard Dover, a clinical professor of marketing, these efforts haven’t improved effectiveness.

So, what’s the next step to move away from traditional status quo selling and deliver a B2B buying experience that is more consumer-like?

Avoid getting overly professional, push for emotion

Going back to traditional B2B sales steps, the trick was always to listen with intent, pursue ongoing dialogue, and aim for referrals. Many salespeople still study buyers’ LinkedIn profiles, browse company websites, and watch relevant interviews and videos so they are fully prepared when they meet the buyers virtually.

However, despite engaging in all this research, buyers still feel that sellers aren’t listening: More buyers disagree (32%) than agree (27%) that reps effectively communicate with empathy during virtual meetings. Clearly, sales reps need more insights to be one step ahead of the buyers and build emotional connections.

That’s where evergreen links to self-service digital portals come into play. Buyers can immediately see relevant product recommendations, pricing, targeted messaging, and make purchases independently. Meanwhile, this centralized portal or buyer enablement platform also allows sales reps to upload personalized content—like text, audio, or video welcome messages—and tailor the buying experience to individual customer preferences using data-driven insights.

Get invaluable buyer insights

Currently, the majority of salespeople only track metrics and collect data like email open rates, link click-through rates, and overall deal conversion rates. Through this, businesses can better understand what works (and what doesn’t) when it comes to digital sales—but it isn’t enough.

Customer behavior insights enable organizations to outperform peers by 85% in sales growth by informing future B2B sales strategies and improving performance. But what’s stopping salespeople from unlocking the next level of data insights?

Buyer enablement platforms already allow access to many more buyer engagement stats via an analytics dashboard, like buyer clicks, views, time engaged, and digital sales rooms shared. Ask yourself questions like: Does my platform provide an at-a-glance view of information like full name, title, and LinkedIn profile when a prospect’s key decision maker is sent specific sales collateral? If it doesn’t, you could be missing out on more conversions.

Ultimately, with more insights, sellers can view buyers’ interactions and level of engagement, gaining visibility into which resources and content resonate well with certain prospects faster.

Reduce time wasted by at least 50%

How often does a prospect ask a B2B sales rep to resend the original email? Attachments get lost, especially when new stakeholders are entering the process constantly. The lengthy process is also down to collateral spewed across a variety of platforms instead of being accessible through a centralized hub. This means sales reps spend an average of 440 hours each year trying to find the right content to share with prospects or customers.

So, how could sales reps make B2B customers feel that buying a SaaS product is just as quick as purchasing some sneakers on Amazon?

Buyer enablement platforms have advanced search capabilities that enable sales reps to rapidly find, replicate, and tailor specific content for each new prospect (per industry, use case, and persona), and share it via a digital sales room.

The rooms streamline complex purchasing processes by having all content in a single place, providing transparent pricing and clear product information, and reducing paperwork, which enhance the overall customer experience. Plus, sellers can easily see top-performing content with a snapshot of views and downloads, helping them to recalibrate and deliver the content that buyers are searching for.

Finally, with the rooms being mobile-friendly and accessible on various devices, buyers can engage and transact on the go, so sellers can get contracts signed quicker. Sales reps can create and configure signable documents from templates, and buyers can securely view and add digital signatures.

The consumerization of B2B sales aims to create a more intuitive, efficient, and customer-focused sales journey. With tools such as buyer enablement platforms and digital sales rooms, sales reps can align with the expectations and preferences of modern business buyers.

Jinal Jhaveri
Jinal Jhaveri is a serial entrepreneur who specializes in founding and leading innovative technology software companies. Jhaveri’s anything is possible attitude and customer-focused mindset has made Enable Us a world-class seller and buyer enablement platform. He successfully founded SchoolMint, an online enrollment platform that was successfully acquired by BV Investment Partners. He currently serves as SchoolMint’s Chairman of the Board, founded Mismo, and is a venture and secondary investor in 100+ technology companies. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and two daughters.

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