B2B Selling Advice
Selling to Ivory Gifts Businesses
As the clouds dissipate, ivory gifts businesses are gradually bouncing back from the Great Recession and are starting to reinvest. We'll tell you how to overcome selling hurdles in the ivory gifts business market and dominate the competition.
The world is unpredictable and businesses are constantly evolving their selling strategies to keep pace with changes in the marketplace.
For B2B professionals that sell to these companies, the industry's positive growth outlook makes the solid execution of fundamental sales principles more important than ever.
Industry Experience
In ivory gifts business sales, industry experience is a huge plus. Although it isn't necessary to have decades of front line experience, it helps to speak the industry language and to understand the pressure points of a typical ivory gifts business.
B2B sellers who lack industry experience can supplement the shortfall by subscribing to trade journals, partnering with industry insiders and immersing themselves in the industry culture. Remember, ivory gifts businesses may also be more friendly to sellers within their network, so it's important to make new contacts as quickly as possible.
Reaching Prospective Customers
Prospecting is the process of identifying potential customers and converting them to qualified leads.
Networking can fine tunes prospecting performance and conversion ratios. However, it's important to make sure your sales force isn't so focused on conversation that they miss the point of prospecting, i.e. the identification of likely buyers, key decision makers and high value industry contacts. In other words, quality is just as important as quantity when prospecting for ivory gifts businesses.
Lead lists are useful because they narrow the field for your team. Third-party lists from reputable vendors (e.g. Experian Business Services) equip your sales personnel with a large quantity of targeted leads, making it easier for your company to balance the quantity and quality demands that are prerequisites for effective prospecting.
Sales Team Considerations
Many businesses that sell to ivory gifts businesses leverage a team sales approach.
Although your team may consist of individual sales reps, each rep has to recognize that they are part of a larger sales unit and selling strategy. There is simply no room for mavericks in this industry! Team-based training programs and other initiatives can be beneficial, but the best strategy for encouraging buy-in to a team sales model is for owners and managers to become role models for teamwork.
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