How to sell to large companies: 16 tips. Part 2
About 6 million small companies are registered in the United States, each selling an average of 1.6 million dollars a year. Large companies - only 11 thousand, and the average sales of each of them - 2.7 billion dollars a year. Obviously, selling large companies is clearly profitable. But how to find an approach to them?
We at Alconost are continuing to translate Tim Nguyen’s article just about that (start reading here ). At one time, Nguyen started from the beginning, being the only sales manager in a startup. He hired and supervised the heads of the "corrupt" department, and controlled sales using only monthly reports. Now, being the CEO and co-founder of his own company, he shares his experience and tells how you can apply it to your business.
Nowadays, email-mailing is still relevant, remaining one of the best methods to attract the target audience in the development of their own business. If you do not have your own database of email addresses, you can buy it, for example, from companies operating in your industry. You will have to pay a certain amount, but you will be sure that your proposals will be seen by the people with whom you need to make contact - those who make decisions.
')
We will not go into details of the organization of email-mailing, but we note several important principles, the effectiveness of which I can confirm based on personal experience. Here you can read a wonderful article about email-campaigns in the B2B sector.
Refrain from the standard description of your product and its features. Instead, use the principle of immediate approach (direct), in which you identify the problem of the company and immediately propose a solution. Contact a potential customer to solve the problem and make sure that the customer can easily contact you. Specify a phone number or offer a simple contact form.
Another approach is to carry out regular newsletters with the latest news and industry data. This will help you convince users that you are an expert in your field who can solve their problems and give the expected result. If potential buyers learn something new from your materials, they will see your company as a way to solve their problems.
Willing to argue that you have arguments against using these methods, but let me say: it still works! It is not worth spending time on it if you make sales for $ 100 a month. But when the amount of the transaction can reach tens of thousands or millions of dollars a year, this old way cannot be ignored.
Understand me correctly: I firmly believe in the power of incoming (inbound) marketing, I'm just trying to convey the fact that cold calls are still effective and therefore deserve your attention.
While all of your competitors, and indeed the whole world, are focused on inbound marketing techniques, you will be one of the few who still do “cold calls”. But the one who first tries to establish business relations with a company is always the most likely to make a deal. Add to this a consultative approach, and you will be ahead of the entire planet!
But first do the “homework”, do the research. Study the client's problem, find out how they solve it now. Think about how your product will help them achieve their goals, and how to implement your solution. For example, before making a “cold call” or sending a similar email message, I already understand how the current system of the company works. Therefore, when drafting a business proposal, I try to direct all efforts to explain to the client in an accessible way how I can solve their problem and what it will take to implement the proposed solution into their current infrastructure.
An excellent article about cold calls and emails is posted here .
The newsletter, or white paper, is a reliable way to present your product, demonstrate your knowledge of the industry, and tell about individual cases in which you have already helped your customers. This document helps you gain the trust of customers and increase their number.
Imagine that a “white book” is an excessively developed blog, a kind of accelerator resource. This is usually an influential collection of information of a somewhat technical nature, supported by the results of various studies and analysis of specific situations. The newsletter should not call for the purchase of your product. You should make sure that this document helps readers identify their own problems and point out ways to solve them.
Who will read your white paper? Many companies hire someone who is responsible for analyzing the market, finding new channels and solutions, presenting the product, and drawing up recommendations for the team or senior manager. Therefore, be prepared for the fact that your "white papers" will be read by ordinary employees, but it is the latter who can tell about your business to many of their colleagues from the right company.
Here you can find good examples of successful white books.
LinkedIn Advertising is a great promotional channel for B2B companies. One of the advantages of selling services to companies is the availability of information about the demographics of your target group. Use LinkedIn to target by region, company, position, and group.
When it comes to the cost of acquiring customers in various sales cycles (from 6 to 24 months), LinkedIn can be called a budget solution. If hundreds or even thousands of dollars spent on attracting potential buyers ultimately bring you greater profits, it means you have a good return on investment (ROI).
LinkedIn has powerful data collection and analysis tools that allow you to experiment with the promotional campaign and achieve the effectiveness of your messages and calls to action (call-to-action). There is no other development of events - LinkedIn will disable your campaign if it does not reach the minimum conversion threshold. Logical, right? What is the point for the largest business network to show your brand on its pages, if it does not generate income?
Be sure to take the work of sales agents! In this way, you will benefit from a huge list of contacts that they have developed over the years, and many doors will open to you much faster.
Make sure you understand the difference between the seeker and the getter .
A finder is one who can find the right company and turn it into a partner. They shake hands with potential clients and drink champagne with them during business meetings. Almost from birth, they belong to a special group of people with special connections. Searchers usually ask for a lot of money, but they are difficult to manage. Attention to detail, to put it mildly, cannot be attributed to their strengths, so they need to provide adequate support.
The miner is the antipode of the seeker, he knows how to “develop” the resources of existing customers and advertising campaigns. Usually, they make excellent internal sales specialists and personal managers. They are building a close relationship with customers on the basis of daily communication. Unlike the seekers, the getters are more “grounded” technically and focused on studying the details.
Develop a wise strategy to work together seekers and miners, and you get an amazing win-win combination.
The best managers usually do not need to look for a new job, but if you find one, then you are lucky - use this chance! If the wizard you are interested in is busy, hire a bounty hunter, let him prepare a really profitable offer for the salesperson.
Remember that the real top managers are not lured by money alone, they have already earned a bunch of banknotes. We need to help them in their further development. Define their personal and professional goals and try in every way to contribute to their realization. It can be anything from buying out a company's share of capital or even the need to own a business through buying a stake, ending up with new responsibilities, or finding the right balance between work and personal life .
Remember the tip 3 from the previous part about the need to be a link? You also need to make connections with competitors.
There are two options for the development of events to which you should strive: a partnership or the acquisition of a competing company.
For example, you sell a separate software platform that perfectly serves a small number of customers without complex integration into the company's global system. At the same time, your competitor, with whom you are well acquainted, focuses its activities on the implementation of such a solution for medium-sized businesses, but in this case, the program needs to be integrated into the enterprise infrastructure. Bingo! You have a great opportunity to help each other.
As for the purchase of a company, the main problem arises when you understand that you do not have enough money or the opportunity to attract additional investments to complete the transaction. What then? In fact, everything is simple! Be creative.
Working in my last company at the moment, I took part in the transaction on the acquisition of two enterprises, and we did it without paying any initial amount. Everything turned out thanks to a creative approach to payroll with the use of premiums for the sale, various bonuses and labor agreement with the "golden parachute", according to which the employee is paid a large monetary compensation in case of dismissal. I also advised the company to pay a small amount in cash, in addition to the dividends already agreed upon. From the moment of competing with my competitors, my company did it eight times, eventually reaching a payout of one million dollars a month.
Such a chance does not fall from the sky like manna from heaven. To earn it, you need to constantly develop close relations with competitors, and if you succeed in this, then that moment will come sooner or later when your opponents ask you for help - for example, if they find themselves on the verge of bankruptcy.
Request for proposals (RFP) is a special document that publishes an enterprise to request current prices from potential sellers. In fact, this is a promotional offer of the company to organize for them the sale of services. You, as a seller, must make a formal package of documents (and it will be quite a lot) according to the preferences of the customer.
I highly recommend creating a standard RFP in advance and updating it every quarter. As a result, when the next request for proposal comes to you, you can easily change an existing version, bringing it in line with the requirements of the customer.
The entire RFP filing procedure is designed to create a single structure that sellers use in drawing up official packages, and then to demonstrate transparency in the decision-making process. Requests for proposals usually come from the government. Representatives of the large and corporate sectors also send out RFP requests to a greater or lesser extent, with the only difference that they do not need to publicly announce the project at all.
Your contacts and contacts in the industry will help you open the necessary doors and be one of the first to find out about the opportunities that have arisen, which another request from the company presents.
As you can see, there are many different methods for achieving success in B2B sales, but they all boil down to a few simple rules. The most important thing is relationships with people. Be a reliable, confident partner who you can always rely on, and they will surely love you!
And what techniques did you use?
About the translator
The article is translated in Alconost.
Alconost is engaged in the localization of applications, games and websites in 60 languages. Language translators, linguistic testing, cloud platform with API, continuous localization, 24/7 project managers, any formats of string resources.
We also make advertising and training videos - for websites selling, image, advertising, training, teasers, expliners, trailers for Google Play and the App Store.
Read more: https://alconost.com
We at Alconost are continuing to translate Tim Nguyen’s article just about that (start reading here ). At one time, Nguyen started from the beginning, being the only sales manager in a startup. He hired and supervised the heads of the "corrupt" department, and controlled sales using only monthly reports. Now, being the CEO and co-founder of his own company, he shares his experience and tells how you can apply it to your business.
9. Use email newsletters.
Nowadays, email-mailing is still relevant, remaining one of the best methods to attract the target audience in the development of their own business. If you do not have your own database of email addresses, you can buy it, for example, from companies operating in your industry. You will have to pay a certain amount, but you will be sure that your proposals will be seen by the people with whom you need to make contact - those who make decisions.
')
We will not go into details of the organization of email-mailing, but we note several important principles, the effectiveness of which I can confirm based on personal experience. Here you can read a wonderful article about email-campaigns in the B2B sector.
Refrain from the standard description of your product and its features. Instead, use the principle of immediate approach (direct), in which you identify the problem of the company and immediately propose a solution. Contact a potential customer to solve the problem and make sure that the customer can easily contact you. Specify a phone number or offer a simple contact form.
Another approach is to carry out regular newsletters with the latest news and industry data. This will help you convince users that you are an expert in your field who can solve their problems and give the expected result. If potential buyers learn something new from your materials, they will see your company as a way to solve their problems.
10. Use cold calls and emails.
Willing to argue that you have arguments against using these methods, but let me say: it still works! It is not worth spending time on it if you make sales for $ 100 a month. But when the amount of the transaction can reach tens of thousands or millions of dollars a year, this old way cannot be ignored.
Understand me correctly: I firmly believe in the power of incoming (inbound) marketing, I'm just trying to convey the fact that cold calls are still effective and therefore deserve your attention.
While all of your competitors, and indeed the whole world, are focused on inbound marketing techniques, you will be one of the few who still do “cold calls”. But the one who first tries to establish business relations with a company is always the most likely to make a deal. Add to this a consultative approach, and you will be ahead of the entire planet!
But first do the “homework”, do the research. Study the client's problem, find out how they solve it now. Think about how your product will help them achieve their goals, and how to implement your solution. For example, before making a “cold call” or sending a similar email message, I already understand how the current system of the company works. Therefore, when drafting a business proposal, I try to direct all efforts to explain to the client in an accessible way how I can solve their problem and what it will take to implement the proposed solution into their current infrastructure.
An excellent article about cold calls and emails is posted here .
11. Publish a newsletter.
The newsletter, or white paper, is a reliable way to present your product, demonstrate your knowledge of the industry, and tell about individual cases in which you have already helped your customers. This document helps you gain the trust of customers and increase their number.
Imagine that a “white book” is an excessively developed blog, a kind of accelerator resource. This is usually an influential collection of information of a somewhat technical nature, supported by the results of various studies and analysis of specific situations. The newsletter should not call for the purchase of your product. You should make sure that this document helps readers identify their own problems and point out ways to solve them.
Who will read your white paper? Many companies hire someone who is responsible for analyzing the market, finding new channels and solutions, presenting the product, and drawing up recommendations for the team or senior manager. Therefore, be prepared for the fact that your "white papers" will be read by ordinary employees, but it is the latter who can tell about your business to many of their colleagues from the right company.
Here you can find good examples of successful white books.
12. Advertise on LinkedIn
LinkedIn Advertising is a great promotional channel for B2B companies. One of the advantages of selling services to companies is the availability of information about the demographics of your target group. Use LinkedIn to target by region, company, position, and group.
When it comes to the cost of acquiring customers in various sales cycles (from 6 to 24 months), LinkedIn can be called a budget solution. If hundreds or even thousands of dollars spent on attracting potential buyers ultimately bring you greater profits, it means you have a good return on investment (ROI).
LinkedIn has powerful data collection and analysis tools that allow you to experiment with the promotional campaign and achieve the effectiveness of your messages and calls to action (call-to-action). There is no other development of events - LinkedIn will disable your campaign if it does not reach the minimum conversion threshold. Logical, right? What is the point for the largest business network to show your brand on its pages, if it does not generate income?
13. Hire Sales
Be sure to take the work of sales agents! In this way, you will benefit from a huge list of contacts that they have developed over the years, and many doors will open to you much faster.
Make sure you understand the difference between the seeker and the getter .
A finder is one who can find the right company and turn it into a partner. They shake hands with potential clients and drink champagne with them during business meetings. Almost from birth, they belong to a special group of people with special connections. Searchers usually ask for a lot of money, but they are difficult to manage. Attention to detail, to put it mildly, cannot be attributed to their strengths, so they need to provide adequate support.
The miner is the antipode of the seeker, he knows how to “develop” the resources of existing customers and advertising campaigns. Usually, they make excellent internal sales specialists and personal managers. They are building a close relationship with customers on the basis of daily communication. Unlike the seekers, the getters are more “grounded” technically and focused on studying the details.
Develop a wise strategy to work together seekers and miners, and you get an amazing win-win combination.
14. Look for a miracle worker
The best managers usually do not need to look for a new job, but if you find one, then you are lucky - use this chance! If the wizard you are interested in is busy, hire a bounty hunter, let him prepare a really profitable offer for the salesperson.
Remember that the real top managers are not lured by money alone, they have already earned a bunch of banknotes. We need to help them in their further development. Define their personal and professional goals and try in every way to contribute to their realization. It can be anything from buying out a company's share of capital or even the need to own a business through buying a stake, ending up with new responsibilities, or finding the right balance between work and personal life .
15. Buy or work with a competitor
Remember the tip 3 from the previous part about the need to be a link? You also need to make connections with competitors.
There are two options for the development of events to which you should strive: a partnership or the acquisition of a competing company.
For example, you sell a separate software platform that perfectly serves a small number of customers without complex integration into the company's global system. At the same time, your competitor, with whom you are well acquainted, focuses its activities on the implementation of such a solution for medium-sized businesses, but in this case, the program needs to be integrated into the enterprise infrastructure. Bingo! You have a great opportunity to help each other.
As for the purchase of a company, the main problem arises when you understand that you do not have enough money or the opportunity to attract additional investments to complete the transaction. What then? In fact, everything is simple! Be creative.
Working in my last company at the moment, I took part in the transaction on the acquisition of two enterprises, and we did it without paying any initial amount. Everything turned out thanks to a creative approach to payroll with the use of premiums for the sale, various bonuses and labor agreement with the "golden parachute", according to which the employee is paid a large monetary compensation in case of dismissal. I also advised the company to pay a small amount in cash, in addition to the dividends already agreed upon. From the moment of competing with my competitors, my company did it eight times, eventually reaching a payout of one million dollars a month.
Such a chance does not fall from the sky like manna from heaven. To earn it, you need to constantly develop close relations with competitors, and if you succeed in this, then that moment will come sooner or later when your opponents ask you for help - for example, if they find themselves on the verge of bankruptcy.
16. Prepare a response to the request for proposals
Request for proposals (RFP) is a special document that publishes an enterprise to request current prices from potential sellers. In fact, this is a promotional offer of the company to organize for them the sale of services. You, as a seller, must make a formal package of documents (and it will be quite a lot) according to the preferences of the customer.
I highly recommend creating a standard RFP in advance and updating it every quarter. As a result, when the next request for proposal comes to you, you can easily change an existing version, bringing it in line with the requirements of the customer.
The entire RFP filing procedure is designed to create a single structure that sellers use in drawing up official packages, and then to demonstrate transparency in the decision-making process. Requests for proposals usually come from the government. Representatives of the large and corporate sectors also send out RFP requests to a greater or lesser extent, with the only difference that they do not need to publicly announce the project at all.
Your contacts and contacts in the industry will help you open the necessary doors and be one of the first to find out about the opportunities that have arisen, which another request from the company presents.
In conclusion
As you can see, there are many different methods for achieving success in B2B sales, but they all boil down to a few simple rules. The most important thing is relationships with people. Be a reliable, confident partner who you can always rely on, and they will surely love you!
And what techniques did you use?
About the translator
The article is translated in Alconost.
Alconost is engaged in the localization of applications, games and websites in 60 languages. Language translators, linguistic testing, cloud platform with API, continuous localization, 24/7 project managers, any formats of string resources.
We also make advertising and training videos - for websites selling, image, advertising, training, teasers, expliners, trailers for Google Play and the App Store.
Read more: https://alconost.com
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/247923/
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