By Ed Pierce, FMW Contributing Editor
October 9, 2022
Last month, I wrote about the trend in B2B sales of overcoming fewer face-to-face sales calls by using digital connectivity tools and media.
This situation has fostered an indirect B2B buying cycle that takes longer, complicates the journey, and involves multiple stakeholders. Let’s continue looking at how smart suppliers are adapting their marketing and sales strategies to win business.
Customer Lifecycle Explained
Forrester Research, in its “A Blueprint for Customer-Obsessed Enterprises,” identifies six phases of the B2B customer lifecycle —
• Discover — Finding products, brands, or services that meet a fundamental need
• Explore – Compare services, alternatives, pricing, and other value considerations
• Buy – The process of completing the transaction
• Use – Use of the service or product begets first impressions and satisfaction
• Ask – Request specific assistance or guidance
• Engage – Ongoing post-purchased engagement beyond service
Today’s decision-makers seldom engage with a sales rep until the Explore or Buy phases, preferring that a vendor’s representative only remain in touch until the time a buyer is ready to move ahead.
A Collaborative Buying Process
Because sellers now enter the buying process comparatively late in the game, they must make the most of every buyer interaction. Today’s buyers believe their sales rep will answer complex questions that speed up the sales cycle and increases confidence in that vendor.
Buyers expect sellers to collaborate with them. They prefer a rep who defines the purchase process, yet gives the buyer leeway to determine next steps and timing. They appreciate a rep’s ability to foster an efficient and collaborative sales process.
Data-Driven Sales & Marketing Approach
According to Forrester, buyers are more likely to purchase a product/service if the salesperson takes a data-driven approach, that is, using data to inform sales practices and decision-making processes.
While the description sounds simple, being data-driven — rather than simply having data — means not just collecting data, but analyzing it and putting insights into sales and marketing tasks.
Even companies who have access to data struggle to use it effectively. Many companies say that disparate information and limited visibility into data impact their sales organization. In fact, a majority of B2B sales executives are dissatisfied with their ability to deliver valuable, data-driven insights. Becoming data-driven requires a distinct, detailed plan, and input from every department within a company.
Put Data to Work for You
Once a clear data sales & marketing strategy is in place, including an always-up-to-date sales contact database and integrated technologies, it’s time to put your data to work through:
• Enhanced Sales Training – Analyze data relating to your top performing sales reps to identify trends that suggest that can be incorporated into sales training.
• Productivity – Define tasks that contribute to better sales productivity. This can help identify technology and tools that streamline your sales reps’ processes.
• Lead Scoring – Assign point values to each lead or prospect based on specific criteria, leading to identification of high-value data points that contribute to a sale.
• Personalized Outreach – By analyzing buyer personas, a rep can personalize the sales pitch to appeal to the prospects’ specific needs.
• Leverage Social Selling – Collect a prospect’s social media behavior – what platforms do they use, what content do they share, and so on — to improve the effectiveness of sales messaging.
• Improve Marketing Content – Work with the marketing team to integrate any sales’ buyer persona insight to create more compelling marketing content.
Executive Involvement Is More Important Than Ever
Buyers expect a supplier’s entire executive team to sponsor and contribute to today’s buying process. Sellers must recite quantifiable business benefits of their product or service
in economic terms because the buyer’s CFOs is a key stakeholder in any transaction.
Sellers must strategize the messaging, tailor content, and commit to a positive return on investment. While this is not a new concept, senior executive involvement and sponsorship is more important than ever. Buyers want to have relationships with a supplier’s executives. Forrester stresses that executives must be accessible, personable, and prepared to deliver measurable value.
For more information on this topic, check out https://www.forrester.com/research/sales-executive/ and https://tinyurl.com/3fjx5kbm. Feel free to call me at 484-957-1246 or send an email to me at [email protected] to share your experiences, ideas, and other comments about fleet marketing.
