Incredible isn’t it, here we are at the beginning of another year and rapidly heading toward the end of January. And undoubtedly, with a new year came the inevitable resolutions.
Although it may seem a distant memory, I’m sure as you enjoyed the festive break you will have had an opportunity to review, reflect and start to formulate what your 2017 sales success looks like.
You may have decided to improve lead quality, streamline your sales process, enter a new market, increase your market share or all of the above. Whatever your B2B sales objectives for the new year, research tells us that only 8% of you will achieve them – after all it’s all too easy to let these resolutions slip in just a matter of weeks. So to ensure you stay on track, take a look at a few tips to help you achieve your 2017 growth ambitions:
Understanding your prospect’s specific motivations is fundamental to the success of the buying cycle. However, no matter how many forms your prospects fill in or downloads they may make, nothing beats the art of conversation.
Having direct conversations with your prospects is vital to building meaningful relationships whilst enhancing your company’s creditability. It also enables you to learn more about your prospect’s specific needs, ensuring your proposition with resonate strongly with them and providing information which wouldn’t otherwise be accessible.
Direct conversations come in many forms; the effectiveness of which will differ depending on your industry and audience. But from traditional telemarketing to social sharing and commenting on forums, building personal conversations will enhance engagement, help refine your communication message and build your brands persona.
An effective sales team is one of the most valuable assets any company can possess and the catalyst to driving revenue growth. But to build an effective sales team and maximize their performance they must be highly engaged and driven. And with engagement comes empowerment.
So engage your sales teams with your company’s wider B2B growth plans, not just by department. Encourage them to share their thoughts – take them on-board and collaborate as a team. Make them accountable for their input – set new goals to motivate and value their contribution towards reaching the objectives in-hand.
B2B Sales processes and the tools and technology available are constantly evolving. Companies that have a formal sales process have an 18% revenue growth over those who don’t, so be progressive, critique your process and formalise.
Continue to empower your sales team by asking them what works, what doesn’t and where improvement can be found.
Invest time in exploring new solutions. Not only will this potentially enable you to explore new opportunities but also keep ahead with industry trends.
A “thought leader” is an individual or organisation that peers, prospects, clients and other stakeholders recognise and associate as being at the foremost of their field. It is not an unfamiliar term and is among the biggest buzzwords in today’s marketing jargon.
The fact is that those who are able to earn this status also gain huge awards, hence its importance.
The value of being a voice of authority in your target market has undisputed benefits. Including the competitive advantage through differentiation, increasing your profitability and not to mention the personal satisfaction. But as they say: nothing in life is for free, and in order to receive these benefits a true “thought leader” must invest in their communities, in both time and the transfer of their knowledge.
So, when commence your journey on the road to becoming a “thought leader” you may want to consider;
Yes – these tactics require investment of your resource and expertise, but the activity will also enable you to showcase these to potential clients seeking such solutions. As they say – you need to be in it to win it.
Following in the footsteps of Theresa May, early this month JMB embarked on a 4 day mission to India.
As part of our commitment to international trade, JMB often make in-market visits to clients and partners across the globe.
This trip was no different, spending time in Coimbatore conducting product training, followed by a brief visit to our friends at DIT in Mumbai.
There was even time for a spot of cricket. All we can say is well done India.
So we come to the end the year and 2016 was another one to remember.
And as we celebrate, we thought we’d share with you just a few of our highlights from the last 12 months.
Now let’s see what 2017 will bring!
Happy New Year!
As everyone is preparing for the Christmas break and daydreaming of mince pies round the tree, it’s no surprise you may feel your sales prospects may be seemingly hard to reach.
But if you’re thinking of easing off the accelerating your sales campaigns because you think your contacts are harder to reach, then the chances are so are the competition.
Christmas holidays and the “call me back in the New Year” responses are objections that sales teams far and wide will be hearing.
But the challenge is that if you or your sales team fail to overcome this age old objection and maintain prospect engagement over the Christmas period you risk;
There is no denying that the success of landing a telesales call with your decision makers during the lead-up to Christmas can be reduced. And of course there could be a genuine reason why key stakeholders cannot commit.
However, by adopting a strategic approach to your telemarketing and lead generation campaign you can maintain sales momentum and capitalise on the all the positives of the Christmas season (mince pies included).
Let’s be honest, it’s not only your sales prospect that may be enjoying the holiday season, but your sales team. Therefore, to maintain sales targets your remaining resource should be highly-focused for optimised results.
It’s not only a great sales pipeline you need to achieve this, but insight.
In today’s day and age your sales targets engage and consume promotional information in different ways, including self-educating through content such as blog and whitepapers.
They are all too often bombarded with meaningless communication messages, so it imperative to cut through the ‘white noise’ and create strong prospect engagement. And even more so during the lead-up to the Christmas break when availability is limited.
Wouldn’t it be nice to know who is engaged, available and opening their emails and hasn’t taken extended leave until the end of January? Well you can. By adopting IP Tracking or Marketing Automation tactics you can see in real-time who is highly engaged and automatically be alerted to your hot leads; optimising your telemarketing team’s resource and dramatically increasing your hit rate by over 50%.
Following the holiday season, it will be time for your sales prospects to start implementing next quarter’s activity.
In fact, in Q3 many B2B companies are tasked with finding solutions and engaging with suppliers to address their project needs in readiness for completion in Q4. Or seeking solutions for a project to be budgeted for in Q1 of 2017.
If you have utilised the winter months to do your research and made an initial outreach with a strong value proposition, the chances are you will be ahead of the competition and a candidate for the sale.
In addition, the Christmas break is often a time for senior decision maker’s to reflect and review their plans for the New Year. So if they have your offer in hand you are in a strong position for consideration.
Humans by nature crave consistency – in message, in service and in communication. It is not only your prospects that need consistency to build trust and recognition with your brand, but your sales process.
In fact, Harvard Business Review indicates an 18% increase in revenue growth between companies that have a defined and consistent sales process to those which peaked and troughed.
So, if you say you will call back in two weeks – call. If you send a fortnightly blog-send it.
If you have the luxury of time, use it to take stock. Analyse your most successful sales journey. Review the messages which are creating most market traction. And collaborate.
Unlike sales, marketing never slows down. And it’s no surprise that organisations who proactively align their sales and marketing team on average see a 36% higher customer retention and 38% higher sales win rates.
As the age old saying goes; two heads is better than one. So use your time wisely to refocus and prepare and align your objectives, enhance strategy for the coming month, review your buyers’ journey and ultimately drive your sales conversions.
Now you need to be a bit of a “bah humbug” not to be jolly about the festivities ahead. Which means your prospects will have that feel-good factor too. So capitalise this. You may find that those leads you do reach are more open to dialogue and willing to provide free information and prospect insight which will strengthen your communication and personalisation of the conversations in the New Year. They may even wish you a Merry Christmas!
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank you and all your team for the splendid work in helping to build the Purus business to where it is today. With one week to go I wanted it on record that your help has proved invaluable to us”
Peter Bradbourne, Managing Director for Purus Group
In formal recognition as Winner of the Queens Award for Enterprise, The JMB Partnership was presented with the highly coveted crystal bowl by Her Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Warwickshire, Tim Cox, during the celebratory event held on 20th October.
The Queen’s Award is one of the UK’s highest accolades for British business success and is presented upon the Prime Minister’s recommendation. SME, The JMB Partnership has been presented with the Award for outstanding contribution to International Trade.
The JMB Partnership was one of only two organisations from the Warwickshire region to successfully receive the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade, the other being retailer Holland & Barrett.
Awarded to only those who demonstrate the highest levels of excellence within their field, JMB has received the award in recognition of their substantial growth and commercial success in the international business arena and year-on-year growth in overseas sales and export activity.
During the formal presentation, which also celebrated JMB’s 10th anniversary, the highly coveted crystal bowl was presented to JMB Managing Director, James Blakemore by Her Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Warwickshire, Tim Cox. Other dignitaries in attendance included the Chairman of Warwickshire Council, Councillor Bob Hicks and fellow business leaders.
James Blakemore, MD, commented, “It is a true honour to receive such an accolade and recognition for the hard-work put in and the successes achieved over the last few years. I am immensely proud of the whole JMB Team for their commitment to driving both our own and our clients’ businesses forward. It is the pinnacle of achievement in terms of recognition for our proactive, dedicated approach to championing local, regional and international business growth.”
The JMB Partnership was officially announced as award winners on 21st April on Her Majesty the Queen’s Birthday. In recognition of the award, earlier this year JMB Managing Director, James Blakemore and Account Director, Sarah Kingston were invited by the Queen to attend a formal reception at Buckingham Palace.
As a leading UK supplier of contract flooring services our client had experienced steady growth. However, they were struggling to maintain sales momentum as internal expertise was focused on project delivery rather than acquiring new business.
Requiring expert sales support and speed to market, they appointed JMB to support their sales process and generate new business opportunities to fuel their continued growth.
This would be achieved by;
– Managing the sales process and status for existing jobs which had been tendered for and nurture through to conversion
– The acquisition of new contract opportunities for completion
– Developing a meeting programme with key accounts and sales prospects to reinforce direct relationships
As with any new client, JMB conducted a comprehensive briefing session, enabling us to become a vital extension of the internal team.
Working from our client’s internal system, JMB would then track and monitor each completed tender to understand the status, timelines for completion and if any re-quotations were required.
This enabled our client to remain in control of the sales pipeline, whilst proactively managing tender completion to gain a competitive advantage in a timely manner.
Through telemarketing, JMB’s objective was also to introduce our client’s capabilities and secure 1-2-1 meetings with potential clients, whilst also obtaining tenders, framework opportunities and completing PPQ’s to gain access to PSL’s (preferred supplier list’s).
This was achieved by building a direct rapport with relevant decision makers, seeking out the opportunities and subsequently securing the 1-2-1 appointments. This activity was optimised through the use of the Glengians portal to identify active and forthcoming tenders.
Through Glenigans, JMB would identify contract opportunities and consequently approach the prospect to acquire the relevant contact information for completion. An exercise which if managed internally can be a drain on management’s resource.
Rubicon Heritage is a major archaeological firm serving the UK and Irish markets.
Looking to accelerate their growth and capitalise on the construction boom, Rubicon appointed JMB as their sales partner to identify and secure new commercial opportunities, contracts and introductions.
As with any new client, JMB conducted a comprehensive briefing session, enabling JMB to become a vital extension of the Rubicon Heritage team.
JMB then developed a comprehensive pipeline of targets including architects, planning consultants and developers.
Through telemarketing JMB’s objective was to introduce Rubicon Heritages expertise and secure 1-2-1 meetings with potential clients, whilst also obtaining tenders and framework opportunities for sustainable growth.
This was achieved by building a direct rapport with relevant decision makers and securing 1-2-1 appointment, but also by optimising the use of the portal Glengians to identify active and forthcoming tenders.
Through Glenigans, JMB would identify contract opportunities and consequently approach the prospect to acquire the relevant contact information for completion. An exercise which if managed internally can be a drain on managements resource.
Within the first 9 months, JMB secured over 60 valuable meetings, along with multiple framework and tender opportunities.
The value created also supported Rubicon Heritages’ ability to open a further two UK regional offices to service their growing client base.
“After initial market analysis, it was clear that in order to drive our UK business operation forward, Lopez Landa would require Direction at a local level. JMB were instrumental in helping us to develop the profile of our ideal candidate and proactively identify suitable persons. At every stage JMB provided valuable guidance and support, helping to strengthen our UK operation.”
Guillermo Lázaro Baró, Lopez Landa, Managing Director
So enough about us. Let's talk about you.
Whether looking to increase sales, enter a new market or find your perfect business partner, we can help you achieve your B2B growth objectives.
