Business customers buy differently from consumers. More people are involved, decisions take longer, and contracts are bigger. B2B rewards process and persistence.
1. Define your ideal customer profile (ICP)
Which companies get the most value from your product and are easiest to sell to? Define them by:
- Industry and sub-segment (e.g. auto-component manufacturers)
- Size (employees, revenue, number of outlets)
- Geography (cities, clusters, states)
- Trigger events (new funding, expansion, new regulations, hiring sprees)
2. Map the buying committee
- User: uses the product daily.
- Champion: wants you to win and sells internally for you.
- Budget owner: approves the spend.
- Blockers: IT, procurement, legal, finance.
Win the champion, arm them with numbers, and address each blocker’s worries.
3. Outreach that gets replies
A simple three-touch sequence over 10 days:
- Day 1: a short, specific email or LinkedIn message about a problem their peers face.
- Day 4: a useful follow-up: a case study, a benchmark, an insight.
- Day 10: a polite break-up message: “Should I close the loop?”
Personalise the first line. Reference something real about them.
4. Discovery before demo
On the first call, ask about their current process, the pain, its cost, who decides, the budget and the timeline. Only then show the parts of the product that solve their problem.
5. Pilot → proposal → close
- Offer a paid pilot with clear success criteria (“reduce procurement time by 30% in 6 weeks”).
- Send a crisp proposal: problem, solution, outcome, price, timeline.
- Expect negotiation on price and payment terms. Large Indian companies may have long payment cycles, so plan your cash flow (Level 9).
6. Run a pipeline
Track every deal through stages. Measure conversion rates and average deal size. Your sales cycle length tells you how much runway you need.
Your takeaway
Pick 50 target accounts, send your first sequence this week, and track every conversation. You’ve finished Level 6. Next: build your team.