Sales enablement

B2B sales and marketing

The typical b2b sales cycle consists of the following stages between both parties: prospect, contact, compatibility and analysis, pitch and propose, negotiation, closing, nurturing/ongoing engagement.

The purpose of B2B sales and marketing is to make other businesses familiar with your brand name, the value of your product or service, and eventually convert them into loyal customers.

Marketing teams will also work together with sales teams as their goals often align, so naturally both teams are involved in the B2B process from both sides of the transaction. More specifically, b2b marketing targets the needs, interests, and challenges of individuals who are making purchases on behalf of their organization. Once these leads have been established, the sales team will take over and conduct the pitch, negotiation, and ongoing engagement with the customer.

B2B sales strategy

To achieve as much success as possible within both teams you’ll need a robust strategy planned out and implemented. These are a few key things you should keep in mind and aim to achieve along the way:
1. Stay focused on the goal at hand
2. Be as flexible as possible with your prospects
3. Listen to your prospects and make sure to build strong rapport and relationships with them
4. Maintain momentum, do not let small setbacks slow you down
5. Do more than just sales pitching, be informative and engaging
6. Maintain contact with your prospects so that they are not forgotten about
7. Research! Understand your competition as much as possible so that you can stay competitive

What is B2B sales?

B2B stands for business-to-business, so naturally this implies that one business is selling its products or services to another business. A common example would be when a technology company that sells digital marketing software to another company for them to better offer their own products and services to their consumers, such as an online clothing store.