Leveraging the Power of Reviews to Attract More B2B Prospects in Your Commercial or Industrial Industry

Do you search for reviews online before buying a new product or service? Most people do. According to Pew Research, 82% of adults in the United States search for reviews online before making a purchase, and 40% "always" or "almost always" search for reviews online. Statistics such as this attest to the growing trend of searching for reviews online. While some business owners assume that online reviews are only beneficial when selling to consumers, this isn't true. Incorporating reviews into your B2B company's marketing strategy will help you achieve success in more ways than one.

The Power of Reviews

Reviews from past clients are an invaluable resource for your company. First, they provide prospects with an unbiased look at your company's product or service. Any company can tout its product or service as being the best, but let's face it: They have a biased opinion because they want to generate more sales. Reviews, on the other hand, are made by past clients who aren't affiliated with your company, so prospects, commercial, construction or industrial, tend to trust them more. One report found that 84% of adults trust online reviews as much as recommendations or statements made by their friends.

A benefit of reviews that's often overlook is their ability to educate prospects regarding how a product or service works. Some clients may leave a basic review consisting of nothing more than a sentence like "It worked great." Others, however, will leave longer and more in-depth reviews than explain how the product or service they purchased works. These reviews can help other prospects better understand the product or service and whether it's right for their business.

Be sure to look for ‘review software’ to help you automate the process in order to maximize your new happy customers. In order to keep the reviewing coming in, be sure to keep the leads flowing for sales. Once of the best…and fastest ways to generate new commercial construction leads or industrial leads is to try Salesleads. Click here to get identified projects that you can begin to work on.

Create a Google My Business Listing

To take advantage of reviews, you should create a Google My Business listing for your company. Don't worry, it's completely free and only takes a few minutes. Once you've set up a Google My Business listing, clients can leave a review of your company. Keep in mind, though, that anyone can technically leave a review here, regardless of whether they actually purchased a product or service from your company.

Enable Reviews on Your Company's Facebook & LinkedIn Page

Another place where clients can leave a review of your company is its Facebook & LinedIn Page. Not to be confused with profiles, Pages are intended specifically for commercial purposes, such as promoting your company. To enable reviews on your company's Facebook Page, click "Settings" at the top of the Page and choose "Edit Page" on the left-hand side. From here, click the "Add a Tab" button next to "Reviews." Once enabled, clients can rate and review your company.

Send Clients an Email Requesting a Review

After a client purchases one of your company's products or services, send them an email thanking them for their purchase and asking them to leave a review on your company's Google My Business listing, LinkedIn, BBB or Facebook Page. You can even include a link to these places, allowing clients to easily access your Google My Business listing, BBB, LinkedIn and Facebook Page.

While sending each and every client whom purchased a product or service an email may sound difficult, there are ways to automate this process. Using customer relationship management (CRM) software, for example, you can set up an email campaign that automatically sends clients an email after they make a purchase. This simplifies the otherwise tedious task of creasing purchase follow-up emails by hand. Remember, there’s also review software specifically created for new customers. Google it and choose the one that’s best for your organization.

Monitor and Respond to Reviews

If you're going to allow clients to leave reviews about your company, be sure to monitor and respond to those reviews. Some B2B companies rarely or ever check their reviews. As a result, they end up with fake and negative reviews that could have been avoided with a little legwork. To prevent your company from suffering this fate, keep a close eye on all reviews posted by users. If you see a negative review, it will probably contain information about the client's experience. And by contacting this client, you might be able to resolve his or her problem and encourage them to remove or change their review.

However, the automated review software will give you immediate results as it scans the internet each day for new reviews. Get more reviews with new customers. Where can you get more customers? By using the identified project leads from Salesleads. Try it.

What You Shouldn't Do

There are a few things that you shouldn't do with client reviews. First, don't offer an incentive or reward to clients for publishing a positive review. You can ask them to leave a review, but most places -- including Google My Business and Facebook -- prohibit companies from incentivizing positive reviews. In other words, you can't reward clients for leaving positive reviews; you can only ask them to leave an honest review.

Don't ignore the selling power of client reviews. Being that eight in 10 adults search for reviews online, it's a highly effective way to boost your company's sales while improving its reputation in the process. Just remember to follow the tips outlined here to take advantage of client reviews.