B2B sales: Virtual connections, real relationships

TTEC recently published a white paper (in partnership with Forrester Research) focused on the evolution of sales and how technology is now blending with human intelligence to create an entirely new B2B sales process. The paper is called “The new look of sales: Virtual connections, real relationships” and you can find it here in the resources section of our website.

I’d like to introduce a few of the highlights and key takeaways from the paper here, just as a summary of what you can find when you download the complete paper.

What does the new sales process look like and what tools can sellers use to gain an edge without compromising valuable customer relationships? This is where the paper is focused because sales has always focused on relationships - this is still true - but now there are added dimensions that include new technology and tools. In the B2B space, companies are figuring out how to mimic consumer outreach over longer sales cycles that require deep expertise and personalisation around unique client pain points.

Forrester Research has published many other papers that explore the changing nature of B2B sales. Their research includes information such as:

• 70% of B2B buyers say that buying from a website is the most convenient way to buy business products or services.
• 67% of B2B buyers prefer not to interact with a sales rep as the primary source of information.
• 62% of B2B buyers say they can now develop selection criteria or finalise a vendor list based solely on digital content.

The new TTEC white paper takes this on board and focuses on six growing sales technologies that support the transition to digital-first relationships, along with how to leverage human expertise and empathy to realise the potential of this technology.

The six areas covered are:

1. Conversational intelligence: keywords, trends, and sentiment can all be gleaned from conversational data.
2. Customer success: monitoring relationship health and staying on top of all ongoing needs and priorities
3. Revenue intelligence: capturing engagement automatically and indicating which actions result in greater revenue.
4. Sales engagement: managing all the touchpoint in a relationship automatically and helping to understand clients faster.
5. Sales training and services: really urgent to use tech as so many post-covid sales processes are remote.
6. User generated video: leveraging user-generated content is normal now in B2C sales - the B2B world needs to see the opportunity.

B2B sales was already evolving before the pandemic. Many new technologies were playing a supporting role and helping sales teams to be more efficient and responsive to client needs. However, the pandemic forced a focus on the tools that can be used to improve B2B relationships because with almost no trade events or travel, there was a need to focus on alternative sales engagement.

Many of these technologies are tested and proven in B2C environments and as the Forrester analysis shows, B2B sales is now exhibiting many of the same characteristics as B2C - it’s time to explore how these technologies can help your sales team evolve.

This is just a summary of the new white paper on the new look of sales. For more information and to download the complete white paper please click here.