-B2B (Business to Business) transactions



-B2C (Business to Consumer) transactions

-B2G (Business to Government) transactions

B2B amount to the biggest part of transactions made online. Creating sales - oriented marketing plan and strategies is essential when starting some B2B online business. Sales - oriented marketing plan is the one aimed at generating sales, rather than creating just brand awareness or exposure. Here is how you can do that.

Choose your unique niche market:

Target some market segment which is less explored, and make sure you start by offering some product or service to this specific niche. You cannot create some product which satisfies all segments of the market. Instead of offering something which every customer will find less than satisfactory, offer some product which some of them will find exclusively designed for themselves. Isn't it better to have a few loyal customers in the initial stage of your business than having little more unsatisfied ones, who will never buy from you again?

Credibility:

Customers are turning into practical and no-nonsense types in this age of information. These types of customers will not buy from you, unless you establish your credibility. All your marketing techniques will fail to provide you with sales if your customers are not having trust in you. Exhibitions, business magazines, testimonials and trade shows can all help you in achieving this much needed credibility.

Lead management:

Lead management is all about generating leads and then making the most of it. Lead generation and then a healthy rate of conversion can do wonders for instant growth. E-mail marketing, referrals, seminar, cold calls are some of the mediums used for lead generation. You can think of your own methods as well, depending on your business.

Landing Pages:

Leads alone cannot provide you with sales; you need to convert these leads into sales. The first step is to make an effective landing page (AKA lead capture page). This is the page on which some customer lands or arrives after clicking on your link at some referral page or advertisement. This is not necessarily your homepage; it can be a blog or sign-up page as well. You can include images, frequently asked questions, sales pitch or testimonials. Ideally the landing page should be focused on selling just one product or service. In case, there are many offers, customer will get confused and leave.

Train your sales staff:

An effective marketing practice combines the two objectives of retaining old customers with attracting new customers effectively. Train your sales staff for this purpose because, after all your costly advertisements and marketing campaigns, it is your sales staff that will actually be making sales and reaching your customers with the follow-up calls. Sales staff should be fully aware of the business and offers, capable of coping with customer's initial resistance or hesitation and well equipped with presentation skills.