The modern B2B buyer journey is complex, and the B2B sales cycle is equally challenging, as it’s lengthy and non-linear for most organizations.
In short, B2B SaaS marketing is tough, and failure to understand the nuances of the B2B customer experience (CX) has derailed many companies.
Despite these challenges, designing an effective B2B CX strategy is possible — you just need to know where to start. Let’s explore four ways you can design your B2B customer experience strategy to better cater to customers, accelerate your pipeline, and drive conversions.
Compared to B2C cycles, B2B sales cycles are far longer and non-linear, mostly because of the number of people involved in the decision-making process. These stakeholders have different concerns and priorities and are often at various stages of the B2B buyer journey, requiring highly specific content to meet their needs.
As such, your B2B SaaS CX strategy must address buying groups with multiple stakeholders, often as many as six to twelve decision-makers. You should also understand your ideal customer's typical purchase timeline and plan your outreach accordingly.
Help your team stay on track by setting smaller sub-goals within the longer B2B sales cycle, such as signing up for a demo or scheduling an onsite presentation.
If possible, time your B2B SaaS marketing and sales communications to align with significant milestones along your prospect’s B2B customer experience journey, such as a new funding release for a department or business unit.
A longer B2B sales cycle doesn’t mean your marketing department can just sit back and wait for prospects to convert into clients on their own. On the contrary, you must stay on their radar and position your brand as a trusted ally by creating a nurturing funnel or sequence to earn their business when they become in-market.
B2B buyers research online extensively before engaging with sales. They tend to shortlist vendors who provide informative, educational content. Busy B2B prospects may forget about your brand or solution if you don’t have a lead nurturing strategy to deliver a memorable B2B customer experience.
Map out the B2B buyer journey from your prospects’ perspective to reach high-quality leads. Think through how to personalize the B2B customer experience, for example, then try to identify the resources, information, and demonstrations that prospects may seek at each sales cycle stage. Finally, deliver those resources via the appropriate channels (e.g., email and social media).
Gartner found that 93% of B2B buyers need a business case to support their decision to purchase technology solutions. To help construct this business case, your B2B SaaS marketing strategy should include data-based content to demonstrate why a prospect should invest in your offering and how it will deliver a sufficient return on investment (ROI).
Successful B2B marketing practitioners know how to connect their offerings to tangible business results — it’s one of the core B2B customer experience best practices. For example, you could demonstrate how your solution helps increase monthly revenue, boost workflows, drive cost-efficiency, or enhance employee experience at scale.
Incorporate real-world data, examples, and testimonials into your B2B SaaS marketing materials. These may include case studies, client quotes, statistics, and other evidence presented in a conclusive method. For a landing page, for example, that might look like this: “Company X saved 25% on quarterly marketing costs by using our analytics dashboard.”
Consider including specific figures related to business outcomes in a B2B customer experience case study to help decision-makers put benefits into a practical context.
Some buyers are a better fit for your solution than others. Ideal clients are happier with your solution and tend to require less post-sale service and assistance. Additionally, some prospects may be ready to buy soon, while others are still in the earlier stages of their B2B buyer journey.
How do you know which clients are ready to buy and which are a less-than-perfect fit?
To solve this issue, B2B customer experience leaders often use a lead scoring system, which is a “shared sales and marketing methodology for ranking leads to determine their sales-readiness.” It helps you assign value to each contact based on attributes like the professional information they submit on your website and how they engage with your brand online.
Lead scoring is key to B2B customer experience optimization. It can help you avoid wasting valuable time and resources on prospects who likely won’t become clients or neglecting to nurture those ready to do business with you. It can also help you understand when to conduct sales outreach and deliver relevant B2B client experience to the right stakeholders at the right time to drive conversions.
To set up a basic lead scoring system, create an ideal customer profile (ICP) to help you better qualify leads. The ICP should describe your ideal buyer’s essential characteristics, like company size, industry, geographic location, or years in business.
Then, assign each qualified lead a numerical value on a scale of 0–100 based on the ICP attributes and metrics on online behaviors, email engagement, and social media interactions. You may also get insights from your sales teams and analytics reports to identify the best customers.
Bonus tip: Some leads can be spam. Identify those with missing form fields, nonsensical input, or Gmail accounts. Consider assigning a negative score to weed them out.
This method can go a long way toward figuring out how to build the best B2B customer experience.
A relevant, timely, and memorable B2B customer experience is essential for guiding your prospects through the B2B buyer journey stages.
Regardless of your solution, understanding the B2B sales cycle, creating nurture funnels, building a data-backed business case, and setting up a lead scoring system will help you overcome many of the typical B2B customer experience challenges. With these tactics at play, you can make your B2B SaaS marketing more relevant to high-quality prospects and more effective at achieving your desired goals and benchmarks.
At Spot On, we’ve helped many SaaS businesses elevate their B2B digital experience. Schedule a time to chat with one of our experts to discuss how we can help you.
