"If B2B sales teams reduce the amount of face-to-face selling time in favor of more efficient sales models using the Web and telephone, will B2B buyers be receptive?" asks Robert Lesser in a recent post at the Acquiring Minds blog. You bet they will, he answers: "In fact, B2B buyers have been driving this change for some time—and the pace is accelerating."

Therefore, it's time to toss out old lead-gen techniques and turn your sales process digital, Lesser argues. Here are his reasons why:

The buying process now begins online—and so do sales meetings. "Given that most buying is initiated with online search, buyers are naturally becoming more accepting of interactions with sales via Web conference, email and online chat," Lesser notes. Above all, they seek a quick response—not a future meeting.

Digital buyers prefer data to voice. "The buyer favors producing content that is written (data) and not spoken (voice)," Lesser explains, because he or she is likely on email, Facebook and LinkedIn at home and at work. And today's B2B communication is not only data-driven but also mostly mobile.

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