The best B2B sellers are catering to customer demands. They’re using a hybrid, omnichannel sales model and design the buyer’s journey to fit specific buyers and decision makers.
McKinsey’s recent B2B Pulse offered a ton of valuable insights and tips. It also underlined what B2B sellers need to do to succeed in this new climate of ours, when customers want an omnichannel sales model before all – and are more than willing to change suppliers if the omnichannel experience is not top notch. Here, we’ll go through all you need to know about the omnichannel model, and go through a set of tips on how to grow sales in this changing climate.
What is omnichannel sales?
Omnichannel sales means that you give your customers a seamless buyer’s journey, and let them interact with you through different channels. With a solid omnichannel model you’ll tie all interactions together and create an experience that is consistent no matter how and where your customer interacts with you.
How has omnichannel sales changed?
Omnichannel is now a given, and B2B customers across industries are expecting vendors to offer an outstanding omnichannel experience. Customers are also expecting more channels than ever before: while B2B customers tended to use 5 channels in 2016, the same number was 7.5 in 2019. For 2021, that number had grown to a total of 10 channels.
What channels should I use?
That depends a lot on your unique market and segment, but McKinsey found that B2B customers in 2021 used channels like:
- Website
- Personal meetings
- Phone
- Video calls
- Chat
- Google searches
That said, you should not limit yourself to the most used channels. If you want to truly differentiate yourself you can beneficially add even more personalized channels to the mix, such as tailor-made Showrooms and Sales Rooms.
How do I succeed with an omnichannel sales model?
This is a huge question, but we think there is a lot of good tips in the B2B Pulse that McKinsey made. For example, they gave three solid tips on how to master this new omnichannel reality. Including to:
Be a “journey orchestrator”
This phenomenal term means that you guide customers to the channels that are most beneficial for their customer type, and that fit their place in the buying journey. This becomes something of a necessity, as decision makers ” use multiple channels across the purchasing journey and within every buying stage of that journey”.
This, in turn, means that you should be the orchestrator who creates a perfect buying journey for your customer: a journey that uses the channels that will benefit, and fit, the buyer. To make this happen, you can go through your data, talk to your sales reps and marketing teams, and create a map of what channel fits what interaction and customer type the best. Perhaps you’ll find that customers, in the early stages of their journey, will benefit greately from being able to find all information about your product in a digital space, where they can communicate with sales reps through chat and video calls if necessary. Or, you may find that the actual signing needs to happen in person, but that the earlier interactions can be done in a digital setting.
Integrate for seamlessness
Hybrid sales helps you naturally integrate different channels and makes omnichannel come by default. By adding (or training) hybrid-sales reps that can communicate with customers seamlessly across different channels, and giving them the tools to keep sales processes together, you can give your customers
a nice experience throughout their journeys. In short, use the power of hybrid and unite the customer experience no matter how the customer interacts with you.
Be personal in all interactions
Customers are expecting a tailored experience across touchpoints, and a good way to drive sales is to give them what they expect. This can more easily be done with a strong collaboration between sales and marketing It will also require that you source data, learn who the customer is and create tailored touchpoints in your chosen channels.
Did you know? SP_CE can support your omnichannel sales model, and allow you to personalize a central, digital space where customer interactions can happen over time. Check out our Digital Sales Room to learn more, or contact us to get a live tour.
