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84% of B2B Sales Start with a Referral — Not a Salesperson

Harvard Business

Outbound B2B sales are becoming less and less effective. Meanwhile, 84% of B2B buyers are now starting the purchasing process with a referral, and peer recommendations are influencing more than 90% of all B2B buying decisions. First, three out of four B2B buyers rely on social media to engage with peers about buying decisions.

B2B 189
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B2B Salespeople Need to Act More Like Travel Agents

Harvard Business

A similar sequence has happened with B2B buying. By 2012, our research shows, nearly 60% of a typical B2B purchasing decision — researching solutions, ranking options, benchmarking pricing, and so on — was happening before the buyer even had a conversation with a supplier. Related Video. The 8 Types of Salespeople.

B2B 119
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4 Ways for B2B Businesses to Keep Their Customers

Harvard Business

According to Gallup , only 29% of B2B customers are engaged with the companies they do business with. Define metrics that are focused on customer experience — Net Promoter Score is one, but they can be even closer to the customer. Invite a small group of customers to help you define your success metrics. Let that sink in.

B2B 70
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Are Sales Incentives Becoming Obsolete?

Harvard Business

To motivate, manage, and reward B2B salespeople, many companies use sales incentive plans that link large commissions or bonuses to individual results metrics, such as territory quota achievement. Changes include: Changing the metrics for determining incentive pay.

Sales 135
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Best Practices for a Marketing Database Cleanse

Download ZoomInfo’s latest data-driven eBook aimed to help marketing leaders understand the best practices around choosing a B2B contact data provider. This buyers guide will cover: Review of important terminology, metrics, and pricing models related to database management projects.

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4 Ways to Improve Your Content Marketing

Harvard Business

With online technologies and targeted lists, this should be a cost-effective tool for separating the suspects from the prospects, accelerating customer conversion through the sales funnel, and, equally important, optimizing “data-driven marketing” by tying each piece of content to metrics like opens, reads, downloads, and so on.

Marketing 133
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B2B Sales Hunters vs Sales Farmers

LSA Global

The B2B Sales Hunters vs Farmers Sales Model The role of B2B sales hunter vs sales farmer has been discussed in business sales training workshops for decades. Typically, B2B sales hunters focus on new customer acquisition while B2B sales farmers are responsible for nurturing and growing current accounts.

B2B 36