A B2B sales cycle is specifically designed to assist sales teams throughout the prolonged B2B sales process. It is scalable and includes appropriate instructions that prospects can use from the prospecting stage to the conversion stage.
This guide will extensively describe the B2B sales process and its different stages to help the Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) close more deals. It also includes some of the success factors to drive the sales process.
A sales cycle is the combination of all stages that a sales rep must follow to convert a prospect into a customer. Businesses that follow sales cycles closely can:
The ultimate goal of any B2B sales team is to close more sales deals. Mapping up a sales process is the first step toward fulfilling that goal. A B2B sales process is a complex process that takes part between two businesses and requires complete collaboration from both sides to make it successful.
Sales reps are often caught explaining how they enjoy the freedom associated with their jobs. They find it compelling how they can connect with new prospects over cold calls and convince them with their strong persuasion skills. However, one of the proven ways to win sales deals is by deriving actionable insights from B2B sales datasets and developing a personalized sales process.
Here’s why sales teams need a dedicated B2B sales process to succeed:
The length of a sales cycle depends on multiple factors. Usually, it is a time-consuming process as multiple decision-makers are involved. However, the most common stages of a sales process are as follows:
A sales cycle starts with prospecting. The prospecting stage is all about identifying the potential customers who are currently at the evaluation stage of their buyer’s journey and are likely to find your commercial offer interesting.
Some of the major channels that help B2B sales reps in the prospecting process include:
The above steps can help sales professionals to identify ideal leads and ensure that the very first contact can be established through:
Knowing a product closely is essential for every B2B sales rep. However, to influence a buyer’s journey, sales reps must know the prospect’s business and their challenges. In fact, the difference between a good SDR and a great SDR lies in their level of research about the prospect.
The next stage in the sales process is in-depth prospect research. Here are some tips to capture more information about the prospects:
An unaltered principle in B2B sales is - Make your sales process need-driven, not product-driven. Hence, it is very important to identify prospects’ needs and match them with your product to understand whether or not your product can solve their problems.
With thorough research, sales reps can develop a fundamental idea about the prospects. However, they need to ask questions to know their pain points more efficiently. A set of thought-provoking, open-ended questions can help the reps gain more clarity and establish prospects’ reliability over your brand.
Here are a few questions to ask to accelerate the lead qualification process:
After the lead qualification stage, a sales rep will have a clear idea of the prospect’s intent, struggles, and how their product can help the prospects. Hence, in this sales cycle stage, reps should focus on crafting a tailored pitch.
Crafting a perfect sales pitch has its share of challenges. The pitch decides whether or not a prospect would proceed with a company. A good pitch should be brief, informative, and must consist of all your research insights.
Here are some quick tips to craft an effective B2B sales pitch:
A prospect can raise objections for multiple reasons like pricing, requesting additional features, queries about value addition, and so on. A B2B sales rep needs to address these objections with a positive approach and convert these objections into motivations to buy the product.
For example, if a prospect objects to the product's high price, remind them about the numerous benefits associated with it.
However, that’s not it. In B2B sales, it is very common to face recurring objections from prospects throughout the buyer’s journey. Hence, sales managers and VPs should make the SDRs aware of these challenges and include the correct approaches to resolve these in their sales playbook.
Closing is the most exciting and the most difficult stage in the sales cycle. By now, a prospect has clearly communicated the value of the product and addressed their objections and the only step left is to sign the contract and close the deal.
However, the closing stage is difficult because not all deals that reach this stage convert into closing. A research by Salesforce shows that only 28% of sales reps understand customers’ challenges and are more likely to close a deal. Therefore, the significance of customer-driven sales holds true in this stage too.
Sometimes, the reps need to negotiate pricing even in the closing stage. Providing the prospects with some free value like - a free trial for 14 days, free user guides, etc. can help in closing the deal.
Generally, after a sales call, reps should send the next steps, a recording of the conversation, and other useful resources over a follow-up mail. This nice gesture leaves the room open for more upsell and cross-sell opportunities.
A sales cycle is difficult to set up and even more challenging to execute! Here is a list of success factors to keep in mind to accelerate the B2B sales cycle for your brand:
Using the right set of sales tools can make a difference in your sales cycle. A tool that we found useful is - Salesken. It can help B2B organizations set up their sales cycle from scratch. Some of the core features of this tool include:
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Forming an efficient sales team plays a critical role in the B2B sales process. A passionate and experienced sales manager must lead the team and encourage the reps to stay motivated throughout.
Also, it is important to assign the right person for the right responsibilities. For example, a person who enjoys interacting with others will be perfect for making cold calls and reaching out to the audience. Alternatively, a person with well-written communication skills can write outbound emails and messages for the team.
Additionally, a sales team should also have a dedicated coach who trains the new reps and helps them adapt to the company's sales processes.
A major success factor for a successful B2B sales process is to map the user’s journey. While most sales teams put efforts into creating and publishing content and launching ad campaigns, they often miss out on placing these assets in the appropriate channels to gain maximum visibility from the user.
The key here is to differentiate between entry-level and ready-to-convert users and segment your content accordingly. As soon as you segment your target audience and their position in the buyer’s journey, it will be easier to run successful campaigns and convert more users.
For each sales campaign, there should be:
Mapping the user journey can help accelerate the buyer’s journey and helps you simplify the conversion process.
There are different business users all over the internet, looking for the ideal products that can resolve their challenges. A sales rep’s job is to bridge the gap between the target users and the organization’s offerings. A great way to address this gap is by setting up a personalized sales cycle. It may be a time-consuming process, but it makes a lot of difference when planned correctly.
How long is a B2B sales cycle?
The length of a B2B sales cycle depends on many things like the product you are selling, the prospect company, no. of stakeholders involved, and so on. Though there is no specific length, a study by CSO insights points out that three-quarters of B2B sales take a minimum of 4 months to complete.
What are the 7 stages of a B2B sales cycle?
The seven stages of a sales process are:
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