Cost-efficient sales results: 6 steps to make it happen

Times are tough and many B2B companies now have one common pursuit: to do more with less. This, somewhat cryptic, goal is prompting cuts in marketing and sales budgets, a decrease in hiring and a critical look at tech stacks. Whatever the specifics there is one thing a majority wants to achieve, namely a cost-efficient sales result. 

Here, it becomes absolutely vital to weigh cost-cuts against the potential revenue that can be added by continuing to spend in a certain area. In other words, the trick will be to find where you should keep spending – and where you can beneficially slash costs. To help you make this happen, we’ve put together a 6-step guide that outlines the path to achieving a cost-efficient B2B sales success, considering the short-term and long-term alike: 

6 steps for cost-efficient sales results

Step 1: Target your prospecting 

For starters, you may want to embrace the power of precision over volume – by engaging in targeted prospecting. Begin by defining your ideal customer profile (ICP) – i.e. the perfect customer that gets maximum value from your product and gives you maximum value in return. This allows you to find potential buyers that will be likely to provide value and stick around for the long turn.

By avoiding a spray-and-pray approach, you can optimize your resource allocation and achieve a great cost-efficiency.

Step 2: Personalize your outreach to make the most of your pipeline

While automation tools can streamline outreach, personalization remains key in cutting through the noise and increasing conversions. In other words, you might want to tailor your communication to approach customers with their unique pain points in mind, demonstrating how your solution can solve them. By being relevant and personal you can create an honest connection that helps your product stand out from the rest. Plus, it will help you make the most of your pipeline in a time when leads may be harder to come by. 

Step 3: Build strong customer relations that last

Cost-efficient B2B sales extend beyond the initial transaction. In fact, they come from strong relations built over time – remember, it is way cheaper to sell to a current customer than a new one.

This, in turn, means that you’ll want to find and invest in tech solutions that allow you to nurture strong customer relations, and think relational rather than transactional. Something that may mean that you focus on customer success, post-sale support and upsell. A satisfied client is more likely to become a loyal advocate, leading to repeat business and potential referrals. By cultivating these relationships you can bolster your cost-efficiency and make sure that more of your revenue comes from repeat purchases – at a time when your pipeline may be thinner than before. 

Step 4: Use data to make the right decision

Speaking of tech solutions, you’ll want to find one that lets you gather relevant data to go on. If you’re working with partners or distributors, you will want to find a way to see what partners are performing the best, with what products and marketing material and in what geographical areas. If you’re selling directly, you’ll want to see how your sales teams’ processes are going, what marketing material is working for what prospect, whether or not a certain deal is likely to be won etc. With this type of data, you can fine-tune your messaging, optimize your sales process and allocate resources where they will have the greatest impact. Minimizing the guesswork and helping you make the best decision possible. 

Step 5: Let sales and marketing work together

To unite sales and marketing teams is a critical factor in B2B success. Here, you may want to adopt a collaborative approach where both teams work toward a common goal. Here, it’s important that your sales and marketing teams have an easy way to collaborate and communicate, ensuring that sales always know what marketing material to use – and marketing can get an idea of what is working. Which, in turn, can help you produce more of the material that works – and less of what doesn’t.

Step 6: Use the tech solutions that can give you cost efficient sales results 

Ok, we already talked a bit about techs role in reaching cost-efficient sales results, but let’s spend a little bit more time on the area. It is, after all, important to choose and invest in the tech tools that can actually give your sales and marketing teams an edge. This can be especially cost-efficient if you find tools that can seamlessly be used with your current tech stack, or if you can find one tool to replace many.

Cost-efficient sales results: it’s not a pipe dream

By making the most of your pipeline, getting through to prospects and finding the tools to help you, it is very much possible to reach sales results with less spend. If you want to know more about how to make it happen in practice, you can reach out and book a meeting with us. We can show you how our own SP_CE platform can help you close more deals faster and scale sales without adding to the head count – and brainstorm ways for you to do more with less.