Let's be honest: the 21st century has been a series of struggles – or at the least a rollercoaster ride – for many businesses. As we weather the economic fallout from coronavirus, it's even more important to fine tune your conversion rate and make each sale count. However, despite hard work and dedication, for many businesses the same objections and barriers come up time and again, with promising inbound leads falling by the wayside. Get better sales results from today by overcoming these essential barriers.
1. The Human Factor
Relationships are at the heart of every B2B transaction. Sales teams should be familiar with the importance of establishing a relationship, building rapport, and developing a connection with prospects, and not just pushing a sale to grab a quick commission.
In the world of digital engagement, building relationships can be a struggle, even with a sophisticated range of social media tools available to businesses. Social distancing makes physical relationship building even more problematic. Email is an incredibly useful form of communication for people working remotely. However, when it comes to establishing rapport, a phone or video conversation can work much better. Nothing beats face-to-face communication, but this is not always possible - especially at the moment.
Ensure that the members of your sales team understand how to build rapport, and to deploy body language effectively on video-conferencing. They should learn to recognise communication styles and look for the key skills to develop and maintain relationships.
2. Establishing Urgency
A prospect may be interested in your service in principle - but they won't commit to buy unless you can establish urgency. This needs to be at the heart of your sales experience.
How can you establish urgency? The most important thing is to understand why your prospect wants to buy your product. Look at it from their point of view; show that you have identified their problem, you understand it, and explain why and how your business can provide the right solution. Be 100% candid and transparent, and let your goods sell themselves. You need to be able to genuinely explain how, and in what ways, your product or service will provide immediate value. Without this, any attempt to establish urgency will come across as pushy and inauthentic, and could alienate a promising lead.
3. The ‘Outsider Test’
You may wish to develop a sales portfolio with case studies and financial data, explaining your implementation process, timescales, and ROI projections. To get this to work, you will need empathy; imagine yourself as an outsider and put yourself in your prospect's shoes. What would you need to see or hear to convince you (as an outsider) that your business is a safe investment. It can be a good idea to work with a business development partner to fully understand what your prospective market may be thinking.
4. Price and Value
If prospects regularly turn you down because of their budget, then this needs some consideration.
There are two potential issues here: the first is that you are targeting the wrong prospects. Work with a business growth specialist to ensure that you have correctly identified your ideal customer base, with the appropriate financial means to sustain your services. You may need to fine tune your targeting, or work out a deeper customer profile. The second potential issue is that you have the right prospects, but they don't recognise the value of your product. This means that it's up to you to prove value, and describe how your service benefits customers in terms of ROI.
Take a look at the competition to see what they're doing, particularly if you are losing potential sales to them. Then develop your own strategy.
Depending on the nature of your product, you might find that free trials and demonstrations can help you here, and you may have some flexibility in offering discount packages or undercutting competitors. But be proud of your pricing and don’t be afraid to stand tall and justify it. Always cutting prices makes your business look desperate or on shaky financial ground – and no prospect benefits from a price so low that you’re unable to deliver a quality service. To illustrate the value of working with you, seek out feedback from existing, satisfied customers that you can use as a selling point. Prepare case studies that you can show prospects, highlighting how you can help them.
Find Out More
When you overcome these obstacles, you'll build deeper connections with your prospects and enjoy greater sales success. For a practical roadmap to achieving your growth targets, get in touch with JDR today.
Image source: Unsplash
