Cannabis Industry B2B Sales Outreach Tactics that Work

Cannabis industry B2B sales outreach can be challenging, particularly for anyone selling products and services with long sales cycles. While it’s true that this is still a new and rapidly growing industry, there is already significant competition among brands selling to cannabis license holders across the supply chain.

With that said, there are some B2B sales outreach tactics that have been proven to work in other industries that are equally effective for the cannabis industry. The most important thing to remember is a single outreach is unlikely to lead to a sale. 

According to statistics recently compiled in an infographic by ZoomInfo, high growth organizations report an average of 16 touch points per prospect within a two to four week span. That’s because 50% of sales happen after the fifth touch point. In fact, research shows the optimal number of attempted sales calls is six. 

The problem is, research shows the average sales rep only makes two attempts to reach a prospect, and 44% of salespeople give up after just one follow-up attempt. 

Any experienced B2B salesperson will tell you, persistence is the key to success, and that’s absolutely true in the cannabis industry. As ZoomInfo’s infographic explains, only 3% of your market is actively buying at any given time. Another 40% are getting ready to begin the buying process, and 56% are not ready to buy. If a salesperson reaches out to the 96% of the market that is not ready to buy yet, they’re unlikely to get a positive response. That’s why persistence is so important!

For sales representatives who are ready to commit to connecting with and converting leads, five of the most effective B2B sales outreach tactics to focus on when selling to cannabis license holders are phone, email, text, social media, and direct mail.

Phone Sales Outreach

The average sales development representative makes 52 phone calls per day. How does your sales team’s numbers compare? As mentioned above, one or two phone calls is unlikely enough to convert even the hottest leads, so create a telephone sales outreach plan that makes the best use of each sales person’s time. 

For example, create buyer personas so you know the best people to connect with but also to start the right conversations with each person. Are they an end user, decision maker, or decision influencer? Do your research before every call to understand who they are, what’s happening at their company, and what their problems, needs, and pain points are. 

Use the Cannabiz Media License Database to learn about individuals, licenses, and business across the supply chain, so you connect with the right people at the right time. Phone numbers are included in individual, license, and business records within the License Database when the information is available, so sales reps can click and call. 

In addition, the Cannabiz Media License Database includes news alerts about licenses that can make it easy to identify timely opportunities to call specific people. Combine these license alerts with Cannabiz Media’s Business Intelligence™ product to find insights on cannabis companies and licenses, complete with custom watch list news and alerts.

One-to-One Email Sales Outreach

One-to-one email sales outreach is just as important as telephone outreach, and it can be extremely effective when it’s used in conjunction with email marketing efforts. For example, when email marketing campaigns are sent to move prospects through the marketing funnel – from cold to hot leads – the sales team should be using the data from those campaigns to identify which leads to connect with directly and what topics to discuss with them. 

Sales reps can do this in the Cannabiz Media License Database by viewing email campaign data to look for prospects who have opened marketing messages and clicked on links in those messages multiple times. They can also see the messages prospects opened and where links led to, which makes it easy to come up with ideas to jumpstart conversations through a personal, one-to-one email outreach message! 

One-to-One Text Messaging Sales Outreach

Research included in the ZoomInfo infographic says that texting leads after contacting them in another way leads to a 112.6% higher lead to engagement conversion. 

In other words, following up on conversations via text messaging can increase sales, but texting prior to reaching out via phone, email, or another channel delivers very different results. Research shows sending text messages to prospects before making contact via phone actually decreases the likelihood that the salesperson could every successfully contact those prospects.

Bottomline, people are protective of their text inboxes, so make sure you build brand awareness and make initial contact by phone, email, social media, or direct mail before you conduct any sales outreach to a prospective customers via text messaging.

Social Media Sales Outreach 

Social selling is a critical part of sales today. In fact, social sellers are 51% more likely to reach their sales quotas, so social media should be a fundamental part of cannabis industry B2B sales outreach tactics.

Social media sales outreach includes reaching out to prospects directly through connections and messaging on sites like LinkedIn, Leafwire, and more. It also includes sharing and commenting on content and being active in relevant groups where your target prospects spend time. 

You can easily access cannabis license holders’ social media profiles and pages directly from each contact’s records in the Cannabiz Media License Database, so it’s quick and easy to jumpstart your social selling with a single mouse click.

Direct Mail Sales Outreach

In this case, direct mail doesn’t refer to direct mail marketing. It refers to postal mail that a sales representative sends directly to a prospect. It’s personalized and thoughtful, not generic.

This type of mail piece could be an introductory letter to a new lead at the top of the funnel with a goal to generate brand awareness, or it could be a brochure or useful, educational materials sent to build trust with a prospect in the middle of the funnel. For hot prospects at the bottom of the funnel, direct mail is the perfect way to share product samples.

Subscribers to the Cannabiz Media License Database can access mailing address information for licenses and companies as available, so sending direct mail for sales outreach can be a simple process.

Key Takeaways about Cannabis Industry B2B Sales Outreach Tactics

Cannabis industry B2B sales outreach tactics are similar to the tactics used in other industries. The keys to success are research, targeting, and persistence. However, getting access to cannabis license holder contact information and insights can be challenging. 

Fortunately, the Cannabiz Media License Database provides all of the information sales people need to connect with prospects and so much more. Schedule a demo to see how the Cannabiz Media License Database can help your sales and business development efforts.