3 Steps Every B2B Sales Team Should Take to Increase Revenue Today

As B2B sales increase in complexity, it’s more necessary than ever to have a process in place that a sales team can use to increase revenue. The growing abundance of sales tools, technologies, and resources can be both a blessing and a curse for sales teams.

Regardless of where you might be in your sales organization, where do you start when optimizing your sales process to increase revenue?

Despite the constant changes to the sales landscape, there are some tried-and-true methods that will always be relevant and effective.

To help any sales team looking to grow, we've compiled three steps every B2B sales team should take to increase revenue today.

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1. Standardize your B2B playbook

The first step to increasing revenue is to standardize your playbook. A sales playbook is a guide that outlines the specific steps your team needs to take to close a deal. It acts as one central resource for all sales-related information.

The contents of your sales playbook will vary depending on your product or service, industry, and target market.

But there are some essential elements that every B2B sales team should include in their playbook, such as:

• the company and team structure
• a process for identifying and qualifying leads
• the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
• your sales process & sales methodology
• objection-handling talking points
• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Acting as a repository for your sales team to reference, a playbook allows you to codify and document your team's best practices so that everyone is working from the same page. 

In fact, teams that use sales playbooks generate 18% more revenue than those that don't.

A standardized playbook will ensure your team is aligned, but it will also make it easier to onboard new sales reps and get them up to speed quickly, lowering onboarding costs and helping new hires fill their sales pipelines much sooner.

For any business looking to increase revenue and profitability through efficiency, a standardized playbook is an essential starting point for your sales team.

2. Collaborate with internal and external stakeholders

The second step in increasing revenue is collaborating with internal and external stakeholders. To close more deals, your sales team needs to stay up to date with all information from internal (sales, marketing, product, etc.) and external (champions, consultants, decision-makers, etc.) stakeholders.

Effective collaboration starts with clear communication. All stakeholders should understand the sales process, what's expected of them, and how their contributions can impact the outcome of a deal.

It may be tough to believe, but B2B sales are never about you - it's about the customer.

Customer-centric sales cycles are all about listening, understanding the buyer's pain points and needs, and using that information to find the best solution. It allows you to personalize and tailor the entire sales process to match the value proposition that meets your customer's needs.

Tools like customer-collaboration software or mutual action plans can help various members of their sales and marketing teams work more effectively with their customers while keeping everyone on the same page.

Such tools deliver transparency and efficient processes that have proven successful. Data shows that organizations see a significant impact on sales due to sales enablement: 76% of organizations see an increase in sales between 6% and 20%.

Successful sales teams use sales enablement tools to document the end-to-end sales process, meeting notes, tasks for either party, and customer communications. This prevents miscommunications or confusion that could delay or even kill a deal.

Collaborating with internal and external stakeholders enables B2B sales teams to ensure that everyone involved is on the same page, following similar timelines, and delivering the right solution for the buyer.

3. Improve post-sales handoff and support

The third and final step to take if you want to increase revenue is to enable your buyers with guided selling.

Guided selling is a sales technique that uses questions and customer data to help buyers make informed decisions about what they need. By leveraging data and technology, sellers can guide prospects through decision-making, providing them with the information they need to purchase.

With so much data available, it can be challenging to know where to start when trying to enable your buyers with guided selling. 

Sales teams should quickly understand your buyer's needs using techniques such as MEDDPICC to identify their pain points, decision-making process, timelines, budget, and more.

Once you clearly understand the buyer's journey, you can think about what kind of information will be most useful at each stage. This could include product demos, case studies, relevant industry studies, or helpful blog posts.

The goal is to provide your buyers with the information they need when they need it, to move them through the sales funnel, and build rapport. Guiding a customer and providing research support will help increase the likelihood of a deal while creating a relationship between you and the buyer.

The trust you build throughout the sales process is what will ultimately result in the close. In fact, Salesforce studies show that 89% of buyers describe the salespeople they ultimately do business with as "trusted advisors."

Through implementing a customer-collaborative, guided sales process, B2B sales teams can quickly increase their conversion rates, close more deals, and increase revenue for any organization.

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To Recap

There's no secret to success when it comes to B2B sales. 

It's all about testing, iterating, following a process that works for your team, and implementing the right sales enablement tools to increase efficiency.

By following these three steps – standardizing your playbook, collaborating with internal and external stakeholders, and enabling your buyers with guided selling – your B2B sales team can close more deals, increase revenue, and build trust with your customers.

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Implementing an end-to-end customer collaboration tool

At Recapped, we have built a customer collaboration tool to help sales and marketing teams work more effectively with their customers throughout the sales process to drive efficiency and increase revenue.

With the Recapped platform, you can run your sales process through one central space, documenting all customer communications, tasks, meeting notes, and more while building a robust sales playbook for success.

Recapped helped Auvik standardize their playbook, and they were able to onboard new sales reps quickly. Read our case study to find out how.

If you're interested in learning more about how our tool can help your organization increase revenue, schedule a demo today.