Adding the ‘magic factor’ of 3D and augmented reality (AR) tech to the traditional business selling playbook can visibly shorten the B2B sales cycle stages and significantly accelerate growth. By enabling tactics such as simple and rapid personalization of products and features for customized sales demos, showcasing of a full product range and configuration options, and advanced data analytics, immersive technology is helping businesses revolutionize their approach to selling cycles.
3D and AR enable clients to independently customize and visualize products, shortening sales cycles | Furniture: Coco Wolf
What are selling cycles and why are they important to business?
Selling cycles represent a series of specific and tactical actions that a business takes to convert a potential customer into a paying client. Selling cycles lay down a success framework for consistent and efficient sales performance in an organization.
By integrating internal strengths and market practices, the B2B sales cycle stages stitch together a proven and repeatable process that takes the guesswork out of the sales function, replacing it with method, speed and clarity. Selling cycles form the core of the sales strategy in an organization. In a constantly evolving business landscape - and with the rise of a new league of empowered ‘self-help buyers’ - selling cycles enable sales teams and revenue leaders to plan ahead with some degree of control and confidence.
What are the B2B sales cycle stages?
No two companies work the same way, which means no two selling cycles are the same. That said, there are commonalities, and most selling cycles adhere to a broad sequence of steps. The major ones used by most companies are:
1. Prospecting
The first stage in nearly all selling cycles is finding buyers in the ‘now’ and also building future customer pipelines. This stage typically comprises top-and-middle-of-funnel (TOFU and MOFU) activities that aim to educate, differentiate, help, persuade and personalize.
2. Connecting
The second of the B2B sales cycle stages aims to establish rapport with potential leads. This involves approaching them tactfully, garnering a deep understanding of their needs, and capturing vital information.
3. Qualifying
The third stage is where leads gathered in the earlier stages are sifted and categorized according to different levels of need, purchase preparedness and buying eagerness.
4. Presenting
The fourth of the B2B sales cycle stages is where the formal pitch or official presentation of the product or idea happens. This takes places after a proposal is sent and a meeting or demo has been scheduled. A sales presentation broadly comprises the introduction of seller credentials, overview of the product or service, and brand USP’s (Unique Selling Points). The overarching purpose of this stage is to clarify what’s in it for the buyer, as well as validating claims, stress factors, and reasons that make the solution better than alternatives existing in the market.
5. Overcoming
Few sales presentations proceed without some kind of pushback from the prospect, and this fifth stage of the B2B selling cycle addresses that issue by stressing the importance of responding to prospects’ queries and objections with empathy, objectivity, and honesty.
6. Closing
For the B2B sales cycle stages to produce a successful outcome, the client must ultimately sign on the dotted line. Closing a sale can be done in a variety of ways, such as summarization of the benefits, adding a last-minute incentive, or employing psychological tactics like limited-period deals and negotiation on features. The key here is to stay alert to buyer signals and avoid the temptation to be too aggressive or pushy.
7. Post-closure
Once a sale has been registered, all details must be entered into the company’s internal systems and software (such as a CRM) and team members involved must be informed so that the post-sales process can be deployed without delay. Even if efforts have not culminated in a sale, the insights garnered and information gained must be integrated and institutionalized within the company’s selling systems and frameworks for future reference.
8. Nurturing
The final stage in most selling cycles is not about the current sale, but the next one. This is where the sales team turns its attention to nurturing - both clients who have been recently onboarded, and prospects who have shown sufficient buying signals to make them worth further pursuit. The nurturing stage in a typical selling cycles is also responsible for building sales pipelines – a critical factor for sustainable business outcomes.
It is important for business leaders to have real-time, granular and three-sixty-degree visibility of every part of the B2B sales cycle stages within their organizations, so that they can evaluate business health more accurately, make better forecasts and projections, improve team performance effectively, and take smarter strategy decisions.
B2B sales cycle stages vs B2C
B2C selling cycles target individual customers and end-users, while the goal of the B2B sales cycle stages (be it supply, distribution or service based) is to sell to other businesses and convert enterprise clients. These two do possess zones of similarity, particularly in the areas of data leverage, relationship nurturing, and multi-channel approaches.
However, there are also some key differences:
Target audience (TG)
Target prospects in B2B selling cycles are typically decision-makers, department heads, function leads, subject matter experts and policy regulation leaders. These are people who need to take considered and rational decisions that are aligned with broader business objectives. The TG in B2C selling cycles, on the other hand, are individual users of the solution who don’t need complicated buy-ins from C-suites and boardrooms, and carry the luxury of executing personal decision making when it comes to buying.
Decision paths
B2B purchases are often high-stakes activities with important ramifications for the profitability, reputation and longevity of the business. As a result, the B2B sales cycle stages are typically more layered and complex, involving multiple stakeholders and interests. B2B selling cycles will often have to go through nested layers of internal reviews and cross-departmental consultations before arriving at a purchase consensus. This can mean several touchpoints and slow, protracted timelines. At the other end of the spectrum, decision paths in B2C selling cycles, typically involving fewer people, tend to be far simpler, quicker and shorter – with emotional gratification, lifestyle choices and price considerations driving the purchase.
Seller involvement
The B2B sales cycle stages demand that the sales professionals involved be more knowledgeable about the features and benefits of the product, more agile to the pain points of prospects, more responsive to fast-evolving market trends and disruptions, more specific in the way they demonstrate value, and more persistent in the way they engage with potential clients. In B2C selling cycles, on the other hand, the seller may be relatively less invested in the journey, due to the often shorter and more transactional nature of the process.
Acquisition costs
The B2B sales cycle stages are characterized by long-term relationship nurturing and confidence-building tactics which represent the lions’ share of the acquisition costs involved. In contrast, B2C selling cycles are normally characterized by lower financial inputs in direct relationship building, with consumer marketing and promotional activity taking greater prominence. B2C selling cycle often benefit more from free or low-cost ‘channels’ such as word-of-mouth, referral, and impulse buying, while the size of B2C lead pools - which typically have larger demographic audiences and markets to play with compared to the filtered and finite clients pursued in B2B – can further drive down customer acquisition costs in B2C selling cycles.
Closing sales faster with smarter selling cycles
Mastering the nuances the B2B sales cycle stages can help sales teams and professionals shorten buyer journeys and close deals faster. Some of the best-practice guidance firms can implement includes:
- Avoid wasting time by casting the prospect net too wide; instead, curate a shortlist of clients where the ‘need - solution match’ is the greatest, and kick-start momentum by prioritizing leads that are relatively easier to score. In many businesses, the ‘customer’ (business owners and hierarchy leaders who will sanction the purchase budget) can be different from the ‘end-user’ (executives and frontline workers who will actually use the product) - and planning must be done accordingly.
- Identify key stakeholders and decision makers so that efforts and resources are optimized; research their challenges, ambitions, and persona highlights to fine tune approach and strategy.
- Seller and prospect must set mutually agreed goals and expectations at every point along the journey to minimize misalignment and confusion.
- Be prepared to tackle points of resistance with answers that are transparent, realistic and backed by data.
- Be forthright and clear when it comes to engagement pillars like features, capabilities, impact and pricing.
- Employ the proven tactic of ‘incremental closure’ where a sales team advances steadily by closing a series of small commitments, one at a time, to build trust gradually.
- Map out the engagement roadmap in advance and place checks and balances along the way. Whenever the process gets off track, proactively shepherd the conversation back.
- Automate the process as much as possible with the help of technology and software like CRMs to eliminate human errors and raise efficiencies.
- Harness the power of data to identify patterns, validate assumptions, and close knowledge gaps.
- Set success KPIs and milestones. Customers prioritize companies that respond to their concerns quickly, so lowering lead times should be at the top of the KPI list.
- Keep monitoring, measuring and refining performance. Identify bottlenecks, focus on best-performing channels and run A/B tests.
- Ensure departments and teams are aligned and working in lockstep. Pay particular attention to marketing and sales; ensure a seamless integration across the functions so that they complement rather than cancelling each other out.
- Leverage the power of content to inform, engage and convert. Build a powerful digital presence, double down on content categories, formats and platforms that work best, leverage social proof, and embrace innovative storification tools and methods.
- Shock and awe: In the age of information overload and shortened attention spans, surprise and novelty can be effective when it comes to making an impression – especially on a new generation of buyers with different expectations.
In this context, 3D and AR technologies – with their ability to create visually immersive ‘discovery experiences’, generate deep behavioral insights through real time data mining, and embed engaging ‘try before you buy’ moments natively into the narrative – can turn selling cycles on their head and effectively change the game.
Studies demonstrate that adding the ‘magic parameter’ of 3D and AR to the B2B sales cycle stages can revolutionize demo presentations, elevate buyer confidence, and boost sales by up to 200 percent. According to a study by consulting giants Deloitte, nine out of ten medium sized brands are already using 3D and AR to fuel their consumer journeys and enhance internal processes. Across a wide range of industries and sectors, momentum is building in favor of 3D and AR across product niches and solution categories, signaling a whole new way to visualize, augment, and shorten selling cycles.
Talk to an expert today to discover how our innovative solutions can accelerate your B2B sales cycle and fuel growth.
