Increasing sales is undoubtedly the main growth lever for B2B companies. The best strategy to maintain a well-stocked sales pipeline is to regularly integrate high-value-added sales techniques.

Here are 18 simple and act vatable solutions to generate leads and increase B2B sales, grouped into four categories: prospecting, sales know-how, tools and data, and finally closing.

Improve prospecting to increase sales

# 1 prospect on a regular basis

Prospecting must be (re) integrated into the schedule of salespeople. Even if it is less on the agenda in an established business than in a young SME, we cannot recommend enough that you regularly force your sales teams to do so. Ideally, 2 to 3 prospecting sessions of 2 to 4 hours per week allow you to burn the habit and keep teams efficient on this task…

In addition, associating prospecting with an objective and variable compensation (with an objective triggered by the greatest number of meetings, for example, or according to the achievement of certain thresholds) and can help to seriously boost your B2B sales.

# 2 Ringless voicemail and Voice drop, automated voice messages to save time

The “ringlets voicemail” or “voice drop”, literally released from voice messages, allowed to dust off telephone prospecting. They consist of leaving a pre-recorded message on your prospects’ answering machine without ringing their phone. This practice inspired by mass commercial prospecting and simple easy to set up multiplies the impact of telephone prospecting tenfold.

Some CRM or prospecting solutions such as Vanilla soft or Sales loft offer this type of solution in France.

# 3 Rationalize and automate its approaches to increase sales

The idea of ​​rationalizing commercial prospecting is not recent. Whether it was a question of paper mail, phone calls, the work was often optimized and processed end masse when possible.

According to eWorldTrade, Only for B2B prospecting… The task is complex. And yet, recently, digital solutions have made it possible to integrate sales prospecting tasks from end to end, or even to trigger everything with a simple click in the CRM.

For example, we can imagine an automated prospecting scenario available to a salesperson:

• invitation LinkedIn,
• a sequence of emails with reminders,
• message vocal,
• email reminder,
• message LinkedIn,
• Humorous closing email

Once schematized, you will only have to replicate the approach on a large number of prospects by gradually improving it. Scenarios that can be set up with tools like LaGrowthMachine, Sales loft, Outreach.

# 4 Use Social Proof: Ask for referrals and introductions to make appointments and close

Those who speak the best about your products may be the ones who use them! The psychological lever of Social Proof is often very effective in convincing a hesitant prospect, and not only in e-commerce. Asking for customer referrals (to be disseminated by your sales team or on a website) costs nothing and can be very profitable.

At the same time, being introduced by your customers to new prospects can open up many avenues for you to increase your turnover. It is also a good way to force an appointment.

# 5 Events: prefer those that guarantee you qualified leads

Trade shows and conventions involve a significant investment that must be made profitable. It all depends on the industry and the event, so prefer those where you are sure to get qualified appointments to fill up with high-yielding meetings and leads.

Trade fair organizers have also understood this trend and organize dedicated trade shows. We find Finance & RH Meetings, IT & Security Meetings where advertisers do not rent stands but buy business meetings during these events.

# 6 develop an account-based selling approach

In sales, the account-based method allows you to develop an organization to sell better. It consists of developing a personalized approach for each high-added value B2B account. These may be specific marketing devices (automation of commercial messages, invitation to VIP events), but above all commercial attention and dedicated teams which may, depending on the case, have only one account under management.

This approach requires building a detailed knowledge of the organization in order to specifically address all the useful contacts of an entity. We find in the toolbox commercial attachés, mind mapping tools, solutions such as Nomination, and of course LinkedIn Sales Navigator, making it possible to follow and organize the watch on key accounts.

Develop your commercial know-how

# 7 Work on costed arguments

Well-chosen, the quantified indicators will consolidate your sales pitch. Use your best KPIs to promote your products and the benefits that can be derived from them: it is well known that in B2B, customers love to accurately assess the ROI of their investment. Particularly in complex organizations, the quantified argument is essential to convince decision-makers.

# 8 Choose a sales method (customer-centric, SPIN, etc. …) and stick to it

For example, a customer-centric method is an approach that puts the customer (and the resolution of their problems) at the heart of the sales process. The SPIN is a conversation technique in four stages (a situation, problem, implications, and gains) that eventually present your product as the perfect solution. Whatever sales strategy you choose, apply it conscientiously until you have mastered it perfectly.

# 9 Study your sales path to streamline it – and scale it up

A rarer subject in the B2B sales function, the AB test is an excellent tool to use to improve the performance of prospecting emails. Comparing the different approaches helps streamline prospecting and the customer journey.

It is also an essential phase to scale your approaches and apply them on a large scale, especially with the right automation tools.

Increase sales with tools and data

# 10 choosing the right outreach tool

Outreach has become a science at the heart of your sales increase strategy. Many tools allow you to automate outreach and boost the reach of your prospecting. The most widespread (Data nanas, outreach.io, Woodpecker …) could well make you multiply the leads with a minimum of effort.

# 11 Develop Social Selling with LinkedIn Tools

LinkedIn is still a source of potential B2B customers. To develop your social selling, the platform has created LinkedIn Sales Navigator, an advanced prospect/company search tool based on the quality and richness of LinkedIn data.

# 12 Acquire sales leads with partnerships or buying leads

Let others clear the market for you! The partnerships with non-competing companies can bring your business that you do not necessarily suspect. On the other hand, buying qualified leads is easy to grasp. Like companies specializing in tele prospection and which detect commercial opportunities for many clients. These providers can save you a lot of time, ideal for small teams.

Buying leads in B2B is not limited to telemarketing, database sellers and affiliate companies will also have solutions to rent qualified email databases ( Corpora, Manage ), but also to sell you leads by returning the traffic on your pages and online forms ( affluent, Net Affiliation, Kwando ).

# 13 Control your sales pipe so that it is always well filled

From prospecting to closing, the sales process can be long and tedious … A good CRM is essential to monitor the sales pipe and guarantee a constant flow of closings.

An affirmation that it is a good time to repeat regularly when you know the waste of time and the deals that can simply be missed when the sales forces misuse their CRM.

# 14 Use mind maps tools to know who to contact in large accounts

Every salesperson knows: in large accounts, the art of prospecting often consists of finding the right person to talk to … To identify decision-makers, mind maps tools (draw.io, smart draw…) help you streamline the process. Organization chart of key accounts and reach the qualified interlocutor.

It is all the more efficient if we combine them with mail guessing tools (hunter.io, findthat.email, snov.io …), more and more efficient to find an email from a name and/or a business.

# 15 Centralized Data

With multi-channel prospecting, it is sometimes difficult to keep an overview of all the potential customers being canvassed. Centralizing data (and making it accessible to your sales team) can be fundamental to streamline and optimize processes.

Here too, the choice of CRM is crucial, as is the associated marketing solution. Hub spot, Active Campaign or even Sells are on the rise, not for their CRM solution, but because they make Marketing and Sales alignment possible in the same solution.

Closing: concluding a sale agreement

# 16 Practice responding to objections

You can lose too many prospects because of simple yet easy to anticipate objections. Beyond the sales pitch, your sales teams must be ready to have an answer to anything to lock a sale. With a little practice, this is a simple and effective technique to increase your business efficiency.

Too expensive, more budget, I am not a decision-maker, call me back later… They are numerous and I recommend Talkie’s article on the subject.

# 17 close the sale with the right closing strategy

Closing is the art of concluding a sale when its outcome is not far away. It is a question of seizing the right moment, but also of finding the right approach or the small sentence which will eliminate the last reluctance. Here is a small (non-exhaustive) list of five closing techniques that you might want to add to your perfect seller’s manual:

• “Now or never “: attaching a preferential condition limited in time to the sale. For example, we can offer free delivery, a reduction of x% or an express deployment if the sale is concluded immediately.
• “Summary of negotiations “: present a summary of what has been achieved between the two parties, to show that the sale agreement is only a formality.
• Asking questions: asking the other person what their last reservations are, in order to clear up any doubts about your product or service.
• Remove an element: propose the removal of an option in the package under negotiation, along with a reduction in the price. This gives the client more options to consider a deal.
• Presume the sale: start to consider the post-deal stage, such as delivery or deployment, by going into details. This allows you to project yourself into the use of your product.

After the sale: reduce your churn (attrition rate) to retain customers

A customer who does not renew his contract is also a lost sale… Reducing his churn rate (or attrition rate) is therefore essential to increase his B2B sales. Mobilize your teams in the direction of customer satisfaction, create links … Discover our advice to reduce your churn in this article.

# 18 Bonus: being well supported is essential to increase sales

Finally, being well supported is essential to regularly increase your B2B sales. Strong partners will give you absolute confidence in your negotiation while ensuring maximum options for your clients.

In particular, in terms of sales financing, a good leasing partner will allow you to diversify the payment possibilities for your customers. Calling on at lance leasing solutions is ideal for increasing your turnover by alternating direct sales and rentals with optional purchase. To find out more, you can download our white paper “20 reasons to favor B2B rental over sale” here.

Like all trading techniques, these tips are not equally suited to all situations. It’s up to you to choose which ones to activate, test and improve to continuously increase your turnover by increasing B2B sales and rentals with option to buy!

Author Bio: Ali Hasnain is a trend researcher by passion, a senior digital marketing expert and SEO Consultant. He is an expert with over 5 years of experience in this field, as an all-niches knowledge, He eagerly looks for the ins and outs of the modern niches growths.