How does today’s B2B buyer make a purchase decision? Traditionally, businesses would invite several sales reps (or accept requests by sales reps) to pitch a service or product of interest.
In their pitch, each seller would try to convince the company representatives that their offering solves the challenge at hand.
Today, the playing field has changed. The internet and new technologies make it convenient for businesses to research products on their own before inviting a brand for a pitch.
In this product research, they are looking for evidence of what a product can do. What this tells a B2B seller is that the sales rep’s word does not carry as much weight as the hard evidence of what a product has done.
In addition, an effective way to show evidence that your product can solve the problem as per your marketer’s words is by using social proof.
How To Use Social Proof To Drive B2B Sales
In this guide, we will list several examples of social proof for B2B and describe how to use them to boost B2B sales:
1. Customer Reviews
In a customer review, previous buyers share their experience with a brand and its products.
Companies that have reviews from past customers come out as trustworthy and reliable. Reviews can be a business’s way of building its brand’s reputation locally and beyond.
Reviews work to increase sales because 92.4% of B2B consumers are likely to purchase an item if they have read a trusted review about it.
Businesses can collect reviews by either asking buyers directly or listing their brands to be reviewed via various online platforms such as:
- Social media
- Glassdoor
- Yelp
- Google My Business
- Trustpilot
- G2 and
- Capterra
When your brand gets reviews, spread the message by sharing it on social media and your business website.
Your followers will comment, like and share or add their reviews thus reaching a wider audience and creating more engagement.
This type of online interaction will keep your brands in the minds of buyers, therefore, increasing their chances of going to your business first when a need arises.
2. Trust Badges
Just as the name suggests, the main purpose of a trust badge is to instil trust and confidence in your website visitors.
The simple signs work magic to boost trust and, in turn, sales because they often come from recognized companies. Trust icons may include:
Safe Checkout Badges
These a business gets when they take measures to secure their website against data breaches.
Businesses get the icons after they buy SSL certificate and enable it. Acquiring an SSL certificate adds an encryption layer to secure any data shared on your website.
This is important for B2B buyers who want to ensure their business and client data is safe from cyber security threats.
A lack of security badges can be a deal-breaker for them. A secure site badge displays next to the button “Add to Cart”, on the home page, and landing page.
It also adds a grey locked padlock before the URL and an “s” to HTTP on the website address.
Accepted Payment Badges
Shoppers are merrier when they see familiar brands on the payment options. Think of brands like MasterCard, Skrill, PayPal and Visa.
These brands have a solid reputation and people recognize them as safe. These signs on your website builds a positive image of your brand. It will make clients feel at ease buying from you.
Third-party Endorsement
Getting recommendations from bodies known to do independent reviews and verify businesses will make buyers consider your business credible.
For instance, embedding a badge from Trustpilot, a Customer Reviews badge by Google, or Better Business Bureau (BBB) badge can boost your site’s trust.
It is important to note that most buyers visit these review sites during their research about a business they want to buy from just to see how past clients rate it.
Past Client Logo Icons
Display logos of well-known clients you have served before on your website’s landing page.
Having trust icons on your website is like relying on another trustworthy company to help build your brand’s reputation.
This helps to boost sales since customers associate your brand with a well-known brand that they already trust.
3. Testimonials
A testimonial is another way of getting customers to share personal experiences with your products or services.
It helps new clients to build a visual picture of how things in their organization will improve if they buy your offering.
To make it worthwhile, let customers point out an actual challenge that your service or product helped to solve.
Clients can write their testimonials or take a video. To make them authentic add the customer’s full name, job title, and photo.
Testimonials work well when placed before the “call to action” on the marketing material or a website’s landing page.
4. Earned Media
If your brand was recognized for something exceptional you are doing, you can use this to leave a good impression in the eyes of your prospects.
Earned media can be social media mentions by industry experts or previous customers, TV features, newspaper write-ups, LinkedIn endorsements and product reviews.
Share these on your social media pages and blog about it to get more people talking.
5. Case Studies
Case studies are user-generated content that gives an in-depth story about how your product solved a client’s need.
It is just like a testimonial or review but can go further to showcase how your product came in handy to solve specific business needs and improve their organization.
They can also give details about their experience working with your team and state what stood out.
Case studies are in written form, but can include charts, video clips and quotes to improve their visual appeal and make them more interactive.
You could share a case study with prospects in your email lists, on social media, company website or print a brochure. Case studies are influential sales tools.
If done properly, they will attract interest and build a mental picture of how your products will solve a prospect’s need thus influencing their purchase decision.
What gives case studies credibility is the fact that the stories about your product are told from the customer’s point of view.
Wrapping Up
The driving force behind social proof is that it builds trust. If buyers do not trust your business, it is hard for them to buy from you.
Social proof for B2B works because a new visitor is likely to trust other customers more than what your markets say about your business. In addition, people rely on the judgement of those around them to decide.
