What is digital B2B sales and why does it disrupt the industry

When I started my first sales job around 12 years ago as a technical sales manager for a middle sized company one of my main goals was to generate new customers and one of the main instruments for doing that was the internet. I used the internet to research new companies as potential customers and it worked perfectly. Forty years ago sales people had to use the so called "yellow pages" and in order to find out more about the company they either had to go to the library, call the company and talk to a secretery or even visit the company. 12 years ago all needed information was available on the website, a few clicks away. What a disruption, god bless the internet!

The other instrument I was using was the phone. Yes, the instrument so many bad sales people hate. So, one of the things I did to generate new customers was cold calling. And I did a lot of it. First I researched the company online and afterwards I gave a call. And another one. And another one. Don't get me wrong, I don't have any masochistic tendencies, I just simply hate to lose and what is even more motivational, I love to win. So I was calling until I finally collected a target number of appointments for the next week and that was my own personal success of the day.

I don't like cold calling. Not because I don't like to call strangers and ask them for something out of the blue, no, I don't like it because it's not efficient. I agree, that sometimes it's the only way, the only instrument you have to generate at least a fundamental basis for your business. But usually I try to avoid it. How? Well, just two simple, plain words: Digital marketing. Digital marketing has the power to disrupt sales the way internet itsself did during the dotcom era. I'm not kidding.

In order to understand how digital sales works and what it actually means you need to get a grasp on digital marketing. Digital marketing describes the placement and advertising of your companie's products online. Usually you create landing pages and link them to ad campaigns on google. Sounds simple, but it's not. There is a lot of analysis and research behind every landing page set up and campaign launch. Bottom line is though, once you have set up everything correctly and your products generate an interesting number of online searches, you should be able to attract a great number of prospects to your landing page, where you let them convert. The company I currently work for, ChemPoint, is basically the industry leader for exactly that.

The beauty of all that is, once the prospect reaches your landing page and converts on it, which means, he or she fills out a form for a product inquiry, you or your sales team receive this information in the CRM and voila, here is your prospect, served on a silver platter. You know exactly you have a hot lead in front of your nose. You give a call, and you head streight away into talks about pricing, availability or sampeling. And even more beautiful: You have immidiate access to the correct person. What a disruption, god bless digital marketing!

What does this mean practically for the sales process? Well, first of all the efficiency is sky rocketing. You close faster and what is even more important, the service you provide as a sales person is incredible, because the reachability works also the other way around. The purchasers have now direct access to product landing pages and a skilled team behind it is ready to provide all needed information and even after sales service. So the NPS score is sky rocketing as well.

But guess what? One thing still remains: The phone! Now it's becoming even more important, as the business generation becomes faster more direct you need to call more to keep up with the speed. So, to all the phone haters in sales, even digital marketing will not safe you from your personal misery of communicating directly to customers and prospects. But, to calm you down, you won't have to call strangers anymore. Once they pick up the phone and hear your voice and company name they know exactly why you call. So, embrace the new era and enjoy the ride!