Many organizations in 2021 are looking for innovative ways to scale up their business and grow their client base. To do this, businesses employ several B2B sales techniques that address the unique needs of their company.

The best B2B sales techniques might not always be easy to implement, but they’re proven tactics for increasing revenue and maintaining healthy client relationships. However, what works for one company may not work for yours. With nearly 34% of salespeople saying that it is more difficult to close a deal now, it’s essential to examine as many different tactics as possible.

This article delves into the best B2B sales tactics to help your business succeed in 2021 and beyond. Even if the following strategies aren’t for you, they’re bound to give you perspective on what it means to approach B2B sales and what you might need to succeed where others fail.

Account-Based Sales

Rather than approaching individuals within an organization to make a sale, account-based selling considers the entire organization as the potential buyer.

In the past you would have to flip through a huge Rolodex of contacts within an organization, calling each one to pursue a potential sale. Now, the entire company is the target, with specific contacts listed under the same umbrella account.

While this might not seem like a huge difference, it actually saves a massive amount of time and resources. Rather than make individual sales strategies for the different contacts, your company narrows its focus onto the problems and needs of the organization as a whole.

Traditional sales strategies often preach that every company is equal. On the other hand, account-based selling hones in on specific companies as potential buyers because of their revenue size, target audience, or market niche.

Account-based strategies utilize high-value, long-term engagements as opposed to a single time-consuming sales pitch that has the potential to flop. Before, your sales team may have divided their resources between dozens of points of contact. Now, they get to focus on just a few accounts at a time, giving them the attention they need to maintain a fruitful relationship.

Key Benefits of Account-Based Sales

• Better use of limited resources.
• Comprehensive collaboration between sales, communications, and marketing departments.
• Better considers accounts/companies with multiple decision-makers.
• Long-term communication and relationship building with clients.

Value-Based Sales

While typically pursued hand-in-hand with account-based sales, value-based selling specifies what your team will relay to the decision-makers of the targeted account.

Using a value-based approach, salespeople listen to an account’s problems and needs. In turn, they respond with an explanation of how their product will directly improve the company’s bottom line and solve the issues affecting the account’s performance.

Specifically addressing issues like revenue growth, cost savings, and productivity increases, among others, emphasizes the point that your company is in the best position to help. Additionally, mentioning things like customer success support emphasizes that your business is willing to go the extra mile to ensure your customers are happy.

Key Benefits of Value-Based Sales

• Communicates the specific ways your organization can benefit theirs.
• Outlines how a future B2B relationship may look between your organizations.
• Brings abstract sales concepts down to earth with hard numbers.
• Addresses the questions and concerns potential clients may have about your organization.

Social Selling

According to a 2020 Gartner report, 80% of B2B sales interactions between buyers and suppliers will occur through digital channels by 2025. If your targeted accounts don’t even want to talk to you, how are you supposed to sell your product?

Social selling has emerged as a unique solution to this issue. Instead of developing direct points of contact within various organizations, you market your product through social media outlets like LinkedIn or Facebook.

A social approach allows potential clients to do the research themselves, coming to you after they’ve made their decision or when they need some clarification on your services when they’re ready to make a purchase. At this point, it’s much easier for you to close the deal and start a more direct relationship with them.

Key Benefits of Social Selling

• Reduced resource expenditure (time, working hours, and the like)
• Casts a wider net through social media and the internet, leading to more clients
• Accounts for independent buyers who prefer to do their own research
• Speeds up the sales process once you make direct contact

Conclusion

Account-based approaches, value-based techniques, and social selling all have their place in different sales and marketing strategies. There are plenty of other tactics to choose from, but these are the best ways to address today’s rapidly changing world.

In reality, many companies don’t focus on one over the other, like account-based or value-based approaches. You may have to tailor each strategy to fit your organization’s needs. This might mean using a combination of different strategies to meet your goals.