5 Ways B2B Manufacturers can Improve Sales

B2B manufacturers are always looking for ways to improve sales. But generating sales can be difficult, especially in today's economy.

According to Forrester  43% of CEOs believed that misalignment had cost them sales. Furthermore, companies that take the time to properly engage and nurture leads improve their sales outreach at a rate of 50% while spending 33% less.

The key is to meet the buyer's needs and expectations. And we clearly know they are not the same buyers as they were two years ago. The post-peak pandemic era changed how B2B businesses function and B2B buyer expectations. Now, B2B buyers are more digital and content influential. They demand a more visual, interactive, and customized form of resources.

What’s astonishing is that 73% of millennials are involved in B2B purchasing decisions, which is strikingly different from how B2B businesses operated 5 to 10 years ago.

Here are five methods that have proven to be successful for B2B manufacturers to increase sales.

5 Ways B2B Manufacturers can Improve Sales:

#1 Offer Great Product Demonstrations

"Tell me, and I will forget, show me and I may remember, involve me, and I will understand."- Confucius has rightly said it ages ago. Apply the same strategy to your product demonstrations in the B2B sales process, and you will witness the kind of interest you get from the audience. A never-ending list of features will do no good. What you need is a great visual representation and active engagement of potential clients.

Understand at what stage your B2B buyer's journey is, make sure you know what their need is to plan your demonstration accordingly. The same old demo will not always work for every type of customer.

Tell a story. For which you need to know what the prospect is looking for. Focusing on their pain points is always a plus. Build a story, associate it with someone, align your prospect's needs accordingly, and then tell them how it will help them achieve their goals.

A graph showcasing the reasons why B2B buying process takes longer

Image Credits: Finances Online

#2 Be an Easy to Buy From Company

To become a go-to B2B brand, you first need to be an 'easy to buy from' company. A seamless eCommerce platform and well-informed sales representatives are a must.

If customers find the buying process difficult, it directly results in lower sales volumes.

Some top challenges that make buying difficult:

• Hard time finding the right product
• Insufficient product information
• Bad user interface
• Missing selling guides
• Lack of multiple languages and currency support

One of the major challenges is the waiting time for rounds of quotations. It may take days, weeks, or even months. This gives your customers too much time to look for other options. Meanwhile, if they find a better deal, you are most likely to be replaced. According to Forbes, manufacturers who are the first to produce an accurate quotation win the deal 60% of the time.

Improving the overall customer experience both online and offline is the key!

#3 Automate sales and order fulfillment

The third way to increase B2B manufacturing sales is to automate the sales and order fulfillment process.

Your sales reps spend most of their time completing bookkeeping tasks that can easily be automated. Tasks like creating an email database, sending them out, follow-ups, etc., consume a great deal of time and effort, leading to decreased sales.

Order fulfillment automation is also a must. Updating multiple systems, teams, fulfillment partners, and customers manually is a huge task. One small mistake can bring down the chain and lead to delay or result in a bad customer experience.

To make sure every bit of your sales and order fulfillment process is in order, you need to have ERP and eStore integrated. This bridges the gap between the systems, eliminates manual work, and automates the entire process.

#4 Improve Marketing

Smart marketing strategies are not just essential for B2C, but B2B brands lack nowhere these days.

Key Marketing Strategies Used by B2B Companies in 2020

Source and Image credits: Content Marketing Institute, FinancesOnline

If B2B marketing is done right, it opens up several opportunities to expand your global reach with minimal effort. This is why many B2B manufacturers are now paying attention to different forms of digital content marketing.

According to Demand Gen, 2020, 58% of mid-stage buyers want to see assessments, 50% want webinars, and 40% are most interested in case studies. While late-stage buyers prefer case studies (39%) and user reviews (38%). 36% of these buyers also find user reviews relevant—source: FinancesOnline.

Lastly, never miss out on a touch of personalization to your marketing efforts. It makes the audience feel connected and interested in what you say.

Therefore, making the correct use of social media platforms' focused target audience adds a lot to your sales goal.

#5 Offer Great Customer Support

Last but not least. Customer experience is the key, be it B2B or B2C business, anyone who aces this, there's no end to great sales. It is easier to retain an existing customer than convert a new one. Especially in B2B manufacturing, it is very important to have a good customer relationship with the existing customers. Focus on providing an excellent buying experience and outstanding customer support.

Make sure your sales reps and customer service teams are well equipped with the right tools and information required. Accuracy and promptness are highly appreciated, and that's what keeps the customers interested in coming back for more.

How can we help you increase sales?

These were the top 5 ways B2B manufacturers can improve sales. But being an eCommerce and ERP Integration company, we have a special tip for the B2B folks.

#Bonus Tip to Increase Sales

ERP Integration is the answer. You may go through all the 5 points once again, from automation, marketing, product information, and demonstration to customer support, all of them can be accomplished by a simple ERP INTEGRATION! Many companies try to manage these individually but fail to do so because they have disconnected systems. An ERP integration helps your business function as one.

i95Dev is a great combination of eCommerce, ERP technology, and B2B expertise.

Need help in improving sales? Contact us now!

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