B2B sales prospecting: how to succeed ?

Prospecting is the first phase of the sales cycle, regardless of the size and activity of a B2B company. The team must actively participate in this marketing approach on a daily basis. However, the operation can sometimes be particularly time-consuming.

It is therefore essential to adopt a methodology and a coherent marketing strategy to achieve the objectives set upstream.

How to do B2B sales prospecting ?

The B2B sales prospecting is defined by its audience of businesses and professionals. This feature is both advantageous and problematic. Indeed, the target profiles are relatively homogeneous compared to the consumer market.

Thus, you can use specialized methods and tools such as the solutions available on https://blog.waalaxy.com/. You will then be able to automate and optimize your campaigns on LinkedIn.

A professional clientele allows to limit the targeting and the zoning of the prospection. However, you must first determine which real and virtual sites are likely to attract potential customers. To know this, you first need to identify and study your target audience.

This knowledge of the prospects necessarily requires a good preparation and a collection of information.

On the other hand, B2B customers are much more demanding than consumers in the B2C market. You need to train your sales team to master your offer and anticipate customer pain points. The training also allows you to perfect your marketing arguments in order to be credible and persuasive in front of experts in their respective fields.

Which channels to focus on ?

LinkedIn groups are particularly interesting to carry out an in-depth analysis of your customers’ needs B2B sales prospecting. Indeed, they allow you to focus on professionals with the same interests on the social network. However, the technique requires a digital strategy and another powerful lever such as emailing.

Moreover, it is important to use automation tools to gain efficiency on both channels.

Telephone calls are not yet outdated. They are still as effective as ever, provided you adopt the right approach. To be successful in cold calling for example, you will need to :

• Research and collect data on prospects;
• Develop a direct, concise script adapted to the campaign;
• Favouring transparency and going straight to the point;
• Define precise and realistic objectives;
• Study the timing of cold calls;
• Encourage interaction and gradually increase the pace;
• Keep the conversation going for at least five minutes to improve the chances of conversion;
• Avoid the callers’ boilerplate questions and stay focused on the target’s profile;
• Paying attention to the caller’s reactions and adapting without deviating too much from the script;
• Mentioning a known competitor to hold the prospect’s attention;
• Use a powerful CRM to correctly use customer files, enrich the database and record the mistakes to avoid in the future for each profile.

With warm calling, the prospect is already engaged in the conversion funnel. The results are therefore promising. That said, this type of operation requires a good knowledge of your different interlocutors.

You will thus be able to target prospects who have a significant interest in your offer. Finally, trade shows and other conferences are still a safe bet in B2B commercial prospecting.