February 1, 2023

The future of B2B sales: 3 strategies for success

The direction of B2B sales is ever-changing. Experts agree that taking risks and focusing on the long-term is the key to sustainable growth, even in an uncertain economic landscape.

Many dental suppliers are eager to refresh their sales and marketing processes to achieve growth, but where to start? Let’s look at three key ways that suppliers can leverage future-oriented B2B sales strategies to be successful.

Use rich data to establish intuitive buying journeys

Customer needs should always be at the center of growth strategies. Today’s buyers are more tech savvy than at any time in the past and spending more time on their devices — they’re aware of how to get what they want, when they want it. According to a recent report from McKinsey & Company, this is reframing B2B sales in several key ways:

• 65% of customers say they prefer remote human interactions or digital self-service over traditional interactions.
• 45% of B2B organizations face greater than 30% turnover in personnel.

For dental manufacturer and distributor organizations, this means that data — and the ability to understand and operationalize data quickly — are critical to powering new hybrid sales models necessitated by the digitalization that grew rapidly during the pandemic. High-quality targeting data and efficient systems to access it are needed to create the personalized, intuitive buying journeys that attract, excite, convert, and keep customers loyal. They’re also necessary to enable the success that keeps sales teams feeling productive, thereby reducing turnover risks.

Embrace new technologies

Remote and hybrid selling is the new normal, with some research indicating that up to 80% of B2B selling is now digital and performed remotely. Forbes names several technology areas that will support this phenomenon, including “embedded business intelligence” and “intent intelligence” to make a company’s products and services stand out with customers.

• Embedded business intelligence. There is an opportunity for dental suppliers to embed business intelligence throughout their organizations, applying artificial intelligence technology and big data to discover relevant customer insights and to forecast market shifts before they happen.


• Intent intelligence. Embracing “intent intelligence” can not only empower dental manufacturer, dealer and lab sales teams to make meaningful connections with customers, but also generate more confidence in your organization. For example, using targeted intent data:, deployed in a cleaned and optimized CRM platform will allow sales teams to build detailed profiles of customers who are most primed to buy, reaching out to them at the ideal time. This can demonstrate to customers that you understand their needs better than rivals.

Enter new markets and win

Entering a new market adds value to a business, but before taking the plunge, business leaders should do their research. Forbes suggests that leaders map out the data sources that can best support their initiatives and bring clarity to their decision-making processes.

An often overlooked step when entering a new market is trying to identify buyer personas. Targeting data and market segmentation insights can be used to understand what prospective customers are interested in, how to structure sales territories for success, understand the competitive situation and tailor sales and marketing content for the market. Intent data derived from actual dentist practicing behavior is key to creating accurate and actionable personas that both marketing and sales teams can use.

One final area of consideration when moving into new markets is the importance of local intelligence. As more sales and marketing activities become digital and fewer boots are on the ground, it’s more important than ever to be able to replace or augment local understanding. For example, imagine you've got sales reps covering a large territory. They probably know their immediate area and customers pretty well. But what about the customers and potential customers in the next state over? Organizations should source data insights that provide the local intelligence sales reps need to be effective whether their territory is large or small, digital or in-person.

Step into the future with Fluent

Ready to meet the challenge and step into the future with confidence? DentalMarketIQ offers powerful, data-driven insights and supporting domain expertise to help you optimize the effectiveness of your most precious resource in growing your business: your people. Contact us today to learn more about our industry-leading solutions for dental manufacturers, distributors and labs.