The 4 Most Common Sales Blunders (& How to Avoid Them)
B2B businesses often make the same sales mistakes time and time again, slowing their profits and over-complicating their sales process. If your sales growth is plateauing and you’re in need of a sales process overhaul, it’s time to understand the 4 most common sales blunders and how to avoid them.
The Problems
Every business faces different challenges and approaches the sales process in a unique way, so being able to identify your shortcomings will help you improve your strategies.
Here are 4 of the most common B2B sales pitfalls to avoid:
1. Targeting the wrong leads
Lusha’s 2022 State of B2B Sales report revealed that the biggest effects of wrongly targeted outreach are believed to be an ongoing loss of sales, so this might be where you’re falling short.
Reaching out to leads that are unfit for your business has a domino effect on your sales performance, and is one of the most common sales mistakes across every B2B business in the market. Targeting the wrong type of businesses significantly decreases your chance of conversion, making your efforts a waste of valuable resources and time.
Low conversion rates are often a sign of poor quality data, which will ultimately impede your Sales team from nurturing high quality leads. Targeting your sales activities exclusively towards an audience that share a common interest in your products will not only improve your conversion rates, but also accelerate your sales process for optimal sales growth.
2. Focusing only on new business
It’s no lie that customer acquisition is a key piece in the business growth puzzle, but forgetting about the value of your existing customer base is a fatal sales mistake that many businesses fall victim to.
You may currently be prioritising your conversion rates report, however, it’s also important to regularly monitor your customer retention and churn rates, and have a strategy in place to keep you loyal customers active and in circulation.
Existing customers who purchase regularly can bring even more value to your business than new customers when you increase their monetary value and introduce them to new products that complement their regular orders.
3. Failing to build relationships
When you’re trying to bring in as many new customers as possible, it’s easy to rush the sales process and forget to follow up on your prospects to build relationships. Customers are easily deterred when a Sales rep overwhelms them with information and rushes them in to making a quick decision, so being thoughtful about how and when to communicate with prospects is key to bringing in new business.
When prospects are deciding on a product, it’s likely that they’re also considering similar products elsewhere. While your products may be very similar in quality and price, the relationship you build with your prospect is what will set you apart from the competition and may ultimately be the deciding factor.
4. Selling on a single channel
Limiting your sales activities to one channel is a sales mistake that’s common among B2B businesses. B2B customers span a variety of sales channels, both on and offline, so if you’re only focusing on a single channel, it’s likely that your conversion rates aren’t reaching their full potential.
The Solutions
To avoid these common B2B sales mistakes, you need to have an active strategy in place to prevent your Sales team from succumbing to the pitfalls.
Here’s how to avoid these common B2B sales mistakes:
Lead qualification
Setting up a tried and tested lead qualification system will ensure that the leads you target are worth your while. Have you built your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile)? Are you segmenting your leads into MQLs (Marketing Qualified Lead) and SQLs (Sales Qualified Lead)?
If your answer is no to either of these questions, looking into CRM software (Customer Relationship Management) is a good place to start. CRM systems help you keep on top of lead qualification and ensures that you’re targeting the right prospects. You can use CRM software to configure lead qualification as a crucial stage in your sales pipeline, analyse customer data to build an ICP, and set yourself follow-up tasks to keep on top of your sales activity.
Customer retention strategies
From identifying cross-selling and upselling opportunities to segmenting your customers, there are several techniques you can strategise to optimise CLTV (Customer Lifetime Value). Start drilling down into particular touchpoints during both the sales and after-sales process, and start following up with your passive customers more regularly.
A customer retention strategy involves maintaining regular contact with your existing customer base, tracking their order patterns, and identifying missing orders so you can prevent customer churn. When you sustain customer relationships, you can begin to retrieve customer feedback and revise your products and services based on real observations, improving the success of your sales process.
Understand your customers’ needs
According to a 2019 study by Gartner, when buyers are comparing multiple suppliers' the amount of time spent with any one Sales rep may be only 5% or 6%, so making a stand-out first impression is essential.
Start conducting more research into your prospects before setting up a meeting, and make sure to ask questions about their expectations. Being attuned to the needs of both your prospects and customers will enable you to make more informed decisions during the sales process and can open up opportunities for cross-selling and upselling products based on your customers’ interests.
Engaging with your leads and customers with personal recommendations is just one way to strengthen your mutually beneficial relationship with them, and will show that you know how to promote success in their business.
Multi-channel selling
Applying an integrated, omni-channel approach to your sales process will guarantee that you’re reaching as many prospects as possible. Spanning a number of channels will increase brand awareness and enable you to tailor your Sales activities to different leads who are looking for something slightly different.
Although an omni-channel approach is crucial for reaching the right leads, it’s important to focus on the channels where your presence is strongest and more impactful. For example, while LinkedIn might be a great place for a company supplying wholesale food and beverage to supermarkets across the globe, this content might not appeal to the likes of Instagram and Twitter users due to the nature of the product.
When you’ve identified your ICP, qualified your leads, and understood the needs of your customers, you’ll have a better understanding of where your target audience cluster online.
Prospect CRM is designed for sales-driven teams trying to maximise their lead conversions and minimise customer churn rates. Start bringing in new business and optimising CLTV with our 14-day free and integrated trial today.
