Covid-19 has affected nearly every aspect of life, in every corner of the globe. This, in turn, has caused businesses of all types to reconsider everything from supply chains and sourcing to sales and customer service. Companies that were unable to quickly adapt to this “new” or rather “next normal” have lost market share or closed their doors. To ensure survival, it is crucial to act boldly and embrace the new ways of doing things. Business leaders must be agile and decisive, confronting the unpredictable and turning setbacks into opportunities. Enterprises who will succeed in this new world must take strategic steps to combat the economic effects of the coronavirus, grabbing a larger slice of the pie by outcompeting the competition. Here are five strategies to help you capture new B2B opportunities and thrive in an uncertain environment.
1. Don’t just sell, create experiences
The old truism “the customer comes first” is now more relevant than ever, especially for B2B sales. But it’s not enough to provide superior offerings and services. To be a leader in the new order, it’s vital to find new ways to understand the changing needs of clients and create sales experiences.
The buying process must become a foundation of your approach. This means adopting a digital transformation and placing special emphasis on customer experience, or CX. According to a survey from Gartner, 81% of businesses plan on competing on the basis of CX by 2022. This includes, but is not limited to, rapid client on-boarding and fulfillment, easy online-ordering and website navigation, video-based services and cloud solutions. Becoming a CX evangelist could very well be the difference between success and failure.1
2. Use data to your advantage
Even before COVID19, advanced analitics were on the rise. The use of data to overcome organizational hurdles like delivery methods and sales practices was progressing, slowly but surely. Unfortunately, the coronavirus eliminated the luxury of time.
Organizations that have invested in methods to centralize analytics and decision-making approaches across channels are doing well, and yet research by McKinsey found only 30% of organizations have aligned their analytics with their broader corporate strategy.2
If you haven’t already, now is the time to invest in advanced analytics and KPI dashboards. The data they provide is invaluable for informing strategic and financial decisions, measuring performance, optimizing sales assets, and engaging customers.
At Knightsbridge, we ensure that the most critical sales action KPI’s are measured as to draw accurate inferences as to what’s working, and what is not.
3. Reimagine your sales approach
Very few businesses have managed to navigate the current economic turmoil unscathed, with 50% of B2B buyers putting purchasing on hold. But the impact isn’t consistent across all industries. Some industries like hospitality and travel have been hit disproportionately, while others, including technology, ecommerce and marketing, have been less effected.
As many as half of B2B buyers are still moving forward with purchases, but this area of sales is not without its challenges. To successfully propel your business forward, you must adopt some new sales approaches and new sales collateral. Your approach should effectively capture, compel, and close prospective clients on your offering within this new digital sales environment.
Rethink your leads and reinvigorate the sales journey. Double-down on high-value opportunities by sourcing new leads from promising social media exchanges, customer referrals and B2B referral networks. Focus on the highest value and probability opportunities.
Rethink your sales model and playbook to carve out a competitive advantage. Our proven and guaranteed Capture | Compel | Close sales methodology creates ways to elevate the core sales interaction moments that maJer. Ensure your sales team is up to date on the latest, most innovative digital and virtual deal execution methods and tools.
4. Leverage digital
Now is the time to embrace digital interaction channels to stay in contact with customers. Invest in tools that will advance your understanding of their needs and behaviors, enhance prospecting and improve collaboration. Keep sales teams closely connected to improve efficiency, even when they are physically separated. From meeting preparation and scheduling apps to CRM dashboards, put technology to work for you.
Likewise, it’s important to leverage the power of technologies like video conferencing to keep sales meetings rolling. It’s still of vital importance to provide value to prospects, but video interaction has shifted the focus of this value to the front-end of interactions. Tools, guides and workbooks not only help target clients, but they assist in outreach as they lead with value instead of an ask.
5. Be transparent
Post-pandemic customers demand a higher level of transparency and visibility. This is especially true for B2B companies. Being fully transparent means letting your customers know the errors, problems or obstacles that could potentially affect their desired outcome. Additionally, pricing transparency emphasizes value, while simultaneously reducing uncertainty.
The need to trust is high for prospective clients as they are not meeting you in person during the sales process. We recommend a highly strategic and targeted PR campaign to ensure that you have publicly available case studies, testimonials, and reviews to provide peace of mind to potential clients. Sirius Decisions’ 2019 B2B Buying Study found that 42% of buyers trust their peers’ opinions when making a purchase decision, highlighting the
importance of connection and presenting businesses with an opportunity.
To maximize sales, you must also be transparent with your customers about your pricing, as well as your service delivery plans and how they will affect them moving forward. Honest direct communication is a cardinal rule to follow and to be of service first.
1https://www.gartner.com/en/marketing/insights/customer-experience
2https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/artificial-intelligence/global-ai-survey- ai-proves-its-worth-but-few-scale-impact
3https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/survey-us-b2b-decision-maker-response-to-covid-19-crisis
4https://www.bain.com/contentassets/5ea802ac361f4e39b372313a9303e4f4/virtualb2bselling2.pdfhJps://www.demandgenreport.com/features/industry- insights/trust-and- transparency-becoming-essential-to-engage-current-b2b-buyers-according- to-new-siriusdecisions-research