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B2B sales, especially B2B sales service have dramatically increased in recent years, and salespersons, therefore, have to innovate sales strategies for successful deals. We know you are dreaming of a “ticket” to join a B2B sales service marketplace, but there are tons of things you need to consider to engage with customers, encourage them to buy your services, and repeat purchases.

From the primary of how to sell B2B services, to proven tips and strategies for closing deals and successful stories of B2B Service providers, this article is a comprehensive suite with actionable information to be successful in this competitive B2B world.

Let’s dive straight in!

What is B2B sales?

B2B stands for business to business—the process of selling products or services from one business to another directly. In general, B2B sales include five main types:

Suppliers and producers: Businesses manufacture and sell components used to produce other products. This B2B sales type happens in bulk at a discount to the buyer and maintains a long-term partnership with regular restocking. For example, Bunsen Solutions sells chemicals to produce paint, and Aramco sells crude oil to commercial airlines.
Distributors and resellers: This type is similar to supplier sales. However, instead of exchanging materials to manufacture other products, they buy finished retail goods from the manufacturer. They can customize to match the target customer’s needs and preferences but do not make any significant changes to these products.
B2B SaaS and general service provider: This is about selling your services to other businesses, such as CRMs, project management software, AI programs, and many more, which bring software solutions for businesses to simplify operations and increase efficiency.
Governments: Governments exchange programs, products, raw materials, and services to serve their communities. In essence, businesses build relationships with national, state, and local governments to support social activities such as public health, disaster relief, etc. This type is sometimes called B2G sales—business to government.
Institutions: Charities and non-profits use money from donations and funding to purchase products that serve education, healthcare, and research. For instance, Zendesk offers CRM software for social welfare organizations to manage donations and track budgets.

B2B vs B2C Sales: Key Differences

B2C: business-to-consumer sales, is another popular sales method besides B2B. The biggest difference between these two models is their target customers. As mentioned above, B2B companies sell products and services to other companies; on the other hand, B2C is where businesses send products and services directly to end consumers. Besides, there are various things to discriminate between B2B and B2C, which are listed below:

Deal size: Typically, B2B sales have a larger volume than individual consumer purchases since they serve the entire organization. Therefore, the average transaction value is at a higher price point in comparison with B2C sales.
Sale cycles: While the B2C sale cycle generally involves one-time purchases and happens in a short time, B2B sales need much more time. It makes sense that B2B sales need to go through a longer process such as lead generation, lead nurturing, and many complex negotiations to close the deal.
Stakeholders: Say again, the B2B deal is implemented on an organizational level, which means they have more decision-makers to convince (according to HubSpot’s report, it needs an average of 5 decision-makers for a B2B deal), whereas a B2C sale just focuses on a personal one.
Total addressable market: Straightforwardly, the number of businesses is fewer than individual purchasers. Thus, B2C sales have a bigger addressable market than B2B businesses.
Acquisition costs: With B2C, smaller deal sizes and fewer stakeholders make for lower CAC. Naturally, B2B businesses sell bigger deals in a smaller market to a group of stakeholders, which means higher CAC.
Marketing: In B2B, marketing is much more customer-focused to increase lifetime customer values through industry-specific events and publications. On the other hand, marketing in B2C is much broader to reach as many customers as possible.

Now that you have a sense of B2B and B2C sales fundamentals and their key differences, let’s move to the comprehensive instruction on how to sell B2B services to take the right actions.

How to Sell B2B Services?

1. Identify Your Personas

The fundamentals of a successful B2B services business are understanding your target customers. A HubSpot study said that, when you have a prospect base, only 50% of them are a good fit for your business. So, the most effective way is to focus on the right audience by creating detailed customer personas based on decision-makers who have the authority and budget to make purchase decisions.

To build a B2B customer persona, you may need to consider key details such as

Company information: location, industry, size, and growth stage (such as start-up, scale-up, or large corporation)
Company role and decision-making power: the current job title and responsibilities, such as C-suite, VP, and Manager.
Goals and objectives: For example, improving operational efficiency, reducing costs, or increasing sales by 20% in the next 2 years.
Challenges and pain points: the problem that they are facing and need solutions from your company, like a limited budget, outdated software, or an inefficient sales process.
Content preferences and behaviors: Understand customers’s interests, like the type of content they consume and where they search for information (Linkedin, Google, industry publications, etc.).

Overall, identifying the personas and prioritizing the target customer base makes it easier for you to engage decision-makers, create personalized messaging, handle specific needs and issues, and drive sales for your B2B services.

2. Market Research

How can you win when your competitors are offering the same? It is market research to assess your competitor’s efforts, strengths, and weaknesses and add your unique value to stand out.

Researching your buyer is also an effective way to qualify your lead before reaching them directly. There are some elements that you need to consider and determine whether this person is your target audience, such as prospects’s budget, authority to make purchase decisions, and their level of need and interest in your service.

To conclude, this sales process stage helps you understand the current state of demand for your offering, focus efforts on qualified leads, and increase the possibility of a successful call.

3. Prospect with ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) Data

After identifying your persona and conducting market research, now it’s time to create your own ICP (ideal customer profile) to determine what businesses to target. It is advisable to use sales intelligence tools to map a target geographic location, filter by prospects in that area using different persona data points and export the finished list, import it into their lead management tool. Consequently, it ensures your focus on leads based on ICP that are in target locations, improving sales efficiency and close rates.

4. Make Initial Contact

Following prospecting, the next step in selling B2B services is to approach potential customers, introduce your solutions, and start building a partnership. Keep in mind that first impression is a make-or-break factor, so do not come with a generic or overly aggressive sale, which may confuse customers. As a traditional method, a salesperson may start with a cold call (like LinkedIn) to find a genuine reason to connect, and then mail a brochure and craft a customized pitch.

If you are facing trouble reaching prospects, consider using sales software to create cohesive communication across channels. That said, the software can help you automatically gather text, mail, call, or other communication and sync data to your CRM so that you can have an overall view of the status of each contact to give detailed connection solutions for each customer.

5. Assess and Qualify Your Leads

One of the most important steps that determines your success in the process of how to sell B2B services is qualifying your prospects. Studies have shown that only 27% of leads are qualified – that means if you do not segment your leads and identify qualifying prospects, it is just time-consuming to chase nothing. Therefore, qualifying leads lets you save time and money and fully concentrate on those who are more likely to purchase your services rather than waste resources on prospects who do not convert into customers.

Create a warm conversation with your prospects, then ask them open questions such as “What is your budget and current spending for this?”. “What did you do to address those problems and recent changes to your business?” and other aspects of their business. By doing this, you will identify both the explicit and implicit needs of the prospects and offer them a suitable solution.

6. Pitch Your Service

At this stage, you have an opportunity to demonstrate to your potential prospects how your service can resolve their specific pain points. It’s essential to prepare a compelling and tailored sales presentation to grasp their interest and highlight your value effectively. A perfect scripted sales pitch will not last over 30 seconds, so hit on the key points to deliver relevant value to your prospects.

There are many different ways to present demos to your prospects, such as phone calls, email, webinars, live video conferences, private video meetings, or in-person meetings. You are encouraged to choose the method that is most convenient and best meets your prospect’s needs. However, the best for the maximum outcome is an in-person pitch, as this will help you to answer their questions, deliver your pitch, and address their specific problems, leading to building trust and encouraging them to purchase as soon as possible.

7. Respond

Unlike B2C, where customers can make the purchase decision immediately, B2B sales are not so easy. After your pitch about services, your prospect may have some questions about your services or concerns about budget, need, or urgency. In this situation, just listen carefully to your prospect’s objections, acknowledge them with empathy, process the problem from the client’s point of view, and address their doubts reasonably. This might take a little practice, but when you get it right, you will build stronger trust with your prospects, which can lead to a closed deal and long-term business relationship.

8. Follow Up

Many people said that follow-up prospects after pitching is annoying to them. Nevertheless, follow-up is good when you choose the right time. If you follow up too soon and too often, it can cause annoyance for your prospect and lead to a loss of the sale. But if you are too nonchalant, you can miss more sales.

So, leave a good impression till the end by sending a follow-up email with a summary of your conversation and any additional helpful information to prospects to make them feel cared for without being urged to make a purchase. Timely proactive customer support will turn your prospects into clients and nurture loyal advocates.

9. Nurturing

Although closing the deal is the ultimate goal, it’s not the end of the process. In the guide to how to sell B2B services, you cannot skip tracking results and nurturing relationships.

More chances for recurring business arise if a contract is successfully concluded. Customers who are satisfied with your services are great prospects for your additional offerings. So, spend time building solid relationships. This might be as easy as providing a cup of coffee or tea, thanking your contact for the welcome, or complementing their workspace. Despite not being entirely professional, these gestures will gauge how interested your contact is in carrying on the conversation.

Keeping your brand in front of your customers through interactive loyalty plans, business insights, e-newsletters, or product releases is a great way to keep these ties going.

Services B2B Sales Tips and Strategies

We’ve guided you through the primary process of how to sell B2B services. In this part, let’s learn how to leverage your sales journey to obtain huge achievements and success in the B2B sales service landscape by using these useful tips below.

Sell Solutions, Not Products

Even though the B2B sale has fewer customers than B2C, it is a competitive game that all companies try to win over customers not just by products or services but solutions and satisfaction. Salespersons therefore have to know how to understand customers’ problems and give detailed solutions with your service to handle these problems effectively, rather than just introduce what your service is, its price, and urge them to purchase. This will lead to increased customer loyalty and long-term relationships.

Focus on Decision-makers

A common mistake when it comes to B2B sales is that many businesses put all their attention on the purchaser. The fact is that they do not have the authority to decide which supplier they should choose. That’s why professional salespeople often skip over those folks and go straight to the real decision-makers, who are VP, CEO, and CFO who have the budget to actually buy your services.

Refine Your Value Proposition

A value proposition identifies your target customer’s issues and the way your service helps them address their problems. Thus, if your target customer is multi-segments, that means you have to provide different solutions for various problems; you should have a value proposition in place for each individual. As a result, you can effortlessly rattle them off at any given moment.

Nurture Leads On Social Media

This is a proven B2B sales strategy that offers businesses opportunities to create a deeper connection and build relationships with target audiences, personalized experience, and ultimately generate more leads and sales. Also, you can take advantage of some social media tools like the Social Media Activity Log to enhance the brand’s online presence, establish brand recognition, and encourage people to purchase when in need of your service. Consequently, you can generate warm leads without having to deal with the unpleasant circumstance of cold calling.

Over and above that, use social media as proof of the quality of your service. Customers typically want to study the success process that you bring to previous companies, so do not forget to use case studies, testimonials, or even third-party review sites to create your own competitive advantages over your competitors.

Get Feedback From Customers

Actively making use of customer input to brand your business. Since customer feedback is a powerful weapon to win potential customers—those who still hesitate to make a purchase, to make strong use of the right solution that your service comes in to address their problems. Furthermore, addressing complaints and incorporating recommended modifications into your offering builds trust and boosts client happiness, repeat business, and recommendations.

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B2B Service Providers Examples

On the journey of how to sell B2B services successfully, it is indispensable to get support from B2B service providers for faster and better results. For your consideration, this is our top 5 best B2B service provider examples to leverage your business.

Salesforce

As a global pioneer in customer relationship management (CRM) solutions, Salesforce is one of the biggest B2B service providers examples that brings a revolutionary way to help businesses connect to their customers in a whole new way, find more prospects, close more deals, and offer amazing service.

To be more specific, Salesforce provides businesses with a comprehensive package of cloud-based software, including Sales Cloud for managing leads and suggesting the appropriate time to take specific action to drive a deal, Marketing Cloud for customized marketing automation and personalized messages to prospects, and Service Cloud for enhancing customer services. Moreover, the provider comes with Commerce Cloud, Analytics Cloud and AI-powered solutions, which allow businesses to gain data-driven insights, understand customer needs and requirements, and deliver great shopping experiences.

SAP

SAP, when people think about enterprise software, gets revolutionized as a pioneer in tailor-made approaches and diversified design elements.

SAP offers a wide range of services, including its ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) solutions that integrate core business processes like finance, supply chain, HR, and procurement. By combining real-time data processing with analytics, its flagship product SAP S/4HANA helps customers be more productive by delivering actionable insights that drive faster decision-making. SAP also provides solutions such as SAP SuccessFactors for HR management, SAP Ariba for procurement, and SAP Business Technology Platform, which covers advanced analytics, integration, and application development.

Moreover, with striking cloud-based tools and technologies such as AI, LOT, and machine learning, SAP is definitely a strategic partner for your business to optimize operations, deliver innovation, and strive for excellent growth.

HubSpot

Another all-in-one solution B2B provider—shout out for Hubspot—is equipped with a full suite of marketing, sales, operation, and social media management. HubSpot’s key service is the Marketing Hub, which unifies customers’ insights through its Smart CRM system. That said, Marketing Hub helps you to attract attention, collect contacts, generate leads, and generate content marketing to engage customers at the right time.

Besides, Sales Hub equips businesses with easy-to-use tools for pipeline management, automation, and reporting, helping to create fast outcomes, deepen customer connections, and enhance productivity. At the same time, Service Hub comes with AI-powered, ticketing systems, feedback tools, and works on data to ensure excellent customer support and proactive customer retention, fostering loyalty that fuels your business expansion. On the other hand, Operations Hub offers you an automatic business process on one central CRM platform, reducing the likelihood of errors, and accelerating turnaround times, and delivering a friction-free customer experience.

Oracle Corporation

Founded in 1977, through nearly 50 years of development, Oracle was known for its Oracle Database management system and applications and services that serve for data management and business. With the commitment to empower businesses through innovation, reliability, and infinite expertise, Oracle comes with a comprehensive portfolio of solutions from their deep understanding of industry and eCommerce trends, including cloud infrastructure (OCI), database management systems, enterprise applications, analytics and big data, and cybersecurity. As a result, Oracle opens a new future for your business with digital transformation, keeps you stay competitive, reduces cost reduction while improving productivity, and makes informed decisions backed by actionable insights.

IBM

With a focus on creating smarter, more resilient organizations, IBM offers solutions that enable companies to thrive in a competitive and rapidly evolving digital landscape.

To be more detailed, IBM provides users with hybrid cloud solutions, including IBM Cloud Paks and Red Hat OpenShift to accelerate application development and data management. Utilizing AI in eCommerce, the company helps you gain actionable insight, predictive analytics and make smarter decisions to enhance customer experience. Furthermore, IBM Security offers secured solutions to avoid cyber threats, IT infrastructure for high-performance capabilities, and end-to-end consulting services for optimizing store performance. In conclusion, no matter what problem you are facing – cloud computing, AI, cybersecurity or financial, IBM’s all-in-one portfolio is perfect for your business growth and fostering innovation.

Conclusion

B2B selling is complicated, so the key to conquering B2B customers is to think of how to sell B2B services smartly and maintain long-term business relationships. It means that your priority is engaging with decision-makers, and providing the best solution for their problems, not quick sales service or products. We hope that this article has provided you with useful information and comprehensive instruction for you to thrive in this extensive market.

If you need help, do not hesitate to contact our BSS Commerce team. Hope you are best selling!

How To Sell B2B Services: A Complete Guide to Closing Deals