In a B2B sale, several factors are needed to generate good deals. A good product, an excellent seller, and seamless coordination between marketing and sales is the best practice for b2b2 sales. Marketing generates digital content and collateral to support the seller is fundamental: brochures, image galleries, case studies, presentations, and videos play an essential role in customer acquisition. Digital content and collaterals demonstrate the company’s professionalism, deep domain expertise, solidity, and seller preparation.
The boomerang of marketing content:
IN B2B digital content, there are different types of marketing and sales collaterals can be made. At each sales stage , a right arrow is taken from his/her quiver and sent to the customer. After all, sales persons are hunters 🙂 But be careful..
But pay attention to the boomerang effect: if the salesperson presents himself to the customer with outdated marketing materials, that feeling of trust necessary to complete the sale vanishes instantly. In fact, during a B2B sales negotiation, the salesperson is the ‘finalizer’ of an activity, but at that moment, he is, above all, the representative of the company and the spokesperson for its efficiency. In practice, if presenting to the customer with brochures and proposals suggests an unpleasant traditional impression, basing a sale on outdated digital content is even worse. A boomerang, first of all for the corporate reputation, but also because of the possible damage deriving from trying to sell products that no longer exist or with specifications different from the real ones.
Consistent and proactive content is needed for B2B sales.
Digital sales collateral and content materials must be up-to-date and consistent with sales techniques. For example, today, the most efficient salesman of all is what is defined as “proactive.” In essence, it is a question of adopting a consultative approach in the B2B sales activity and of knowing the interlocutor’s needs perfectly. Modern customers have no time to waste and do not want to be told about the thousand variations of the product they already know. On the contrary, they want to be able to choose between a maximum of 2 or 3 solutions, the one that suits them. They want security, reliability, and close quickly, trusting in the maximum delivery capacity of the company in front of them.
How not to make B2B sales
Now let’s imagine this scenario: the salesman behaves very well, knows the customer’s needs and the strengths of his products, and provides a couple of alternate solutions. At this point, however, he plays a video in front of the potential customer that shows the dozens of product variants, possible customizations, pros, and likely mix of support products. This overfeeding the customer with variants and customization possibilities lead to confusion. In 90% of cases, the customer, who was ready to close up to 5 minutes before, is now no longer convinced. Perhaps, he begins to think, among all those hypotheses, there is an even better one for his needs, and maybe it is worth investigating a little more. Except that at that point, the proactivity vanishes, and the doubt creep into the customer’s mind that the perfect solution is not only another, but a different company has it.
Marketing, sales, and B2B sales
Extremisms aside, the fact that digital sales support materials are consistent with corporate communication, with the mission, and also with sales management methods is not an ‘optional’ but a necessity, given the important reflection on concrete results. . This is why it is essential to encourage dialogue between marketing and sales (for some years we have been talking about marketing). On the same level, it is necessary to have technical tools that allow the marketer to distribute constantly updated content to the commercial network. By making the two functions “dialogue,” it is possible to create content that, going well beyond a mere description of the product, is aligned with the techniques used by the sales force, concretely helping them to bring home the result.
Different customers, different content
Creating different content depending on the type of customer is not science fiction. In fact, in a B2B sales negotiation, the possible profiles of the interlocutors are many. Just as someone wants a quick solution, some want to know the full range of options available. Other clients want to learn more based on market data, case studies, etc. The important thing is never the volume of material you have with you – which, if digital, does not even weigh – but that this is aligned with the technique you intend to use, with the needs and the type of customer you have. And this is another point on which coordination between marketing and sales is fundamental: if there is, well, if there isn’t, you have to work to build it.
To know more about b2b content marketing and sales, connect with me today. I can give you a few demos on how digital content and collaterals are made, its impact and how it suit your products & services to sell more!