{"id":2209,"date":"2020-10-09T17:35:21","date_gmt":"2020-10-09T15:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mixdata.com\/blog\/business-b2b-en-2020-2\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T10:52:32","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T08:52:32","slug":"selling-b2b-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mixdata.com\/en\/blog\/selling-b2b-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Selling B2B in 2021: Why You Need to Rethink Your Approach"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article offers some thoughts on the changes that the world of sales and B2B business is currently going through. <\/p>\n

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The commercial relationship turned upside down since March\u2026<\/h4>\n

What has changed since last March? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The emergence and spread of Covid-19 have strongly affected economic and commercial activities this year.<\/p>\n

Physical distance is now a given in our professional relationships, and that changes quite a few things. Trade shows are mostly cancelled or postponed, sometimes maintained but with visitor numbers significantly reduced. In an article dated 16 September 2020, lesEchos reports a 40% drop in activity for trade shows and conferences in the Paris region in 2020<\/a>. <\/p>\n

In this radically new context, prospects and customers are working from home, sometimes for the first time in their professional lives. The main consequences at a commercial level are that stakeholders no longer meet, relationships have to be built and imagined differently, and old-school prospecting no longer works. In this context, it becomes very useful to have several points of contact to stay in touch or to prospect.<\/p>\n

On the B2B business side, some companies have become cautious and hesitate to invest for lack of visibility. The uncertainty drags on and sales prospecting is inevitably harder than before\u2026 <\/p>\n

Now that we have said that\u2026 what do we do to bounce back?<\/p>\n

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The digitalisation of sales prospecting is under way<\/strong><\/h4>\n

We are certainly not going to just stand there waiting for it to blow over! <\/p>\n

Clearly, our organisations need agility and flexibility. Employees must gain autonomy and responsiveness. At the same time, sales teams need to regain cohesion and energy. Effective salespeople are salespeople who believe in what they do, who want to do it, and who have the tools to face this unprecedented crisis.<\/p>\n

The new digital prospecting tools<\/strong> offer precisely the simplicity and flexibility you are looking for in such an uncertain period.<\/p>\n

For most companies, the digitalisation of sales prospecting is no longer an option<\/strong>\u2026 <\/p>\n

Every phase of a “deal” is now initiated and planned by email, by video conference or by phone: the first call of course, but also the possible demo, the negotiation, the meetings with stakeholders, another demo, the closing\u2026 The challenge is to maintain a constant desire, to keep your prospects’ attention. <\/p>\n

In this context, whoever has a reliable database, one that can be queried on precise criteria, accessed remotely in SaaS and enriched with social profiles and named email addresses, will inevitably be one step ahead. <\/p>\n

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So we can take a more optimistic, proactive view and tell ourselves that we are going to support the change in this B2B business. Since we are in a period of profound upheaval in our habits, and this is likely to last, we might as well take the opportunity to evolve and modernise our sales approach too.<\/p>\n

Sales intelligence brings salespeople an immediate solution<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Indeed, simple and flexible tools exist to make life easier for sales teams. They are effective now, right away.<\/p>\n

Today, thanks to sales intelligence tools, a salesperson can, <\/strong>from anywhere:<\/p>\n