B2B Sales Guidebook & Resources

B2B selling processes are generally pretty complex. They require a well-designed and well-executed sales strategy to succeed. And they often use different techniques for various selling situations and buyer personas.

The typical B2B sales process has five to eight steps, although the exact number of stages depends on the company, industry, and sales organization.

The most common steps are:

1. Lead Generation

This stage involves finding qualified leads who have expressed interest in your product or service and to whom you need to reach. Lead generation is easier if the marketing team understands your organization’s  total addressable market and uses the right lead generation software.

2. Discovery

Good salespeople know their products inside out. They also clearly understand their prospects’ businesses. Researching a prospect’s business and their pain points enables you to present thoughtful, bespoke solutions at the right time. 

In addition, the discovery stage prepares salespeople for discovery calls. Research also empowers you to qualify leads before picking up the phone. You can:

• Connect with them on LinkedIn to build rapport after your cold emails
• Check out their company websites to gather information to use later
• Read up on their industry’s latest news and emerging trends to present your expertise when engaging the prospect

Although discovery takes a lot of time to complete, it leads to more successful calls.

3. Qualification

After doing the groundwork, it is time to make the sales call. 

Always start with lead scoring to assess prospects’ suitability as customers. Then, ask open-ended questions, focus on their problems, and identify how you could solve them.

4. Presentation

Now that you know your prospects’ troubles, you can deliver a sales pitch tailored to solving them. A scripted sales pitch lasts around 30 seconds and allows you to:

• Arouse the prospect’s curiosity
• Demonstrate that you’ve done your research
• Tell them how your product can help them

5. Handling Objections

Prospects are rarely ready to buy immediately after the pitch. Most will likely have questions for you to answer. 

When handling objections, remember that the prospect is never wrong. So never flat-out disagree with them lest they hang up. Instead, listen to their queries and reposition your offer to address them.

Over time, most salespeople develop an arsenal of objection resolutions. But until then, it’s best to listen to the objection, acknowledge it, and come up with a reasonable solution.

6. Closing

Closing the deal is often the most exciting part. Finally, you have demonstrated your product’s value, handled the prospect’s objections, and convinced them to invest in your solution!

Discuss prices, negotiate if necessary, and offer free added value to close the deal. Finally, remember to discuss all other remaining steps and speak to all stakeholders who need to sign off. This can help you avoid surprising bumps ahead.

Don’t forget to measure the lead generation costs and lead-to-sales rate after each campaign to identify the most effective sales channels.