Many B2B services marketing avoids overtly sales language. The intention behind this approach may stem from a desire to maintain professionalism and avoid alienating potential clients. But the reality is that it results in missed opportunities.
Consequently, marketers opt for a more passive approach, relying on the quality of their services to speak for itself. While there’s merit in prioritizing quality, it is not necessarily the case that clients will come knocking on your door simply because you offer a great product or service.
Where countless competing businesses are vying for attention, a passive stance is surrendering to obscurity. If you’re not actively articulating the value you bring to the table, customers will overlook you in favour of a competitor who’s more assertive.
Examples of this passivity include; describing your business as “one of the leading software developers”, including weak CTA’s such as “Why not give us a call?”, failing to add qualifications to your contact page, failing to describe your point(s) of difference for each service you provide.
So a lot of B2B service marketing is not up to the job of fully describing or presenting a service anywhere near the level at which a prospect will buy.
Here’s some advice on moving your prospects closer to a sale.
Don’t let your leads wander off
B2B lead generation trends are seeing the customer journey less and less as a linear progression. And there’s data to back that up.
So, it’s smart to tweak your marketing accordingly and see items of content as jigsaw puzzle pieces that fit together from different sides. You can still take your customers by the hand and lead them to these other pieces of content without allowing them to meander away in, stuck in their own research mode.
Layer your qualifications
Testimonials, case studies, results and business data offer compelling reasons to buy. They should be used liberally at the latter points in the customer journey.
These are the compelling reasons that sway customers in marketing business-to-business sales, and not your mission statement. Don’t be afraid to divide and reuse this evidence again and again on different platforms. Yes, a customer quote can be used more than once.
Ask for the sale
At the end of your B2B sales funnel, you must ask for the sale.
In digital marketing, calls to action are essential elements of your customer journey. These CTS’s are often inviting prospects to schedule a consultation, download a whitepaper, or sign up for a free trial. But these CTAs are not asking for the sale.
At some point you need more overt messages about pricing and payment options, onboarding and guarantees. Ask for the sale.
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Here’s my pitch to move your prospects to the end of your customer journey: work with me to sort out all of this stuff. Let’s start with a chat, or you can buy now by choosing one of my B2B Marketing Services.