Reaching and exceeding the sales plans – what can be more important for salespeople in various businesses? The expanding technologies grant teams with convenient B2B sales tools aimed to enhance their everyday tasks. Those products embrace all areas of the sales process and ultimately help acquire and nurture B2B sales leads.
B2B Sales Process
Before we proceed to discuss the types of B2B sales software, let’s shape a clear understanding of the B2B sales process stages to see where exactly the respective software can bring fruits. Furthermore, the specification of the sales process will help identify which categories of digital sales tools your business might need.
An effective B2B selling process requires a comprehensive approach that includes several important steps.
- Market and customer research. Salespeople start with exploring their market and competitors and outline a portrait of an ideal client. Correspondingly, they formulate a value proposition.
- Identification of the target audience. The following step is finding and assessing the prospects – the decision-makers that are empowered with authority and budget to purchase the offered commodity.
- Conducting initial outreach. By using various marketing channels, salespeople need to get in front of the selected prospects with their offers.
- Pitching to your leads. This step includes not only contacting your prospects but also explaining to them why your product or service will address their issue better than others.
- Following up. Once the pitch meeting is over, salespeople should prepare a meeting report – a written document outlining the main points that have been discussed.
- Closing the sale. The final and the most desired stage of the process. If you reach it, you have done your job! Here, sales reps usually obtain the written confirmation of the client’s intent to make a purchase and proceed with the purchase itself.
What are the Sales Tools for B2B and Why are They Important?
Sales tools are software products utilized by reps and leaders to skyrocket their sales performance.
The selling process is multifaceted, and salespeople use multiple categories of digital tools to monitor all aspects of consumer interaction and enhance internal operations. Here are some of the most popular categories of digital solutions:
- Client relationship management;
- Email campaign management;
- The visitor identification and tracking.
The software solutions are intended to ease retailers’ life and help drive businesses in the competitive environment. What specifically can they do?
- Optimize processes and boost productivity;
- Assist in lead generation;
- Allow for efficient lead tracking;
- Automate sales process;
- Conduct lead scoring;
- Facilitate communication.
The following statistics give a brief glance at what role that B2B sales software plays and why it is currently on the rise.
- 14.8% of the effectiveness drain is triggered by administrative tasks, which could be easily superseded with sales software tools.
- Nine of 10 companies use at least two lead enrichment tools to discover information about prospects;
- By leveraging social selling tools, companies can increase the deal size by 35% and win rates by 5%.
What B2B Sales Software do Teams Need?
To determine the adequate B2B sales tools for your reps, you should primarily identify which processes take up most of their time. Automation can jazz up your prospecting, while a CRM system can do magic to your sales process.
For example, if you want to facilitate sales tasks, consider tools that:
- Simplify collaboration on documents and assignments;
- Automate routine jobs including lead scoring, distributing documents, and follow-ups;
- Supplies sales reps with required resources for effortless communication with prospects (email templates, contact widgets, etc.);
- Allow integrating with other solutions to prevent the mess with apps.
Similarly, the corresponding sets of tools can be applied at various stages of the sales procedure.
What are the Hottest B2B Sales Tools that can Cater to Your Needs Best?
The solutions called to assist sales reps are plentiful and versatile. Moreover, their number continues to grow. When you need to pick the proper tool for B2B sales lead generation – Belkins.io, a qualified digital marketing agency, can provide professional help. Some of the main categories according to our experience, as well as the examples of the best B2B sales tools, include the following.
CRM tools
Customer relationship management (CRM) solutions are meant to aid sales teams in managing all aspects of customer communications. A CRM stores all the data about customers and is instrumental in delivering crucial insights into relationships with every customer into the entire business’s well-being.
The category includes such products as ActiveCampaign, HubSpot CRM.
Sales Automation tools
As their name denotes, these products are supposed to automate various constituents of the sales process. These components comprise personalized communication, sales funnel management, follow-ups, data entry, appointment setting, and more. The solutions relieve sales reps from numerous routine and tedious jobs, thus saving their time.
The category includes such products as HubSpot Sales Hub, Postal.io.
B2B Sales Enablement Tools
The main purpose of these solutions is to supply merchants with the required resources, materials, processes, technologies, and everything else they might need to facilitate conversions and close deals.
The category includes such products as Seismic, Gong Sales Enablement Software.
Sales Prospecting tools and sales intelligence tools in B2B
The two types are interconnected since both of them help to deal with prospects successfully. Prospecting is recognized by 40% of salespeople as the most challenging element of their job; therefore, both groups are increasingly becoming an integral part of many businesses.
Sales intelligence includes a wide array of technologies that deliver contact information and other business data about the prospects. Ultimately, the respective tools help reps determine whom they should talk to, what exactly they should say, and when the conversation should take place. Sales prospecting tools in B2B are used to identify and qualify potential leads, contact prospects, and prioritize quality accounts.
The category includes such products as LinkedIn Sales Navigator, LeadIQ.
Sales Engagement tools
This category of B2B sales software is intended to aid in managing interactions between reps and prospects across diverse channels, be it an email or a call.
Specifically, there are numerous solutions for winning email campaigns that help not only create effective content and email sequences but also enhance email deliverability. For instance, the email checker developed by Belkins is an excellent product that guarantees that your messages will avoid the continually upgraded spam filters and successfully reach the reader’s inbox.
Sales engagement tools also comprise contact centers, sales dialers, SMS, online conferencing, and other personalization and automation features.
The category includes such products as Dialpad, Troops
Sales Forecasting and Sales Analysis Tools
An indispensable group of tools for modern businesses, these solutions are capable of envisioning future sales and revenues. They are based on intelligence technologies and can analyze such information as staff performance, market trends, consumer behaviors, and more.
Sales analysis solutions provide a comprehensive look into the performance of your team and your competitors.
The category includes such products as InsightSquared, Looker Sales Analytics, Crayon.
Wrapping Up
The number of modern sales tools is countless. To make use of them competently, you should analyze which areas of your sales process need support most of all and which features you should benefit from. Don’t worry if the diversity of choice makes you overwhelmed – you can always rely on the professional expertise of an experienced partner, such as Belkins. Share with us your issues, concerns, and goals, and we will tailor a solution right for your needs!
