Boost Your B2B Sales with These 9 Simple Tactics

Closing a sale can be tricky, especially when you are in a B2B business.

Why?

Because, In B2B sales, it’s never an immediate “yes.” But while some salespeople struggle or lose out on deals there are few who make it look easy by always getting signatures on the dotted line.

How?

These salespeople know all the right tactics and they always use them. And, that’s what’s separate these sales closer from sales gatherers. Given below are 9 such tactics you can use to close big deals and become a sales closer:

1. Understand your prospects needs

No matter what industry you are in, knowing the prospects and understanding their needs is crucial to a quick close. Before you try to sell your products or services take the time to get to know the prospect – not just on a professional level, but on a personal level too. Invest time in truly getting to know what makes them tick. This will help you in anticipating and understanding the problems they’re facing.

Once you know the issues, they’re facing you can figure out how your products and services can help them. And, instead of trying to convince them by giving your sales pitch you can effectively communicate how your products or services can offer a satisfactory solution to those needs.

2. Listen more and talk less

Instead of trying to convince your prospects by making your best sales pitch, start by asking open-ended questions. Ask discovery questions and pay close attention to their answers this way you can uncover the largest business challenges your prospect are facing. You can then use this knowledge to show them how your product and services can benefit them and overcome any objections they may have.

Asking the right questions from the moment you strike up a conversation will not only help you in knowing your prospects better, but it will also help you in qualifying whether or not your business is a match for what they’re selling.

3. Focus on existing customers

The importance of selling more to the customers you already have can’t be overstated. Salespeople invest a lot of time to turn a prospect into a customer, but that needs to be coupled with making sure the folks who become customers stays as customers and turn into brand ambassadors.

Why?

Customer network can have a huge effect on your sales. According to research done by Small Business Trends, Eighty-five percent of small businesses report that referrals are their number one source of new business.

Creating a referral is an incredible sales tool that’s often underutilized. Make customers want to stay and eager to become brand advocates. When you provide exceptional value to your existing customers, they become natural brand advocates. Remember, customers create customers – build personal relationships, you can get referrals easily when you have good relationships with customers.

 4. Always follow-up

To close sales you need to be persistent.

Why?

Because according to studies only about 2% of sales will close on the first meeting.  That is a pretty low percentage. What that means, is that 98% of your prospects won’t turn into customers unless you follow-up. So, you need to continue to follow up with your prospects until you get a clear answer.

Now by follow-up, I don’t mean one or two sales calls or follow-up emails they will not seal the deal. Do you know “92% of salespeople give up after four ‘no’s’, but 80% of prospects say ‘no’ four times before they say ‘yes’.” So, if you are not following up with prospects, you’re just throwing money down the drain.

You need to continually follow up with the prospect until they are open to buying. But it’s not about following up to convert every single prospect all the time; it’s about making sure they’re never in the maybe zone. So, if they clearly tell you that they’re not interested you can leave them alone. But if they don’t respond keep following-up until they do. And trust me, 9 out of 10 times they do.

5. Sell them on what they are getting

The easiest way to close a sales is to remind the other party how great the deal is for them. You have to tell them how your products or services can help them. If you make them excited about what they’re getting, they’ll convert quickly. But most salespeople endlessly talk about their products and services – don’t make this mistake. Focus on “What your prospect will get and Why should they care?”

I’m not telling you not to talk about you’re your products or services. I am saying the main focus in your sales pitch should be the receiver – how they can benefit from the deal and not vice versa.

6. Always add value

A good salesman always focuses on adding value to their prospects lives instead of just winning their business.

How can you do that?

Well, give a lot of information to the prospects you work with about the industry and trends impacting them, even before they sign a deal. This way you can show them your expertise and prove to them that you are genuinely interested in helping them, even from the very first stage, even before the deal is closed. This helps in establishing trust from the starting. 

7. Learn when to leverage urgency and when not

Unless there is a strict timeline in which you have to close a sales or your offer is time-sensitive, don’t hurry up and pressurize your prospects to close the deal quickly. Giving your prospects time to think and decide shows that you’re not desperate to close the deal.

Remember, the urgency is a widely used tactic to close sales quickly, but unfortunately, if not used correctly this tactic can also lead to the deal failing in the initial stages of the sales.

8. Be firm, be flexible

You cannot always close a sales on your own terms – so be ready to make few concessions. But at the same time be firm about what you can’t do. And, walk away from the deal if you see it’s not going that way. Having the mindset of not constantly worrying about closing the sales and to be willing to move on will ultimately help you in closing better deals in long-term.

9. Promise what you can deliver

The ultimate aim of every salesperson is not just to create customers but to create customers for life. Now the question is how to create customers for life?

If you want to keep customers for the life you’ve to follow a few rules:

•    Set clear expectations from the beginning.
•    Provide value to your customers.  
•    Fulfill the promises you’ve made to them at the time of closing the sales, as it creates long-term relationships.

Now I know you might assume that every salesperson knows and follow these rules. However, that is not always the case. Most salespeople say whatever they think it would take to close a deal, then move on to the next prospects without thinking about the long-term consequences of this approach.

Remember, to land new customers you need to make a promise, to keep those customers you have to fulfill the promise.

These nine strategies are just a couple of ways that you can use to improve your B2B sales. Are you using them?