Not every potential customer discovers a business through its website.
In the B2B sales process, the first conversation might come through outreach, a referral, networking, an existing relationship or another route entirely.
The website can become important afterwards.
A potential customer may visit it to understand the business in more detail, look at previous work, check experience or reassure themselves that what they’ve heard during a conversation is reflected online.
For businesses with longer or higher-value sales processes, that makes the website an important part of building confidence between the first conversation and the eventual decision.
What Is A Potential Customer Looking For After The First Conversation?
Once somebody knows who you are, their reason for visiting your website changes.
They aren’t necessarily trying to discover a supplier from scratch.
They may be checking whether your business looks relevant to the requirement they’ve already discussed.
That can involve questions such as:
- Have you handled similar work before?
- Do you understand businesses like ours?
- Can you manage the scale or complexity involved?
- Is there a clear process behind how you work?
- Does the business feel credible and established?
The website can help answer those questions before the next sales conversation takes place.
That makes clarity particularly important.
What somebody sees online should reinforce what they’ve already been told rather than introduce a different version of the business.
Do Your Case Studies Build Confidence?
Case studies can play an important role in a considered B2B decision.
A potential customer doesn’t need to see every project you’ve ever completed.
They need to see enough relevant evidence to understand the type of work you can deliver.
That might mean showing projects of a similar scale, work within a relevant sector or examples involving a comparable challenge.
The detail matters too.
Good case studies should help somebody understand the original requirement, what was delivered and the result where verified evidence is available.
Photography can provide additional context when the work is visual.
The purpose is to make your experience easier for a potential customer to assess.
Is Your Process Clear?
For higher-value work, buyers are often assessing more than the end product.
They also want confidence in how the project will be handled.
A clear explanation of your process can help remove some of that uncertainty.
It can show what happens after somebody decides to work with you, how the project progresses and what they can expect along the way.
That doesn’t require publishing every operational detail.
The aim is to give somebody enough information to see that there is a considered way of working behind the service.
For businesses selling complex services or projects, that reassurance can be particularly useful when several people are involved in the buying decision.
Does The Website Support The B2B Sales Process?
Your sales team may have a very clear understanding of what makes the business different.
The website needs to communicate the same message.
If the conversation positions the business around one clear proposition but the website presents several disconnected messages, the potential customer has to work out how those pieces fit together.
That creates unnecessary uncertainty.
The same applies to terminology, services and the type of customer the business wants to attract.
A website should support the positioning used elsewhere in the sales process so somebody gets a consistent picture wherever they encounter the business.
Are You Giving Buyers The Right Proof?
Trust doesn’t come from simply telling somebody that you’re experienced or reliable.
Give them something useful to assess.
Depending on the business, that could include:
- Relevant case studies
- Genuine client testimonials
- Accreditations or certifications
- Examples of previous work
- A clearly explained methodology or process
- Information about the sectors or types of businesses you support
The strongest proof will depend on what matters to the buyer.
For an industrial customer, that might include evidence of relevant sector experience, technical understanding or the ability to support a complex project.
For another B2B buyer, scale, reliability or a structured delivery process may matter more.
The website should make the most relevant evidence easy to find.
Does Every Page Need To Push For An Enquiry?
A longer sales process calls for proportionate next steps.
Someone who has already spoken to your team may simply be using the website to research the business before another meeting.
Others may want to ask a question or continue a conversation.
Calls to action should make those next steps clear without getting in the way of the information somebody came to find.
That could mean providing a straightforward route to get in touch at natural points across the website.
The website still needs to support enquiries.
It also needs to recognise that B2B customers can spend time researching and building confidence before they’re ready to make that move.
How Red Box Approaches Websites For B2B Sales Journeys
Understanding where the website sits within the wider sales process is an important part of planning it.
For some businesses, the website needs to generate the initial enquiry.
For others, it also needs to support conversations already taking place through sales activity, referrals and existing relationships.
At Red Box, we start by understanding your customers, how they typically find you and what they need to know before they’re comfortable taking the next step.
That helps us plan the messaging, structure, case studies and customer journey around the way people actually buy from your business.
The website then has a clear role within the wider sales process, from creating the first impression through to supporting the conversations that follow.
If your website doesn’t reflect the way your customers actually make buying decisions, schedule a discovery call and let’s look at what it needs to do.