The article below discusses the different ways to build a B2B sales strategy. It discusses various effective sales techniques like customer acquisition, sales marketing, and goal-setting.

Moreover, the steps offer a strong foundation for creating sales strategy templates that you can use over time. It also provides examples of sales strategies that you can take inspiration for your unique sales goals.

What is a B2B Sales Strategy?

A B2B sales strategy is a detailed plan that outlines a company’s approach to selling its product or service. It’s a long-term plan with goals of increasing sales revenue, expanding market share, and achieving sustainable growth.

Furthermore, a well-developed B2B sales strategy considers factors such as market conditions, competition, as well as the company’s value proposition. It also provides sales engagement points to equip salespeople with proper communication techniques.

Why is a B2B Sales Strategy Important?

A sales strategy is important because it prepares a business for current and future sales activities. It helps the company organize its revenue growth endeavors that are in line with its goals.

According to Lightspeed’s 2023 GTM & Sales Benchmark Report, 40 percent of companies saw a decrease in sales win rates. Moreover, 30 percent of companies saw a decline in wins by over 11 percent. With that in mind, a business needs to have a sales strategy so it can build a robust sales framework.

Types of B2B Sales Strategy

Various types of sales strategies are typically categorized under inbound sales strategies and outbound sales strategies. These two strategies have different means of acquiring clients but have the same goal.

Inbound Sales Strategy

An inbound sales strategy focuses on attracting potential prospects through value-based methods like content marketing. The goal of this strategy is to build trust and establish credibility.

These types of strategies are implemented for buyers who don’t interact with direct-selling approaches. Inbound sales strategies are good for passively reaching your target market through lead magnets and interactive content. Here are some common examples of inbound sales strategies:

• Content Marketing: A type of strategy that aims to create and share content like videos and blogs to engage with potential customers.

• Social Media Marketing: A strategy that uses social media platforms to connect with prospects through social selling activities.

• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO): A popular strategy that optimizes web content to reach prospects through organic traffic.

Outbound Sales Strategy

An outbound sales strategy is a proactive approach to sales that focuses on acquiring prospects by connecting and getting them interested in your product or service. This type of strategy entails research of your target market.

One way to do market research is use students, we at Clevenio for example have partnered with Jyväskylä University for our market research efforts, you can read more about them in here!

Moreover, one of the main goals of this strategy is to build a long-lasting relationship with your clients. Some examples of outbound sales strategies are:

• Cold Calling: A direct approach to selling where salespeople call prospects to get them interested in a product or service.

• Cold Emailing: Similar to cold calling, cold emailing sends messages to a large number of people to let them know about what the company is selling.

• Networking events: These events include conventions, online conferences, or trade shows to connect with prospects.

How to Build a B2B Sales Strategy?

You can build a B2B sales strategy by defining your goals through a sales development process. This process can help you determine key touchpoints in the strategy to get your desired outcome.

Understand Your Target Market

The first step in building a sales strategy is identifying and understanding your target market. You can conduct market research to define your ideal customer. On the other hand, you can also perform a competitor analysis to figure out their consumer base.

Furthermore, there are resources online that can help you identify your markets like consumer behavior reports, corporate research studies, and web analytics.

Set Realistic Sales Goals

Another thing you can do to develop your B2B sales strategy is to set realistic goals. You can set goals by conducting market research, inferring previous sales data, and breaking down goals into smaller steps.

Furthermore, the SMART method of creating goals is a great way to lay the foundation of the sales strategy you’re going to implement. You can also consider sales length cycles so you can set accurate timelines for reaching your goals.

Moreover, the SMART method allows you to set actionable steps for your sales team to follow. Here’s how you can create feasible goals for your B2B sales strategy:

• Specific: Goals should state clear benchmarks to know what to do to succeed.

• Measurable: Goals should have key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure progress.

• Attainable: Goals should be feasible and doable. They should be in line with the company’s resources.

• Relevant: Goals should be relevant to the current and future market conditions. They should also be relevant to the company’s main objectives.

• Time-bound: Goals should have a timeframe or schedule for completion.

Develop Your Unique Selling Point (USP)

B2B companies should also develop their unique selling point (USP) for them to resonate with their target market. You should aim to highlight the value proposition in your product or service.

Additionally, the USP should discuss the benefits and features of the product or service. You should also test and refine your USP to see what factors resonate with your market.

Create a Sales Process

The sales process is a system for salespeople to guide them in closing a sale. You can create a sales process by defining the necessary steps that you need to sell a product or service.

Identifying crucial steps of your sales process is dependent on your industry and sales goals. According to Ebsta’s 2023 B2B Sales Benchmark Report, the length of sales processes has increased by 32 percent on average.

Sales development is the process in which you develop a sales process. It’s a nuanced task that involves rigorous research and internal development. A robust sales development plan can help you build a comprehensive sales process that can generate revenue.

Build a High-Quality Sales Team

A high-quality sales team is characterized by its performance, adaptability, and discipline. Moreover, you need to recruit talents with a mix of technical ability and social skills to create a great sales team.

You also have to provide continuous training and coaching about current market trends as well as features of your product or service. Furthermore, you should set clear expectations on what the job requires from these talents.

Lastly, you have to ensure that your salespeople collaborate with tasks and hurdles. This creates a positive culture for your sales teams. You should also provide consistent feedback so they can improve their selling skills.

Implement Sales Tools

Another thing that can help in creating B2B sales strategies is to implement sales tools in your systems. Start by identifying the needs of your sales team and the overall goal of your strategy. Moreover, look for sales technology that can automate repetitive tasks and provide you with relevant customer data.

According to the Salesforce 2023 State of Sales Report, over 66 percent of salespeople say they use 10 sales tools. They have also stated that having a lot of tools has reduced their time in selling and connecting with clients. With this in mind, try to limit your use of tools to 3 to 5 so your salespeople can focus on other tasks.

Here are some examples of sales tools that you can implement to improve productivity and efficiency:

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software: Helps manage customer interactions, track leads, and analyze sales performance.

• Sales Enablement Platforms: Offer content management, training, and analytics tools to enable sales teams to deliver content to the appropriate prospects.

• Sales Training and Coaching Platforms: Offer resources and tools for training, coaching, and development to help salespeople improve their skills.

• Sales Engagement Platforms: Let your salespeople use sales engagement platforms to optimize sales activities and automate repetitive tasks,

Measure and Analyse Results

Once you’ve implemented the necessary tools, you can begin tweaking them by measuring and analyzing your results. There are tests that you can perform to measure KPIs like A/B testing, conversion rates reports, and average sales cycle reports.

You can also benchmark against competitors to see what they’re doing and improve upon their systems. Once you have it all laid down you can start adjusting your strategy to fit the current market or your target goal. 

How to Have a Successful B2B Sales Strategy?

You need to be meticulous and disciplined to have a successful B2B sales strategy. By using the steps above, you can develop a potent sales strategy that can generate leads and create meaningful relationships with clients.

Conclusion

B2B sales strategies allow companies to have a streamlined and organized method of achieving various sales goals. These strategies tackle different facets of the sales process like lead generation, revenue growth, and customer relations. You can achieve objectives by following a set of guidelines that provide actionable steps and specific intentions.