B2B Sales - How To Sell In A Competitive Market

It’s a fact, making B2B sales usually poses a significant challenge. Especially if you’re selling in a competitive market. 

However, you shouldn’t give up simply because your competitors are outperforming you. Instead, you should try new strategies and experiment with different approaches and you’ll finally learn how to sell in a competitive market.

Before we tackle that, there are other issues we should address.

The Real Reason Why You’re Struggling

The high competition is not the true reason why you’re struggling to make sales. In fact, that mindset is keeping you from reaching true success. Why?

Because you’re missing the full picture.

In fact, once you dig a little deeper, your sales process is probably to blame for your inability to make sales. If you believe your product or service is worth your customer’s time and is a great solution to some of the issues you’re facing, you need to improve your entire sales strategy first.

Here are just two examples. You’ve probably heard an excuse from your sales lead that they’ll only buy through corporate. Seems like an impossible challenge to overcome at first, but think again. This means that you’re either contacting the wrong leads (they don’t fit your ideal customer profile) or your marketing strategy failed to get you near corporate customers.

On the other hand, if you call your lead and they tell you they already work with one of your competitors, it’s also not time to give up just yet. You have to know what your product or service solves that the competitors don’t, simple as that.

So after this truth bomb, we just dropped, it’s time to drop the tips that will help you learn how to sell in a competitive market.

1. Conduct competitive research 

Marketing and sales strategies usually begin with a great deal of research. When learning how to sell in a competitive market, competitor analysis is an absolute necessity because it gives you a significant edge in the market. 

First, you should look at the products or services your competitors offer, as well as their sales process. This all gives you an in-depth understanding of how their business operates which you can apply to your B2B sales and marketing strategy. Ultimately, you’ll discover hidden opportunities and find openings you didn’t even know existed.

2. Think about your unique value proposition

Your unique value proposition is the only way to convince your customers that they should go for your offerings instead of your competitors. In other words, it’s what makes your company special and tells your B2B customers how you can solve their problems and benefit their business. 

Unfortunately, having a solid unique value proposition is easier said than done, which is why many companies simply copy their competitors' message because they believe it is working. This is a big mistake because your unique value proposition should be something that your main competitors aren’t offering.

3. Double down on content marketing

You’re probably aware of how important content marketing is for your business, but it’s even more important if you’re looking for ways to sell in a competitive market. 

An active blog can do wonders for your SEO strategy and will draw in highly qualified leads that actually have problems you can solve with your offering. In fact, you will draw in more customers than your competitors if you simply refresh your blog once a month, and research engaging and helpful topics.

4. Leverage automation

B2B usually requires a more hands-on approach than the B2C counterpart. This is because you cannot rely on impulse purchases to drive your sales. For example, your team may spend days crafting emails, making sales calls, discovering new business leads manually and still reach subpar results.

A better way to go around this is to leverage modern automation tools that allow you to cut the time in half and deliver more consistent results.

For instance, discovering companies to contact with your cold emails can be an arduous task when done manually. But with a tool like LeadArm, you can discover companies by location and industry automatically. You can then send automated emails and save hours upon hours of arduous research.

5. Learn from criticism

While it’s possible to overcome objections from your customers and still make a sale, you can actually fine-tune your approach by learning from the criticism they deliver. For example, if multiple customers tell you the price of your service or a product is too high, chances are they are right. In that case, you may even approach new customers with discounts or even introduce a lower priced tier for your service.

6. Improve your customer service

Most customers will choose to work with a company that not only offers an excellent product but also offers top notch customer service and support. In other words, if your support system is better than your competitors’, guess who’s snagging that customer?

Make sure you’re always a phone call or an email and away, and your clients will sing praises about your excellent product support. 

7. Double down on your marketing efforts

Without proper marketing and excellent brand awareness, your B2B sales will be dead in the water. One of the answers to the question of how to sell in a competitive market is increasing your brand awareness through effective B2B marketing.

If your buyers have never heard of your company, you don’t have a good chance of convincing them you’re the right choice. They will simply go for a competitor if they heard about them and are familiar with their product.

This is why you should not only increase your marketing budget, but also figure out how to craft a perfect B2B digital marketing strategy.

A Well Oiled Sales Machine

While sales are mostly about the personal connection you make with your customer, you still need to ensure you’ve got the basics down. 

You could have the best salesperson in the world working for you, but if your marketing efforts are non-existent and your customer support is subpar, you don’t stand a chance - especially if the market is already oversaturated.

By making these adjustments and even automating some of your sales processes, you’ll simply have an easier time closing sales - and that’s how to sell in a competitive market.