Improving Sales Results When Selling a Commoditized Product or Service

Improving Sales ResultsThere are very few B2B products or services that are truly unique and stand-alone. In many cases, it is the opposite, the product or service being sold is a commodity , has many competitors and is easy to find. So if you are selling a B2B commoditized product or service, how do you improve your chances of sales success? Take these 7 tips into consideration for improving your sales results.

Nail Your Value Proposition and Make it as Quantifiable as Possible

Too often value propositions are qualitative and that is okay, but what really sells is quantitative metrics. What benefit is more compelling? “Our solution was able to drive cost savings annually for our clients” or “Our solution was able to drive 50% cost savings for our client and had a payback of 16 months.”
 

Stories Sell

Buyers like to know others have purchased your service, why they did so and what the result was. Utilizing customer success stories, particularly those related to the vertical you are selling into, are powerful tools.
 

Focus on a Vertical or Two

Selling horizontal is really difficult simply because it is hard to focus your attention, messaging and story. Choose one or two verticals that are the best fit with your solution and build a sales and marketing strategy around that to start. Once the strategy has been executed and success generated, you can always look to add additional verticals.
 

Use Content Marketing and Social Media Better Than Everyone Else and Commit to it

The cost of sales is a critical measure to watch. For lower priced commodity items, or those working on a SaaS model, the utilization of content marketing and social media platforms to assist in driving inbound leads is critical. It is one of the only ways to reach a large audience with targeted messages and allow prospects to more easily find you.
 

Use a CRM Solution

Have a solid sales CRM to support your sales and marketing initiatives. Your sales and marketing activities like drip campaigns, newsletters, cold calling campaigns and inbound lead follow ups are all based off this database.
 

Find Cost Effective Ways to Market Your Solution to Your Specific Verticals

By focusing on verticals, there could be specific industry events, magazines or online forums that you should be participating in. Keep an eye out for these and assess on a one off basis, whether it makes sense to participate. Be sure to set sales and marketing goals for each event to help you gauge the material success of the event.
 

Look at Channel Partners to Bring You Into Other Markets

One way to grow, particularly in international markets, is through channel partners. If your solution is a great fit with certain verticals, look for channel partners that sell complimentary products or services to these markets now.

If we can provide you with sales and marketing assistance please don’t hesitate to contact us. For great insight into startup sales and marketing, feel free to sign up for our newsletter or follow us on .
 

Improving Sales Results When Selling a Commoditized Product or Service