Tag: B2B Sales Process
How To Measure Sales Velocity
Sales velocity is a vital metric that sheds light on the efficiency of your sales process. It helps you understand how quickly potential leads are converted into paying customers. Greater sales velocity means an organization is generating revenue faster, a positive indicator of healthy sales kinetics. However, measuring sales velocity involves an intricate understanding of individual parameters like the number of open opportunities, average deal size, win rate, and sales length. In this article, we delve into the labyrinth of sales velocity and reveal the processes to measure it accurately. Keep reading to empower your business with this substantial metric. Understanding the Concept of Sales Velocity Sales velocity demonstrates how swiftly a qualified lead converts into a closed deal. Understanding this idea is fundamental for companies wishing to increase revenue growth. It allows sales teams to identify bottlenecks within their process and address them efficiently. Increasing sales velocity can dramatically enhance your sales output and revenue generation. To give an insight into the concept of sales velocity, consider it the speed of your sales cycle. The quicker your leads move through this cycle, the higher your sales velocity. This concept provides insightful information about your sales pipeline and helps identify areas for improvement. It forms the foundation of sales forecasting, helping to create accurate sales predictions for future quarters. Accurately understanding sales velocity is not merely about measuring the speed of closing a deal. It includes a comprehensive analysis of your sales routine—from lead generation to sealing the deal. The concept gauges the efficiency of your sales process and can offer remedial measures for any shortcomings. Interpreting the Elements of Sales Velocity Four essential components determine your sales velocity: the number of opportunities, average deal size, win rate, and length of the sales cycle. These parameters collectively provide an accurate depiction of your sales velocity. The number of opportunities refers to the count of leads or prospects your sales team is working with. These open opportunities are the potential contributors to your revenue. On the other hand, the average deal size is the average value of each deal your team closes. It sheds light on the financial adequacy of your deals. Both components directly influence your sales velocity: the higher these values, the greater your sales velocity. The win rate is the percentage of opportunities that convert into actual sales. It directly correlates with the efficiency of your sales team. A higher win rate means your team is successfully persuading a majority of leads. The sales cycle length refers to the span between the first contact with a lead and closing the deal. This is inversely proportional to the sales velocity—the longer this duration, the lower will be the sales velocity. Precise Measurement of Sales Velocity To measure sales velocity, you need to calculate and analyze all four components, multiply the number of opportunities, average deal size, and win rate, and then divide the result by the length of the sales cycle. While this formula may seem complex, it yields a powerful insight into your sales dynamics. Calculating each component accurately is crucial for an exact sales velocity measurement. All these parameters are interconnected and contribute collectively to your sales velocity. Increasing one factor can compensate for a decrease in another, maintaining the overall sales velocity. Optimize Your Sales Velocity Understanding your sales velocity is one thing, but optimizing it is another. It requires strategic thinking and implementation. The first step is to conduct regular reviews of your sales velocity. Frequent auditing will spot changes in your sales velocity and allow immediate rectifications. Moreover, refining each contributing factor can lead to an optimized sales velocity. Effective marketing, lead generation, or referral programs can increase the number of opportunities. Raising the average deal size may involve upselling to existing customers or offering premium products to new customers. Understanding and measuring sales velocity can significantly boost your revenue generation. By mastering this art, you can spin the wheel of your sales pipeline in your favor, steering your business toward sustainable and substantial growth. Read Also: Types Of Objections In Sales And How To Overcome Them With An Email Delivery Test? 5 Ways To Help Your Sales Team In Door To Door Selling Top 9 Reasons Your Sales Training Isn’t Working
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This Is Why Social Media Is Essential in the B2B Sales Process
Social media has been the cornerstone of B2C marketing for a long time. However, when it comes to B2B marketing and sales, it is only fairly recently that social media channels have started to dominate. And while most B2B marketers now realize the enormous potential of this type of marketing, only true experts have figured out that simple presence on social media is far from enough. To raise awareness of your business, you need to be social on social media, which is, after all, very logical. In other words, you need to initiate relationships, interact with people in a personal way and absorb your customer’s feedback. But apart from this, you also have to showcase your expertise in a humble way, listen to the voices and trends in your industry and keep an eye on competitors. Marketing your business on social media can help you generate leads, improve website traffic, increase sales and create a brand identity with your target audience. That being said, the sooner you realize that investing time and money in social media is necessary, the better results you will get. However, this type of marketing, just like crafting a Sales Enablement Strategy, takes time and skills. Let this article be the first step on your journey to improving your B2B social media marketing. In it, you will find out the reasons why social media is essential for B2B sales and the tips on how to improve your sales through social media channels. Why is social media so important? Have you heard of social validation? Social validation is a basic human necessity and its presence has but skyrocketed thanks to social media. According to the Content Marketing Institute’s report from 2017, as much as 83% of B2B marketers use social media as their preferred marketing channel. And even though increased brand awareness is one of the main goals of social media campaigns, it is far from being the only impact of this type of marketing. As the matter of fact, social media is right at the top when it comes to the factors making the biggest impact on purchasing decisions, closely following industry analysts and web search. Therefore, it is obvious that social media is essential for B2B sales. If you want to increase your B2B sales, you need to use the following social media platforms: Facebook Without a shadow of a doubt, Facebook is the number one platform. It is important for creating a community, marketing, and advertising, as well as influencing decision makers. LinkedIn As a platform originally intended for business purposes, LinkedIn is as influential as Facebook in some segments. Twitter Twitter is the final element of the social media triad, but slightly less important than Facebook and LinkedIn. You may be wondering why Instagram and Snapchat are not on this list. And indeed, these two platforms, especially Instagram, are great for marketing. However, they are more effective for B2C marketers. Benefits of social media marketing for B2B sales To give you a clear picture of how social media can increase B2B sales, we will list some of the main benefits of social media marketing. - Firstly, it builds brand awareness and visibility. - It serves as an effective distribution channel for your business’ ideas, content and offers. - You can create PR opportunities, brand loyalty, SEO, as well as positive web mentions by building brand advocates. - Social media marketing drives new leads into the funnel when combined with whitepapers, fact sheets, eBooks and other content offers. - Have you tried to use social media to increase the number of email subscribers? If you want to add more people to your mailing list, this will do wonders for your business. - Moreover, this type of marketing is great for B2B customer feedback program and understanding the needs of your leads, customers, prospects, and advocates. - Social media marketing can greatly improve your SEO results through third-party links, mentions, and interest in your content. - You can build trust with your buyers by educating them and helping them understand the major factors that influence their purchasing decisions. - Social media is perfect for B2B loyalty rewards programs and customer care. Challenges of B2B social media marketing There are always two sides of a coin. In spite of the numerous benefits of B2B social marketing, there are also certain challenges that B2B marketers face on a daily basis when it comes to social media. When in Rome… If consumers use social media for connection and entertainment, your message needs to address these requirements. In other words, you shouldn’t slip into business jargon on Facebook or post silly memes on LinkedIn. Apart from that, you should try to establish a deeper connection with your customers by finding out what they read, what they comment on and who they follow. This will help you better understand your prospects and existing customers, and tell them what they want to hear and how they want to hear it. Being present 24/7 When your audience needs guidance or asks a question, you should be there for them. It is all about responding when they reach out for help. The challenge here is to anticipate such moments and be ready to shine. Create a list of tips, reviews, product demonstrations, and video tutorials, and promote them through paid search and social advertising. For this and similar reasons, you should constantly use social media for real-time marketing, an increasingly popular method which allows you to engage with your customers instantly. Cherishing your influencers Finding your perfect influencer and starting a conversation with them is one of the keys to a successful social media campaign. To choose the right influencer for your brand, you need to study their audience, understand why they engage, what is their reach, style, and many additional aspects. Getting serious about selling on social media Once you have put in a lot of effort toward entertainment and connection, you need to sell. After all, that is the main goal of each business. To grow your website traffic and nurture leads, you need to match your marketing efforts and sales goals. When you engage with the knowledgeable, empowered and well-connected customers, you practically close the gap between the social world and the business world. The elusive ROI Oh, the infamous ROI… This is definitely among the top challenges for all marketers, not only in the B2B field. To get a satisfactory return on investment, you always need to give your customers new and fresh content on social media, as well as attend to their needs and join conversations with influencers. Then, when everybody starts listening to what you have to say, seize the moment and make the final move. It is all about timing. With the right timing, you can sell everything, even ice to Eskimos. The future of B2B sales Everybody is wondering what the future of B2B sales will look like. So far, we can identify three main trends. The buying process will become easier In essence, a more open approach to purchasing is obviously emerging, as well as a multi-channel unified experience closely resembling the B2C experience. Moreover, along with those two, the need for highly personalized interactions will result in increasing buyer trust and lead to more data becoming available. The focus will shift to long-term customer value Businesses will have to focus on customer needs and customize their selling approaches, Also, adding value to products and services will be an indispensable part of every sales process. In addition, selling will become more intelligent. In other words, sales teams will need to educate customers about their needs and engage with stakeholders and decision makers to discover and highlight those needs. Data and analytics will play a major role in creating customer value The days of guessing in sales have long gone. To create value for customers and interact with them effectively, social media marketers will have to use data and analytics through: - science and sales - AI and the virtual experience - sales and the social business In many of these strategies, social media will play an important role. From the multi-channel approach and market intelligence to education and connection, B2B sales will be impossible without social media platforms. Finally, from a technical point of view, it is evident that outsourcing social media is becoming increasingly popular. This is a strategy that can be very effective, especially for small businesses. However, if you decide to do this, we advise you to be careful and avoid the most common social media outsourcing mistakes. How to Sell More on Social Media Now that you have learned why social media is so important for the B2B sales process, you probably want to know how to use social media to increase sales. Here are the five useful tips on how to sell more and better on social media. Choose the right social network(s) Not all the platforms will work for all businesses. When choosing the best social media channels for your business, you need to consider several factors: - your niche - your audience - your goals For example, according to a study by Google and Millward Brown Digital published in 2015, the number of decision makers aged between 18 and 34 years increased by 19% in only two years (from 27% in 2012 to 46% in 2014). This is why you need to find out the favorite platform of your customers and tailor your message to them, the network and your brand. Remember – no business jargon on Facebook or crazy memes on LinkedIn. Be active on LinkedIn Whatever other networks you choose, keep in mind that LinkedIn is a must. When it comes to B2B marketing, this platform is essential and you can’t risk not using it. To shine on LinkedIn, you will have to be very active. This means that you should: - use LinkedIn’s Saved Search feature in order to create a search based on your ideal customer profile and be notified each time such a person signs up - join and participate in LinkedIn groups to build your network and referrals - connect with potential customers to start conversations Contribute to existing conversations This goes for all the social media networks you are active on. When you contribute to conversations about your brand and interesting topics in your industry, customers see this as adding value. The best way to do this is Twitter and its search function, but you can use other networks too. Share relevant content More and more B2B buyers search for information on services and products on social media. Your answer to this should be simple ‒ sharing relevant content. This is another way to add value, and you can do it by providing white papers, product sheets, case studies, webinars, comparison worksheets and so on. In addition, you can share useful blog posts, infographics, tutorials and other types of content. In a nutshell, you can share anything that you think could help your customers. Use the right tools Finally, using social media for marketing purposes without different kinds of tools is practically impossible. There are so many aspects software tools can improve and so many ways they can help you rock your campaigns that not using them is a real waste of time. Using effective social media marketing tools will help you find more relevant content, schedule your posts, measure and analyze the effectiveness of your campaigns, as well as use that data to improve your future campaigns. Wrapping up : Social media networks are becoming an essential part of every B2B sales process. However, in order to sell more on social media, you need to understand all the benefits and challenges of this process. This is definitely not a one-time activity. Rather, think of it as of a long journey that includes a lot of small steps. It’s a long way to the top if you want to rock your B2B social media campaigns. But if you take all the steps that we listed, you will find that the results will follow. This is one of those journeys that you have to enjoy if you want to reach your destination. Read Also : Social Media Marketing: Six Trends To Keep Your Eyes On Social Media Marketing Role In Technology
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