What is B2B sales?
The definition of business-to-business (B2B) sales is a sales model in which businesses sell products or services to other businesses. This is in contrast to business-to-consumer (B2C) sales, in which businesses sell products or services to consumers. B2B sales are complex and large-scale, and require multiple people to play different roles over a longer sales cycle. B2B sales often take place over the course of several weeks as part of different conversations, rather than as a single transaction.
Differences from B2C Sales
In addition to the significant differences between target buyers, B2B sales differ from B2C sales in many ways. First, B2B services are generally more expensive because the solutions are often larger and more complex. Also, sales cycles are much longer because of larger deals, complex solutions, and multiple stakeholders. Third, B2B sales require multiple touchpoints to close a deal, meaning the deal is not usually completed in a single transaction. Because of price, B2B deals often require buy-in from multiple decision makers within the organization. Therefore, the B2B sales process tends to be more strategic than B2C sales. B2C sales tactics tend to appeal to the buyer’s emotions, while B2B sales tactics often appeal to the buyer’s rationality. The B2B buyer journey tends to be much more complex than the typical B2C buyer journey. Let’s look at a typical B2C buyer’s journey: Rachel needs a new toothbrush. She goes online and searches “best toothbrush” on Google. She finds an article about a high-quality electric toothbrush. And after reading some positive reviews on Amazon, she buys the toothbrush. I wish B2B sales were this easy. B2B business often involves high risk, high reward. So there are some key differences:
More Stakeholders
According to Gartner, the typical buyer group for a complex B2B solution is 6-10 decision makers. So why does B2B sales need so many key decision makers? For example, imagine a new Chief Marketing Officer needs an expensive marketing automation system. He might consult with key members of his team before coming up with offers. And after deciding on possible solutions, he must get budget approval from the CFO. He might even need to consult with the CIO or Chief Data Officer to ensure the system works with the company’s existing technology stack. In small businesses, the CEO may be involved in key purchasing decisions.
Longer Sales Cycles
Almost every salesperson who has worked for a B2B company has been frustrated by long sales cycles at one point. So how long is a B2B sales cycle? According to a CSO Insights report, three-quarters (74.6%) of B2B sales take at least four months to complete, and nearly half (46.4%) take more than seven months to complete.
Dependence on a predictable pipeline
So what do these long sales cycles mean for B2B sellers? This means they need a continuous pipeline of deals to function. Therefore, B2B sales often require intensive collaboration. While some B2B Account Managers (AEs) source deals on their own, B2B AEs regularly rely on their marketing teams and/or sales development representatives (SDRs) to ensure they always have a steady pipeline of new prospects they can trade with.
Typical B2B Sales Process
Qualifying Incoming Leads
A typical B2B sales process starts with marketing, which generates a portion of leads through forms, trade shows, email marketing, advertising, and other channels. These inbound leads are then qualified by SDRs who focus on inbound leads. Often, leads are simply disqualified due to a variety of factors. However, once a lead is qualified, an inbound-focused SDR passes the sales-qualified lead to an AE for a demo.
Outbound Hunting
Many healthy B2B sales organizations also have outbound-focused salespeople. These outbound SDRs (i.e., hunters) use tactics such as cold calling, cold email prospecting, and social media connections to find prospects who fit the buying profile of their ideal customer. They often reach out periodically (usually involving multiple touchpoints such as phone calls, emails, text messages, and social media) until they are able to start a conversation with a potential buyer. After qualifying this lead, the outbound SDR hands the buyer off to an AE for a demo.
B2B Demo
During a B2B demo, an AE must learn how to best help a potential company. This includes asking questions, understanding the prospect’s pain points, and working with them to find the ideal solution to those pain points (if they exist). Great B2B AEs are masters at building trust, overcoming objections, finding unconventional solutions, and most importantly, being good listeners. Doing a great demo is part art and part science. At Revenue.io, we provide AI-based tools that empower sales trainers to discover best practices that drive compelling results in demos. This allows coaches to find best practices that can be applied across the team.
From Demo to Deal
If the demo goes well, the AE has an internal champion at the client company. The AE’s job is to help this internal champion sell to other key stakeholders within the company. AEs often collaborate with the marketing team on decks, sales materials, battle cards, etc. Key competitors (if it’s a competitive deal), ROI calculators, and other tools to move the deal forward. One way of looking at it is that buyers are often burdened with many buying tasks (such as calculating ROI). And B2B sellers need to provide these buyers with tools (such as ROI calculators) to help them complete the tasks. Later in the sales cycle, at the contract stage, B2B deals typically go through procurement and legal departments before being approved.
Customer Success
The B2B sales cycle doesn’t end when the deal is closed. Customer success reps (a combination of sales and support reps) often work with customers to ensure they are successful with the product. This is crucial because customer retention and expansion are key in B2B sales. In fact, many companies have adopted a business model called “Land and Expand.” The goal is to close small deals up front, ensure customer success, and steadily expand deals over time. Smart B2B companies know that their most effective salespeople are often their customers. Compelling case studies and testimonials are worth gold. After all, it’s one thing to hear from Joe’s sales rep how great a solution it is. But it’s even more powerful when you see a video of a senior executive from a Fortune 500 company praising the solution.
How is B2B sales changing? The B2B buyer’s journey redefined
Gartner research shows that B2B sales are becoming more complex. In fact, 77% of buyers say their last B2B purchase was complicated. So what does that mean? Gartner found that the B2B buyer process is changing in response to increasing complexity. They identify that the buyer journey now consists of six stages: Gartner research identified six B2B purchasing “tasks” that customers must complete to their satisfaction in order to successfully complete a purchase:
Identify the problem. “We have to do something.”
Find a solution. “What’s going to solve our problem?”
Building requirements. “What exactly will we get out of this purchase?”
Selecting a supplier. “Will it accomplish what we want?”
Validating. “We think we know the right answer, but we need to be sure.”
Building consensus. “We need to get everyone on board.”
Gartner also found that the B2B sales cycle is no longer linear. As prospects do their own research, it’s common for them to go through the buyer’s journey and return to earlier stages. For example, at Revenue.io, we offer a variety of sales enablement solutions for sales teams. Our customers often start by looking for a solution to a perceived problem (e.g., “Our SDRs need to call more prospects each day”). But as they move through their buyer journey, they often come across information about a problem they didn’t even know they had (e.g., “Our sales trainers don’t have time to listen to every sales call, and we need a call solution that identifies the problem they need the most coaching from).
The Switch to Account-Based Selling
Another big change in B2B selling (and marketing, too) is the new emphasis on account-based selling (ABS). ABS targets specific customers in advance and uses various data points to determine which companies are the best fit. After determining which customers to target, there is often a coordinated effort between sales and marketing to generate demand and arrange meetings with the target company’s key buyer groups (i.e., specific key prospects).
B2B Sales Enablement Tools
Although the B2B sales process is becoming increasingly complex, success in B2B sales is more achievable than ever before. Thanks to powerful innovations, B2B companies are regularly simplifying their sales processes, training new sales reps faster, and training their teams much more effectively. Here are some of the most powerful sales enablement tools available to sales teams. Sales Dialer
A sales dialer is a solution that empowers sales reps to call, contact, and convert more customers. While auto-dialers are often used in B2C telemarketing, B2B sales teams tend to prefer dialers that offer more rep-focused features such as:
Voicemail automation
Area code selection
Automatic data logging to CRM
Contextual information from various sources
Calendar integration
Guided Selling Solution
Guided selling solutions take dialers a step further by telling sales reps which prospects and accounts they should contact, and how to contact them (by phone, email, SMS, social media, etc.), in real time. Revenue.io’s guided selling platform can also automatically prioritize leads in real time based on activities such as email opens, form submissions, and downloads.
Conversational Intelligence
Conversational intelligence solutions use artificial intelligence to automatically recognize calls based on key criteria. For example, conversation intelligence solutions like ConversationAI can automatically detect calls where salespeople talk too much about prospects, mention key competitors, and more. These help coaches automatically uncover opportunities that will make a difference without having to manually make each call.
Account Engagement Platforms
Account-based engagement platforms, such as 6Sense and DemandBase, help sales and marketing teams convert target accounts en masse. These platforms offer a variety of tools that help companies identify target accounts and evaluate customer intent.
Real-time Coaching
Real-time coaching is one of the latest innovations to help B2B sales teams win more customers. Real-time solutions help scale coaching by automatically recognizing key phrases during a call and dynamically delivering advice and content that helps salespeople be more successful.
