With so many tools and software options out there, you can easily feel overwhelmed when you need to streamline your B2B buying process. Thankfully, our team at HyperSocial has tested endless apps, tools, and systems to help us build our B2B empire.
Here’s a list of the most tried and true tools and software for every step of the B2B buying process that we love and think you will, too.
The B2B Buying Process
Before we take a deep dive into the software you need, you should understand the B2B Buying Process first. Here’s every step of the process before we get down to the things you need to do business.
- Prepare & Educate: Take time to prep and educate you, your sales team, and your customer about what makes the industry tick, what value you bring to the table, and why you solve problems better than your competitors.
- Look for Prospects: Start looking for future customers that fit your demographics and price point.
- Know Your Target Audience: Understand your prospects to determine if they’d make a good fit for your product or service.
- Build Trust & Prove Your Worth: Create powerful content that demonstrates your business’s authority to your customers.
- Overcome Objections: Take your prospect’s concerns and turn them into solved problems instead.
- Close the Sale: Have your newest customer sign on the dotted line and move forward with your contract.
Follow-Up: Stay in contact with each customer to keep their business and upsell them at the right time.
Now you know the basics, let’s get into the details to give you a better idea of what you need to succeed in B2B. (Was that too many rhymes or just enough?)
Phase 1: Prepare & Educate
The first step for any sale starts at the preparation and education level. At this stage, you should educate yourself on the market’s trends and expectations and also be prepared to educate your prospects to help them understand why they need your product or service.
Remember, not every business is the same so it’s important to have an understanding of each business you want to pitch before you start. You always want to be prepared to answer any questions related to known industry issues related to each industry you intend to serve.
The Best Tools for Preparing and Educating Your Team & Your Clients
Here are a few tools to help you prep and educate for the rest of the buying process.
- Zoho CRM: Zoho’s CRM system is one of the most robust systems out there to help you keep track of customer information, automate your sales processes, and analyze the results. Setting up a CRM system prior to starting outreach is important to keep all of your valuable information safe and ready when you find your first prospects.
- Hubspot CRM: Hubspot offers a freemium to paid CRM that is great for businesses just starting out. From managing your contact list to creating email and advertising campaigns, you can put your best foot forward before you even start your B2B sales process.
- Google Keyword Planner or ahrefs: Not sure what the latest and greatest is in any industry? Use a keyword planner like Google’s or ahrefs to determine what your prospective customers are searching for online.
Phase 2: Look for Prospects
After you know the ins and outs of your market, it’s time to find qualified prospects that are ready to buy what you’re selling. This can be one of the most difficult parts of B2B sales because it requires you to do some serious digging to find “true” customers who are open, engaged, and able to make the decision to buy from you. To help you find those prospects, you need the right lead qualification and generation tools.
The Best Tools to Use When Looking for Prospects
Here are some of the best tools to use when you’re on the prowl for your next prospect:
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator: LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator is the tool to use when looking for your next B2B client. With filters that narrow down your search by demographics like
- OptinMonster: Keep your prospects on your website, lead form, or landing page longer by providing (almost) endless ways for them to connect with you, subscribe to your email list, or download value-add freebies with OptinMonster.
- Snov.io: Not sure where to find your next prospect? Google it with the snov.io integration and find email addresses for relevant customers based on your online search.
- Phantombuster: This amazing tool allows you to get all the data you could ever need to grow your audiences without having to code. With Phantombuster’s “growth-hacking” tool that allows you to scrape an insane amount of data on your ideal audiences in a matter of minutes, you’ll have enough data to find more leads online.
Phase 3: Know Your Target Audience
Now you have a prospect (hopefully more than one!), but how do you know if what they need fits your specific product or service? All you have to do is ask.
There are also other ways of getting the information you need to qualify your next customer, like using databases, that help you know more about your prospect before they reach out to you.
The Best Tools to Learn More About Your Audience
To help you better understand the needs and possible objections that your prospects have, there are several tools to help you find the information you need.
- Drift: Get in touch with your prospects to know what they need with Live Chat, Video, Email, and Automated Email and Chatbots
- Pathmonk: A website assistant that allows inbound marketers or sales reps to identify high value leads, immediately connecting them with sales reps, shortening the sales process, all while saving resources. You can easily turn your qualification process into a people friendly experience without changes to the website.
- Clearbit: Have visitors on your site that you don’t have on your prospect list? Gather anonymous data to help you piece together your prospective clients and their needs before they reach out to you first.
- Google Forms or Survey Monkey: Need to qualify a lead that’s interested in your product? Send them a form or survey to learn more about their business before giving them a call.
- PageSense: If you already have a website or landing page setup, Zoho’s PageSense tool can help you identify what prospects are after before you even have a conversation with them. Site heatmaps, engaging polls, and web page personalization allow you to maximize your authority in ways that your competitors don’t.
Phase 4: Build Trust & Prove Your Worth
Once you qualify your prospects through a needs assessment, it’s your turn to prove your worth. No one wants to do business with someone who can’t back up what they’re offering.
The Best Tools for Creating Trustworthy, Valuable Content
To help you build trust and credibility, look to these tools to help you shine:
- Buffer: Social media is king (and queen!) of the digital marketing world. Buffer allows you to schedule and optimize your social media posts in a way that builds authority on each platform without all the hassle of logging in and out.
- Google Keyword Planner or ahrefs: These tools help you create value-add content easily by helping you find the perfect keywords your prospects are searching online. Use these tools to help you find what’s trending to deliver value where it matters most.
- Adobe Creative Cloud: Create digital pamphlets, flyers, and graphics with Adobe Creative Cloud products like Photoshop and InDesign. Visual content is a great way to showcase what your business is and what makes it unique.
- Allbound: Create personalized campaigns and landing pages to provide more information, build trust, and keep your messaging fresh all with Allbound.
Phase 5: Overcome Objections
No matter how much trust and confidence you bring to the table, there will always be objections. Budget and uncertainty are two of the most common objections when selling, but you can easily overcome those obstacles by being empathetic while reframing the situation in a way that makes sense for both the customer and your business.
The Best Tools to Help You Overcome Objections
Overcome objections by providing value with these tools:
- Zoom: Hop on a conference call when objections arise to show that you’re a real professional they can trust. A little (digital) face to face time goes a long way if you can’t be there in person to answer customer questions or concerns.
- Artesian: Know the ins and outs of every prospect and client by taking a deep dive into Artesian’s database. Know what each prospective buyer expects, how they work, and their history by taking a look through their insights to have solutions in mind before objections arise.
- Livestorm: Easily demonstrate the power of your product or service with an online demo. Answer customer questions, share files, and manage your webinar events all in one place!
- Loom: Record and share your screen to deliver high-quality demos that help your clients understand why they need your product or service whether you’re in-person or away from the office.
Phase 6: Close the Sale
Closing the sale is the best part of the process. Your prospect is ready to hand over the cash and you’re ready to deliver.
The Best Tools to Help You Close the Sale
When you get ready to close a sale, look for these tools to make your life a little easier:
- PandaDoc: Send over custom proposals digitally with PandaDoc to get the ball rolling.
- DocuSign or Adobe Sign: Create digital contracts and get all the signatures and approvals you need to get your client setup and ready to go virtually.
- Chargebee: Take payment and setup monthly subscription charges through Chargebee to make it easy to bill clients and track revenue.
Phase 7: Follow-Up
Closing the sale might seem like the last step in the B2B buying process, but there’s still one last step. Following up with your clients shortly after you make a sale is important for keeping their business for the long haul. Whether you ask for feedback, referrals, or just spend time visiting with your clients, the follow-up step is where you continue to build your revenue stream without having to start the B2B buying process all over again.
The Best Tools to Use for Follow-Up
Here are some of the best follow-up tools to make staying in touch with your clients easy:
- Klaviyo: Set up email flows with Klaviyo to keep in contact with your current customers and clients to upsell or ask for referrals easily.
- Zapier: Connect all of your web apps to provide a seamless follow-up experience. Automate your processes by setting up triggers to create email lists, build out automated task lists to deliver what your clients need, and more.
- Lemlist: Personalize your messaging and campaigns even more with Lemlist. Create and schedule dynamic, highly customizable messages that make follow-up emails fun (and effective) again.
Build B2B Success with the Right Tools
Creating your own process is important to the success of your B2B-focused business. Thankfully there are tons of tools and software out there to help you make the best use of your time and resources. The apps, databases, and tools listed above help us keep our lead machine going, provide our clients with a seamless experience, and deliver the best results.
Success may come with hard work, but why work harder than you need to? Use these tools to help you work smarter and deliver more than your competitors.
