Strategies to Adapt, Drive & Grow Your B2B Sales after COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has led B2B customers and sellers to go digital extensively. The initial crisis management techniques of going virtual have become the new standard methods of B2B sales. The virtual world has brought great opportunities along with some significant implications for both sellers and customers. Therefore, B2B sellers need to revamp their plans for performing interactions and follow-ups with buyers on various digital platforms. 

Since the crisis began, prominent research firms have surveyed prospects, market trends, and opportunities across various industries and organizations of diverse sizes. Following are some significant survey and research findings that B2B sales reps must consider for creating effective sales action plans post-pandemic. 

Rediscover Your B2B Customers by Staying Relevant

Instead of focusing on pre-pandemic customer insights, it is essential to consider the most relevant insights that show how the priorities of B2B buyers are changing after COVID-19. It has caused an enormous shift in demand generation throughout the world economy. In many cases, the crisis has driven growth in demand led by the nationwide lockdown. 

In response, business leaders have started devising innovative techniques to tap into the increased demand and changing customers’ needs by proactively reaching out to their customers. Sellers are crafting more empathetic and personalized follow-up messaging to convert customer needs into personalized sales solutions. Business leaders focus on a powerful combination of one-to-one communication based on predictive analytics and AI-based technologies to create more meaningful customer interactions to survive unforeseen future challenges.

How B2B sellers need to respond: 

To identify their customers, changing needs, and preferences to win them. 

• To create a real-time customer view of their customers, B2B sellers need to start rediscovering their customers and identifying their changing needs in changing markets. They need to create new situational awareness programs with updated, customer-centric insights. 

• Improve customer outreach proactively with the right message, at the right time, and with the right customers. Timely, relevant, and customized messaging can help your sales reps accurately address each customer’s unique needs. Consistent messaging and outreach using digital and in-person interactions will help your representatives stay in sync with targeted customers and decision-makers. Use virtual communication assistant tools to set up automated chat solutions to improve responsiveness for targeting customer inquiries, service needs, and sales. 

• Improve customer listening to learn and adapt sales strategies in real-time. Practice proactive customer feedback analysis with your go-to-market teams to identify evolving needs before your competitors. Collect marketing campaign result data and insightful feedback from the client response team. Measure and identify responses by industries, segments, size, and channels. 

Refocus the Salesforce, Define the New Journey

Government-mandated social distancing guidelines have compelled businesses to transform their in-field sales process to digital sales for the unforeseeable future. Innovative companies are realigning and revamping their sales and overall business models to boost their digital sales effectiveness to thrive in new and different times. Many companies have redefined their sales approaches and buying journeys to uncover new customer facts and new sales opportunities. Newly discovered moments of truth have led them to streamline their sales approaches to deliver timely and relevant product solutions and convenience to all targeted customers. 

According to Accenture research, 46% of SMBs have invested in technologies and resources to provide better contactless, online, and virtual communications and devise new approaches to use online tools to improve B2B sales practices and maintain business continuity. The industry-wide shift to the digital-first methods has fueled a steady increase in B2B sales teams’ tech-savviness. Hence, new technologies have come to aid many sales teams in recovering from the crisis and finding new opportunities, even though the worldwide pandemic has hit B2B sales operations at many levels. 

How B2B sellers need to respond: 

Focus on the most potent opportunities and thrive for B2B sales success.

• During an economic downturn, businesses should narrow down on quality more than quantity to boost the scope of conversions from potential opportunities. Therefore, sales teams need to prioritize high-value opportunities instead of considering various unqualified options. Accordingly, prioritize your top sales talent to handle high-value opportunities, decision-makers, and customer segments.

• Pay attention to the communication tools, and target customers’ problems and challenges closely to discover the “moments of truth” while you, customer response, or marketers interact with your customers. Make sure you create empathetic and relevant messages to harness these “moments of truth” and look beyond the usual places when looking for leads. Social media comments and interactions, customer service interactions, and referrals from existing customers can be great places to look for potential customers who are genuinely interested in making orders.  

• Instead of creating a mere digital presence, it is essential to identify opportunities in digital interactions. Combine virtual (telepresence) communications with your digital interactions to build personal connections with your buyers. 

• To ensure winning consistently, you need to invest in the competitor analysis and current market pricing to create the best offer for every deal. Update your sales materials and strategies consistently to position your products and services to meet your customers’ latest needs and challenges. Also, update your sales coaching tactics to train sales teams on contemporary digital and virtual sales execution techniques and tools. 

Revamp the offer by implementing new approaches, pitches, and terms 

The economic downturn caused by COVID-19 has led to a steep decline in revenues and overall market capitalization. B2B sales teams need to prepare for changing market trends, the economic landscape, customers’ purchase power, and patterns to stay relevant. Therefore, make sure your sales teams practice tests, measure and learn, and redesign and reposition offers and sales messaging to fit customers’ current priorities and challenges. While pursuing new customers, B2B sales teams should not forget about existing customers. In addition to prioritizing new potential opportunities, plan creative strategies to retain existing customers to recapture growth in the post-COVID-19 phase.

How B2B sellers need to respond: 

Meet customers’ changing needs by revising dynamic offers

• Identify new demands and opportunities by continuously scanning for demand changes across different regions, countries, and local markets. Tap into new customer data sources and AI tools to predict the latest propensity-to-purchase shifts in real-time. 
• Build cross-functional teams to offer new services and enhancements by implementing an agile experiment, testing, measuring learning, and revising approaches. Assist with existing products and solutions to exceed your customers’ unmet expectations. Create a bundle and packaged offers to provide hybrid solutions to work-from-home businesses that are more focused on pandemic and post-pandemic times. For example, you can offer package complementary and value-added solutions to win big around core offers. 

At the same time, it is vital to understand your customers’ present financial viability to optimize your sales offers by extending credit, feasible payment schemes, and reducing repayment risks. 

Do you find B2B sales techniques helpful to address COVID-19 challenges? Share your thoughts and ideas. 
Also, in case you need our professional assistance with your b2b sales then, Marrina Decisions can help. Contact us anytime or simply say “Hello” at info@marrinadecisions.com. You can also DM us on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.