What is B2B telephone sales?

Sales have changed over time, but despite the focus on disruptive and innovative strategies, some methods remain effective. B2B telephone sales services continue to be an excellent way to attract new prospects, gather opinions, and strengthen relationships.

B2B telesales are extremely important to businesses for several reasons, from finding suitable customers for their products to building mutually beneficial relationships with other businesses.

So, what are B2B calls? Should all companies make these types of calls? With this guide, you will gain additional insights about examples and definitions related to the field of B2B telesales and how it can help you close more deals.

What is B2B telephone sales?

The B2B sales approach over the phone involves one business contacting another through calls, being a cost-effective strategy. These calls can serve various purposes, such as capturing potential customers, evaluating prospects, following up on correspondence, or conducting market research, among others. To enhance and optimize their B2B sales strategies, some companies often hire call centers specialized in this field.

B2B telesales is efficient in generating business opportunities, as it fosters trust through personal interaction, due to the existence of a more reduced target audience, in contrast to the product-oriented approach of B2C sales. In this way, B2B telesales allows direct access to key decision-makers, facilitating a quicker evaluation and conversion of potential customers.

How does B2B telephone sales differ from B2C?

While B2B and B2C telesales share similar end goals, there are key differences between the two.

Firstly, B2B telesales agents must provide solutions to their clients’ problems, as their product is ultimately an investment for their businesses. On the other hand, B2C telesales agents can be more creative in their tactics, given that B2C customers often buy based on instincts and emotions.

Focusing on an individual according to their needs, interests, and challenges, B2B telesales aims to persuade based on data or expected return on investment, rather than on desires or impulses.

With this in mind, B2C telesales does not have as extensive a sales cycle as B2B telesales, which are more relationship-based than product-based. This is because the B2B data set is smaller and more specific than B2C, requiring the cultivation of relationships with prospects. When a sale is in progress, several decision-makers from the company will get involved before closing the deal.

What types of B2B telephone sales exist?

B2B telesales usually come in the form of inbound or outbound calls:

Inbound

Inbound telesales involve interacting with businesses interested in learning more about our products or services, which have already expressed this interest previously through calls, emails, social media, etc. By communicating with people who have interacted with our business, we can identify which customers are interested in our services.

An inbound sales team takes care of answering these queries and passing the qualified prospects to the sales team, whose goal is to close deals and acquire new customers. This qualification is based on the calls received, scheduling follow-ups with the most relevant prospects and sending additional material by email to remind them of the value of the offer.

Outbound

Outbound telesales involves the company contacting potential customers without having had a prior interaction, using tactics such as cold calling. Agents call prospects based on predefined lists and, after assessing their needs, schedule follow-ups to foster future business opportunities.

Although these can be challenging, they are also very effective if executed properly. Sellers must be experts in interpersonal relationships, attract the interest of prospects, and locate the decision-makers.

Despite some skepticism about outbound sales, 82% of buyers accept meetings by phone contact and 51% of business owners prefer this method over email or other channels.

Objectives of B2B telephone sales

Given that B2B telesales calls are a cost-effective method of interaction, companies use this form of selling for various purposes, such as:

Lead Generation

Sellers contact other businesses in search of prospects interested in their products or services. In doing so, they identify potential customers suitable for their offerings. Lead generation through telesales requires high-quality data and specific contact lists to call.

Inbound traffic addresses those who have visited your website and requested a call, while outbound traffic focuses on decision-makers in specific sectors. With this approach, calls are oriented towards creating brand awareness and persuading prospects to accept a meeting or demonstration.

Appointment Scheduling

Once a potential customer shows a greater interest in the product, a telesales agent schedules an appointment so that the potential customer can get more information or get a demonstration from a sales agent.

Market Analysis

If you are launching a new product or want to increase your target audience, it is important to analyze the market. Telephone surveys are an excellent way to get more information about what your customers want and how to better attract them. You can find out what other businesses need and how your product can adapt to their requirements.

Customer Service

All customers want high-quality customer service. They can rely on telesales agents to help them answer questions, inquiries, solve problems, etc. It is necessary for your sales team to address any challenge, objective, interest, and need your prospect may have in terms of their service.

In addition, your support team can help qualify potential customers during these calls and then send them follow-up material by email. This keeps your product or service at the forefront of the prospect’s mind.

Registration in Events

Looking to increase attendees at your webinar or virtual event? Make sure your event is a success by assigning telesales agents to help with the registration process. Through a call, you can invite a prospect to your event, detail the agenda, and confirm their attendance or encourage them to register.

Database Update

It’s important to keep your data organized if you want to produce consistent and qualified leads and increase conversions. Your sales team can help you improve their pipeline by regularly updating the database.

Sales Follow-up

If a potential customer shows interest in your products or services, or you have previously spoken to them but have not received a definitive response, following up with them to see if they would be interested in scheduling a meeting or a sales demonstration helps you clear up doubts. Calls are made directly to decision-makers representing their corporations so that lead qualification is done faster and a quick assessment of compatibility is made.

Prospect Nurturing

Develop your relationship with buyers by giving them something of value and not giving the impression of selling them something immediately. This can be anything from a free trial to an invitation to a webinar or a piece of content. Often, this tactic is used when a potential customer cools down, to remind them of our value.

Who conducts B2B telephone sales?

Any company that sells to another business can benefit from B2B telesales. Some of the common industries that use this strategy are Software as a Service (SaaS) companies.

Also, B2B telesales can be performed by an internal sales team or it can be outsourced to an external specialized company. Outsourcing allows businesses to save time and resources, reduce costs, and gain the expertise of the external company.

What are the benefits of B2B telephone sales?

Even though the sales cycle in this type of sale can be lengthy, the results are valuable and beneficial to the company. Below is a summary of the main advantages of B2B telesales:

Generation of Quality Leads

B2B telesales is based on a personalized approach to capturing prospects, allowing to arouse the interest of potential customers and establish relationships quickly. Also, from the beginning, it is possible to determine whether a prospect is suitable for the business.

Creation of Business Opportunities

While lead generation is usually the main goal of the B2B sales call, some of those prospects can turn into other promising business opportunities. By talking to decision-makers, it is possible to find opportunities to partner with other companies in a unique way.

Brand Recognition

Not all phone interactions result in a direct sale. It takes an average of 6 calls to make a sale, which means that much of telesales focuses on creating brand awareness. As potential customers become more familiar with your brand, they will be more open to buying in the future.

Team Specialization

By assigning certain prospects to specific call agents in B2B telesales, they can establish a relationship with the customer, preparing them for the Business Developer Manager (BDM) to finalize the sale. This allows the other members of the sales team to focus on identifying and researching more specific prospects, creating greater opportunities for lead conversion.

Performance Measurement

If you implement the practice of recording calls and listening to them to see what has worked and what hasn’t, you will see great results in your sales strategy. This is the most effective way to know vital statistics such as the average time of a call and the number of prospects who are open to the first call, among others.

How can technology help you improve B2B telephone sales?

Data is fundamental to the success of a B2B telesales campaign, especially if you are looking to personalize the experience. Therefore, it is crucial to have specific lists that match your target market and accurate data. Making decisions without the correct data can be detrimental to your strategy, as they not only make it difficult to connect with the right people, but also generate loss of revenue and waste of resources.

Over time, various B2B sales solutions have been developed to streamline and facilitate telesales. Upbe is an artificial intelligence tool designed to improve B2B telesales by optimizing efficiency, personalizing communications, analyzing data, and providing real-time feedback. Through automated call analysis, Upbe automates routine tasks, provides valuable insights into customer behavior, and allows sales teams to focus on prospects with greater potential.

Would you like to see a demo of Upbe? Request it here.