What is Meant by the Term B2B Sales? 

B2B sales mean business-to-business sales. It’s when a business sells its products or services to another business. These types of sales are more complex than B2C business-to-consumer sales. Members of B2B sales teams usually sell to professional buyers who are trained to get the best possible deal.

The B2B Sales Process

 This process refers to the type of steps or a journey that a buyer needs to take before they make a purchase. The duty of a salesperson is to get as many buyers at the end of the buying process to close a deal as possible.

 Let’s see what the sales process looks like:

The B2B Sales Funnel

 Usually, a sales funnel conveys the journey from awareness – which is when the buyer first becomes aware of a company’s product or service – to purchase. Then it comes to B2B brands, the marketing team is responsible for getting as many prospects at the start of the funnel.

 The sales team then joins the process after the buyer displays interest in a product or service and help convince them to buy. Though the exact point at which the sales team takes over depends on the individual business models.

B2B Sales Funnel Stages

 Even though the sales funnel portrays the buying process as a separate linear journey, it’s not exactly the case. That’s because buyers can enter and then leave the funnel at different stages, finish the purchase without really speaking to a sales rep and move in-between spaces whenever they want. The sales funnel is a great way to envision the steps that a buyer takes to make a purchase, without coming off as rigid as it was some decades ago.

How the Sales Process of B2B Has Changed

 These days, buyers are getting more control of the sales process than ever before. About half of the buyers that carry out initial research are millennials and more digital savvy than before are now responsible for the decision-making process at their companies. The results say a lot, 68% of the buyers prefer to research online on their own, using review and social media sites as their main source of information.

 Right after the buyers conduct their research, they’ll identify the companies that they want to reach out to, along with visiting their sites and controlling the buying process.

B2B Sales Strategies and Tactics

 Here are some of the newer and subtle ways in which sales rep connect with prospects:

Social Selling

This involves the use of social media platforms – especially LinkedIn for B2B – to both identify and engage with prospects. But the goal here is not to jump right away into the prospect’s inbox and pitch them online, but rather establish a relationship, have engaging conversations with them and get to know their needs. Once you get this, you’ll be able to influence the decision-making process better.

Sales Tools

With the right tools, the B2B sales team will be able to identify their anonymous website buyers. A great example of this would be a website visitor identification software.