In this post, we examine the sales and marketing strategies that are common among the fastest growing B2B companies.
If you’re searching for endurance running advice, why not check in with marathon finishers? Similarly, if you’re searching for sales strategy advice to accelerate your team’s revenue, why not see what the fastest-growing companies are up to?
Recently, Mattermark and Drift teamed up to identify the 50 fastest-growing B2B companies. Let’s dive into the findings and pull out a few insights to consider for your own sales strategy.
40% of the Fastest-Growing B2B Companies Make Their Pricing Public
Price has traditionally been a sticking point between B2B buyers and sellers. Buyers want to know the price as soon as possible. Sellers want to learn more about the buyer and establish maximum value before talking price. That 40% public pricing figure may seem low to outsiders, but not by historical B2B standards.
Additionally, of the 20 B2B companies that do include pricing information, 14 of these companies include tiered-pricing. Of the 14 companies that offer tiered pricing, six of them have CTAs asking enterprise buyers to contact them for an exact price quote. This makes sense as selling to an enterprise is typically a more complex endeavor and requires a custom price for each purchase.
Action Point: As more companies disclose price on their website, B2B buyers come to expect it. If disclosing an exact price isn’t possible, helping your potential customers find a price range may be, and it may mean the difference between them considering your company or moving on to other options.
Buyers want clarity so go out of your way to eliminate confusion. If you offer tiered pricing, make it clear how the product or service differs at each price point. If it still doesn’t make sense to include pricing information on your site, make it simple for prospective buyers to contact you so they can get more information, which is a natural lead-in to this next takeaway.
22% of the Fastest-Growing B2B Companies Use Live Chat on Their Website
As B2B content evolves, and as B2B sites become more user friendly, buyers have become less tolerant of subpar buying experiences. If you can’t provide answers at their moment of need, someone else will. But no matter how much content you create, no matter how many user questions you anticipate, there will still be questions your site is unprepared to answer. That’s where live chat functionality can keep qualified prospects on your site, helping to convert prospects to qualified leads at that crucial moment when they are considering doing business with you.
Action Point: Consider if sales prospects could benefit from a live chat option on your site. If so, work with your marketing department to determine the most appropriate way to implement live chat functionality. Use analytics to determine where otherwise qualified prospects may be bouncing from your site, and implement rules of engagement for interacting with online visitors. This process may take some testing before it results in qualified leads on a consistent basis, but once it does, it will have been well worth the effort.
The Majority of Website CTAs Led to a Product or Service vs a Salesperson
Among the 50 fastest-growing B2B companies, 62% had primary CTAs on their website that directed people to a product or service. The remaining 38% had primary CTAs on their website that directed people to talk to sales. Some companies had a mixture of both.
The main takeaway is to give customers options for how they engage with you and your offering. Some people overwhelmingly favor educating themselves. By offering them product trials and helpful content, you’re playing into their preferences. By only offering an opportunity to talk to sales, you may be alienating qualified prospects, making it more likely that they’ll move to a vendor that caters to their self-guided buying preferences.
Action Point: Give the customer more options when it comes to buying and they are more likely to buy from you. Not every buyer follows the same journey, so give prospects options and the ability to either get more information to make a purchase decision, or, conversely, also give them the option to take the next step if they are ready.
In summary, examine your online buying experience for your customers’ point of view and make it easier for a variety of prospects to buy from you on their terms. Many of the fastest-growing B2B companies have implemented a buyer-centric sales strategy that starts online, and perhaps your company could benefit from a few of these tactics as well.
Written by Alex Hisaka at Linkedin