Economic downturns are a test of resilience for any business, but they’re especially challenging for B2B sales teams. When budgets are slashed, decision-makers grow cautious, and competition intensifies. In these challenging moments, the usual sales playbook simply won’t cut it.
If you want your business to continue to thrive during tough economic times, you need to get creative with your sales strategies.
Today, we’re exploring six innovative strategies for B2B sales during a recession or economic downturn—designed to help your business stay competitive even in a tough sales climate. Keep in mind that the key to weathering economic storms is adaptability.
Understanding the Landscape of B2B Sales During a Recession
During an economic downturn—whether it’s officially declared a recession or not—businesses face mounting financial pressure. Budgets are tightened and spending comes under heightened scrutiny. With less money to go around, B2B sales teams find themselves in a landscape where every dollar is fiercely contested.
Buyers are more selective and might choose to delay purchases or opt for lower-cost alternatives. The once steady stream of inbound leads can slow to a trickle, leaving sales teams scrambling to hit their targets.
During these times, adapting your sales strategy is key. Companies that are slow to change risk falling behind, while those that innovate can capitalize on new or emerging opportunities.
We’ve gathered six strategies that have proven effective for B2B sales teams in the face of changing market conditions. Just make sure to take into account your business model and the specific industry conditions when adjusting your approach.
1 – Emphasize Value Over Cost
In a downturn, price becomes a critical factor in B2B prospects’ buying decisions. Instead of racing to the bottom with discounts, the smarter approach is to emphasize the value your product or service offers.
Do this: Focus on how your solution can help clients save money, increase efficiency, or generate revenue—benefits that resonate more during tough times.
Not this: Offer big discounts or delayed payment plans on your offerings. You’ll start losing revenue quickly if you erode your profit margins significantly.
Say you’re selling a software solution; highlight how it automates processes and reduces labor costs. To make your case compelling, provide concrete data, like “Our clients report an average 30% reduction in operational costs within the first year of implementation.”
The goal is to make your product indispensable by showing its impact on the buyer’s bottom line. A tool that’s particularly useful for this approach is the case study, or customer testimonial. Real-world examples are a powerful way to illustrate the value of your product and show proof that your solution works in challenging environments.
2 – Go All-in on Account-Based Marketing (ABM)
Account-based marketing (ABM) is a powerful strategy that we talk about quite a bit around here. It involves aligning sales and marketing efforts to focus on high-value accounts, treating them as individual markets. By concentrating efforts on a select group of accounts that are most likely to deliver the highest ROI, an ABM program allows you to maximize the impact of your sales efforts while minimizing wasted resources.
In fact, 87% of marketers say that ABM delivers higher ROI than other marketing activities, while 91% of companies using ABM saw an increase in their average deal size—bringing in more revenue with fewer deals. Any sales team would dream of that kind of sales efficiency.
Do this: Begin by identifying the accounts that are most likely to generate substantial revenue based on factors like industry stability, existing relationships, and the potential for long-term partnerships. Look for accounts that align closely with your ideal customer profile (ICP) and have a demonstrated need for your product or service. Use data analytics tools like LeadLander to analyze website behavior and engagement metrics and help you pinpoint accounts with the highest potential.
Not this: Target any large company in your target market. Remember, ABM is a focused, strategic approach that requires carefully matching a company’s profile with the customer personas that have proven success with your offering. Casting a wide net will prevent you from using your resources efficiently.
Once you’ve identified your target accounts, develop a personalized engagement plan for each company. Craft tailored messaging that addresses the specific pain points and challenges the account is facing due to the economic downturn. Then create customized content that speaks directly to the needs of the account. Consider using case studies, white papers, and product demos.
Take the example of a cybersecurity firm targeting the financial services sector; they might develop a case study for a potential banking client, demonstrating how their solution helped another bank reduce security breaches by 50%, ultimately saving millions in potential losses.
3 – Leverage Data-Driven Sales
When the economy is down and you’re strapped for resources, making informed decisions is crucial. Data-driven sales strategies allow you to make smarter decisions based on all the facts. Your business’s data can give you deep insights into customer behavior, enabling you to identify emerging trends and predict buying patterns with greater accuracy. This translates to detailed customer targeting information for your sales team to act upon—so they can easily determine which high-potential leads to focus on and tailor their approach to meet the specific needs of each prospect. (Hint: data-driven sales goes hand-in-hand with ABM).
Do this: Develop a clear process for monitoring and analyzing key customer behavior and engagement metrics on a regular basis. Integrate your sales analytics tools like Google Analytics 4, LeadLander, and HubSpot into one central dashboard so your sales and marketing teams can access critical data at a glance. Assign ownership of this process to specific team members who are responsible for data analysis and reporting on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.
Not this: Rely on outdated buyer personas developed more than 1 year ago and only review website behavior and engagement metrics on a bi-annual basis. Failing to track your company data more consistently is a disservice to your business and your customers.
Let’s say a prospect is repeatedly visiting your pricing page; this may indicate a high level of interest, suggesting that they’re further along in the buying process. With this information, your sales team can craft a more personalized and timely outreach, offering a custom demo or presentation and increasing the chances of closing the deal.
Tracking data enables you to more effectively personalize your interactions with prospects—which is more important than ever during an economic downturn. By understanding your prospects’ specific pain points, you can tailor your outreach to address their most pressing concerns.
4 – Develop Strategic Partnerships
Building strategic partnerships can be a highly effective strategy for B2B sales during a recession or downturn. Never underestimate the power of combining forces with like-minded or complementary businesses to drum up more business together. By collaborating with companies that have related offerings, you can co-sell or cross-promote solutions, allowing you both to tap into new audiences, share resources, and provide more comprehensive value to customers.
Strategic partnerships can be a lifeline for companies looking to maintain or even grow their sales pipelines during challenging economic times.
Do this: Collaborative selling is the name of the game; partner with other businesses to jointly offer products or services that complement each other. This strategy enhances your value proposition by providing more holistic solutions to meet your customers’ needs. Make sure that your target audiences overlap but don’t fully compete, so you can maximize the potential benefits of the partnership.
Not this: Partner with a business that’s too far removed from your customer base. A strategic partnership with a retail clothing company does little to a B2B accounting firm’s clients, for example. Choose your partners wisely and put a formal agreement in place to protect your interests.
Say you run a branding agency. A natural strategic partner would be a web design firm. Individually, each company offers valuable services, but together, they can bundle their offerings into a comprehensive solution that addresses both the image a brand projects to the public and the central digital touchpoint (their website) for potential customers to interact with that brand. By collaborating, both companies can expand their reach, deepen customer relationships, and drive greater revenue.
Strategic partnerships also allow for cross-promotion, where each partner promotes the other’s products or services to their customer base. In an economic downturn when marketing budgets are often constrained, this is a cost-efficient strategy for increasing visibility and credibility without significantly increasing your own marketing spend.
5 – Focus on Niche Markets
In a downturn, there will always be niche markets that are less affected or even thrive despite the economic climate. Identifying these markets and tailoring your approach to meet their specific needs can open up new revenue streams.
We all saw the boom of video conferencing platforms like Zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic; many software companies saw the opportunity in this niche and invested heavily in virtual collaboration and communication tools as the pandemic unfolded. By January 2021, Zoom’s revenue was up over 300% from the previous year as it met surging demand for remote work and learning tools.
By identifying similar niches that are in high demand in today’s market, you can position your company to succeed even in a challenging environment.
Do this: Research high-performing businesses in the current market and look for natural areas of overlap or opportunities to expand or pivot your offerings to address a new niche. For example, businesses today are evolving to address the growing renewable energy sector, as well as the booming cybersecurity and telehealth industries.
Not this: Jump on a trendy bandwagon that doesn’t make real business sense for your company. If targeting a certain niche seems like too much of a stress or doesn’t clearly align with your company’s expertise and operational model, don’t waste resources on it. Take the time to research and pinpoint opportunities with proven potential.
Once you’ve identified a niche market, assess your current offerings and decide whether you need to develop tailored solutions that cater specifically to the needs of that market. This can help further differentiate your product from competitors. You may need to customize your product or service to better align with the specific requirements of the niche.
After you’ve made any adjustments to your offerings, it’s time to create targeted campaigns that address the unique challenges and opportunities for businesses in that market. Develop specific messaging or a focused brand value proposition, as well as case studies and other marketing materials that resonate with the needs of that niche.
For example, if you’re targeting telemental health providers, your campaign might focus on how your solution helps streamline operations and reduce costs while maintaining strict privacy and security standards.
6 – Adjust Pricing Options
During an economic downturn, even interested buyers may hesitate due to budget constraints. While it’s important not to degrade the value of your offerings or cut too far into your profit margins, when times are tough, you may need to get creative with how you’re packaging your products and services.
Do this: Offer tiered pricing plans or shorter contracts to give buyers a better sense of control over the transaction. They know they need what you’re offering, but they want to make the purchase within their comfort zone.
Not this: Run flashy promotions that offer huge discounts on your products or services. Significant price cuts usually aren’t sustainable for your business in the long term, and they could also devalue your offerings in the eyes of potential customers.
Here are some proven strategies for adjusting pricing options without devaluing your brand:
- Tiered Offerings: Tiered pricing allows customers to choose a package or plan that fits their current budget, with the option to upgrade as their situation improves. This is an excellent structure for marketing/creative agencies, software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers, as well as many other types of professional services companies.
- Shorter Contracts: If it makes sense for your business, consider offering shorter-term contracts to reduce the perceived risk for customers. For example, you might offer a 3-month preliminary contract with the option to extend to an annual contract at the end of the 3 months. This strategy gives you enough time to demonstrate the value of your products or services and potentially deliver some initial results.
- Flexible Payment Schedules: This doesn’t mean the customer can pay whenever they feel like it. Instead, allow buyers to choose payment schedules that align with their cash flow, such as quarterly payments instead of annual lump sums.
For example, a SEO agency might offer a tiered pricing plan with 3 levels based on the client’s budget and how aggressive their SEO goals are.
Putting These B2B Sales Strategies to Work for Your Business
Economic downturns are challenging, especially when it comes to B2B sales during a recession. But these tough moments also present opportunities for innovation and growth. By adapting your sales strategies to the current environment, you can maintain and even grow your sales pipeline despite the economic pressures.
The sales strategies we’ve shared here are a beginning roadmap for B2B sales programs navigating tough times. Implementing these approaches can help your organization weather the immediate storm and position yourselves for long-term growth.
Now is the time to assess your current strategies and consider how you’ll adjust your sales plan. Remember, the companies that emerge strongest from economic downturns are often those that are willing to adapt, innovate, and find new ways to deliver value to their customers.
If you’re looking to implement more data-driven sales strategies, give LeadLander’s website visitor identification platform a try. It’s an excellent tool for identifying warm leads that are already interested in your offerings. Sign up for a free, 14-day trial today, no credit card needed.