One of the reasons we’ve seen substantial growth in the last few months, is due to the fact that we changed our sales strategy by effectively utilising web conferencing tools. Our business simply could not afford to wait for a future COVID end date. We see countries opening up and traveling becoming a big part of our world once again, however, we found a need to change the sales process in order for our clients to continue their expansion across Europe, especially if another COVID wave or similar, were to occur.
Here are some key factors to help you sell your products in Europe – without spending all those air miles…
- Evaluate Your Target Industries
- Generate Leads without Traveling
- Adapt your Sales Process
- Direct Access to End-Users
- Sales Teams as Online Sales Professionals
Evaluate Your Target Industries
First, pick a recession-proof industry, or as close to one as possible. One of our clients target industries for their product, which is retail garages and workshops. I suggested stepping back and focusing on the different industries. During that time, retail is struggling, and we don’t want to keep targeting them without assurance of a long-term business.
To give you an idea, here are some industries that are currently booming in the European market:
- PPE or safety, personal protective equipment
- E-Commerce and other related industries
- Cybersecurity
If you are unsure which industry to target next or how you can diversify your target industry, you can read more about this on our previous blog, where I share some tips to help you identify your ideal customers. Read the full blog here.
Generate Leads without Traveling
There have been a few key tricks that we have implemented for our clients and what has worked effectively for us in generating leads, and now, we’re eager to share them with you! Not just during COVID but also today, social media advertising is a rather effective tool that we see being used globally and on the daily. Here are some of the social media platforms we use for our clients:
Getting organic Facebook leads does not have to be difficult. You may start receiving free traffic from interested prospects using these tried-and-true methods. We’ve used Facebook for several of our clients. Their marketing department has been quite active on it, which has helped them generate a high number of leads.
Google Ads
While attracting a substantial quantity of traffic to your website is a wise strategic marketing goal, it is equally critical that the traffic you attract applies to your product so that visitors are more likely to convert into qualified leads for your business.
If you’re not utilising LinkedIn, you might be passing up on the huge potential, which is to increase both brand awareness and income, especially if you want to expand in the European market. According to surveys, LinkedIn is the top sponsored and organic social channel for B2B businesses, with 82% of B2B marketers reporting the most success on the network.
Xing is the German version of LinkedIn. It is an online business network platform which allows for you to interact with other professionals, locate new opportunities, and exchange information and ideas through your feed and interest groups.
Besides showing up and doing campaigns on different social media platforms, we also did very well doing:
- Webinars
- E-mail series
- Video messages
Another thing you should consider is joining Digital Congresses. Taking part in expos and trade exhibitions allows you to increase your leads and strengthen your relationships with your distributors, partners, and customers. As a result, this is the ideal European lead generation service. Here are some benefits of doing so:
- Cost-effective
- You will access GDPR-compliant customer lists
- Bring a customer with you to your session
- Create an interactive online booth
- Investigate your choices for online chatting and video conferencing
- Check how you book meetings first
And lastly, cold calling. It’s an old approach, but it has been proven effective. It needs more perseverance because European employees continue to work from home.
Adapt your Sales Process
The ability to adapt to change is essential for progress. Here are some areas to concentrate on when developing a versatile sales and marketing funnel that can adjust to any circumstance.
Lead Generation
A mix of digital marketing, webinars, targeted digital conferences, and cold calling produced excellent results.
Demonstrate
Once you have qualified leads, securing your web meetings is important. During these meetings, it’s time for you to show your product. Use this opportunity to convey your message using different videos and visual aids.
Propose a Test or Trial
The end of your meetings is the best time to convince your new prospect to try out your product. You can send some samples or trials or even a small purchase first.
Make an Offer
Selling directly to European corporations is always a challenge. It is really handy to have a European distributor or partner make the offer on your behalf.
Direct Access to End-Users
Distributors or Sales Channels help your business establish the connection between you and your end-users. Maintaining close contact with your end-users is critical for long-term success. Having a distributor or distributors who can do certain tasks on your behalf, such as targeting your ideal end-users, is also a huge win. You can read more about the importance of distributors here.
Sales Teams as Online Sales Professionals
The engagement of your sales team, the quality of the service they provide, and their response may make or break a relationship between you and your ideal clients. It’s the reason you need to train your sales team to be online sales professionals. Here are a few tips to help you do that:
Teach them how to promote themselves professionally online
A good sales team member is an expert who operates independently. They hardly require much supervision. If things don’t work out, arrange regular catch-ups and review whether their company strategy meets your goals.
Improve your video meeting setup
We can do almost everything online, always check if they have a good setup for online meetings.
- Be mindful of your background during video meetings
- Using a high-quality microphone and camera
- Ensure you have backup internet connection
Utilise online webinars
Conduct regular training and catch-ups with your sales team. It allows them to be more prepared and focused on their jobs. Read an in-depth explanation of how you can build a strong sales team in Europe in this blog.
These key factors helped a lot of our clients here at Exportia, and despite not being able to travel, there are ways for your business to expand in the European market and be successful.
Want to know more about how to effectively market your business in the European market? Get your FREE copy of “The 4 Steps to Generate Your First Million Euros in Sales” book here: https://www.exportia.com.au/export-business-europe/
You can also create an initial Export Readiness Diagnostic within 20 minutes here: http://diagnostic.exportia.com.au/7pillar/ It will show you a report summarising if your business is ready and includes a personalised to-do list for your next step.
Contact me to schedule a 45-minute debriefing session with me once you have your report.
