B2B sales is the term for a sale between two companies. In this article, we take a look at what B2B sales is and how you should tailor your sales process. We are sales experts at Radiant and can help you with your B2B sales, but first let’s look at the different parts of the topic.
- What is B2B sales?
- Define your target audience
- Identifying qualified leads
- Building a sales funnel
- Use a CRM system and your existing tech stack for sales
- Measuring and optimizing B2B sales
- Get help with B2B sales
What is B2B sales?
B2B sales or business-to-business sales are the sales between two companies, hence B2B. You can recognise a B2B sale because these sales typically have a longer sales cycle, more conditions, larger contracts and more stakeholders to consider than B2C sales. B2B sales is at the complex end of the sales spectrum. However, it’s also important to point out that there are several different types of B2B sales. So the degree of sales cycles, conditions, etc. can vary greatly.
It is therefore essential to consider a strategic approach, customer segmentation and a well-developed sales strategywhen making B2B sales. B2B sales will be at the core of many B2B companies’ go-to-market strategy and is an essential part of the entire growth strategy, if you’re good at sales, the short-term conversion often comes – then it’s up to customer service and the product team to deliver a good product.
The strategic approach to B2B sales involves multiple analytics, integration of marketing, CRM system, a competitor analysis and some also use the sales wheel to better understand their sales. Below we have listed the key criteria you need to master to succeed in B2B sales.
- Deep understanding of the specific market
- accurate identification and segmentation of potential customers
- effective communication of your unique VPs and solutions in relation to the needs of your ICP.
- building long-term relationships with customers
So to cut a long story short and simply answer the question “What is B2B sales”, it’s the sales that are exchanged between two companies.
Define your target audience for better sales
One of the first disciplines in B2B sales is to know your target audience down to their every need. This involves thorough research and data collection so you have an overview of their demographics, industry, role and can deduce their needs. In some cases, it may be relevant to create a persona that will help you best understand your target audience’s needs and ultimately identify your exact customer types.
It is therefore essential that you as a company can step into your target audience’s shoes. Explore their buying behavior, identify their daily challenges, understand their expectations and design a solution that creates real value for them.
Consumer behaviour
The next step is to dive into your target audience’s process, how they buy products or services. Is it a complex process that requires an in-depth understanding of the target audience’s needs and preferences?
This is important because it helps to understand how, why and when potential customers make buying decisions. This should be used for how aggressive you should be in your communication, should you target indirect decision makers or should you wait until spring for example.
Read more about consumer behaviour
Companies we’ve helped with sales say…
Partner, North Risk
CCO, Hemonto
Partner & CCO, COMASYSTEM
Partner, Altapay
Sales strategy
A sales strategy is a strategy for the direction your sales should take. A sales strategy could be to focus on relationship selling, selling through partners or focusing on volume. A sales strategy’s purpose should be to increase your sales growth and profit. A sales strategy should be known by everyone in your organisation who works with sales.
Read more about sales strategy.
Segmentation of leads
Segmentation is an important method in B2B sales. By dividing your leads into specific groups, you can tailor your communication and offers to match their specific needs, creating a more targeted and effective sales strategy.
To segment, it may be relevant to look into getting a CRM system (if you don’t already have one). This can significantly improve your segmentation options. Now your segmentation can be based on lead scoring, last interaction date, which pages on your website they have interacted with, industry and much more.
Read more about b2b segmentation
Sales process
A sales pipeline is fundamental to your B2B sales. With an effective sales pipeline, you always know where customers are being lost, what the next step is and where to focus your efforts. A sales pipeline should be structured according to both your internal sales, but also so that it makes sense for the lead in the sales process.
Read more about the sales pipeline.
Sales enablement
Sales enablement is about streamlining sales and making them focus only on the sale itself. With sales enablement, it’s all about enabling sales.
Read more about sales enablement
Revenue operations
Revenue operations is about streamlining processes in the sales department. This could be a handover from marketing to sales, for example. Revenue operations are central to B2B sales and should be prioritized by companies that have sales as a predominant source of revenue.
Read more about Revenue operations (RevOps)
12 sales tips for you
At Radiant, we have helped more than 100 companies with sales, for example, we have helped North Risk with their sales at all levels. Their partner stated:
“Radiant’s sales team operates at a level of professionalism that is truly impressive. What sets Radiant apart is their unwavering commitment and expertise in sales”
Niels Ole, Partner
Based on our experience with North Risk and our other customers, we have compiled 12 sales tips for you who work with sales – read more about our sales tips.
Building a sales funnel
An effective sales funnel is crucial in B2B sales, where complex buying decisions and longer sales cycles are the norm. A well-structured funnel manages the potential from being just a lead to a paying customer.
Building an effective sales funnel involves strategic lead generation, qualifying leads, crafting sales proposals and successfully closing deals. Each step is tailored to best serve the customer’s unique needs and buying journey.
Read more about sales funnel
Lead generation
The goal here is to generate leads for your sales and marketing department. This can be done through various methods such as SEO, content marketing and paid ads. Lead generation is a normal part of an effective B2B sales setup because it has such a big impact on the people that sales gets to talk to.
Read more about lead generation
Lead qualification
Once you’ve gotten a lead through lead generation, it’s important to qualify them. This is often done by a salesperson calling or writing to the lead to make contact and see if the lead is relevant and interested in your solution. Some leads also download content just for inspiration and are not looking for new collaborations at all.
Read more about lead qualification
Sales techniques
In B2B sales, there are a lot of different sales techniques that you should make use of – yourself. with a selective selection. One of the best sales techniques we have for the companies we help sell is “Know your customer’s needs and be relevant.”
Due to a great interest in sales techniques, we have created a blog where you can read about more: 10 sales techniques
Lead scoring
By using lead scoring, you can effectively prioritize your sales efforts on the most promising leads. It’s a strategic approach to B2B sales that helps you focus resources where you have the best opportunities.
This approach involves a systematic look at the lead’s interests, behavior and potential. By weighing and scoring these parameters, the sales team is better equipped to navigate the sales process.
Sales enablement
Sales enablement is about streamlining sales and making them focus only on the sale itself. With sales enablement, it’s all about enabling sales.
Read more about sales enablement
Product presentation
An important part of B2B sales is presenting your product to the potential customer. In a product presentation it is important to:
- Ensure those attending the meeting can make a decision
- That you make it personal
- That you show your product’s value in relation to the person’s/company’s problems.
- A word of advice: always tailor value propositions to the person so they can more easily understand the value and imagine the impact.
Read more about product presentation
Use a CRM system and your existing tech stack for sales
By using a CRM system, you can streamline your B2B sales as it eases the task of managing customer interactions and improves tailored offers to different customer segments. CRM systems make the battle strategy more data-driven and help achieve sales targets.
In the article, it has been discussed that data, segmentation and tailored offers/pitch are among the most important criteria for effective B2B sales. All of these elements an optimized CRM system helps with. A CRM system is considered to be a B2B salesperson’s best friend and will support your B2B sales 99% of the time.
Likewise, it’s essential to use other integrations as well as your existing tech stack. By using integration, you’ll be able to streamline and open up more opportunities in your sales process.
Optimize your B2B sales
There are different ways to optimize your B2B sales. As a sales partner to a wide range of companies, we often find the following makes the biggest impact on company sales:
- Get precise in your segmentation
- Streamline the sales process
- Get a tailored and efficient sales pipeline
- Train your salespeople
- Get a CRM system where sales and marketing can work together
With the above initiatives, you are well on your way to optimizing your sales. However, this should be seen as an iterative process that needs to be revisited several times to succeed.
Get help with B2B sales
At Radiant, we have helped more than 100 companies implement a tailored CRM system for their sales process. This includes pipeline building, streamlining the sales process, intelligent segmentation and data enrichment.
Executional sales
Over the past 6 years, we have collected more than 15,000 sales touch-points, identified best practices and a safe approach that has earned our Sales as a Service (a serious alternative to telemarketing) customers more than 100 million in ARR.
Selling in new markets / to new segments
Alternatively, we offer Sales Go-To-Market, where we test your next market for you for a period of 3 months. Creates a foundation for you to either continue on your own or offer you a solution. The purpose is to test hypotheses in the new market and see if we can open it up for you. The advantage of Radiant is that we have sales consultants from Norway, Denmark and Germany who can represent your performance and service. Read more about Sales Go-To-Market.
Tactical B2B sales
Do you have challenges with which way your sales should go? Have you defined your target audience/ICP correctly, do you differentiate yourself enough and do your USPs reflect this, should you use AI or is your sales process lagging because it is person-dependent and you don’t use automations and a system for this?
The above are some of the tactical sales decisions we help companies in the Nordics and beyond make – with Sales Excellence.
Mød nogle af vores B2B salgseksperter
Christoffer Tofte
Christoffer har mange opgaver inden for at udarbejde salgsstrategier og eksekverer B2B salg på vegne af vores kunder – han har helt konkret arbejdet med:
- Forståelse af salgsproces fra lead til deal samt identificering af optimeringer heri
- Opbygning af målrettede kampagner
- Håndtering og styring af pipeline
- Opbygning og anvendelse af salgsplaybook med best practice for hele salgsprocessen
Læs mere om Christoffer
Kasper Bjerggaard
Kasper har stor erfaring med salg inden for Corporate Finance, Bank, Payment og FinTech løsninger. Han har både indsamlet erfaring fra Radiant og Deloitte hvor han har været med til, at opbygget salgsafdelingen.
I dag er Kasper COO i Radiant og hjælper dagligt virksomheder i Norden og Dach med, at effektivisere sit salg gennem effektive salgsstrategier.
Læs mere om Kasper
