Gone are the days of the slick, smooth talking salesperson. Today’s sales pipelines are built on trust, providing value and building relationships. With long sales cycles and multiple decision makers, B2B sales requires developing a certain level of trust. Here are five techniques that can be used to make this happen.

Focus On Building Relationships

Building relationships has always been an important aspect or sales, but has become so essential it is highly unlikely you’ll close a deal without doing so. Taking the time to make your prospects comfortable with you, your company and your products will greatly enhance your conversions, even if it means a slightly longer sales cycle. Not only do your chances of making a sale go up, it also helps when it comes to renewals, referrals and establishing ambassadors for your brand. All of which can help to fuel your sales pipeline.

Make Warm Sales Calls

Cold calling can still be effective, but in nearly every case it is a better idea to warm your prospect up before hitting the phones. This can be done with an email blast, engaging with their social pages, sending a direct mail piece or attending one of their events. Even the slightest bit of familiarity with your company can lend to the credibility of your organization. Prospects will be far more receptive to calls coming from someone who they’ve previously engaged with in some fashion.

Practice Thought Leadership

One of the best ways to build awareness and establish credibility in your industry is to create thought leadership content pieces that can be shared through your website, social pages and email campaigns. Potential prospects obviously prefer to deal with salespeople that are perceived as experts in their field. Blogs, whitepapers, eBooks and social media posts are all great ways to establish yourself as a thought leader. Consider the common pain points within your target organizations and speak to how your products and services solve those problems. These pieces should remain educational and provide true value to your prospects.

Nurture And Follow Up

B2B sales requires patience.  Not everyone is going to be ready to buy the moment your reach out to them.  Some have an approval process, multiple decision makers and budgetary issues that need to be considered before pulling the trigger on a deal. This makes having an established lead nurturing and follow up process essential in consistently closing deals. Nurturing email workflows can be an extremely effective tool in keeping your company at the top of the mind of your prospects. Another best practice is to always set a specific time for a follow up call after speaking with potential clients.

Always Be Networking

Many salespeople thrive on referrals. This makes your network invaluable. A good salesperson should be looking to build their network at all times. This means establishing social media connections and engaging with their content, attending trade shows and other live events and attending online events like webinars to help establish relationships. The bigger your network and the stronger the relationships you’ve built, the more referrals and other benefits of word of mouth advertising you’ll receive.