Are Your B2B Interactions More Stilted Than a Chat Between Neighbors?

Selling products is never easy. Selling products to businesses who know every trick in the book is even harder. Forget wowing them with fancy language and cheap tricks, B2B clients know what they want, and are generally good at finding the right company to give it to them.

As a B2B seller, that can make your life pretty hard, resulting in unproductive conversations that are even more awkward than that chat you had with your neighbor at the bins this morning. After all, like neighbors, B2B clients aren’t friends, but they can’t be strangers either. You feel like you’re constantly trying to walk a tightrope of creating connections but still maintaining your professionalism. And, for the most part, it may well be a mission that you fail.

If this sounds familiar to you, then rest assured that you’re not alone. But why are your B2B interactions falling so short of sales right now, and what can you possibly do to improve the situation? Keep on reading to find out.

Reason 1: You’re Starting Out All Wrong

It may be cliche, but it’s true to say that first impressions count. In keeping with the neighbor metaphor, you’re never going to hit it off with the elderly people next door if you offer them a fist bump on your first meeting. Equally in the world of B2B marketing, you’ll struggle to hook a fish if you’re making obvious mistakes like throwing out a few social media posts and waiting for clients to come to you.

Instead, B2B marketing is all about intentional targeting. Methods like account-based marketing (ABM) are key, as they ensure that you both identify your opportunities and know exactly what you have to offer a company before you go ahead and reach out. This shows that you’re a proactive, considered company who aren’t afraid to identify, and see, the best accounts for their services. This approach also enables you to avoid awkward small talk, as a winning ABM strategy ensures you’ll already have an impressive, data-backed pitch in your back pocket when conversations start. And, with a bit of luck, sales will soon follow.

Reason 2: Your Conversations are One-Sided in the Wrong Direction

No one enjoys a one-sided conversation. In fact, if your neighbor only ever talks about himself, then the chances are that you entirely disengage. Well, the same is true for B2B prospects. Unlike general clients, these individuals don’t want a glowing report of your product features or potential. After all, they’re not buying from you personally, so why should they care?

That’s not to say that you shouldn’t still sing about what your product can do, of course, but it does mean you need to get creative in how you do that. Mainly, you need to paint your product pitch so that it’s all about your client.

After all, a B2B buyer receives potentially hundreds of product pitches each day. Not to mention that their company probably already has a complete service stack. Your email about your product simply won’t hold any interest. Standing out from the crowd, and stealing the limelight from existing investments, means taking a different tack, such as doing thorough research to understand any existing business pain points that your product alone could address. Then, you can catch their attention by talking about them, and how the ‘two’ of you could work well together.

Reason 3: You’re Caught up on Irrelevance

B2C marketing is a subtle art, which thrives on things like content uploads that only mention a product at the very end. This is all well and good for providing organic value to consumers who have the time for it, but B2B buyers aren’t interested in an irrelevant approach. Like a time-pushed neighbor, they just want you to get to the point!

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still take time for sideline focuses like white papers and blog posts, but these shouldn’t form your main marketing focus. Instead, your client pitches should go straight down the middle with upfront, undeniable value that clearly knows what it’s about.

Having a clear objective for your pitch is especially important for keeping B2B acquisition moving in the right direction. This ensures you’re able to start with a clear outline, and clearly display how your products meet that requirement, and where they would sit within that company. This way, you eliminate questions, doubts, or any time for competitors to move in. And, that’s when the best increases to your revenue are sure to happen.

Worried you’re boring the socks off your B2B prospects right now? Get rid of awkwardness by avoiding these mistakes.