Moving Forward from COVID-19: 3 Steps to Improving Communications as a B2B Company
As the curve begins to flatten, it is time for businesses to step into the next phase of moving forward from the Coronavirus with confidence. People worldwide have been forced to learn how to digitally communicate in new ways due to this tragic pandemic, which has delayed the opportunity to meet with people face-to-face.
Clear communication can be useful for B2B companies by implementing technology and creating content for marketing and sales purposes. Having your priorities and adaptation strategies in alignment with your goals as a B2B company produces success.
To further illustrate this point, Salesforce points out that sales and marketing alignment can make an organization 67% better at closing deals, reduce friction by 108%, and generate 209% more value from marketing. Being organized and prepared for communication practices is one of the essential factors to adapt and come out ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As a B2B company, being communicative with your consumers can only benefit everyone in the long and short run.
1. Provide Transparency
As a B2B company, practicing honest and transparent communication across all channels and with all individuals who come in contact with your business is extremely important. Why is it necessary for B2B companies to be so transparent?
Being completely open as a company leads to trust, which will then typically lead to success as a business. Identity discusses different ways to be successfully transparent as a company: "It is also good practice to be transparent in the way you work, the more you explain processes, share information and provide regular updates to the client, the more understanding and patient they will be."
Being fully transparent as a B2B company means letting your customers know the errors, problems, or obstacles that can come with the job and how those issues could potentially affect their desired outcome.
On the other hand, businesses that communicate with their customers by sugarcoating vital information will find that they experience more negative effects in the long run, including developing a bad reputation or high customer turnover rate.
Read the Blog: How to Create Buyer Personas for Your Business
Customers will likely begin to develop a negative brand image of a company that doesn't tell them the full story. It would be best to let your customers know what they will need to know, and when they need to know it, no matter how pleasant or unpleasant those conversations may be.
Another necessary part of transparency includes divulging the cost or price of the products or services your company offers. Pricing Solutions provides a great rundown of why pricing transparency is beneficial to companies, with one crucial point being that it emphasizes value. According to their data, "When prices become clearer to everyone in a market, each competitor's value also comes into sharper focus. You can define the value you add specifically, and quantify it in terms of prices more precisely because you know where you stand price-wise versus your competitors."
Companies are often quiet about their products or services because many potential customers can be very picky about prices. Larger B2B companies will benefit from being transparent about cost, quickly eliminating those potential customers whose budget doesn't align with available pricing models.
With the Coronavirus going on, B2B companies must be transparent about their plans of action and how it will affect their company or their customers moving forward. Transparency is an essential quality any B2B company can display to improve its communications with current and potential customers.
Read the Blog: How to Pivot Marketing and Sales Processes as a B2B Company
2. Build Trust with Customers
When a company communicates with its customers efficiently and truthfully, the business has a strong chance of being trusted and respected in the future. An excellent way for sellers to adapt to this concept, among the current pandemic's circumstances, is to revamp or keep up with the company's website and social media platforms.
Updating your digital presence could include posting about product availability, current inventory, possible specials or deals, or rules and regulations your company has chosen to adopt.
Many buyers have and will continue to have their guards up with overwhelming feelings of uncertainty because of the tough times we are going through globally. Taking advantage of the digital channels available and using them for your company's advantage to communicate and build that trust with your customers or clients can potentially diminish that sense of uncertainty they may have.
In today's society, consumers are often present on social media platforms, making these social applications a great resource to connect with your clientele as a B2B salesperson.
B2B companies can take the initiative and reach out to their customers through social media by informing them of their products and assisting with concerns. Being hands-on and showing that you are present can help consumers build a stronger relationship with your B2B company. Showing that your team is pushing innovation and keeping up with the current situation, but at the same time still pointing focus towards the value of their product, will pull potential buyers in and promote brand loyalty for years to come.
3. Enhance Customer Experience and Loyalty
Communication is known to go hand-in-hand with customer experience. When a company adapts to a quality communication system through various digital channels, they are setting their customers up for a better experience. Jason Bordeaux, anImplementation Specialist at HubSpot, breaks down why customer experience is essential. Bordeaux says,"It's important to ensure a positive customer experience so customers build brand loyalty and affinity, evangelize your product or service and refer their friends, and leave you positive customer reviews that will help your business retain revenue and earn new customers."
Guaranteeing customer satisfaction through applied communication is a key strategy to utilize as a B2B company to receive loyalty in return. When consumers become loyal to a company because of their positive customer experience, they are more susceptible to spread the word of their positive encounters with your business to other companies, so it is essential to maximize customer experience as a B2B company.
If your goal is to improve your relationship with customers and impress potential leads, we highly recommend investing more time and resources into communication. Transparency, trust, and loyalty should be the main focus of all communications between your audience and your brand.
Make sure that your marketing dollars don't go to waste on strategies that aren't effective. If your company is looking for experts to help you allocate resources and create an optimized game-plan, our team is ready to develop and execute a plan of action for you.
For more information on how your business can grow with digital marketing, contact us for a free consultation with our team!
Sources
Bordeaux, Jason. “What Is Customer Experience? (And Why It's So Important).” HubSpot, HubSpot, Inc., 7 Oct. 2019, blog.hubspot.com/service/what-is-customer-experience.
Cernel, Shelley. “4 Steps to Effective Marketing and Sales Communication.” Salesforce, Salesforce.com, Inc., 20 July 2016, www.salesforce.com/blog/2016/07/effective-marketing-sales-communication.html.
“The Importance Of Great Communication In Client Relationships.” Identity, Identity Holdings Ltd, 18 Oct. 2017, identitygroup.co.uk/the-importance-of-great-communication-in-client-relationships/.
“Why Price Transparency Benefits Your Business.” Pricing Solutions, Pricing Solutions, www.pricingsolutions.com/pricing-blog/price-transparency-benefits-business/.
