How To Create A B2B Sales Strategy In 6 Steps (With 13 Sales Tips)
Know this B2B sales strategy with our 6-step guide and 13 expert tips to build an effective strategy that drives growth and maximizes revenue.
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In the fast-paced world of B2B sales, you can’t afford to lose track of prospects and opportunities. Yet, as your sales team grows, you may struggle to keep track of all the moving parts of your sales process. To make matters worse, the longer you take to close deals, the more likely you are to lose them altogether. That’s why developing a B2B sales strategy with sales acceleration software is crucial to help your team stay organized and close deals faster. This article uncovers the value of B2B sales strategies and explains how to create one for your business.
Of course, sales acceleration software can help you implement your B2B sales strategy. For instance, Aomni’s sales intelligence software boosts B2B sales by helping businesses uncover actionable insights that create highly targeted sales strategies.
What is a B2B Sales Strategy?
A B2B sales strategy is an action plan that a sales team designs and carries out to convert as many prospects as possible into customers. The best B2B sales strategies are often co-created by:
- Sales
- Marketing
- Customer success teams
A sales strategy's goal is to empower sales reps with the mindset, resources, and action steps they need to persuade buyers from your target audience to purchase your product.
Customizing Your B2B Sales Strategy: Tailoring to Your Market and Resources
The specifics of any given sales strategy will be unique to each company and team, things like:
- The target market
- The resources involved
- The investment of time and capital required
- The role marketing will play, etc.
Teams should design their strategies using the most up-to-date and thoroughly researched data.
B2B Sales Strategies Are Written With The Buyer’s Journey In Mind
With that being said, all of the most successful B2B sales strategies have one thing in common: they’re designed with the buyer’s journey in mind.
You must create your sales strategy proactively, aiming to meet prospects’ needs throughout their journey to purchase. Of course, that’s not to say that your sales strategy should ignore metrics available to your business like the:
- Needs
- Goals
- Resources
Sales strategies are ultimately designed to benefit the teams that create them. The most successful ones are written with the mindset of aiming to serve the customer rather than to meet the quota.
Quality B2B Sales Strategies Are Actionable, Repeatable, and Scalable
With that in mind, a high-quality B2B sales strategy should be a process of:
- Actionable
- Repeatable
- Scalable
In other words, successful strategy execution should produce tangible, predictable impacts on your bottom line.
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Why is a B2B Sales Strategy Crucial For Your Team?
Sales teams are getting to know the modern buyer. Developing a B2B sales strategy is crucial for sales teams in the current environment. It’s been well-known that the internet has permanently changed what it means to sell products.
In today’s digital world, where access to information is virtually limitless and instantaneous, buyers can easily navigate most buying decisions without input from a sales team. Current data shows that about 52% of buyer decisions are made before contacting a sales team.
Adapting to the Evolving Buyer: Proactive Strategies for Shortening the B2B Sales Cycle
Compounding this challenge is that buyers today are more:
- Independent
- Skeptical
- Meticulous
Both have increased the length of the B2B sales cycle by 22% in the last five years. A targeted sales strategy can mitigate these issues. It allows salespeople to design a proactive plan for meeting buyers where they are instead of waiting to react (at which point decisions have usually already been made).
Benefits of Developing a B2B Sales Strategy
Developing a sales strategy provides several other benefits, including the opportunity for sales reps to proactively meet buyers’ needs. B2B Sales Strategy: Each component of the B2B sales strategy improves your funnel’s revenue-generating capacity.
It enables sales and marketing to optimize their outreach efforts to generate and maintain new and repeat business. A well-designed sales strategy lets your sales team make the most robust case for your product’s unique selling points.
How To Create A B2B Sales Strategy In 6 Steps
1. Define the Sales Strategy You Need
Before jumping into tactics, defining what type of sales strategy your business needs is crucial. This depends on your:
- Industry
- Product complexity
- Customer base
- Sales goals
For example, a tech company might focus on long-term relationship building and high-value contracts, while a wholesaler might prioritize volume and repeat orders.
- Inbound strategies focus on attracting leads through marketing efforts bringing potential customers to you, like:
- Content
- SEO
- Social media
- Outbound strategies, on the other hand, involve directly reaching out to potential clients through:
- Cold calling
- Emailing
- Targeted campaigns
Some companies benefit from a hybrid approach, in which inbound leads are nurtured while outbound efforts expand their reach to new prospects.
2. Align Sales and Marketing Goals
Sales and marketing alignment is crucial for a seamless customer journey. Marketing should generate leads that fit the profile of your ideal customer, and sales should nurture those leads toward conversion. This requires processes to ensure no lead falls through the cracks for both teams to have:
- Shared goals
- Clear communication
- Agreed-upon
3. Research Ideal Customers
Knowing your target audience inside and out is essential to a successful sales strategy. Create detailed buyer personas by analyzing your:
- Existing customer base
- Researching market trends
- Understanding the challenges your prospects face
By clearly defining your ideal customers, you can tailor your messaging, outreach, and solutions to their needs.
4. Set Up a Lead Generation Funnel
A lead generation funnel outlines how potential customers move from awareness to becoming paying clients. Start by creating awareness through:
- Educational content
- Email campaigns
- Webinars
- Paid ads
As leads move through the funnel, use targeted outreach and nurturing tactics to engage them further until they’re ready to purchase, like:
- Personalized email sequences
- Demos
- Consultations
Navigating the B2B Sales Funnel: Key Milestones from Awareness to Decision
The most common milestones in the sales funnel include:
- Beginning (Awareness): The lead first becomes aware of your product or service, usually through marketing efforts like content, ads, or referrals.
- Middle (Consideration): The lead actively evaluates your solution, comparing it to other options and engaging with your sales team to gather more information.
- End (Decision): The lead makes a purchase decision, finalizing the sale and transitioning from prospect to customer.
5. Determine Key Activities Executed and Measured
Identify critical activities to drive results once your sales strategy is in place. This might include:
- Setting the number of outreach attempts
- Monitoring lead responses
- Tracking conversion rates at each funnel stage
Define success metrics such as lead-to-opportunity conversion rates, average deal size, or sales cycle length to ensure you measure the right KPIs and adapt when necessary.
6. Put Your Sales Strategy Into Action
Once your strategy is defined and your team is aligned, it’s time to implement your plan. Begin by:
- Executing outreach
- Nurturing leads through the funnel
- Closing deals
Ensure that your sales team has the right tools, such as CRM software and marketing automation platforms, to streamline the process and keep everything running smoothly.
Revolutionizing B2B Sales with AI: Aomni's Tools for Enhanced Strategy and Performance
Aomni is an AI agent platform designed specifically for B2B sales intelligence software. Our solution empowers enterprise and strategic account executives to execute account-based sales and marketing strategies with unprecedented efficiency and effectiveness. Our key features include:
- AI-powered prospect and account research
- Comprehensive account mapping and planning
- Data-driven sales strategy development
- Automated call preparation
- Personalized AI agents for sales optimization
- AI chat interface for streamlined sales processes
- AI-assisted Account Based Sales/Marketing campaign execution tool
Aomni addresses critical pain points for sales managers whose Account Executives, Account Managers, and Customer Success Managers must perform better and include quotas. By leveraging our advanced AI technology, sales professionals can significantly enhance their preparation for customer conversations, leading to the following:
- Larger deal closures
- Increased promotion opportunities
For individual sales professionals, Aomni provides the tools and insights needed to:
- Elevate their performance
- Close more substantial deals
- Accelerate career progression
Our platform transforms the way B2B sales teams operate, ensuring they enter every customer interaction:
- Fully prepared
- Strategically positioned for success
Try our sales intelligence software for free today!
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13 Best B2B Sales Tactics For Closing More Deals
1. Identify and Understand B2B Customers’ Needs
B2B customers typically have well-defined requirements. They know what they want, how much it costs, and when they need it. Sales reps must thoroughly understand these needs before developing a solution.
For example, a sales rep should ask, “What problems are you facing?” or “How is the current approach working for your business?” The answers will give them direction on where to start with solution development.
2. Analyze Your Market
Before you can start creating a B2B sales strategy to grow your business, analyzing the market first is key. Look at what other companies in the industry are doing and how they operate their own B2B marketing campaigns. You should also look for patterns on where these companies get most of their traffic.
When you analyze the market, try to imagine yourself from the perspective of potential customers.
- What are they looking for?
- How can you meet their needs with what your business has to offer?
This way, you’ll narrow down exactly who your target market is and how you can best reach them.
3. Research Your Customers’ Company
Doing your homework on the company you are selling to is crucial. If possible, speak with their current vendors or other business partners, as they’ll tell you what makes them tick and whether there is a good match for your product.
You can also look up information about them using Google. It might not always be accurate, but it can give you a good idea about their:
- Age
- Size
- Turnover
4. Create Case Studies With Existing Customers
The best way to sell a product is by showing how it has helped someone. This works particularly well for B2B companies as you can use case studies and testimonials from existing customers. Write out their problem and the solution you provided them, then outline some key results they achieved using your service or product.
5. Understand the Buyer’s Journey
A successful B2B sales strategy should be built around the buyer’s journey. This is a process that all potential customers will go through before eventually making a purchase, and you need to understand it so that you can guide them towards your product or service at each stage of the cycle.
6. Get Feedback From Your Customers
One of the best ways to improve your products or services is by asking for customer feedback. This will help you identify what they are unhappy about and work out where there may be room for improvement. It’s a good idea to do this regularly to deal with any problems as soon as possible before they become too big an issue.
7. Study Your Competitors
It’s also essential to study your competitors, as this will help you understand what they are doing well and where there is room for improvement. Find out:
- Who their customers are
- What makes them choose that business over others in the field
- How they sell themselves
This can be beneficial information when determining a B2B sales strategy of your own.
8. Implement Content Marketing
There are different types of content that you can use to reach your audience. Content marketing is an excellent way for B2B to spread their message and get in front of the eyes of potential customers. You don’t want to merely create blog articles but rather take an educational approach so that:
- Readers understand their problems
- Why they matter
- How your product or service will help them solve them
The more value you pack into each piece of content, the better your chance of turning visitors into leads, which then turn into paying customers.
9. Qualify Your Leads
One of the most critical steps to creating a B2B sales strategy is to qualify your leads. By doing this, you will already know which potential clients are worth spending time on (and those who aren’t). It takes more than just checking off some boxes for you to be able to determine whether or not a lead is right for your business.
Once they sign up and state their interest in speaking with someone from your company, check for connections between them and people within the organization. If so, build rapport through email before setting up a meeting date.
10. Be Responsive Toward Your Customers
Another thing you need to do if you want to succeed in B2B sales is to be responsive to your customers. This means responding quickly whenever they send requests or have questions about products and services, as long as it doesn’t strain the business.
If an issue presents itself before or after signing a deal, handle it properly by emailing you rather than waiting for them to contact you first.
11. Get Sales and Marketing Working Together
Just say no to friendly rivalries between sales and marketing. These teams should be all up in each other’s business. Sales talks to leads all day about the issues they’re struggling with and the product features they’d love to see. They can share those insights with marketing. Marketing can qualify high-potential leads for sales to connect with and provide relevant content for them to use.
When your company’s sales and marketing teams are closely aligned, you are primed to engage in account-based marketing (ABM). This approach treats every customer account as a market unto itself. A sales strategy based on ABM demands personalized messaging and content for each potential customer. It’s a resource-intensive approach, but over 80% of marketers believe it delivers a higher ROI than any other method.
12. Embrace Sales Enablement
Sales enablement is a strategic framework that allows sales teams to use their:
- Resources better
- Work smarter
- Win more deals.
Sales enablement begins by aligning your organization’s goals with your customers’ needs. Following are the five key action steps:
- Develop a process map outlining how specific business processes work.
- Embrace sales enablement technology.
- Implement sales automation.
- Apply analytics to gain insight into customer behavior.
- Manage customer success.
Harnessing Sales Enablement for Improved Conversion Rates and Stronger Customer Relationships
The impact of this strategy can be seen in the B2B industry, where companies can create highly effective sales enablement programs. The key results of this are increased conversion rates and more leads generated. The sales team is on the front lines of customer care. They have a unique opportunity to use sales enablement.
This process also helps them get more customer information and build stronger relationships. Sales enablement has proved to increase conversion rates by 15%. It can also help you reach new potential by identifying customer pain points and providing solutions.
13. Sell Solutions, Not Products
Successful salespeople sell the solution’s benefits, not just the product. They can engage their audience with solutions rather than products, which will lead to increased customer loyalty and long-term relationships. Solution sellers have more difficulty convincing their customers that they need a product or service than those who sell products alone.
They often have to rely on skilled salespeople who can do this for them, but solution sellers need to know how to sell their solutions in:
- Person
- Over the phone
- Online
Differentiating Your B2B Sales Strategy: The Power of Offering Solutions Over Products
It’s a great idea to get a free number and offer it to your customers, as it improves communication. B2B sales is a competitive game, and the competition is getting tougher as companies try to win over customers by selling solutions rather than products.
This strategy is effective for several reasons. One reason is that many companies offer similar solutions to different industries, possibly your sector as well. When you sell an answer, you can differentiate by highlighting the key and its benefits.
Major B2B Sales Challenges
B2B sales cycles are notoriously long. The products' complexity, the deals' size, and the stakes involved mean B2B sales can take time.
- For sellers, this means a lot of time spent on leads that may go nowhere.
- For buyers, this means a long, drawn-out process that can be frustrating.
The Trouble With Decision-Makers
B2B sales involve multiple decision-makers. In fact, research shows that the average B2B buying group consists of 10 people. Each of these stakeholders has individual goals, priorities, and concerns that influence how they evaluate your offering. As you might expect, this can complicate and slow the decision-making process.
Trust Is Everything in B2B Sales
B2B buyers aren’t just looking for a product; they are looking for a partner. Establishing credibility and building trust are essential, but they take time. Businesses need to feel confident in the reliability and value of their product or service before committing.
No One Likes to Talk About Pricing
Pricing discussions can be intense in B2B sales. Businesses often focus on cost efficiency, leading to many back-and-forth negotiations. Sellers must prove ROI and justify their price point to close deals.
Keeping Up with the Times
As digital technologies evolve, staying current is vital for B2B sellers to meet:
- Client expectations
- Streamline processes
- Remain competitive
Prospects won’t just expect you to use the latest tools. They’ll expect you to know how to implement them in their business.
Understanding Client Needs
Every client has unique goals and challenges that influence their buying decisions. Profoundly understanding these needs is crucial to making the sale. This can be challenging in B2B sales, where offerings are often complex and require a customized approach.
Standing Out in a Crowded Market
High competition is another hallmark of B2B sales. No matter what you’re selling, multiple competitors are likely vying for your prospects’ attention. This makes it hard to differentiate, and offering unique value or expertise often requires standing out.
Fostering Long-Term Relationships
B2B sales aren’t just about closing a deal but about maintaining a long-term relationship. Delivering ongoing value and support is critical for client retention.
Try Our Sales Intelligence Software for Free Today
Aomni helps sales professionals research and understand their prospects and accounts. Using AI, Aomni uncovers critical insights and information about:
- Prospects
- Existing customers
- Their broader organizations
This helps sales teams formulate effective strategies before engaging in a sales conversation.
With Aomni, you can expect to have personalized, automated call prep processes that help sales professionals get up to speed on calls and meetings quickly.
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