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The rules of B2B have changed. If you sell anything to organizations, you have either gone through a digital transformation or are in the middle of one – if not, right now is the time to take action!
Gone is the era of the enterprise salesperson who visits clients ready to impress with a color printout and a fancy briefcase. Today's B2B buyers are digital natives who grew up with the internet and know the time savings of researching and purchasing online.
Yep, these selfie-taking, Starbucks-loving, well-educated smartphone pioneers are now the largest cohort in the workplace. If you are selling B2B, you need to make the buying experience work for them. And customer experience = digital.
Most growth plans for today’s B2B software/SaaS/digital product companies revolve around the digitalization of the sales process. B2C companies have been doing this for years, but it’s a bit more complicated for B2B companies.
Yes, to be successful in today’s B2C and B2B environment, you need to digitalize the sales process and have a world-class buying experience on multiple channels. But also, by offering lower-priced, single-seat versions of your product (even free trials), you remove the need for a salesperson to close the deal – thus removing the complication, costs and time as well. You also provide an excellent lead generation pipeline for your sales teams. Let me explain…
By making entry inexpensive and easy (hello free trials), you can gain a foothold of happy customers within a company. Small wins accumulate over time, creating momentum that gains attention – making it easier for a salesperson to step in and land those big deals. “Hey there Millennial B2B leader, I see you’ve got 20 -30 people using our products. Did you know that is costing you more? Let’s talk about an enterprise agreement, so you can save money and have improved clarity and governance.”
Benefits for sales team/company
- Ability to focus on higher-value tickets because the small ones are taken care of
- Easier way to generate leads because employees are already using your product
- Self-service purchases save time and money
Benefits for buyers
- Easy, comfortable purchasing experience
- Ability to have power over purchase
With technology and minimal effort, you can make your product available for employees in any department to purchase - and then those employees tell their colleagues. Before you know it, you’ve got 10, 20, 30 seats within a company. That’s when an experienced sales rep steps in to share insights and sell an enterprise-wide license.
To make this “land and expand” strategy possible and grow customer lifetime value, you need to have an automated process.
This is the future of B2B sales. Your customers are informed and well researched on your product before they even speak to you. They get all the information they need about your product online, through analyst reports, YouTube videos, customer reviews, etc. They feel completely comfortable purchasing online and don’t want to be forced to talk to a sales rep. In fact, according to McKinsey, two-thirds of corporate customers intentionally choose digital or remote engagement when given a choice.
We know it’s not easy enacting monumental changes like this in a company – especially if the company has been around a while and has been successful. B2B is traditionally more sales assisted. However, B2B sales is moving quickly into a new direction. You need to incorporate digital into your sales process. If you don’t, you will eventually be left in the millennial dust.
So, you need to automate your sales process. However, transformation is never just about technology (says the CTO). It’s just as much about the people and processes. Yes, you need the tools. But you also need support, expert advice and cooperation from the right partner. Not just to provide the tools to digitalize, but also show you how to be successful.
The right partner can help you figure out which digital processes work best for your company strategy and comfort level.
Maybe you’re not completely ready to jump into the cold water and go feet-first using an off-the-shelf product. Maybe you’d like to dip your toes in and see how it feels… An expert eCommerce partner can help you figure out the best moves depending on the unique aspects of your organization. I know here at cleverbridge, we work with people every day who are taking the lead on this digital transformation for their companies.
We are here. We can help you navigate through this. From implementing powerful tools to automate online purchasing to designing a new workflow for your sales team, cleverbridge can serve as an expert guide for this critical evolution.
