8 ways to prepare a B2B conversation effectively

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A post from the POLISH YELLOW PAGES® blog (formerly DATABOT.PL), originally published on 18.11.2022. Some information (tools, prices, regulations) may have changed since then.

8 hacks for preparing B2B conversations effectively

Sales lives on communication. Especially when an offer needs explaining, is a little more expensive and is not part of everyday needs. As a sales rep you have to present, advise,  persuade and negotiate  close to the customer.

The most important thing is to speak each customer’s language . Above all, this means treating each contact individually rather than working only with ready-made advertising messages and discussion guides.

Be creative! Your sales conversations should always be prepared and tailored to the individual customer so they can directly recognise the individual benefit.

1. Define your target group as precisely as possible
2. Collect references from existing customers
3. Recognise your customers’ problems and pain points and offer them real solutions
4. Accept your own limitations
5. Use best practices from real cases
6. Talk to the right person
7. Choose the right conversation opener
8. Find the right channel

1. Define your target group as precisely as possible

A product that every customer absolutely needs at any moment and that is offered by only one supplier is the absolute dream of every salesperson in B2B. Of course, that happens only in rare cases.

Most products or services need some sales talent, which means they are not suitable for everyone and must meet certain criteria to spark interest. In other words, the customer must have a basic need that you can address with your offer.

Whether your prospects have such a need depends on both permanent and temporary factors. The first and most important step in finding companies, aka prospects, is to define your target group as precisely as possible.

• What is your customer’s target market?
• What industry is your customer in?
• Whom should you approach at the target company?
• Does the prospect need to reach a certain “size”?
• How is that size defined, and on the basis of which key business data?
• Can you present your customer with a national or even international offer?
• Is your target audience active locally in a particular region, or globally?
• What characteristics do your existing customers have that make your offer meet their needs?

The more precisely and specifically your target group is defined, the easier it is to build the basic framework for a sales conversation that forms the basis of an individual approach .

2. Collect references from existing customers

Winning customers in B2B is not only a huge sales success in terms of revenue. Getting a customer to review  or recommend a  product or service is a valuable link in the chain of a sales strategy that goes far beyond the transaction itself. For example, if your company sells phone systems for small businesses, you could ask small business owners who currently use one of your systems to review the product.

Reviews are a basic requirement for working with referral marketing. Even if reviews and recommendations are not always easy to get, especially in B2B, positive experiences with a customer in the industry or even in the local community can certainly open doors.

In addition, reference customers also serve as illustrative material for optimising your target audience definition . The more reference customers you can include in your target group analysis, the easier it is to identify patterns that let you select prospects in a goal-oriented way.

3. Recognise your customers’ problems and pain points and offer them real solutions

The best sales argument is to identify a customer’s current problem for which your offer is a recognisable solution. To use it, you need to know what challenges your target audience faces in everyday business life. What’s more, you need to know – and above all be able to show – how your offer can help them deal with the pain.

These questions basically arise when a company is starting out or when planning and developing new products or services, but you should also regularly draw on the experience gained in dealing with existing customers.

• How can your offer help the customer?
• How was the problem solved before?
• How could your offer improve the situation?

The aim of such an analysis is to be well prepared for a potential new customer. You must be able to actively solve problems and offer solutions that are immediately obvious to the contact person and leave them with as few open questions as possible.

4. Accept your own limitations

Customers are allowed to be demanding. A product or service is supposed to solve an existing problem for them – the more comprehensively, the better. Where it benefits the customer and can easily be done, you should adapt and, if necessary, extend your offer.

But don’t lose sight of your core competencies, and don’t create excessive extra work you cannot deliver. Make sure that during the sales conversation no false expectations arise. Stay realistic and define clearly what your product or service can and cannot deliver.

5. Use best practices from real cases

Theory is good and we all need it, but examples make the problem and the solution much easier to understand. No matter how technically competent you are and how convincingly you describe your offer in a sales conversation and present it with presentation media, theory can rarely replace practical application completely.

It is not always possible to give the customer something to try live, nor is it always possible to recognise the individual benefit at first glance. Practical examples are therefore often the better sales conversation format to convince the person you are talking to.

Present the customer with a specific example of an existing customer’s use case in the sales conversation. The more similar their starting situation and problem, the more convincing the solutions offered by your product or service. Design the description of specific application examples so that they are credible and understandable, without allowing conclusions about the customer to be drawn at first glance.

Orient the application example as closely as possible to the requirements of your target audience . In other words, don’t necessarily present a medium-sized company with a large corporation’s use case, and conversely, don’t try to impress an international corporation by describing a use case from a local craft business.

Source:  www.socoselling.com

6. Talk to the right person

Your offer may be perfect, the price appropriate and the timing just right – but you have been talking  to the wrong person . Few experiences are more frustrating for a salesperson than spending hours, days or even weeks trying to persuade a prospect, only to find out shortly before closing that the contact was the wrong person to talk to.

Wrong means, above all, that they do not have the authority needed to make the right decisions. If another contact has to be consulted for that, there is a danger that all the persuasion work so far has been in vain or must start again more or less from scratch.

Metaphorically speaking, the switchboard is always the worst route to the customer. A good salesperson knows whom to talk to before reaching for the phone or favourite phone system. That is why research can help identify the different hierarchies and the right contacts in a company. 

7. Choose the right conversation opener

Beginnings are always the hardest. The biggest challenge for the sales department is to attract the attention and  interest of potential   customers .

Approaching the responsible person at a company for no reason is a form of cold calling with the lowest chance of success. Even if you are well informed about your target customer and have good sales arguments, without the right “door opener” you often don’t even get the chance to enter a sales conversation.

So-called trigger events are an excellent opportunity to overcome this obstacle. A trigger event is an event concerning a company that indicates a specific need. These can be economically positive signals , such as an announced rise in profits, news of an expansion or a merger with another company, an announced increase in headcount or a move to a new company building.

Examples like these and comparable trigger events point to specific needs : perhaps the company needs certain products and services in the context of expanding its business. In any case, trigger events can be used as nice conversation openers .

In this way the salesperson shows that they are not randomly calling companies from a business directory but have informed themselves and can show a reason for contacting them.

Further reading: 14 sales triggers to boost your offer

8. Find the right channel

You know your customer. You know whom you want to contact. You know how to attract their attention and you have the right arguments to convince them. That raises the question of the best way to make first contact . B2B marketing and B2B sales today can use a variety of channels to reach customers. These include:

• Personal contact – visits
• Trade fairs
• Email
• Phone
• Business networks – social media

Reaching someone through business networks or social media gives you not only the chance to get information about the contact person but also to contact them if they are not available by phone . The next question that arises is: how should you behave in the actual sales conversation? Let’s take a look:

How to improve sales conversations

1. Active listening

It may seem obvious, but being a good listener is crucial to successful selling. You may be tempted to talk a lot and ask many questions to find out the prospect’s pain points . But… let them speak too. A prospect will not be won over by your product if you talk them into buying. Give your contacts time to answer questions , take notes and paraphrase what they said so you don’t miss important topics. Feeling heard and understood creates a relaxed and open atmosphere – ideal for presenting the prospect with a new offer that will ease their pain.

Source: www.gong.io

2. Likeability and trust

Of course you want to win the prospect over in the first minutes. You prepare your presentation in every detail and rehearse it in your head over and over. There is nothing wrong with that, but remember: people want to talk to real people, not machines . Try to be as natural as possible. Be prepared, but not staged. The next step is building trust. You do this by trying to help your future customer (listen carefully, see point 1) and doing what you promised – if you promised to send documents the next day, send those documents the next day! 

3. Stay calm

There is a saying that really sums it all up: Show competence and you will build confidence . If you have researched the prospect, prepared for the conversation in advance and know your product and service thoroughly, you will stay calm in any situation. Your prospect asks lots of questions? No big deal, since you know your stuff. Your prospects want to know about specific features or the technology behind your tools? You’ve done your homework, or at least you know whom to turn to if the questions get too detailed. 

Conclusion

A sales conversation is more than just a chatty, persuasive talk. Nor is it just psychology or a pleasant chat. A successful sales conversation requires solid preparation – even more than rhetorical talent or sales skills. The key to success is knowing

a) who the customer is,  
b) the right contact person,  
c) the best way to reach them,  
d) the right introduction for first contact, and  
e) convincing sales arguments tailored to the target customer. 

Freely available company information can be provided by news portals, company websites, trade registers and social media platforms. This large amount of useful information, combined with data on your own sales activities, can serve as the basis for a complete picture of the prospect.

In the next step – once enough preparatory work has been done – it is time to dive into the conversation and watch how you present yourself and approach people in a smooth but not too silky way. The key elements of a successful sales conversation are:

1. The right balance of listening and talking
2. Being both likeable and authentic
3. Don’t look desperate

Mariusz Biniak – creator of the POLISH YELLOW PAGES® brand (formerly DATABOT.PL) and author of a blog on B2B sales. Disclosure: the author is connected with the publisher of THE BUSINESS TIME.

What do you think?

Which ways of winning customers work in your business? Tell us in the comments below the post.

Source

• POLISH YELLOW PAGES® (databot.pl) – original blog post

© POLISH YELLOW PAGES® / Argonauts Media Group Limited. Copying, downloading and distribution without the publisher’s written consent are prohibited. Illustrative photo: Pexels.