Nowadays it is not enough for your business to have an online presence. The amount of e-businesses offering remarkable products and extraordinary ideas is increasing every day, but that is not enough. These e-businesses are having losses, ¿why? because most of them are not using the sales channels as they should.
That is the reason why it is so important to define and establish the digital strategy from the beginning based on the SMART objectives. This is the only way to define the right sales channel for your business based on the market needs, the brand needs and the buyer personal needs. With this in mind, it is important to define the following:
¿What are sales channels?
A sales channel is the way a business connects the product or service with the customer. It is the connection point between what we are selling and the people interested in buying it. In other words, the sales channels are digital bridges that allow businesses offering products or services to the customers.
In addition to sales, these channels are also an important source of customer information including their needs, how they conduct the sale process or their customer journey, with the information obtained we can build a database. There is more than one way to connect the potential buyers with the products or services. Down below we will talk about the different channels that businesses use:
Types of sales channels:
Before you start designing your sales strategy to promote and sell your products or services, it is important to know all the available sales channels that you can use. If we are talking about a B2B deal we could include the following sales channels:
- Phone call: Phone calls are an effective tool to express how your solutions could benefit the client. The use of phone call scripts could speed up the sales process, encourage an upselling and solve any doubts that the client may have.
- Email: This channel allows you to nurture your database, arrange the sending of demos, communicate promotional offers and other possible updates. When used in the right way, this tool could give your business an important advantage.
- Website: The benefits of having a website are many, the SEO positioning is one of the most important. If your website is in the first option in the search engine you will be able to attract more clients to your website and at the same time this facilitates the buying process.
- Social media: B2B businesses also use social media as a marketing tool to attract potential customers and guide them to the sell process. It is another tool to attract a lot of traffic, in this way you could solve any doubts that the customers may have about your product or service and ask them for feedback.
- Trade shows: Trade shows are a perfect opportunity to make your product or service public for business who are looking for new ideas and effective solutions to their problems.
Even though these channels have been listed as the best options for a B2B, we should mention that they are not exclusive for B2B, a B2C could include them in their digital marketing strategy as well.
Sales channels pros
Sales channels are a great way to connect your products or services with your potential customers. However you have to make good use of them in all the steps of your digital marketing strategy in order to have benefits, including the following:
- They are measurable: the use of metrics is one of the great benefits of online sales. Thanks to metrics it is possible to achieve the SMART objectives in addition to having a sales record and the effectiveness of the chosen channels.
- Lower costs: not having a physical store results in savings because you do not have to pay rent, salaries, bills, etc.
- Convenient for customers: customer experience improves because they can make their purchases whenever they want on their favorite device.
- Offering better selling prices: with no physical store the costs will be lower, so you can reduce the selling price. This will attract customers and result in increased sales.
How to choose the right sales channel?
Choosing the right sales channel for your business could be a difficult task if you do not take different factors into consideration. Down below we will explain to you some aspects to consider:
- What is your goal? Before choosing the right channel, it is important to define your goal. For example, do we want to be known? Do we want to know the reason why clients are not finishing their purchases? Do we really know our buyer? It is important to take into consideration that sales channels are not just a source to attract leads, you could use it as an information source.
- Our offer: Our products/services should be available for everyone, so it is important to ask ourselves the following questions: are there any logistical constraints that we must address? Is our product/service easy to use and effective or do clients need technical support and to what extent do sales require the interaction of our customers?
- Who is your target audience? Even though your product or service offers an attractive value proposition you should take into consideration that it is not for everyone. Identifying your target audience will help you to choose the sales channel that is more convenient for them.
- What is your budget? Sales channels reduce the costs but they are not free, that is why metricts focused on your budget will help you choose the right sales channel.
Conclussion
The engagement of new customers using sales channels will guarantee the success of your online business, that is why it is so important to have qualified experts on your team that are able to conduct studies that are adequate for your business. Nowadays, being on the internet is not enough, if you do not plan your digital marketing strategy correctly, not only will your business have losses, but all the efforts will be in vain.
To attract new leads it is necessary to build a relationship that creates trust with the new customers and strengthen fidelity with already known customers. If you have a strong presence in almost every sales channel the probability of closing a deal will increase. Even though not every digital strategy fits into every sales channel, it is true that the variety of channels will help the customer reach a decision.
