Buyer behavior is always changing, and because of that, salespeople also have to constantly adapt their sales outreach best practices accordingly. It’s not enough to rely on the traditional sales outreach methods that we are used to anymore. In today’s world, B2B decision-makers are flooded with messaging from all channels, and it has become even more difficult to break through the noise and reach out to customers.
It certainly does make successful sales outreach harder to achieve, but that doesn’t mean that outbound strategies don’t work anymore as it is still an integral part of your sales strategy. All you have to do is learn how to use them correctly. So, if you want to drive in results from your B2B prospecting, you will have to build a consistent and personalized outreach strategy.
Working in sales, we all know that our main outreach channels are:
- Phone
- Social
In order to close successful sales, you have to improve how you utilize these channels in order to drive in more sales. Here are some helpful sales tips that have proven themselves effective time and time again.
Phone Calls
The telephone is still one of the most effective selling tools that we have on the market today. Utilizing this tool takes more than merely getting your prospects on the line. You have to be able to grab their attention and earn their trust. Here are some tips to help you along.
Proactiveness
Instead of focusing on saying what your prospects may want to hear, focus more on being proactive in order to really grab their attention. When opening your next call, try to open it instead by describing some of the challenges you’ve seen in their respective marketplace. This is the best way of finding out if they are struggling with the same frustrations. Also, talk about a problem you’ve either seen them or one of their competitors face.
By doing this, you show them that what you offer is something that is valuable to them in a matter of just a few seconds into the call. Don’t be afraid to take risks by changing up your approach and asking more probing questions. The more you do this, the more your prospects will see you as someone they come back talking to for their own benefit which in turn will increase the chances of you helping them move forward in their buying journey.
No-No to Callbacks
Salespeople often hear their prospects say that they’ll call you back if you give them your contact details. However, don’t expect to get one. Making a callback will require extra effort on their end and it’s too big of a barrier between you and your prospect.
The best way to go about this is for you to follow up on them in a way that will make them respond even when they’re busy. This will be where your Email comes in (which we will discuss in more depth in the next point). Remember, your goal is for them to get back in touch with you, and the easiest way to do that is to follow them up with an email because they are most likely to open it and read.
Email is still proving itself as effective as ever despite the many new sales strategies popping up. The way sales emails have evolved over the years has certainly changed the game, but to ensure that you have a successful sales email it takes a little more than just a well put together email. At the end of the day, we have to realize that our prospects are people as well. As humans, we are hard-wired to respond more positively to certain types of messaging and especially certain words.
Here are some simple yet very effective ways to improve your way of messaging which will enhance your connection with your prospects.
Be cautious of your words
Little adjustments to how you word your emails will make the biggest difference. Instead of making them feel taken aback by saying that they’re going to have a lot of responsibilities in your partnership, provide them with a sense of freedom instead of saying that they’ll have a lot of control over the project. Both sentences essentially mean the same thing, but they each evoke a different feeling by how they are worded. This way, they’ll actually look forward to working with you.
Short and simple
No one, not even sales people themselves, wants to read a multi-paragraph sales pitch that is littered with complicated jargon and abbreviations, and yet many salespeople still use big words over and over in their emails. This will only lead you to lose people instead.
It’s important to keep things readable in order for your prospects to be able to easily digest the information and take action faster. Make sure that your key points and preferred CTAs are clear, even better when you highlight them in bold.
Social
Social media has provided brands and businesses with a platform to engage their customers for years and years to come. But instead of merely nurturing your relationships with only existing customers, you can also use your social media platforms to find and convert valuable leads.
Track results of your existing social selling efforts
The best way to better sell is by learning your existing sales efforts. It’s best to collect insights from your current efforts and see what is effective and at the same time what is not effective. Then, based on your collected data, ask yourself what you should be doing differently and what you can do better.
For example, you may be tracking the activity of your social media referrals and found that a majority of them leave within seconds. This might be a sign that there might be something wrong with your landing page, and you should take a closer look to see how you can improve it.
Success Stories
When your company is providing exceptional services to your customers, you don’t just want to highlight some impressive features of your products and services yourself. Your prospects will trust your product/services more when they are backed up by powerful testimonies from your existing customers themselves.
So, use your social media platform to showcase their success stories which will be proof that you can back up your claims. Do this by sharing links to their success stories that you have published on your site, or you can create graphics and videos of your customers giving their testimonies and post them. Be creative with it!
The Takeaway
Landing winning sales using these three channels isn’t and shouldn’t be complicated. As you can see, these tips are quite simple but are tested and proven to give you better results and close more sales. We hope that these tips will serve as a guide, but of course, it’s always best if you can put your own twist to them and customize/personalize them however you want.
