Sales Gimmicks Don’t Work: Use These Successful Strategies to Increase B2B Sales

March 9, 2024

Sales Gimmicks Don’t Work: Use These Successful Strategies to Increase B2B Sales

By

Sendoso

Finding new and effective ways to attract prospects is a top priority as a B2B sales manager. As a result, you’re always reviewing the latest trends to see what’s working for others in your industry. And it’s not just you — we find 34% of salespeople are having a harder time closing deals.

Some resort to hacks and tricks that may drive leads and sales one day, but then quickly dries up and goes stale the next. These fads come and go because of one simple fact: Sales gimmicks don’t work. If anything, they’ll hurt your reputation.

Today’s consumers are smart, savvy, and well-educated (thanks to Google). What they’re looking for from brands is a great customer experience. The only way to provide this is through genuine interactions. This is one of the reasons why corporate gifting works exceptionally well.

So if you’re looking for ways to improve the B2B SaaS sales strategy for, then continue reading.

What Does the B2B Selling Process Look Like?

Before building a well-crafted B2B sales strategy, it’s critical to get a thorough understanding of the selling process. These are the eight steps involved:

  1. Lead generation (getting the right attention can lead to sales)
  2. Discovery (to know if your product/service is right for the lead)
  3. Qualification (a phone call will determine a lead qualifies)
  4. Pitch (selling your product based on the needs of the lead)
  5. Objection handling (because leads aren’t ready to buy yet)
  6. Closing (you successfully convinced the lead to become a customer)
  7. Follow up (if not, then you’ll have to follow up)
  8. Check in (you successfully won over the hesitant client)

The key to having a successful B2B sales process is having the right team. So let’s take a look at how to build one.

How to Create a Successful B2B Sales Training Program

You already have a sales team ready to help drive revenue for your SaaS business. They’re a significant factor in your B2B SaaS sales strategy.

But if they’re not adequately trained in modern B2B sales strategies, then they’ll fail to fill demand and reach quotas.

This is where a B2B sales training program comes into play. But before you create one, you need to have several things in place:

As for your B2B sales training program, you’ll need to ensure you’re educating your team, so they know:

The key is creating a sales team with expertise in all aspects of your industry and the sales process.

How to Plan for Hiring in a B2B Sales Strategy After Raising Funds

So your SaaS is fully funded and ready to launch. This means you’re lacking all sorts of personnel needed to ensure your startup doesn’t flop.

You’ll learn quickly that the people behind your business are vital to your success. This is why you want to focus on hiring in areas that propel your company forward — for example, salespeople.

Without them, you’ll have no way of turning leads into customers. It doesn’t matter how great your marketing strategy is — you need a sales team to drive deals home. Sure, the founder can do this on day one. But over time, they’ll become busy and won’t be as efficient.

So in the startup stage, you should start with two to three salespeople. This will create healthy competition and will ensure no one is stretched thin. You can start by hiring people you know or tapping into your network.

Then you can move up to folks with experience (but not the expensive sales vets). Stick with the young and hungry salespeople who can do a great job without hurting your bottom line too much.

How to Incorporate Gift-Giving in the B2B Sales Process

Remember the genuine interactions and great customer experiences we discussed earlier? This is where you can finally incorporate both into your B2B sales strategy.

Gift-giving is one of the underused SaaS selling techniques — not because it’s ineffective, but because it’s overlooked.

So now that it has your attention, how do you put it to use in your B2B SaaS sales strategy?

There are several occasions where you can use gifts to improve relationships with prospects (and customers). Here are several ways to use corporate gifts :

And these are just some of the ideas — surely, you can come up with more. The idea is to make the gift personalized, so it doesn’t feel like a gimmick.

What Are the Current Trends in B2B Sales?

Staying ahead of the latest B2B sales trends is vital if you want to maintain an edge over competitors. So we put together a list of the top sales trends we’re seeing in B2B and SaaS for 2021:

Adopting these trends into your own B2B sales strategy can potentially improve retention rates and boost revenue.

So How Do You Succeed in B2B Sales?

We covered what the B2B selling process looks like and the latest trends in B2B sales. Now, it’s time to look at what makes a successful B2B sales strategy.

The best thing to do is look at what’s already working in the B2B sector. So here’s a look at some of the best sales techniques for B2B businesses:

How Do You Create Urgency in a B2B Sales Process?

If you’re serious about learning how to increase B2B sales, then you must know how to create urgency. Most B2B sales cycles are slow, which can mean months pass before a buying decision is made.

The problem is many things can go wrong along the way — for instance, the prospect being wooed by a competitor. So to reduce the odds of this happening, you can give prospects a sense of urgency to close quickly.

So here are several techniques you can use:

What Are Some Effective B2B SaaS Sales Strategies?

When developing a B2B SaaS sales strategy, focus on techniques that are effective for your industry. What works for B2Bs in finance may not work for SaaS.

So we’re going to compare three B2B sales techniques commonly used in SaaS.

Pros and Cons of Phone Demos

Setting up a phone call with a prospect is a sweet spot for salespeople. It’s where they shine the best — but getting there can be tough. Missed calls and unread emails can make this difficult.

But once you schedule a meeting for a phone demo, you can finally showcase what you have to offer. The prospect’s already showing interest, so all you have to do is nail your presentation.

Phone demos can work well because:

The downside of phone demos is:

Pros and Cons of Face-to-Face Demos

This is an old-school tactic, but it’s still common to set up face-to-face meetings with prospects. This can work if you deal with many local businesses and want to add a personal touch to your demo.

What’s great about face-to-face meetings is:

On the flip side, you may find these issues bothersome:

Pros and Cons of Cold Calling

Reaching out to prospects who’ve never heard of your brand or product (and who may not know they have an issue you can resolve) is challenging. The effectiveness of cold calls is borderline because there are various factors at play.

For example, you may contact the right prospect at the wrong time.

However, there are some good things about cold calling:

What’s dreaded about cold calling is:

What is a B2B Sales Strategy Plan?

A B2B sales strategy plan is a document that outlines the processes and systems used by the sales team. This is created once or on an annual basis (depending on how often strategies change).

In sales, simply winging your B2B sales strategy isn’t going to cut it. You need to build a plan around your strategy so your teams can be more efficient and productive.

When creating your B2B SaaS sales strategy, be sure to address major obstacles and how to overcome them.

But what challenges should be considered in a B2B sales strategy? Here are a few you may want to include:

So how do you write a B2B sales plan? Well, once you have all your ducks in a row (strategies, techniques, and obstacle dodging), it’s time to outline your process.

This will include the following:

Make sure to pore over any data and analytics you’ve collected to ensure your B2B sales plan is effective.

Why Gifting Platforms Are An Unconventional B2B Sales Strategy

You don’t want to rely on conventional methods for your B2B sales strategy. This is why we recommend using unconventional techniques that work optimally.

One unconventional method salespeople tend to overlook is using gifting platforms. It’s an effective way to stay relevant in the eyes of both leads and accounts.

Here’s a look at how gifting platforms boost B2B sales:

When you adopt Sendoso’s sending platform, you can take your gifting to the next level by:

How Are Others Succeeding with Sendoso?

The use cases for corporate gifting are plentiful, but most importantly, it can help you retain customers, win-over decision-makers, and earn trust from your customers.

The proof is in the pudding:

And the list goes on. You, too, can become another satisfied Sendoso customer.

If you’re looking for ways to grow your sales opportunities and increase revenue, then sending gifts is an excellent method.

Want to learn how to increase B2B sales with Sendoso? Then request a demo today!