Hello B2B business professionals! Let me tell you a story that might hit close to home. It’s about the challenges many B2B businesses are facing these days with the rapidly changing landscape of B2B lead gen and selling. The struggle is real and if we fail to evolve, our revenue may suffer, leaving us unable to seize the amazing opportunities that are available to those who stay ahead of the curve.

The changing landscape of B2B selling has been greatly influenced by the shift in buyer behaviour. Today’s buyers are more informed, value-driven, and selective than ever before. They’re tired of being sold to and want to make informed decisions quickly and efficiently. As a result, they’re researching their purchases before seeking sales support, partly to avoid being hounded by salespeople.

Key changes in buyer behaviour

• Focus on value and outcomes over features or price
• Demand for personalization and tailored solutions
• Preference for digital and self-service channels
• Importance of corporate social responsibility and social proof
• Longer, more complex decision-making processes involving multiple stakeholders

Lockdown has prompted mature professionals to skill up online to compete with their younger counterparts. However, many find that the strategies they’ve employed aren’t delivering the revenue they desire, often because they’ve missed a critical step in nailing their revenue pipeline. 

What You Can Do To Overcome Shifting Buyer Behaviour? 

To adapt to this new B2B selling environment and buyer behaviour, businesses must focus on building authority using social media, generating a platinum pipeline of high-value prospects, and adopting collaborative selling strategies. By addressing these core pillars, businesses can create a seamless buyer journey, catering to the modern buyer’s preferences and ultimately securing more sales.

Building Authority Using Social Media

Now, I’ve seen many B2B businesses struggle with creating quality content across social media platforms. Some are treating these platforms like an “influencer” game, chasing likes instead of connections. I mean, come on – we’re not selling fashion accessories here!

On the flip side, some B2B leaders, particularly Gen-Xers and Baby Boomers, grapple with the idea of creating social content, especially on scale. They’re not social natives, and the uncertainty of what to post and the fear of potentially embarrassing themselves online, can hold them back from taking advantage of these platforms. 

Sound about right? Chances are you’ve witnessed it… if you haven’t felt it yourself?

The solution? Smart B2B businesses are leveraging clever social content planning, video, AI technology, and tailored tech stacks to rapidly plan, execute, manage, and accelerate their content creation. This approach helps build authority seamlessly across a select group of B2B friendly social channels, namely Linkedin, Youtube, Twitter and to a lesser extent, Facebook and Instagram.

The shift to embrace social media and build authority…

• Ditch the influencer mindset and focus on creating powerful content
• Focus on solving your ideal prospects biggest problems 
• Overcome the fear of potential embarrassment and start creating content
• Share insights, failures, challenges, pressing issues and personal stories
• Leverage technology and planning to streamline your content creation process

Generating a Platinum Pipeline of High-Value Prospects

Another major challenge for B2B businesses is implementing a predictable system for attracting high-quality leads. I’ve seen countless businesses wasting time and effort on outdated lead gen practices, resulting in low ROI and potential brand damage, where their consistent badgering finds them labeled as pests…Rather than trusted advisors.

What many don’t realise is that LinkedIn can be an incredibly powerful CRM tool when used well. The key is not to sell on Linkedin. You have to resist the urge to pitch your sh!t. Consistent, high value lead pipelines can be forged when your Linkedin program is humming, leveraging the  foundation built through authority building, to warm connections into conversations, and discovery into sales calls. And when Linkedin is dialed in, you can select from other proven B2B lead gen strategies, such as paid Google, LinkedIn, Twitter, Youtube and Facebook advertising and remarketing programs, to build robust and predictable lead generation pipelines. It’s just a matter of nailing one at a time, so you understand your metrics for scaling.

And here’s a little secret – when your leads are high quality, the disconnect between marketing and sales becomes much less of a problem.

The shift to generate high-value prospects:

• Stop relying on outdated lead gen practices like cold calling and door knocking
• Leverage LinkedIn and other social and ad platforms for a predictable lead gen system
• Focus on high-quality leads to bridge the gap between marketing and sales

Adapting to Changing Buyer Behaviour Through Collaborative Selling Strategies

Now let’s talk about the elephant in the room – the inability to convert low-quality leads into sales. Many businesses are still stuck in the “always be closing” mindset, which simply doesn’t work in today’s B2B environment.

You should be considering a streamlined collaborative selling approach, where we have tailored sales assets and processes that help position us as trusted advisors, not just salespeople. Top operators have already made the shift, and they’re reaping the rewards.

The shift to collaborative selling strategies:

• The first sale is to motivate the change
• Ditch the “always be closing” mentality
• Focus on becoming trusted advisors to your clients
• Implement tailored sales assets and processes including ‘transition bridges’ and ‘tasking’ into your sales process to improve conversion rates

So, my fellow B2B professionals… are you ready to make the necessary changes and thrive in 2023 and beyond? The time to act is now, and I might have just the thing to help you take the first step.

Are you up for the challenge?

To help you kickstart the process of adapting to these B2B selling changes, we’ve put together a 2minute – Unlocking Your Lead Gen & Sales Video that will give you a taste of what’s to come in our full hour-long masterclass. Trust me, you won’t want to miss this.

Want to learn more? The steps to sales success are within reach…

You can watch the comprehensive hour-long masterclass, when you’re ready – just click on the link.

Apply the strategies you learn to transform your B2B selling and revenue growth

Remember, the B2B selling environment is changing rapidly, and the businesses that adapt will be the ones that thrive. 

So take a 2minute break and sit back, and enjoy our 2minute – Unlocking Your Lead Gen & Sales video as a starting point.