Search Main problems and solutions in B2B sales that startups deal with
Many startups choose B2B sales to be their business model, but selling another product or service to another company may not be as easy as it seems at first glance. What could be the solutions for startups to succeed in B2B sales when they are in a somewhat less favorable environment? Read and learn from the experience of others how you could face and overcome the problems in B2B sales.
- Market!This will help sales transactions to reach you on their own. Do content marketing – create content to help customers find you. Stand out as the representative of your startup – speak at or participate in events, communicate and collect contacts. In addition to creating content, day-to-day marketing – cold-calling, cold emailing, or contacting your potential customers, via LinkedIn, for example – is also helpful. And, last but not least, word of mouth marketing – do a job that is so good that your customers start talking about you (and don’t be afraid to ask them to do it).
- Do some groundwork and know your customer! Do some groundwork before contacting someone. Familiarize yourself with what they are doing and how you can help them with your product or service. Communicate with potential customers to understand who makes purchasing decisions in their company and try to understand what they base such decisions on. Is it price, delivery time, quality, or something else.
- Arrange some face to face meetings. If you believe that a purchase is very likely to happen, it would be more appropriate to meet personally (or via a video bridge). You could alter your approach a little – don’t just present your sales pitch; instead, let the customer speak – what are they having problems with, why do they need a new solution, what is the most difficult part of their work, and so on.
- Closing a deal. The process of closing a big transaction and the accompanying negotiations can take weeks or even months, whereas negotiations may even be organized with the customer’s legal or purchasing department. It is up to the latter to get a better offer, but it is not reasonable to immediately cut the price, otherwise you may end up doing it twice – once with your customer and the second time with the purchasing department.
- Don’t give up! Even if you fail to close the deal, you have still learned a great deal about this process. You have understood what your customers might want and expect, why they didn’t choose your product and how you could improve yourself. As the founder of a startup, you don’t have to be a salesman forever – one day you will have a team headed by a sales representative and you can deal with what you do best. However, the first batch of B2B transactions (approx. 10-20) should be closed by the founder of a startup.
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