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Data is one of the most valuable assets of b2b organizations. If the quality and timely availability of data is undermined, it can hamper the lead generation process and thus impact the ROI. Such is the importance of data!

Data can be the internal decision maker for any b2b organization that is involved in lead generation and demand generation services.

Data, if it’s a limited resource within the organization it definitely needs scrutiny, filtering and polishing and it becomes all the more important to leverage and optimize this valuable resource that can impact sales and leads.

So what can one do to ensure that data quality is optimized? Take a look at these parameters of data that can literally decide the fate of your leads!

Here are some decision making factors that one cannot ignore when it comes to data-

• Accurate data- Data that is validated and filtered can bring in good results
• Data aligned with business goals- If you have quality data but it is not aligned with business goals and objectives it cannot get the desired results
• Relevance of data- Relevance of data can determine whom you are going to communicate with and what. This factor can save a lot of time and effort
• Trustworthiness- Data that is trustworthy or reliable is the real valuable data that can actually optimize your other efforts to elevate ROI

So before we move ahead to discuss the 3 most important practices to optimize data, let us see how one can get the best out of data-

• Define data well to know if you have what it takes to nurture those leads
• Get your business goals well defined too, because this is how you will know whether the data you are using is relevant and useful
• Get the data processes and systems in place as this can affect  data cleansing, filtering, treatment and data-readiness before you use it
• Check the results of your previous campaigns that used particular data sets. The metrics of these results can tell you a lot about whether you are using the right data or not
• Last but not the least; create a data ambience in the organization. Let each function and all cross functional teams know the value of data before you optimize it

When everyone in the organization understands the importance of data and there is a proper ambience that exists to validate, guard and utilize data for the right audience, strategies and practices of data can further help in optimizing data-

Who governs data?

Some of the unobvious questions such as who governs the data in your organization can be the first step in creating good data solutions. Data governance is an equally important aspect as data cleansing.

Data governance says a lot about who is responsible for data maintenance, data cleansing and data relevancy and if all these factors are set to come under data governance in your organization.

A lot can come under data governance. Data policies if any or being accountable for all data solutions and outcomes, data transparency, relevance and other protocols need to be set for maximizing data efficiency.

The process of optimizing data starts with analysis and ownership.

Which parameters decide the quality of data?

So does each one involved with data know about the parameters on which the quality of data is going to get decided? It’s very important that both sales and marketing teams are on the same page when it comes to knowing and deciding certain quality parameters when it comes to data.

Each customer is unique and so is his business. Thus, data that is unique to that particular business can also be counted as quality data. Data cleansing, filtering and treating data for checking its relevance in time and in terms of target audience are important parameters to determine the quality of data.

Quantity data without quality cannot serve the purpose of your business objectives. Quality of data therefore is extremely important when it comes to any campaign that is being planned for lead generation or email marketing etc.

How does Data cleansing determine data success?

Data is often lying around in files, documents, database systems etc. sometimes for years. Everyone might think there is a lot of data available but all data is not useful data.

Data that is scrutinized, cleansed, filtered, treated to validate its relevance. It can help understand whether the people with the corresponding data are still with the respective organizations or are they still the decision makers etc. and more factors determine the real value of data.

Hence data cleansing is one of the most critical parameters or practices that can determine the quality of data.

Conclusion:

Data is a solution today and it cannot be ignored, taken for granted or left untreated. It has huge impact over the overall business and ROI of any b2b or any other organization for that matter. Trained personnel, creating an ambience of data matching, quality and quantity management are the other practices that can help optimize data solutions.

B2B organizations have realized that personalization is the key to getting more customers, retaining customers and building strong relationships that work long term. Marketers are now no longer looking for short-termed solutions. Acquiring new customers is a lengthy process, however, retaining customers and nurturing them with personalization creates stronger and long term business ties that can give better ROI.

Personalization has been in vogue for quite some time and b2b marketers and organizations are yet to see its full potential. Here is a blog that talks about some of the best techniques to strengthen personalization in b2b.
 

360 degree view of customer:

Having enough knowledge of the attributes of the customer, his inclinations, his likes and dislikes, his preferences, the buying history, geographical influences, family and their influences and much more can give a 360 degree view of the customer. This in fact is at the very core of b2b sales and marketing success.

The data you seek needs to be essentially about these details about the customer. For example, if a prospect’s family prefers a certain service provider for a longer duration, chances are they have developed loyalty toward that brand for some reasons.

As a marketer, if you look into their buying history and analyze details of why they prefer a particular brand, product or service, it can give a clear idea of their needs. This data can help marketers reconfigure their approach, communication and even customize services to suit the needs of the customer. Hence, personalization becomes significant when it comes to not only capturing the attention of the prospect but to also to convert them into business.

Content assets based on analytics:

Analytics and analysis of data plays a huge role in deciding the right strategy for the right customer. Technology too is invariably important in predicting and analyzing customer behavior. But when you combine technology with human instinct, experience and expertise, you will most likely get the best results when it comes to lead conversion. Analytics can help create buyer personas and mapping out buyer journeys etc.

Analysis of customer profiles and creating ideal customer profile helps in creating effective content assets to enhance personalization. Content assets and personalization are inseparable. Content assets such as white papers, e-books, infographics etc. can go a long way in starting conversations, creating scope of connecting on a personalized level for better understanding of the customer and much more.

Email marketing:

Personalization would be incomplete without email marketing! In fact, email marketing is one of the most effective tools when it comes to personalization. Email marketing can have a massive impact on ROI and this comes with effective messaging, communicating the right offers to the right prospect at the right time. Email marketing can widen the reach of your marketing efforts and can help you to tap the target audience for better ROI. It can help you to make to communicate in a more personalized way with decision makers so that you can influence their buying decisions reducing your sales cycle.

Conclusion:

Personalization is the key to successful marketing and sales in 2021. This is the most accepted and the most effective way to communicate with your clients, customers or prospects. It can help build long term relationships and can foster them for better results. Making a wise choice of channels or social media platforms to personalize communication can be a game-changer for b2b.

Customer is king! This is a well-known truth and it has been prevalent for as long as businesses have been in existence. The only thing that has changed is the approach of the customer itself. Today’s customers are quick to change, have dynamic choices, are tech-savvy and most of the times clear of what they want and whom they want to get it from. Whether it is a service or a product, they study many aspects before approaching a marketer. Today customers exhibit certain digital and social media behaviours which are valuable data for any marketer who wants to capture their attention.

Customer data captured from various sources can be instrumental in shaping marketing strategies and also understanding the needs of the customer thoroughly. The importance of customer profile is paramount in determining the sales and marketing success in B2B. Identifying target audience and creating an impeccable customer profile is an integral part of B2B sales and marketing.

So how does one optimize an ideal customer profile to leverage the potential in them to get converted into business? There are many ways to do it, but let us discuss some critical factors here in this blog.

Focus on the most potential customers first:

Look at what will most probably give you the fastest results, which means one must focus on customers that are most likely to convert. Going by the traditional ways to create an ideal customer profile can work well in the b2b landscape. After identifying the best customers, you can start analysing the characteristics such as age, region, company, designation, the authority level when it comes to decision-making, etc.

Determining the best customers and their characteristics can enable you to know which channels, strategies you must use to approach them and then nurture them to convert them eventually. These parameters help define the best customers and their probability to get converted and thus augment revenue growth.

Aligned approach:

Creating an ideal customer profile has several benefits. It is of great help to multiple functions across the organization. Sales, marketing, operations even finance if work in good alignment it can always lead to better business outcomes. It leads to more clarity, unison in decision making and thus can pave way to getting more revenue due to minimum internal errors or misalignment. Instead of relying only on the data or different versions of the same customer, once you create an ideal customer profile it eases the job of each one in the organization who is connected to it in some way.

Being target specific:

The job of any b2b marketer, whether it is sales or marketing is to break down the complexity of b2b and simplify it to augment ROI. This can be done when there is more clarity about the kind of customers you would be looking at. An ideal customer profile can help minimise the complexities and define the target very well. Once the target is clear, sales and marketing teams can then build plans around the target profile to capture the attention of the customer, delight and engage them further to accelerate sales and get more revenue growth.

Conclusion:

B2B is a complex market and the more specific one becomes, the more narrowed down approach one adopts it becomes easier to get the results quickly. Customer is important and the more your approach is customer-centric, easier it is to convert them into business.

Lead nurturing is one of the most sought after techniques in lead generation in b2b! If done well, it can give huge returns not only in terms of conversions but in building solid relationships with the clients. Focused and strategic efforts in lead nurturing can lead to the better results. So let us take a look at how you can make lead nurturing stronger and more effective.

With customers having access to technological innovations, digital tools and social media, the competition in the market is getting tougher each day. Customers are well informed, and they do intense research before deciding to buy from you. It is therefore important to strengthen techniques such as lead nurturing which is more about reaching out to the right customer with the right approach.

Tech-savvy and smart customers are looking for someone who is ready to put in the effort to understand their true challenges and provide customized solutions for better business outcomes. Therefore, marketers are now emphasizing on creating a robust lead nurturing strategy with aligned content strategy and content assets for best results.

So what exactly is lead nurturing?

To make a lead sales-ready by using techniques that involve content assets to engage leads is lead nurturing.  Lead nurturing involves hand-holding through various different stages of buyer’s journey in order to make them ready to eventually buy from you.

Lead nurturing needs a dedicated approach and focused techniques to optimize it in order to leverage its power. Here are a few things that you can do to empower your lead generation process by mindful lead nurturing –

Build a solid persona:

It’s best to start from the basics, hence investing time and effort in building a solid buyer or target persona makes sense and it will surely set you in the right direction. A persona is a fictitious thing and the more logical you are in creating it, the better the personas will be. A persona helps in determining the needs of the prospect, and to create an identity of the prospect that can be used as a good reference point. It can also help cross-functional teams to understand the prospect better.

In fact, building persona is more of a cross functional activity, wherein as much information across different functions can be gathered, better it is for building solid personas.

Understanding Buyer’s journey:

Mapping the buyer’s journey is very critical in any lead nurturing process. Being aware of the buyer’s journey enables marketers to create aligned content assets for better lead nurturing. There are several stages of buyer’s journey such as top of the funnel stage which is the awareness stage, then the middle of the funnel stage which is the consideration phase, and then the bottom of the funnel stage where the buyers are almost read to buy from you.

Each stage has peculiarities that determine that stage and thus content assets needed for each stage are different. Specific and relevant content assets provided to prospects at each stage enhance the chances of engagement. Hence knowing the buyer’s journey is very crucial for strengthening lead nurturing.

Conclusion:

Lead nurturing is a vital part of lead generation process and it can determine the future of leads. Getting leads can sometimes be less challenging than converting them and this is where lead nurturing comes into the picture. Create a strategy that is aligned with the prospect and it will be easier to engage them and eventually convert them into business.

ABM or Account Based Marketing is gaining huge popularity in b2b and for all the right reasons! It’s a great and focused way of nurturing and getting those leads converted. However, if your ABM campaigns lack strategy and analysis at various stages, then you could face a few challenges. Certain factors may not match up to your expectations when it comes to the results.

Things such as use of irrelevant content, too many expectations in less time, flaws in defining the target audience etc. can contribute to the failure in ABM. Marketers can take this opportunity to monitor, supervise and analyze their entire ABM campaign and make necessary changes to avoid future mistakes.

Here are some factors that could hamper your ABM efforts and how you can fix them:

Incorrect profiling of target:

ABM begins by choosing wisely. It is about making no mistakes when it comes to profiling the target audience, it is about Ask the right questions to get the right answers. The biggest mistake markets can make is in creating wrong or incorrect profiles of their target audience and a lot of loose ends when it comes to getting to know the target well. Make sure you know how your ideal customer looks like.

If you are not clear of the criteria you will not be able to focus on the right prospect or organization at the right time. Make sure you invest your energy in knowing the right answers to some of the questions such as the industry they belong to, the number of employees, the key decision makers in the company, the services that you want to propose to them, are they aligned with their business goals. If your answers to all these questions are appropriate then you can be sure that you are in the right direction.

Too many expectations:

Though ABM is a great way to get those leads rolling and conversions too, it is not an overnight success formula. It takes considerable time, efforts, consistency and perseverance along with the right techniques to make ABM is a huge success. So much has been written and being talked about the miracles of ABM that marketers are bound to feel that this is a sure shot way to success. It can be only if done strategically, but at the same time, having too many expectations and in less time would be a mistake. 

Irrelevant content assets:

Content is at the foundation of long lasting relationships in b2b. Content assets are instrumental in ABM success. If you think just having any content asset can influence your audience, then you are mistaken. Content assets make sense only when they are relevant to your target audience. Sending irrelevant content assets to your prospect can make your efforts in ABM campaigns go waste. Many times marketers wonder where things are going wrong, when they have not paid attention to content.

Make sure you choose the right content for the right audience or organization that is your target audience and you will reap huge benefits in ABM.
 

Conclusion:

Account based Marketing is a much focused activity in b2b. Any focused activity is bound to produce great results. But this in no way means that marketers can be complacent and put all faith in ABM without a proper strategy and understanding of the target audience.

If you want to get more leads and convert them quickly, focusing on lead nurturing would be the right thing to do. A longer but more sustainable route to lead conversion; lead nurturing can be a very fulfilling technique to build long term relationships with your customers and can even be used in retargeting.

MQL or Marketing Qualified Leads are an important part of every b2b organization. These leads show an inclination or intent towards making a buying decision. They are the warm leads that can be converted with a proper lead nurturing strategy. Getting these prospects to know you better so that they decide to buy from you is at the core of any lead nurturing process. Unlike SQLs, MQLs are not ready to buy from you yet but they can become SQLs soon enough if you nurture them properly. SQLs or Sales Qualified Leads are those leads that are ready to buy from you and are about to get converted.

So how do you optimize nurturing for your most potential lead generation components including MQLs and SQLs? Here are some ways that can accelerate your lead generation process with appropriate lead nurturing:

Be a problem-solver:

The prospects that are looking for solutions urgently can get quickly converted, but if not captured and nurtured they will be the first ones to go to your competitors. So nurturing them and being a problem-solver for their challenges should become your top most priority. You can start with offering them with content assets or offers that can make them stay and get converted:

• Offer free product demos or free trials if you offer product based solutions
• Offer content assets that showcase your problem solving abilities
• Use focused email marketing to offer them what they are looking for
• Give discounts, coupons or gift vouchers if that is a part of your marketing mix
• Include client testimonials that speak about your expertise and how it helped them

Targeting with emails:

Email marketing can be one of the most personalized approaches when it comes to contacting or keeping in touch with your prospects. It is a tool that can enhance your chances of converting those leads that are at any stage of your sales funnel.

Email Marketing can help you to narrow down your focus to those leads that need to be contacted and nurtured on a more regular basis.

You can nurture leads with email marketing in the following ways:

• Personalize the messaging and offers for effective response
• List out those leads that are looking out for insights and information
• Email valuable content assets to make your outreach more successful
• Be consistent and be unique

Webinars:

Those leads who register for webinars are definitely more interested in your services. Registering for your webinar is a sign that the lead maybe inclined toward buying from you. A webinar is an important nurturing tool that presents an opportunity to marketers to get to know the prospect even better and can directly contact them for further engagement.

Webinars need to have following elements to make it a successful nurturing technique:

• Choose a relevant topic to make the webinar interesting and information based for your prospect
• Webinar is about having one-on-one communication with your prospect so make the most out of it by making it very interactive
• Ask questions to get to know your prospect more
• Gather enough data to be able to keep them in the nurturing loop even after the webinar

Conclusion:

Lead nurturing can make lead generation more interesting and less challenging.  There are many ways in which a lead can be nurtured and it all depends on several factors such company goals, prospect’s business goals, type of organization, products, services, target audience etc. However, most importantly if lead nurturing activities are aligned with business goals it can most likely bring positive results.

Constant flow of SQLs (Sales Qualified Leads) is a good sign when it comes to measuring the financial health of any b2b organization. Marketers who invest in SQLs and MQLs are more likely to have a better ROI. Today, SQLs, that are more likely to be converted into customers is a guaranteed way to grow business.

If an organization is simply generating leads without actually converting them, one can monitor certain parameters around the definition of good leads, analyze MQLS and also study the SQL characteristics to see what exactly is preventing the leads from getting converted.

If you haven’t created enough visibility for your brand in the market or haven’t been able to design a good outreach program, chances are that your leads haven’t developed a liking for your brand yet. If you haven’t honed your lead nurturing skills to the point that you lack relationship building with your prospects, then they will most likely move away from your brand or turn into cold leads.

So what’s the magic formula to keep your ROI high when in b2b? There’s no one step magic formula to achieve this, but if you focus on your SQLs then you can turn around the fate of your business anytime of the year.

Here are a few tips and tricks to get more SQLs to keep the fuel for ROI up and running-

Make data priority-

If there’s one powerful tool to give you the best MQLs and SQLs it is surely data! Data is literally a tool nowadays that can make impossible things possible. Make data a priority while analyzing some of the results of your campaigns or the metrics based on which you evaluate your SQLs. This is one of the best ways to make sure that the SQLs that you qualify will give you the expected results. You should use data to track your efforts and see where things are going wrong of you aren’t getting the desired results. This also includes your decisions around revamping content assets that you are using for every outreach. Changing the way you look at data, treating it and using it to determine the SQLs can have a huge impact on your ROI.

Make content outreach effective:

The content assets that you deliver to your prospects play a huge role in the way they perceive your brand or the way they feel the need to connect with your brand. Content assets and content marketing add fuel to your lead generation campaigns and content can almost act like a bridge between your brand and your prospect. The stronger the bridge, the better would be the relationship building activity. This can have a great impact on the SQLs and your sales funnel thus accelerating your business growth and ROI.

Focused Marketing:

Any B2B sales and marketing program would be incomplete without ABM campaigns these days. ABM can be very effective in nurturing leads and making the sales funnel more robust and healthy. In fact, companies are looking at bigger revenue to come in from their ABM efforts.

ABM operates in a different way as compared to other sales and marketing activities. It needs and dedicated resources, metrics to analyze the progress, reports to show how things are advancing and what the weak areas in nurturing are or in the outreach programs. This helps marketers to learn a lot and to make more mature strategies the next time around. But when things are done as per the plan, ABM can boost sales qualified leads and thus help grow your business.

Conclusion:

SQLs as much as MQLs are an important part of sales planning and are also an important part of the sales funnel. It is up to the sales team to make the most out of this highly potential area in b2b campaigns and accelerate results, business and the overall ROI.

ABM (Account Based Marketing) has been a boon to the B2B industry and several organizations have optimized this power-house channel to get more leads and to reduce the sales cycle too. 2021 is going to be another year of ABM.  Use of proper techniques and knowledge can make ABM work for any b2b company.

Here is a blog that talks about how to perfect the art of ABM to get more leads this year!

Making lead generation a more focused activity through account based nurturing has helped to simplify b2b sales and marketing. Due to this narrowed down focus toward specific leads with specific needs, ABM is becoming hugely popular in the B2B space.

Almost 91% of companies using ABM were able to increase their average deal size

81% marketers who measure ROI say that ABM outperforms every other marketing activity or investment

Account Based Marketing is certainly the next revolutionary channel that can change the way b2b marketers have been struggling with lead generation.

So how does ABM really work?

• You identify the key, high value accounts
• Optimize efforts by dedicating resources to those accounts
• Create customized content and messaging to delight and engage the decision makers
• Use Omni channel approach in marketing and reaching out to the target company

The process if well-defined and implemented can get great results. So here are a few parameters that can help you strengthen the ABM process and make ABM one of the strongest pillars of b2b sales and marketing.

Having clear target definitions:

Knowledge of which accounts to target is the first step toward a successful ABM outreach program or campaign. You can start by combing through the existing accounts and filtering the most viable options. Based on the attributes on which you make this particular selection can give you an idea or point you towards many more such accounts that might be a best fit for your ABM efforts. A data driven approach can be the best way to optimize ABM planning. Data- sharing through all the functions in the organizations and not just sales and marketing can give a better view and perspective of which targets can qualify for the ABM campaigns.

Having Sales and Marketing on the same page:

ABM is all about having a cohesive approach towards a common goal for both sales and marketing- lead generation. Therefore having sales and marketing on the same page and having them aligned can work best for better results from ABM.

Capturing the key decision makers:

You can narrow down the focus better if you have more knowledge about the key stake holders or decision makers in the target organization. Knowing what can delight and engage these decision makers can make a great difference in your overall approach in terms of messaging and also in terms of the channels that you choose in reaching out. To achieve this, you need to have a proper plan in place to monitor and observe their social media behavior or to know their digital footprints.

Investing in building relationships:

ABM is all about conversations, talking, delighting and engaging the key decision makers. It’s basically about building relationships with the key persons in the target organization. The success of ABM is heavily dependent on what channels you use and when you reach out to the key persons. Knowledge once again can help you to know what kind of channels the decision makers are using. This will give you a direction and will help you map out an outreach strategy that can help you succeed.

Conclusion:

Other than the above, personalized content and messaging is very crucial for the success of ABM. There’s a lot that you can achieve from ABM. All you need to have is right techniques and knowledge to make the best out of ABM.

Trends that emerged out of the disruptive year 2020 have also left a lot of bright spots for marketers in 2021. There are a lot of b2b sales and marketing techniques that have been reformed in this process and can actually prove to be beneficial in the present year and in the future too. Let us see three such reformed sales and marketing techniques that can work in our favour this year.

Buying Signals:

B2B sales and marketing can work more effectively if one pays close attention to buying signals, which means that buying signals or responses given by a prospect are very important for lead conversion. Not just signals that are caught through website visits or forms filled, marketers should look further and be vigilant of other responses too through various different channels and take action on it. Any call to action will only prove to be valuable if you act on it at the right time.

One also needs to assess present plans and strategies and ask certain questions. How well are you equipped to tap these signals that go beyond the obvious, what plan of action you are armed with if you have to immediately respond or act etc. The answers to these questions will help you analyze a lot of things, for example, the content assets that you are ready to respond with, are they really relevant etc.

Enabling Buyers:

Marketing and sales is now clearly about going beyond just capturing and converting a lead. It is also about enabling a buyer into actual buying. Buyers have now become more conscious of their needs and requirements and they also know where to get it from. Today the customers are looking for responses that are quick, intuitive, proactive and empathetic that show that the marketers care to serve.

They are looking to engage with businesses that care for buyers. They want their marketer to be their navigator in the buying process and journey helping them to make that buying decision; something that goes beyond a simple form fill or a one-time conversation. Follow-up conversations or exchange of content assets and exchange of communication through series of e-mailers that are relevant are some of the driving forces when it comes to b2b buyer enablement.

The future of sales and marketing is going to be dependent on a two way solid response process and buyer enablement.

Adopting change:

2021 is going to continue being the year of change as there was a lot to learn from the previous year. The best strategy this year would be to spend time understanding what changes were adapted and how. This will make two things clear for marketers. One, how change was quickly adopted and what form of change will continue to dominate the market. Though transformation may be the theme of 2020, it has immensely helped organizations on various different levels. Some changes such as going digital, shifting sales to online activities majorly and similar trends have managed to instil confidence in the sales and marketing professionals. Now they can be confident about any change and that any adverse situation can prove to be an opportunity. The market is now ready for new methods to replace old processes and plans.

Conclusion:

Change can be good if reformed sales and marketing actually works in favour of organizations. Many factors contribute to the success of sales and marketing in the b2b domain. But few factors and aspects can be more influential and if organizations pay attention to these, any adverse situation even in the future can be turned into an opportunity.

B2B Sales has changed for the better in spite of the fact that 2020 was a challenging year in several ways. The change has mostly come through some mighty lessons that 2020 has left for all of us to learn and grow from there. Some of the adjustments which had to be done has actually elevated sales results and helped organizations generate revenue. Communication with customers has now become more personalized and sales can now be done from anywhere, anytime crossing all the boundaries and limitations of time zones, regions and even in the absence of face to face events.

Sales- Anywhere, anytime:

In the absence of face to face events, in person meetings, setting up in person appointments etc. there was a lot of apprehension and marketers were doubtful whether going totally virtual would really work for b2b sales.

After adopting virtual meetings, conferences and even work from home model, marketers feared that this set up may hamper sales. Organizations faced huge dilemmas and doubts about how to find leads, how to find best ways to nurture them without face to face interaction and that it would impact revenue to a great extent.

But in reality the picture turned out to be entirely different. Several organizations embraced technology, tools and went digital instantly with sales teams assimilating change and quickly finding out virtual ways to connect with customers.

This made sales more customer-centric with readiness to spend more time nurturing leads than direct selling. Sales could now happen from anywhere, anytime.  None of the conditions or situation was a hindrance anymore. Inbound sales obviously gained more importance than ever before and sales and marketing teams spent more time in attracting and delighting the customer rather than running behind leads.

Reaching out:

One of the significant lessons learned during 2020 was the change in approach in sales. Selling mode changed to helping or listening and wanting to reach out more. This made more sales than actual selling.

Customers going through a major transformation too expected the sales and marketing people to understand their challenges and problems and present solutions accordingly. Enhanced buying experiences, empathetic communication with more human connection to help them navigate through change and help them make quick buying decisions is what customers expected the most from sales teams. These are some of the best lessons that sales teams learned; experiences that can be very well continued into the year 2021.

Importance of data re-established:

Data has always been important in b2b sales and marketing. But in 2020 one of the most important lessons learned were that data can give more leverage than just creating contact lists. Not that it want a known fact before but this year, data was also sought in the form of valuable customer information.  Digital footprints of customers across social media proved critically important to understand buyers and their buyer journeys too. Data gave the much needed extra boost to b2b sales and in fact, cleansed data helped to shorten the sales cycle considerably.

Conclusion:

Nothing is impossible and at times when we are forced to adopt things we can get it right. Apart from the above technical changes some other changes such as resilience, innovative strategies aligned with the goals of the new changes and much more made sales more agile.