5 Marketing Tactics to Increase B2B Sales in 2018

Increasing B2B sales isn’t simply a matter of putting out your shingle and hoping that more customers will come your way. Businesses who purchase from you want to believe they have the right vendor at the right time for the right price. Because there are more people involved and there are higher price points, it can sometimes take months to close a B2B sale.

Related: 6 Sales and Marketing Ideas to Grow Your Business in 2018

As a business who markets to other businesses, how can you ‘tilt the playing field’ and make sure that when the customer is ready to buy, YOUR company is the only one that comes to mind?

1. Collect Honest Feedback

Feedback, whether received through surveys, in-person interactions, or email, is vital for both technical improvements to your site and funnels and your customer-facing work. Because in-depth and useful feedback from clients is hard to come by, it’s important that you take steps to automate the process and encourage your clients to provide you with more.

Talk with your clients. Find out what they liked and what they didn’t like. Talk about the number of steps that they took to get to the sale and the process that they went through. Ask them what about your company caught their attention.

Your customer’s needs are constantly evolving. By listening to what they are saying and keeping your ‘finger on the pulse’ you can stay ahead of the competition, making more sales for your company.

2. Try video

There are compelling reasons to have video on your site, but the biggest reason is that it’s one of the most effective means of selling your company’s product.  Customers and clients engage with video, often watching and engaging with the shorter ones for the entirety of the clip.

Related: What are the Economies of Scale?

Here are some noteworthy statistics about video marketing.

• 43% of customers want to see more video from marketers
• 9% of marketers name video as the type of content with the highest ROI
• 4x as many customers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it
• Shoppers who view video are 1.81x more likely to purchase than non-video viewers
• 4 in 5 customers believe that demo videos are helpful

Related: Innovation in your Business Analytics Products 2018

Depending on your products, your videos can have many purposes.

• How-to videos explaining a single part of your product.
• Explainer videos that outline what your company does and how it does it.
• Funny videos designed to get others to think about your product.
• Video testimonials from your clients to persuade others.

3. Upselling and cross-selling

Upselling and cross-selling have increased sales of B2B and B2C companies for ages. Upselling simply offers a higher version of the product itself. Cross-selling offers related products to your clients.

Upselling

Amazon has this tactic down cold. For instance, If you place an order for a laptop, you will inevitably be asked whether you want to upgrade the memory card or get a better one. While it might seem like a logical thing to do but shown to billions of people every day can really boost your sales. The intent behind this is showing the customers that he could get a better product by spending a little extra.

Cross-Selling

The McDonald’s sales force are also pros at this tactic.  Cross-selling offers your client something different but related to the first product. For instance, you’ll most likely be asked the famous question, ‘would you like fries with that?’ or the less leading, ‘will that complete your order?’ with every order. This gives McDonald’s customers to look at the menu for another few moments, pondering their next tasty treat.

Related: How B2B Buyers Search for Tech Solutions

Cross-selling and upselling tactics can be applied to nearly any business who wants to improve its bottom line and increase B2B sales. By offering multiple versions of the same service or related services, you can create a selling juggernaut with your already ‘warm’ clients.

4. Events

Local events can boost your bottom line like nothing else because they allow you to put a face to the name of the client. Savvy businesses regularly hold events to keep their brand at the top of mind for their customers.  Here are some statistics about event marketing for your reading pleasure. Certain has gathered over 75 statistics for a larger view of the event marketing picture. Here are a few:

• 84% of consumers repurchase the product promoted at the event, after their first purchase (EventTrack Study)
• 51% of marketers surveyed believe that events strengthen existing customer relationships (Marketing Charts)
• 60% of marketers use tradeshows and events for face-to-face customer meetings (Marketing Charts)
• 58% of marketers believe that events and conferences are important ways to improve customer experiences of their services or products (E-Strategy Trends)
• 31% of event marketers believe that trade shows, conferences, conventions, and channel events are essential to doing business in their target customer markets (Marketing Charts)
• 69% of B2B marketers consider in-person events effective (Sensible Marketing)
• The top 5 B2B content marketing tactics: Social Media Content (92%); eNewletters (83%); Articles on your Web Site (81%); Blogs (80%); In-Person Events (77%). (IMN Inc.)

Related: 7 Creative Ways to Build Rapport During B2B Sales Calls

The event that you hold doesn’t have to be something incredibly formal. You can set up something on Meetup for your clients to attend.  By offering your clients something different to get them in the door, you are getting your brand to stand out and receive more sales. 

5. Case studies

Whether Your business constantly generates data and whether you have hired a marketing agency or you are the one doing all the SEO, leveraging that data into the creation of case studies is crucial for your business. Case studies generates fuel for the fire to get more clients interested in your product or service because it’s measurable proof of what your company does.

73% of buyers used case studies in B2B purchasing decisions (2016 DemandGen Report).  Fortunately, developing a case study mostly involves the collation of materials rather than the creation of new materials. Look at your customer successes.  Are there ways that you can parlay that into viable case studies?

These 5 marketing tactics to increase B2B sales are by no means the only way to capture the attention from customers and get more money from each of them. Each of them has their pros and cons, but all of them have the chance to increase your bottom line. What can you do to increase your company’s bottom line?

Source: Tenfold