According to a Gallup survey, salespeople and marketers are some of the least-trusted professionals in the US. These numbers explain why people generally avoid talking to salespeople and “No Thanks” or “Not Interested” remain their default response when contacted.
Thankfully, the situation in the B2B space isn’t as bad. For example, 82% of buyers say they have accepted a meeting after being reached out by cold calls. In B2B, decision-makers are willing to engage salespeople if the latter can offer a needed solution to a pain point the company is currently feeling.
Sounds great, right? The problem is, the road to decision-makers is often elusive and guarded by gatekeepers. Let’s say you want to sell your supply chain management solution to Walmart. You may know who their Head of Logistics is, but how can you actually reach out to him? And more importantly, how can you get his attention? By the time you finish reading this article, you’ll know how.
To improve your b2b sales strategy, the process finding decision makers in a company can be segmented into three stages:
1. Finding the Decision-makers
Finding decision-makers nowadays is a relatively easy task given the wealth of information available online, through data vendors, and good old-fashioned networking. The easiest and most effective methods include:
LinkedIn Search
Finding decision-makers of specific accounts can be accomplished via a simple LinkedIn search. For instance, if you want to sell your product to an enterprise, you can scout their LinkedIn page and find the right POCs for your specific product. If it’s a marketing tool, find the VP of Marketing. For recruitment tools, find the Head of Human Resources, and so forth. Of course, contacting these people might be a challenge given the limitations of InMail, but you can use free tools like RevDriver to get their contact information {email and phone number} and reach out personally.
List Building
For large-scale targeting, you need to start by defining the personas of your Ideal Client Profile (or ICP). To do so, you need a reliable data source that provides detailed department-level breakdowns. Once you have the data you need, create separate lists for each persona, and create content around their specific challenges and interests.
As a word of caution, never rely on org charts, for they can do more harm than good.
Referrals
Make every sales outreach count even if the person isn’t interested in your product or isn’t in a position to make decisions or influence the purchase – simply by asking for referrals. 84% of decision-makers start the buying process with referrals, yet few salespeople actively ask for them.
2. Reaching the Decision-makers
Finding the right point of contact is only the first step. Next, you’ll need to actually get in front of them. Depending on how qualified they are, you can take one of two approaches:
Cold Sales Outreach
The most traditional way to reach decision-makers is by cold emails or phone calls. Yet, the key to standing out from all the other cold outreaches in a prospect’s inbox lies in how you structure your messaging and what method you use to contact them. You can refer to this guide on cold emailing to help you craft effective messaging that gets maximum responses. For cold calls, mobile numbers will help you get past gatekeepers and have the highest connection rates over switchboards and even direct-dials. In fact, SalesIntel’s work mobile numbers are proven to have 7X connection rates compared to direct dials.
Invites/nurture
This is a better approach for reaching out to decision-makers at the top of the funnel. Leverage high-quality customized content to give them exposure to your product and keep them engaged. You can send invites to webinars, share relevant case studies, or whitepapers to create awareness and slowly push them towards the bottom of the funnel.
It should go without saying that these approaches will be successful only if they are backed by high-quality b2b data. You can create the best email or write the best whitepapers, but if you can’t reach the right people, you will see poor results.
3. Connecting with and Engaging the Decision-makers
This is probably the toughest step in the sales process. You might find the right prospect and reach out to them, but how do you make them actually listen to you? Try these tactics to get better results:
Research
Take some time between finding a prospect and performing outreach to research their specific needs and pain points. The more you know about your prospects, the better proposal you’ll be able to craft. Also, when you talk to them, they will know you have done your homework and would be more inclined to have a conversation.
Solve, not sell
Decision-makers get pitched so often that they kind of develop an immunity. Don’t tell them the “cool” features of your product or the “cutting-edge technology” at the backend; they honestly don’t care. Build a conversation around how you can solve their specific problems. How much efficiency will they gain? What will be the estimated ROI? These are the kinds of things they are interested in. Once you establish your value proposition, they’ll themselves ask about the details of your product.
Draw Parallels
Just like you, decision-makers are also looking to grow their business. It’s been found that sales messages that use collaborative words like “Us” and “Together” get more responses than individual words like “I” and “You”. So try to find a common ground and establish that this is a collaboration instead of a pure transaction.
Ask Questions
The best way to engage a prospect is to ask questions. Asking questions on a call has two benefits: first, it forces them to participate in the conversation, and second, it gives you more information to further refine your pitch. There are, however, two things you need to take care of. First, make the questions confirmatory instead of discovery. So instead of asking, “What CRM do you use?” Try “I see you use Salesforce, is that right?” Second, don’t overkill. Ideally, 10-12 questions are your sweet spot.
Closing Remarks
A major reason some sales professionals are more successful than others is their ability to identify and connect with the right decision-makers. While a lot depends on the type of product you sell, the market, the deal-size, and other factors, simply following the steps and tactics discussed here will put you in a much better position to close any deal. Do it right and the results will speak for themselves.
