Top 8 Insider Tips for VARs to Close More B2B Sales
36% of salespeople have identified closing the deal as the second most challenging part of the entire sales process after prospecting (more than 40%). If you are a value added reseller who belongs to this category, you need to supercharge your selling game. Here are eight B2B sales tips to increase your closing rate.
1. Leverage Content
With customers becoming digital-savvy and making their purchase decisions based after extensive research, it is important that you feed them powerful content. Did you know content marketing gets three times more leads per dollar spent at 62% lesser cost as compared to outbound marketing? Yes, that’s the power of content in B2B lead generation.
It is pure common sense that more leads you generate, more the chances of closing the sales. So, if you are wondering how to generate more leads, invest your money, time and efforts in content marketing. You can publish blogs, white papers, e-books, infographics, podcasts, webinars and videos across all your social media handles. Email marketing and newsletters are also great lead generation ideas for B2B. Just make sure the content is always useful, relevant and fresh.
2. Sell Actual Business Results and Outcomes
When you make a sales pitch, customers don’t want to hear the generic or scripted words. Neither do they want to hear about what your company does and sells. That part of the pitch they have already researched. What customers expect from you is to understand how your products can increase their business and yield tangible results. So, always focus on customized solutions to customers’ problems.
3. Generate Leads from Your Website Visitors
Tracking your website visitors is another effective lead management strategy. You can pull your entire website traffic into CRM and email software. It is also recommended to add features such as contact form page, an exit page offer and live chat on the website. This way, you can get qualified inbound leads.
4. Maintain Clarity About Your Value Proposition
There are many players in the VAR business selling the same suite of products and services. Hence, you need to deploy appropriate B2B sales techniques that can give you a competitive edge. Identify your key strengths and unique selling proposition that sets you apart from others. Customers would surely ask you this question — ‘why should I buy from you’ and you should be prepared with the answer.
5. Identify the Reason for Rejection
It is natural to be disheartened when you lose the deal. However, instead of giving up entirely, do not hesitate to ask the customer the reason for rejection. Depending on the reason, maybe you could work around a compromise to bring the customer back into the sales funnel. If it is the price, see if you can accommodate without losing money for your business. If the quality of the product is the reason, then offer an upgraded or premium version in your product portfolio. If nothing works, you could approach other decision makers in the same organization and pitch them later. Or, you could still continue to stay in touch with the person who rejected by sending him relevant product updates so that when he deems something fit for his company, he can reach you.
6. Monitor Prospects
Prospect monitoring is integral to the lead generation process. By doing so, you can understand at which stage of sales funnel the customer has reached and what kind of marketing message you need to target to push him towards conversion. You can monitor prospects on their social media pages such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Alternatively, you can subscribe to Google Alerts with that prospect’s name so that you remain updated about his activities and purchase intentions.
7. Offer Incentives
Incentives are one of the most successful and tried and tested B2B sales strategies and tactics. You may offer incentives such as discounts, free demos, free trials, free shipping, premium service at a low markup, a free upgrade or anything. You can use this tactic to generate new leads or dangle it like a carrot if the prospect declines your offer. Incentives can tempt prospects to get converted.
8. Give Options in Your B2B Proposals
When you go to buy popcorn in the movie theatre, you get so many options to choose from — small, medium, large and combo offers. Customers want choices and you have to give them. Whenever you send the proposal to customers, give them two or three different options that match their business needs as well as pocket. When customers get different products and services at different prices, they are more likely to stamp their approval.
Using the above tips, you should be able to close more profitable sales.
