Covid-19 has taken a big hit on businesses and we still haven’t seen the impact, positive or negative, it will have on the world economy in the coming years. Many companies that rely on exports have struggled with sales as strict travel restrictions prevented them to fly out to meet their customers, prospects, or partners. Even though the pandemic is slowly decelerating, CEOs and CSOs are unsure what would be the optimal way forward.
Think different
To sustain growth internationally requires a whole new way of thinking and an implementation of an omnichannel B2B Sales Model to keep the ball rolling. McKinsey released a report in March on B2B sales and states: “McKinsey’s research on B2B decision-makers confirms that omnichannel is not simply a trend, nor a pandemic workaround—rather, it is a critically important fixture for B2B sales globally.” What does this mean in practice? It means that you should throw your existing sales strategies and tactics into the bin, or at least completely re-think how you sell today and in the future. This is good news for smaller companies, as decision-makers are more receptive to contacts coming from new players.
What is omnichannel?
Omnichannel means that your company interacts with your customers through various channels, including remote meetings, email, social media, and other digital platforms. Buyers and decision-makers are increasingly seeking information on products and services proactively, before engaging with vendors. According to McKinsey, 2/3 of buyers prefer remote human interactions or digital self-service. What is eye-opening is that 20% of the decision-makers are willing to spend more than $500,000 in a fully remote/digital sales model, and 11 percent of all B2B buyers would spend more than one million. So clearly things have changed and will continue to do so.
What should I do?
You have your big goal, your targets, you need to plan your sales to reach them. Since the world has changed and buyers are moving towards omnichannel, you should too. Further to strategy and planning, your sales team needs to be built so, that it gathers the omnichannel approach. If, for example, you have previously sold in face-to-face meetings, consider adopting a remote channel for prospecting, backed up by inside sales and lead generation. When you’re targeting international markets. local is still king, so you should consider having a local sales resource in your team.
As buyers are actively looking for information googling and from social media, you need to have your digital marketing strategy and execution planned properly. The content you write and publish needs to bring value to your readers and potential customers. This increases your credibility, and who knows, maybe you’ll strike a deal, originating from inbound leads!
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Build a machine to generate and nurture leads and convert them to customers with your newly modified omnichannel sales team. You need to be careful when staffing your sales team. Selling remotely is not always easy, as there’s nobody language involved, so inexperienced sales reps could struggle to run the meeting and create a needed trust to move to the next phase. You cannot have any weak links in your sales process. Even though going omnichannel is a whole new way of doing things, you should execute relentlessly and adjust as you go. Deploying new tactics is always a learning experience, however, with poor planning and preparation, the learning curve tends to creep too high.
Omnichannel B2B could be a great opportunity for your company to acquire new customers. It is definitively more efficient, as you can approach customers over calls, instead of flying out to meet them physically. However, this is not always the case and sometimes a face-to-face meeting secures a better outcome. The key is to plan properly and create a truly international omnichannel sales team and, finally, execute consistently.
We build international success stories
International expansion is a daunting task that companies still manage to overlook when crafting their plan. This results in less than ideal execution that doesn’t bring any satisfactory results. We work with B2B SaaS companies to create a comprehensive sales and go-to-market plan as well as build a sales team to make sure your future clients know you’re there to stay.
