Discovering prospects and converting them into clients is the ultimate objective for you.
There are several ways to do this, and cold calling is one of the significant ways to do it. Many sales workers vow for this, while some consider it to be archaic. Some believe that this technique can produce large numbers of opportunities in the funnel, while others feel that it provides less strike-rate.
B2B is infamous for having extended, drawn-out sales cycles. One of the main reasons behind this is the higher commitments B2B clients make to businesses that sell to them than the typical B2C customer. But the excuses covering the long sales process often hamper sales improvements.
A rise in the number of attempts and resources required to capture leads would also increase the overall expense of the process and minimize the ROI. If you want your sales and marketing to be more predictable and scalable apart from functioning 24X7, you need a better option. Perhaps, a sophisticated version of the cold-calling strategy can help you get the desired result.
Stop making excuses and control your B2B sales process by shortening your sales cycle with these simple steps:
1. Research and Find the Right People
Stop wasting your time on irrelevant prospects who can never convert into customers. Rather than dreaming about the right customer, decide what features make your ideal customer and then focus on attracting those types of people and companies for your business. To find and reach the right people, thorough research and a well-intentioned strategy are required.
2. Implementing the Right Lead Grading Scale
While you may recognize who your ideal customer is, it takes efforts to get to a place where you can determine if an almost unknown website visitor will genuinely be that ideal client. Implementing the right lead grading scale will help you to find out what information you need to collect and then use it more quickly to determine if a specific lead is a good match for your company’s needs or not.
3. Review and Adjust your Sales Process Consistently
Having a proper sales process in place is crucial, as is reviewing your sales process regularly to fix problem areas. But reviewing it is not sufficient. Once you evaluate and identify areas that are potentially causing problems and increasing the overall length of your sales process, it is essential to find ways to address or eliminate those problem areas. By doing this regularly, not only can you speed up your B2B sales process in the beginning, but you will also keep going strong.
4. Categorize Actionable Next Steps
When engaging with a potential client, it is vital always to categorize actionable next steps. If there is any communication failure or lack of clarity with what is expected next, the sales process is significantly slowed down. Fight this problem by clearly defining the next steps in every communication with a potential client. Even if the action is on your part, your client shouldn’t be left speculating what is going to happen next.
5. Recognize & Speak to the Pain Points
Your potential customers are looking for solutions. By recognizing and speaking those pain points, you stand out from the crowd and make yourself unique. Referring to precise pain points can also tell the potential client what they are looking for, eventually speeding up the sales process.
6. Get ahead of Objections
If your company has been around for some time, you probably already know the most common and valid objections that potential customers will have about your product or service. The sooner you will address these objections, the less clingy your sales process will be, and the possibility is that the prospect will choose your company over the competition.
7. Pitch the Right Person
Not only do you need to know your ideal customer, but you also need to address the right audience within the company. If you’re trying to speed up the process, often selling to top officers is going to get you a quicker conversion as he is the decision maker. But don’t overlook the importance of influencers in the sales decision-making process.
These are just a few of the methods to shorten the B2B sales process. Simply because you’re a B2B company, your sales process has to be long is a myth. Be hands-on and start producing faster sales outcomes.
