According to the well-known business trainer and sales theorist Jill Konrath, the most characteristic difference between the B2B-sphere is the role of the seller. Given the popularity of some products and services, the offerings of most companies are not very different from each other. But even when looking at the same offerings, customers always hope to get a unique experience.
In this regard, B2B-entrepreneurs have almost unlimited control over indicators and results. Faced with failures, they try to make their product more customer-oriented.
Whatever your business niche, there are several axioms that you should follow to sell even more to almost anyone.
Content of the article
- Concentrate on the customers
- Do a preliminary study
- Identify your buyer
- Help me first, then sell
- Learn to ask and listen
- Remember the psychological quirks
- Communicate on the same level
- Complete your offer with emotion
- Remember what you’re selling to a man
Concentrate on the customers
Do you have any friends who talk about themselves all the time? You have to admit that sometimes they are just unbearable. Customers react in the same way to too many references to brands and offers. You find this information informative and important, but customers perceive it differently.
The basic rule of sales is to be completely customer-centric. Every letter, every content should be created with the thought of the customer in mind. Ask yourself all the time: “Why is it profitable for the customer?” and improve your interaction with the target audience.
The basis of the buyer-oriented offer is the same for all types of services and goods:
- communicate the value of your offer to your target audience in a clear and concise manner;
- Explain the key differences between your product and your competitors;
- Describe the benefits to the customer;
- Describe the main needs and concerns of your target audience and emphasize that your offer is the ideal solution to these challenges;
- Avoid using an excellent degree: “best of breed”, “world-class product”, etc;
- use publicly available language to make the essence of your offer clear to all target audience segments;
- speak the language of your potential clients, avoiding complex business language and the pronouns “we”, “our” and “I”.
An example of compliance with all the above rules is any landing page of our developed projects
Do a preliminary study
Do you want your visitors to spend time studying your offer? Then you will have to spend time on visitors first. Social networks allow you to find a lot of useful information about the values and habits of customers, and you should definitely analyze this data before you start any communication with the customer (cold calls, letters, etc.).
In fact, it is not difficult and extremely useful to find out additional information about the leader who left the application before you make the call. Depending on the sales cycle, it takes 5-10 minutes to study one potential customer.
Here are the sources that will be useful for you during the research:
- Twitter (client and company account)
- Company Press Releases Page
- Competitor Press Releases Page
- Blogs
- Google (client and company)
- VKontakte
By the way, all requests from your landings created in the LPgenerator editor are received in your CRM in your personal cabinet located in the “Lids” section. By default, the notifications about new leads are sent to your registration email, but you can change it at any time or even set up receiving information by SMS.
Identify your buyer
Successful sales largely depend on the product’s compliance with the target market. By taking the time to identify your “perfect customer” and classify your potential customers, you will certainly increase your sales.
Marketing strategy without relying on Buyer Persona creates additional pressure on your sales managers: without a clear image of the customer, they can not competently conduct the transaction (and even more so close it), as well as explain to the user why your product will save him from “pain”. Even the best sellers may lose customers because of this.
By finding the people who really fit your offer, you will be able to minimize bad leads and focus on prospective buyers. Read more about why you need a perfect customer image, or Buyer Persona.
Help me first, then sell
When you identify your target audience, do not try to convince them immediately that your proposal is flawless. Remember that customers do not know anything about the product yet.
Try not to rush things – so you risk making potential customers angry or frightened. Instead, offer them support. You can give them access to useful content or suggest a solution to an obsessive problem. By positioning yourself in this way, you will be able to find a more receptive audience and demonstrate the offer in the best possible light.
In marketing, this kind of useful content that contributes to lidogeneration is called lead-magnet. This is the same incentive that encourages visitors to your lendings to leave you their email address in exchange for something you need: a guide, a training course or a code to get a discount.
Learn to ask and listen
Even the most thorough research will not allow you to learn everything about customers. To solve a problem, you need to find out what the problem is first, so talk to your customers and ask them as many questions as you can.
Here’s a witty example from sales trainer Rick Roberge:
- How did this happen?
- Has it always been like this?
- Where is the solution to this problem?
- And how do you cope?
Show interest. A list of questions will serve as a starting point for you, but if the conversation with the client takes an unexpected turn, you will have to improvise. People like to talk about themselves and their problems, so they will respond positively to your curiosity.
Having asked the buyer a question, just keep quiet and listen. Try to listen to every word he says to get the best possible understanding of the situation. By showing your client your sincere interest, you will increase your chances of successful completion of the deal.
Remember the psychological quirks
In some circumstances, our brain reacts in a strange way, and you can use such psychological tricks for the benefit of your business.
Let’s list just a few of these quirks:
- Anchor effect. The information we have read from the beginning serves as an “anchor” for judgments on all subsequent information.
- The effect of bait. The presence of the third option often helps the client to determine between the two options.
- Rhyming effect. Rhyming sentences sound more plausible than usual.
- Loss aversion. We react more strongly to the potential loss of something than to the possibility of getting something new.
- Pick-end rule. The end and climax of the presentation is brighter than any other part of it.
Communicate on the same level
Of course, the seller has to implement his individual developments in sales, but it is necessary to do it only for the benefit of the buyer. Adapt your approach to the personal qualities of potential customers so that they take your offer more seriously.
Below is a brief overview of the four main types of personality:
- Pushy. Interested in the end result.
- Friendly. Interested in creative ideas and a deep understanding of everything around them.
- Expressive. Interested in communication with people and the influence of ideas on human behavior.
- Analysts. Interested in facts, figures and data.
Once you have defined your target audience, play on your customers’ preferences and values. Refine your text content to reflect new information, addressing the most important customer issues.
Complete your offer with emotion
In fact, there is no such thing as a completely rational solution. Whether we like it or not, our perception of information and decision-making is always emotional. For this reason, you are making a huge mistake by relying solely on the logic of the customer.
Every sales message, presentation or meeting must involve both rational thinking and emotion. According to sales expert Geoffrey James, the emotions listed below have a significant impact on the purchase decision:
- Greed
- Fear…
- Altruism
- Jealousy.
- Pride.
- Shame on you.
As you can see, here are some very unpleasant human feelings, which means that emotional appeals can have the opposite effect.
Think carefully about your statements if you don’t want your customers to associate your company with something bad. Also, do not try to cover all the sensations – one or two will be enough.
Remember what you’re selling to a man
By sending hundreds of emails daily through the subscriber base, it is easy to forget that the Lids are real people who are interested in and deserve good treatment.
Before sending another newsletter, test it on your own example – ask yourself: “Will I like this letter?”, “Do I want to get this voice mail? If the answer is no, it is likely that your clients will react in the same way.
Professional qualities play an important role in sales, but humanity also matters here. Your customers don’t live in the workplace alone, and they are passionate about a wide variety of things. Make a powerful connection with them by taking the conversation to a more personal level at every opportunity. Remember, you don’t always have to talk about business.
But at the same time, when it comes to finding a solution to a particular problem, it’s not enough to create a product – it’s important that the user finds it.
Even if you have set up ads in search engines or social networks, paid advertising traffic is much more effective to convert with landing pages than from the main site: a person immediately receives the offer that is relevant to his request.
And since Lending is created to generate leads, which is then processed by the sales department or call-center, to offer a potential client free consultation is much easier than to make him pull out his credit card.