Your Guide To Generating Your First $100k With B2B Sales

How do you find and reach out to the right person to make a sale?

Reaching out to the right person within in your prospective customer's organisation is never easy. With multiple stakeholders involved and complex organisational structures, finding out the right person to sell or the primary decision-maker is hard.

First, your value proposition.

For us at RoadMetrics, our prospective customers' decision-makers are usually the Head of Highways at councils or with infrastructure firms who maintain roads and other assets. Our AI based road assessment system is a great way for quick and objective road condition assessments within their road network that uses a simple, scalable smartphone infrastructure.

This comes as a cost-effective alternative to manual inspections as well as other expensive condition inspection methods.

Your unique selling point (USP) can be one of many things,

• better features
• better pricing and cost structure
• better support

Best ways to reach out to your B2B prospects?

• LinkedIn Sales Navigator — LinkedIn Sales Navigator has evolved over the years with powerful features that you can use to do a deep dive into a company's organisation structure and identify the right stakeholders. Sending InMails or connecting with your prospects can be really useful to start with the first contact and familiarise each other.
• Cold emailing — is the most challenging approach, yet if done well, can be useful in getting yourself demo presentation calls. Lusha is an efficient tool that can help you identify your prospect's email address. Short, to-the-point emails that highlight the value you bring, work the best.
• Cold calling — is a slightly more effective approach than cold emails, where you are directly speaking with your prospect, making it easier for you to set up a demo presentation. Again, using Lusha, references, or via responses from email introductions is a great way to get your prospect's phone number.
• References — are the most effective approach since your connection can give you a warm introduction to the right person and response rates are much higher. If you are fortunate to be well connected in the industry, use it to your advantage.

You've got their attention, what next?

• Virtual meeting — is your best shot to identify your prospects problems, their current circumstances and share your product as a solution. If it goes well, try to get them onto a follow up meeting, either in-person or virtual, and offer them a discounted trial.
• In-person meetings — are most effective when you work on larger project sizes or more traditional industries, where having a personal touch can drastically increase the likelihood of your product/service being used.

Whom not to pitch?

Secondary decision-makers are usually either gatekeepers, influencers or blockers. Although they have an influence, they do not have the authority to make buying decisions.

Gatekeepers are usually executive assistants or associates of the decision maker. Don't dismiss them, but provide them with as much information about your company and the benefits of your product that makes it easier for them to vouch for you and set up a meeting.

Influencers are usually junior employees who provide the primary decision maker with recommendations and research insights. They act as an influencer for the decision maker. Again, providing them with as much information can help them pass it on the their senior.

Blockers are usually employees who pretend that they are decision-makers but eventually stop responding to your communications and even block you. They best way to work around is find an alternative decision maker using your contacts or use LinkedIn to identify the right person.

Primary decision-maker

Your primary decision-maker is the one that your full attention and focus should be, to pitch to.

Usually, it could be the CTO or the head of the concerned department for larger organisations.

To clarify that it's them, ask them questions such as,

• have they used any similar software before?
• what are the challenges and are they looking for an alternative provider?
• what is the budget that they have and do they need any approval?
• how soon are they looking to make a purchase?

Provide them with as much information as possible on the value your product/service can provide and an excellent business case proposal.

The chances are, if they find that they are confident that your product/service and company can do the job, you will have your first sale very soon!