When it comes to sales, it’s impossible to predict what might work for your business. Yes, there are some tested strategies that we’ve listed in this article. They’re all technical aspects.
However, there are also some ideas that might work or might not work for your business.
- Keep your sales team hungry
It doesn’t mean that you should take away your sales managers salary. Rather, find a way to motivate them financially in a way that will unlock their creativity.
Nothing motivates better then the picture of the car you’ve always dreamt of, or what you’re going to buy with the bonus cheque, in your head. So, make sure your sales team have something to remind themselves why they should be working hard or harder.
Try vision boards in your office, and other motivational things as everyday reminders of what you can get if you start working more productive right now.
- Achieve the highest quality of your visual content
Make sure that your content is comprehensive and appealing visually. All the tables and marketing visuals you create should be extremely good, comprehensive, bright and able to make your company distinguishable among thousands of other companies.
It’s better if your visuals “hit hard” and are very memorable.
- Find the best price-quality ratio when it comes to data provider
It’s really obvious that your sales team must have access to a B2B contact database that’s rich in contact data and easy to use. No matter how well designed and appealing your prospecting messages are — if you can’t connect with your prospects, or if the data you have is turning out to be obsolete, your revenue is as good as stagnant.
The quality of a B2B contact data provider can either make it or break it for your business. Getting irrelevant emails will result in a drop in open and reply rates which directly affects the reputation of your sender account, letting alone the fact that your sales process will come to a standstill.
It’s best to utilize B2B-specialized data intelligence into your approach — most of such tools provide you with reliable contact data that you can populate your CRMs & automation tools with.
There is also this opinion that a good B2B database must cost a lot. That’s really not true: there are several good solutions that maintain a good price-quality ratio.
A good contact database must be very easy-to-use and provide a set of filters so you can always find as many contact details as possible. You then can upload all you’ve found in a CSV file and start prospecting.
Lead Finder in Closely is equipped with multiple filters to help you single out the needed group of leads and easily find their emails, phone numbers, Facebook profiles, LinkedIn profiles, company insights and other information.
Lead Finder is one of the best databases in terms of the price-quality ratio. There are also other providers, just google “B2B contact data providers”. The majority of tools provide some free credits to try them out, so you can weigh all the potential options against your budget.
- Don’t get obsessed with personalization in messages
Many people are all about personalization. You need to show customers the reason to use your services and how your solution addresses their issues to a tee.
Targeted email subject lines, personalized connection requests correlate to a higher conversion rate and brand loyalty. That may be true. Customers are actively engaged and interested in content tailored to them, be it updates, notifications, recommendations, special offers…
However, my personal opinion is that it’s better to “under-personalize” than “over-personalize”. Concentrating too much on personalization can play a bad trick. Just don’t break the line into ” very bad message with too many first and second names in it”.
I think that personalizaton is just “a frame” for a good message, it’s not something to bet on.
By the way, you can’t define which message is good by yourself — only by testing different messages. That’s where LinkedIn automation comes in handy — just take a look at your analytics dashboard to see which message brought in most leads. The winner message can be sent to other groups of leads.
- Automation truly defines success in sales
On average, sales teams that incorporate LinkedIn automation software see a surge in reply rates during the first month!
Why is this so?
Well, you success in sales is defined by your ability to reach out to AS MANY PEOPLE as possible. You can’t do it possibly if you have to open profiles, write messages, create Google Spreadsheet files and fill them in, all manually — you’ll spend up to 6 hours on these manual tasks. You simply need more time to close deals – a job that requires your creativity!
LinkedIn automation takes over all mentioned manual tasks for you and saves you up to 6 hours per day. Apart from this, you incorporate useful analytics, CRM and other helpers to shorten your sales cycle and close more deals.
Automation helps you leverage your work
Think about LinkedIn automation as of a thing that hit all the roadblocks that stops you from growing. To sell more you have to harness the power of leverage. In other words, make your work work for you without your supervision. Once written, your message can potentially convert hundreds of buyers. All you need to do is to create it once you’re inspired, and send it off to entice your buyers, on autopilot.
By acquiring more and more leads in your sales funnel, you let the energy flow — that’s how you achieve success. Don’t concentrate on closing one or two deals that you’re currently working on. That’s how you stay stagnant. Let as many people as you can find out about you solution and LET THEM make a decision, without forcing anyone.
Going into metaphor, automation helps you break the blocks and keep the river of leads running freely.
You can find numerous LinkedIn automation tools — try Closely or any other tool.
- Personalize websites
Personalization isn’t limited to emails or campaigns – optimize user experience and make people want to keep going back to your website for services by adapting your webpage to the client. Garner satisfied visitors and buyers by creating a personalized environment on your webpage – take user location, company affiliation, industry, name, job position into account when tailoring sites. Automate the process for maximum results with the help of B2B personalization tools such as Personyze or Hyperise.
- Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Speaking of B2B platforms, LinkedIn just can’t be left out. It’s great for finding new qualified leads, enriching contact lists and establishing customer relationships. Be active, post regular updates, special offers, discounts, deals, announce new launches – just generally keep up a presence. This encourages customer engagement and builds up a solid corporate image.
Learn how to polish your profile so it looks attractive to your target audience. It includes working on your headline, photo, page description.
One key feature of LinkedIn should not be omitted: its Sales Navigator’s advanced filter functionality that is a goldmine for lead generation. Find contact details and personal info of your target audience by looking up certain categories and filtering criteria. Reach your leads directly in Sales Navigator via InMail and keep up with them by following their profiles or involving in their content.
- Create lead magnets
Lead magnets is free informational content provided to potential customers in exchange for their contact details. It has to be something of value that visitors would want to get their hands on: for example, white papers, webinars covering a topic of interest, eBooks, reports, guides, podcasts, training videos, live demos, templates, worksheets, infographics, checklists, charts and more.
Lead magnets are not only great for collecting lead contact information, but they are also designed to introduce them to your solution and brand, spark interest and provide quality content to your visitors.
Consider Draw.io, Canva, MeetingBurner, Audacity, Typeform, Figma for process automation.
Lead magnets are good to include in your campaigns to try it out. Maybe they won’t work for your audience. In this case, try to edit your content (making it more useful), improve targeting or simply put it aside if your audience doesn’t get hooked.
- Try webinars
If you feel like you have something to share with your audience – try to film one video and share it across social media.
- People engage much better in content with real people in it
- You have the ability to gather live audiences and then gather viewers after publishing your live video on Youtube. It can become a great additional lead generation channel
- You don’t have to invest much in video creation (you only need a microphone, plain wall, light and a camera or iPhone) — however, ROI of video content tends to be much higher than other forms of content. Just make sure that you’ve prepared a script, it’s all useful information in it, you speak loudly and clearly — that’s all you need.
Run webinars or a topic relevant to your audience to promote customer interaction and relationships. Leads will be more likely to choose your solution and develop brand loyalty down the line with the help of such frequent connection-building web event hosting.
This is a great option for acquiring customers that will nurture long-lasting relationships and drive incredible results.
Look into Getresponse for useful webinar creation & hosting tools, and also important reports.
- Build a community
Communities are great for link- and connection building. It’s crucial for your startup growth. The focal point of online communities is being able to define what customers want directly from the source and hone your product accordingly. Grow groups on Facebook and LinkedIn with people who share the same interests and keep them active with regular quality content, and fast response rates.
- Gather reviews
Honest customer reviews can lend you a big helping hand in maximizing your sales numbers and earned profits. They are always a great boost to your credibility and serve as a testament to the quality of your solutions. Reviews on G2, Capterra and other review platforms stimulate leads who are searching for solutions like yours to opt for your product.
Final Word
There is loads to discover in the fast-changing B2B sales environment. Once you venture deeper into exploring best practices and strategies, and try them out, the right strategy for you is bound to turn up. In this article, we’ve mentioned some top strategies from professionals in the field that improve your team’s close rate and boost conversions. It’s all about experimenting all the time and finding your own way which can make your gains skyrocket. The strategies listed here are designed to put your B2B SaaS business on the right track and save you resources, as well as help you map out the ideal road to more sales.
