Companies Are Still Buying – Are They Considering You?

I bet you have a great product or service that can help many businesses – if only they knew about you!  Generating awareness is important, but if you want to increase the odds of generating sales, then you need to be speaking to companies that are ready to buy.

The fact of the matter is, even at the best of times only 3% of those in your market are active buyers.  In the current climate, this could even be lower but, that still means that there are plenty of buyers out there looking for products like yours!

The good news is that companies are still buying and in fact some industries, especially software, are seeing a flurry of activity right now.  With 88% of businesses shifting to remote working due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the focus on digital transformation has been greatly accelerated with companies searching for tools to manage tasks that previously relied on manual team interaction.

No matter if there has been an increase or decrease in demand for your business offering right now, you’ll still need to ensure that your strategy is optimised in order to identify, nurture and convert sales opportunities ahead of your competitors.  In this blog we look at: 

1. Who is still buying?
2. How do you find them? and
3. How do you get in front of them – fast?

WE HAVE THE ANSWERS – SPEAK TO OUR GROWTH EXPERTS FOR 30 MINUTES OF FREE, PRACTICAL ADVICE

 

1. Who is Still Buying?

A study in March 2020 shows positive signs for the B2B Tech industry with 40% of buyers stating that they plan to increase their software spend in the future.  Your  marketing and sales targeting will need to be updated based on these latest trends.  Things to consider include:

• Company size – SMBs are cutting back on spending more than medium and enterprise size businesses that are continuing to invest.
• Seniority level – Ensure that you are speaking to decision-makers.  Now more than ever they understand the importance of tools that can aid them in selling and they show more confidence in continuing with making investments in the current climate.
• Industry – There is a definite divergence between companies that are continuing with ‘business as usual’ right now versus those that have been greatly harmed by the crisis.  For example, shifting your focus from industries such as hospitality and travel. 

 

2.  How Do You Find Active Buyers?

With the likelihood of reduced budgets and resources in your own business and the need to be more efficient with where you spend time and money – now more than ever, it is important to ‘fish where the fish are’.  The way to know where the ‘fish’ or active buyers are isby harnessing the power of buyer intent data. 

Intent data, as the name suggests, highlights companies that are showing active buying signals based on their online activities such as reading reviews, comparisons, attending events/webinars etc.

There are three levels of intent data you should harvest:

1. Your website visitors – this is first-party intent i.e. those that are actively looking at your products.
2. Review or comparison website visitors e.g. G2 the leading Software review site – this is second-party intent.  These companies are becoming better informed about companies that they may want to actively consider.
3. Companies that are engaging with your competitors, relevant events or keywords – this is third-party intent.

First-party intent will, of course, be hotter prospects, but there will be fewer of them.  Therefore, in order to find the largest pool of opportunity for your business, you should aim to capture the details of companies that are demonstrating all three levels of intent.  

Even if intent data is a new concept to you, it is remarkably simple to access and set up – you can have this wealth of information in your hands within a matter of hours.  Speak to our Growth Experts if you’d like us to simplify it for you and help you set it up.

 

3.  How Do You Get in Front of Active Buyers – Fast?

Now imagine you have a large list of companies that are ready to buy in your market – exciting but overwhelming perhaps!  The good news is that these companies will be making a buying decision soon, the bad news is that these companies will be making a buying decision soon and you may not be in front of them – you’ve no time to lose!  If you rely on manually trying to find contact details for the decision-makers in these companies, you will probably be too late by the time you get to them. 

Automation is critical to turn intent data into sales.  Consider tools to automatically help you:

1. Source and collect buyer intent company data.
2. Find the contact details of the decision-makers in these companies.
3. Send them marketing or sales emails instantly.

There are a lot of companies out there that offer steps one and three above, step two above is harder to get your hands on, we at Zymplify have a simple platform that offers all three at a very accessible price point.  Read our reviews on G2 and compare us with other solutions to find the best fit for you.

There is nothing that makes a sales team happier than highly qualified leads, with buyers ready to buy.  You pay your sales team to close business, why not have them spend the bulk of their time on activities that help them do that.  Let automation go out and find the sales-ready prospects and put them in front of your sales team while they are warm.

“The sales process is constantly evolving. It always has, and always will.  What we are living through right now is just another point on the timeline of sales evolution.”– Kara Kennedy, G2 Director of Market Research

 

We have learned firsthand that this evolution takes new thought processes.  The good news is, after years of researching and refining, Zymplify has best practice advice we’d like to share with you and help support your company in this challenging environment. 

Speak to our Growth Experts for 30mins of personalised, practical, and quick to implement advice.

 

 

 

Sources:

SaaStr Blog by Kara Kennedy, G2 Director of Market Research

TrustRadius , John Ferguson, Research Associate, April 2020