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If you were a business major or have experience as a sales representative, you may be interested in the field of sales. A salesperson doesn't need to have advanced subject matter expertise or technical knowledge, but having toto learn about products they sell matters a lot. B2B sales is a rapidly growing field and the career is considered by many to be one of best and most lucrative careers around the globe. As a salesperson, working on commission gives a more stake on the outcome. And, this gives you a level of flexibility that many other careers simply do not. The best way to learn faster is to have a stake in the outcome. Risk awakens our learning muscles like a splash of cold water.

One of few questions most often asked by inside sale to every company's sales development representatives (SDR) begins as – "How are you going to increase sales next quarter?" If you've been in sales for a while, it can be hard to come up with a solid answer that is easy to implement. Skipping all complex marketing plans and strategic partnership ideas, an idea as simple as narrowing your focus might help SDRs increase their sales.

A vertical is defined as a specific industry or market sector. Each vertical that a sales representative covers often takes time, money and effort on the part of both company and representative. This is often recognized as a need for industry specific sales literature, attendance at conferences, sales calls to remote client locations and increased requests for pricing discounts to secure an anchor client who can be a reference for future business. Although these additional requirements can often lead to new business and increased revenue, there may be a more efficient avenues for growth.

Going deep on sales will get better results than going wide. If your company's sales force is already serving specific verticals, you may be better off looking for ways to increase market share in verticals you're currently servicing rather than attempting to move into new ones. You can benefit from using existing contacts to help you open new doors as well as leveraging your company's reputation. By looking to expand clients in already exisiting line of business, you save time and money while increasing revenue faster than moving into new market segments.

As with any strategy, we all have some limitations and its success is primarily dependent upon the amount of market share your company currently has in any given market. The lower the market share, the better a deep and narrow strategy will work. If your company has very less market share in any given segment, going deep is pointless excercise.

If you are a sales representative, make sure to look not only at company's overall market share in a segment, but also its market share in the specific geography you serve. If you find that an area has a low percentage market share, you've found a good place to start.

If its necessary to increase sales prospects for your B2B business, it is crucial you develop a detailed customer outreach strategy. Hoping and praying for new customers won't drive new sales leads to your business, and both Marketing & SDRs should be proactive to increase revenue generation and get paid on basis of outreach campagin success. Integrating new age outreach methods like doing business w/clients in front of a live-camera broadcast are few methods people worldwide employ to rank their business development strategy and make their business reach out to many clients and prospects.

Do your clients understand your product?

A lot of SDRs think they are talking about benefits, but they eductate clients more on features. If you make this very common mistake, you will be leaving many of your prospective customers asking the question: "So what?"

**What is a Feature? **A feature is a factual statement about a product. It could be technical details of a product, the dimensions, or an aspect of functionality. A feature of a vacuum cleaner, for example, would be that it is cordless. A feature of a car would be its fuel efficiency rating.

**What is an Advantage? **Somewhere between features and details, there are also the advantages of a product. The advantage of a cordless vacuum cleaner is that you don't need to plug it into an electrical outlet. The advantage of a fuel-efficient car is that it will cost less to run, and it will be better for the environment.

**What is a Benefit? **A benefit is something that users will gain if they buy a product. It's an outcome of using product or service. Benefits are usually much more personal and emotional than features or advantages. The benefits of a cordless vacuum cleaner is that you are not hindered by cord. The practical benefit of a fuel-efficient car is the extra money you will have in your pocket to spend. There is also an emotional benefit of knowing that you are helping to slow global warming.

The differences between benefits, advantages, and features is obvious for users, but often confused by SDRs. When you are writing a description of your own product, though it is easy sales and marketers are too close to their own products, most assume everyone understand about and ignore talking benefits. Marketers and advertisers also tend to place too much value on features. A car manufacturer might claim their new car does 1 km/litre more than the competitor's car. The consumer, though, is interested in how much that is worth in cash to them.

With some types of products, the features are very important. The consumer electronics market is a good example of this. In markets where consumer is well informed, the specs are as important as any other fads. To an experienced gamer, for example, RAM on a computer will matter more than power savings. In most markets, though, it is the benefits that sell products. This is because the benefits can tell a story that the user can relate to.

Content Marketing

Video marketing can drive interested consumers to your brand if you offer informative and educational video content. Video marketing is perhaps the first step in educating potential customers about your business. Once they have an interest in your brand, you can then convert them from a warm lead into a happy customer! Think about the types of questions your customer support team gets on a regular basis and then turn your answers to those questions into videos. Be sure to develop a video distribution strategy to go along with your newly created video content.

In today's content marketing space, video is vital to your business's success. Make it an integral part of your online marketing strategy. While direct product sales and company promotions have a place, you'll get more engagement if you focus on your customers rather than your products. The best viral marketing videos don't mention products at all but rely on the viewer's curiosity to feed click-back.

Taking Feedback!

It would be better off, if customer support teams connect with a few of your existing clients to find out exactly why they decided to work with you and continue to do so. Ask them to tell you about the biggest problems they are facing relative to your product/service.

Next, call on a few prospects in your specific territory and lead them into a conversation regarding the problem issues you uncovered when you talked to your current clients. Find out from the prospects how big of an issue that the problems you are talking with them about are, relative to their overall job. Find out if they have the budget to pay for a solution to their problems. Ask them what the process is or will be for getting approval to spend the money to purchase a solution to solve their issues.

At this point, you are likely to have made a few additional sales. The next step is to talk to those recent sales about who else they know that may be facing similar problems. Get to know who they know from industry or local professional group meetings and have an introduction.

If an introduction won't fall in place, consider asking them if you can use their name when you contact your new prospect in order to get a meeting with them. If you've done a good job working with client to this point, they will almost always say yes. Lastly, find out what industry groups your client is a part of and if they participate regularly. Thanks for reading. Keep focussed. Stay positive, Always ; )

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