Digital Transformation In B2B Sales: Trends

Digital Transformation in B2B: Visits, fairs, events, conferences, and trade shows have all transformed into virtual events. If your company is one of the 64% of B2B organizations primarily using offline business generation models, going digital has profoundly affected your B2B sales.

Indeed, so as not to interrupt them, you have accelerated your digital sales transformation: you have relocated your employees and processes to the home office, reviewed your goals and expenses if you have balanced all the dishes with mastery – and in a sector that has not gone through the breakdown more extensive -, celebrated as a goal not having to cut the budget in the area and even some good deals.

It is about these trends that have been drawing with striking features that we will talk about in this article. We were in B2B sales digitization without first identifying the scenario.

The Scenario: Few Were Prepared For A Digital Transformation In B2B Sales

Despite the rapid transition to digital, few were prepared for it. More precisely, citing Intelligentsia’s research, 59% of B2B companies. This may have affected the selling experience a little.

It is already clear that organizations that find the means to rebuild the interaction experience that existed before the pandemic will differentiate themselves and gain consumer loyalty.

So far, so good, that’s for sure. We don’t have time to advance a B2B digital sales transformation carefully and learn from our mistakes and successes. In a matter of days, we are making decisions that would have taken longer, leading to more robust plans with well-structured execution.

As if that wasn’t enough, there’s another point: we need to know which investments will lead to good immediate results. Because, in addition to time, the impact of non-essential spending can be devastating.

For example, if a campaign performs poorly, who will hold it in the air and A/B test it until it achieves the desired performance? It’s not the time to test.

From Field Sales To Inside Sales: The Super Experience

Here at Super, the structuring of a digital sales model began due to the visualization of the digital transformation trend of B2B sales. We studied the market, restructured the entire prospecting and sales process, acquired tools and created a team.

Today a precious currency, we had time to test tools and approaches, correct them, prepare teams and cross the learning curve without taking significant risks. We reaped, more than learning, good results, which validated the success of our initiative with the best prize, victory.

Having traveled a good part of this path before the crisis, in a way, created the conditions for, in the situation, to have more security in our initiatives. After some operation, we see that we are moving towards a B2B sales model that is much more digitally inclined – by necessity and choice.

Five Trends In B2B Sales That Came With The Pandemic And Will Stay

Omnichannel: On All Channels, But Digital-First

Website, blog, social media, videos, video conferences, online events, ads, WhatsApp, chatbot, email, SMS and phone. A universe of channels to be explored.

B2B organizations, according to McKinsey, already see digital interactions as 2x more critical than traditional interactions. Yes, with the transformation of B2B sales to digital, acceptance of this type of experience is growing much faster now.

Therefore, some sales experts have already announced that the traditional face-to-face meeting with potential customers to start a relationship will never be what it was before.

Not because field sales are ineffective, but because digital-first sales strategies are being massively tested and improved by Commercial, although they have already shown effects with some skepticism.

Accelerate Trading Time With Self-Service

In a McKinsey survey, 62% of purchasing companies cited a preference for self-service (the percentage in 2016 was 48%). Self-service still wins in search, consideration and new business. If this data is from 2019, imagine if the same survey was done now.

Gartner predicts that B2-B shoppers will expect their shopping experience to be the same as their B2C online shopping experience.

Without the possibility of face-to-face contact at events, fairs, conferences, etc., B2B buyers want autonomy to seek, consider and close new business.

This autonomy generates, consequently, the acceleration of the negotiation process. Therefore, B2-B companies must create strategies to shorten negotiation time, even in technical sales.

The same survey cites the most frustrating issues for B2B shoppers on websites:

• delay in the purchase process;
• difficulty finding products, purchase information, and support;
• purchase failures.

This is our next trend in digital B2B sales.

Content-Driven Strategies

Physical aspects like good location and lighting may matter little in B2B sales in the digital world. But how does your company appear on the internet?

You are creating content. Not just any content, but high-quality content designed to attract, engage, convert and delight your audience.

We mentioned above that the three factors that most frustrate prospects in the online shopping process are confusing websites, lack of product information, slow purchase process, etc. So, more than creating content, it needs to be optimized for users and search engines like Google.

Customer-Centric At All Touchpoints

One of the fears of digital transformation in B2B sales – which have a pronounced technical and consultative aspect, in addition to a very high average ticket – for digital is the impoverishment of the customers’ shopping experience. Don’t think that this will impoverish the digital shopping experience. 

Increase Lifetime Value To Retain And Engage Customers

The cost of retaining a customer is usually much lower than the cost of acquiring it, which brings a lot of ROI for organizations.

Therefore, at least in the short and medium-term, some leaders are also directing more efforts to the already won accounts to retain, engage and grow business with them, rather than acquiring new logos.

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