How to Increase B2B Sales

Every company is looking to make a profit – if there was a single golden ticket for how to increase b2b sales, we’d all be raking in the cash. While sales CRMs have made the sales process more predictable and easier to manage, nothing can beat the skills of a talented salesperson.

At Acquirent, we understand that even as we adopt new methods for building out leads and conversions, the same proven strategies continue to bring us success. Our five pillars of sales success are designed to work hand-in-hand with how businesses can generate more profit, helping to increase revenue from b2b sales.

Below, we outline the methods we employ when helping businesses grow their sales pipeline using our five-pillar method of sales.

How to Increase B2B Sales

Product Knowledge: Understanding the Ideal Customer Profile and Asking Good Questions

Before picking up the phones, we teach our salespeople how to research their target demographic. In lead generation, we look at what is called the “ideal customer profile”.

The ideal customer profile, or ICP, is a broad target for filling up the top of the sales funnel with qualified leads. The ICP is measured by certain criteria such as industry, company size, job position, business goals, and other traits. Essentially, we’re looking to make sure that our salesperson is speaking with a decision-maker who is interested in your product or service.

This isn’t as easy as it sounds on paper! Generating leads and closes depends not only on calling in to the right companies, but ensuring that you’re speaking to the right person. For instance, if you’re calling into a sales company and offer them “better and more qualified leads”, any salesperson would jump at the opportunity. You’ll only be able to make a close, however, if you’re speaking to a decision maker.

Understanding a product or service, and asking the right questions to determine that you’re speaking with the correct people, are the only ways to truly understand that you’re talking to the right person. For this reason, continuous training is a critical element of what we do at Acquirent.

Positive Attitude: A Personal Approach to Cold Calling

As a business leader, you’ve likely found yourself in situations where people have cold called you. How did you respond to that call? If the salesperson on the other end of the phone was reading verbatim off of the script, you probably wouldn’t care if you were told you had just won a million dollars.

Positive attitude is everything when it comes to lead generation. SDRs and BDRs have to deal with a lot of ongoing rejection every hour – that number shrinks significantly when people are hungry for that next deal. A personalized call can open doors and makes the person on the other end of the call feel heard, and makes them less hesitant to close up around strangers.

Grit: Powering Through Cold Calls

Cold calling is a hard job. While many claim that “cold calling is dead”, it remains a surprisingly effective avenue for generating leads and closes.

With the rise of sales enablement technologies, many have opted towards impersonal methods of communication, such as emails or social media marketing. These tools are indispensable for generating leads, but should only be considered part of a complete sales toolkit. By relying on these methods alone, you are missing out on a large segment of leads ready to close!

Experts are increasingly turning to the fact that sales and marketing need better alignment. This doesn’t mean opting for one over the other, but embracing both. Partnering with an outsourced b2b sales agency can help ensure that these needs are accounted for.

Shut Up and Listen: Respecting the Nature of the Call

The question of how to increase b2b sales often boils down to a single word: respect. To win over a client, salespeople have to understand that they are taking up another person’s time. Are you providing them with value? Are you respectful of their time commitments?

Junior sales talent will often try to pitch as many details as possible, talking over a prospect in order to cram as much info as possible into a small time frame. Not only does this look unprofessional, it shows that their sale is the only thing that matters. Active listening has proven to be one of the best methods for telling a potential lead “I hear you, and your voice matters.”

The Solution for How to Increase B2B Sales is Positive Empathy

Increasing B2B sales depends on the ability to identify who a salesperson needs to speak with, providing them with relevant information, and giving them the space to respond. At Acquirent, we use our five pillars of sales success to put the pieces together, providing leads, closes, and revenue to our clients. Contact us today for more information about our services.