The current economic climate is making it harder for B2B technology sales teams to actively close on deals and generate better revenue results. In today’s business climate, sales and marketing teams need to understand what can trigger a buyer decision after understanding the current challenges that a potential customer faces, taking into account current market disadvantages too.
B2B tech buyers are still in-market during this time, but the dynamics have changed and often times, it could seem like prospects are interested because they have agreed to a meeting or discovery call and you successfully move them to the pricing or quote stage only to then have them ghost you thereafter.
So if you’re sailing in this boat, here are few things you can consider doing to try to get them to respond to you even if they’ve gone cold and silent:
Read More: Got Ghosted by Your Key Prospect? Here are a Few Follow-up Emails and Ideas that can Work
Send a Direct Mail
Direct mail is gaining traction as a popular marketing and sales channel. It serves to be a less intrusive messaging channel and depending on what type of direct mail you send and what stage of the buyer journey your prospect is at, it is possible to drive results with it.
Combined direct and digital marketing can increase the response rate by 63% but as reiterated above, sales reps need to identify what type of direct mail can work and also identify who to send direct mail to based on level of interest and where the prospect is in terms of the purchase journey.
A few pointers to keep in mind:
- -Shortlist prospects who have typically been on a couple of meetings with you and have already received a quote from you
- -Choose a direct mail option like a gift card or coffee coupon because most direct mail platforms (like Reachdesk and similar others) are formatted to charge the brand only when a prospect redeems a gift card or e-voucher. This can help brands and sales people control operational costs.
- -For prospects who have got a quote from you and then gone cold, try to first identify why they’ve gone into ghosted-mode before deciding to send over a direct mail to get a reaction
Read More: on How You Can: Pivot Prepare and Sell in a Recession
Offer a Custom Discount
Today’s market is a budget conscious one with marketers being expected to do more with fewer resources and sales people being pushed into achieving more targets despite challenging business and economic norms.
A potential buyer might be interested in your service or product, might also get to the quote stage and then might feel that your pricing could be an impediment to their own goals or budgets for the year.
Offering a custom discount on a part of your service or product can help drive a response and at least close deal, even if it’s at a lower value.
Sales teams can bear in mind here, that once conditions improve, they can then always upsell and cross sell to fill the revenue gap from these type of discounted deals.
Read More: Are You Suffering From An Overload Of SalesTech?
Throw in a Free Service
Your prospects are pressed for time, budgets and resources in today’s economic climate. What they are most looking for is competitive pricing, strong features and value-add services.
If you’re a B2B tech services or product seller, identifying what type of service module or feature can be extended for free can save a current conversation and keep the sales pipeline healthy. Gently using tactics like this to push for time and then eventually make a larger deal size sale is one way of keeping responses going and the conversation engaging.
