B2B sales solutions have evolved and effectively redefined commerce in the modern age.
According to Grand View Research, by 2027 B2B e-commerce should reach $20.9 trillion globally. That translates to an annual growth rate of 17.5% over the next 6 years.
Stan Burns is the CEO of Live Calls Network, an advertising exchange that specializes in pay-per-call and lead generation services, and below he discusses what is fueling the success of B2B sales operations and how the current trends are expected to evolve as more companies look to partner with inbound call firms and employ tech-savvy methods of sales outreach.
More Product-Led Growth
Compared to common business strategies such as marketing-led growth, product-led growth refers to a methodology where the product itself drives a company’s retention, business sales, and expansion sales.
Stan Burns explains that this sales trend differs from other business strategies in various ways. With product-led growth, there’s usually a revenue model based on a free trial for consumers, so actual sales likely take longer, so revenue enters the fold later than marketing- or sales-led strategies. Under product-led growth, B2B salespeople will have to become accustomed to missed or different individual sales quotas and lower overall sales volumes.
Different Types of Buyers
The behavior of buyers has changed in both B2B and B2C (business to consumer) and that has impacted many traditional approaches to sales. Business-to-business sales cycles are becoming not just longer but more complicated since there has been an increase in decision-makers involved in a business’ buying process.
Stan Burns of Live Calls Network notes that in addition, higher levels of personalization are becoming more desired by corporate decision-makers, leading to B2B enterprise sales now guided by account-based selling. And since millennial buyers value more online access to information about companies, there has been an emergence of B2B influencers since more weight is being attributed to customer reviews.
The rise in Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence, or AI, has drastically changed the landscape of the business world — and Live Calls Network reports that it will only get more popular within the marketing and sales process for B2B.
Nearly 85% of sales tasks are now estimated to be automated, with many new tools, such as Seamsless.ai, not only generating sales leads through vast data but building accounts based on individual preferences.
AI is also being used to predict changes in buyer behavior, helping sales teams tailor the experience based on the prior preferences of customers. That gives customers the enhanced, personalized sales experience they now expect.
Slack Gets More Powerful
Sales and marketing outlets are increasingly relying on the business communication platform Slack according to Live Calls Network. Now that Salesforce has acquired Slack, there will surely be more client communication on both DMs and Slack channels.
Stan Burns says Slack may transform B2B sales in several ways, including more virtual ways marketers and salespeople share content in private rooms with customers or prospects in a very in-the-moment collaboration.
Prioritizing Security and Privacy of Customers
Digitalization continues to infiltrate the professional and personal lives of global customers, so there is a heightened expectation that organizations take advanced privacy and security measures to manage their sales channels and pipelines.
Experts predict B2B companies must continue to find innovative ways to ensure that honesty and security are vital to the way they conduct sales, likely by partnering with other businesses dedicated to secure online environments that customers trust when it comes to their online privacy. More and more companies will also have to be forthcoming about their security measures as well as detailed plans to incorporate more privacy features.
New Ways to Review Customer Data
Data is vitally important to B2B businesses, especially when tracking the needs of customers who now communicate across an increasing number of devices. New customer data platforms are needed for B2B marketing to get a real-time, 360-degree view of current customers as well as insights on leads, says Stan Burns of Live Calls Network.
Such data is expected to increasingly become stored on a platform that centralizes sales and marketing efforts in one seamless approach.
Multifaceted Salespeople
The COVID-19 pandemic uprooted lives around the world and vastly impacted business. One of its effects: B2B sales using interactions across various channels to retain and attract customers.
A recent McKinsey study found that B2B purchasers want to have the option of communication through multiple channels, including e-commerce, in-person, and remote. That means that B2B sales needs to go hybrid, too.
Stan Burns of Live Calls Network says going hybrid means that a B2B salesperson needs to interact with customers not just in person or over the phone or email, but via apps, video, and online chat. Proposals need to be interactive and offered across multiple channels. And at the center of it all will be B2B companies that are committed to the flexibility that customers now demand.
