Marketing Funnel Acumen Is Essential For High Marketing ROI

Apply Art and Science In Order to Generate Highly Qualified Leads For Your Sales Force

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By John Bernardi

Compete Like A Commodity But Win With Value

You Can't Avoid Buyers Who Position You As A Commodity

Their Goal Is To Compel You To Compete On Price

Below the surface you compete as a commodity to generate sales and cash flow.  Above the surface you thrive with an authentic value proposition.

 

 

Before Pitching

First, do research and conduct a sales interview to learn about your prospect.  Then, see if you can convince yourself that you have the best solution for them.  If you can't convince yourself, how can you expect to persuade your prospect?  If you proceed with your pitch before establishing emotional value in the mind of the prospect, you'll reinforce the sales stereotype by making it appear that you are interested only in yourself. Develop the patience, confidence and ability to lead with value as opposed to features, benefits and price.

Start with a sales funnel baseline where 80% of your sales opportunities are offered by commodity shoppers while 20% search for underlying value.  Determine how can you profitably compete as a commodity as you continually increase the baseline from its 20% starting point.

"Always Be Adding Value" Vs. "Always Be Closing"

"Always Be Adding Value" Beats "Always Be Closing" As The Mantra Of Top Sellers

I Prefer To Buy From Someone Who Genuinely Wants To Add Value

Most sales people say that their goal is to add value, but for those whose "always be closing" actions speak louder, I doubt their sincerity.  For example, during early stage meetings if they begin their presentation before really understanding my needs and what I want to accomplish, I sense a transactional sales rep. My antenna are now up.  If they use price discounting as a closing tactic, they might not realize that their discount might pale in comparison to the overall benefit that I would derive from a value based solution. Also, if they don't stay in touch when I don't have an opportunity in their sales funnel I probably won't retain mind share about them and consider someone else next time a buying situation arises.

I get turned off when I feel that someone is always closing me to the next step in their sales process.  This outdated sales technique, taught by their sales managers, is not an authentic trait. Instead, I'd prefer to be persuaded to the next logical step in understanding how they relate value to what they've learned about me and my company.

Today's buyers are not only smarter due to self-service research but also when it comes to spotting self-serving sales tactics.  By the time these buyers have contacted your sales rep, they probably know more about your company and its industry than the rep does.

In summary, recruit and teach sales reps to "always be adding value".  Only when they reach this point will they have earned the right to ask for the order. This will earn you repeat business and referrals.

By John Bernardi

Interrupt Marketing: A Provocative B2B Methodology That Makes A Compelling First Impression

Field Marketing Specialists Earn Their Stripes By Nurturing Leads To Sales Ready Status

I recently presented marketing assisted selling as an effective way to optimize the ROI from a B2B company's sales assets. Interrupt marketing, a component of marketing assisted selling, is a necessary, but challenging lead generation methodology.  It requires discrete, knowledge-based persistence.  It meshes with a prospect's buying cycle and can initiate your selling cycle.  It is best implemented as part of the field marketing process - not by field sales reps.

Begin a campaign by "approaching" a well defined targeted suspect list. Use sequentially scripted 1to1 "approach" emails that are generated through the CRM system based on campaign criteria and timed according to workflow rules - let's say every three-to-five work days. The goal is to gain permission from contacts who want to receive timely and concise information about your campaign subject.  A bonus occurs if they become an early stage lead ready for nurturing.  For those suspects who don't reply by the third email, the field marketing specialist will make a scripted telephone call after reviewing LinkedIn and other sources and updating the CRM record.  The goal is for them to opt-in or opt-out and for you to move on accordingly.

Email marketing tools provide a more aesthetically pleasing [compared to CRM generated emails] means for staying in touch with those who opt-in.  They offer the versatility to embed surveys and manage event marketing campaigns.

Through sign up forms on websites, social networks and email signatures, new subscribers may specify their areas of interest for receiving timely, concise information.  Use the field marketing process to approach these new subscribers and to correctly categorize them in the CRM system for future campaigns.

Success Stories Create Emotional Attachment to Your Brand

Don't Let Selling Interfere With The Sale - Instead, Tell Me A Story

A portfolio of compelling success stories proves that your company is in the customer results business and that you're not just a vendor of products and services.

With each one narrowcasted for a target audience, and without sounding like an infomercial, a Success Story inspires people to act. Each story demonstrates how you've tackled challenges similar to theirs with solutions that produced desired results.  As a retention tool, success stories remind customers of what you did for them.

Brand your company as an array of customer stories that can be narrated by your employees and by external people who draw their own conclusions, insert themselves into your story, and retell it in their own words.

Top tier BizD professionals are natural "Story Sellers".  The middle tier, who fear the risk of tackling new customer challenges, will learn what your company has done for its customers and feel less threatened when looking for new customer problems to solve.

If you don't tell your stories, you are wasting an opportunity to differentiate your company.

If you don't have compelling stories to tell, you probably compete on features, price and delivery, which shouldn't give you a high degree of confidence in your business.

Stories should be available in hard copy and online to provide more details that support the narrative. Online versions should include keywords that enable self-service discovery by those looking for solutions.

Email marketing campaigns can direct a story to the appropriate audience if your CRM system or mail list includes the right account and profile information.

Closers Earn Face Time

Here's Another Way That Top Closers Earn Face Time

Yes, being referred by a trusted lead source and managing a quality customer portfolio are tried and true weapons for finding new prospects and quickly and efficiently converting them to close-mode sales opportunities. But online tools can also be a formidable weapon in your business development arsenal if used wisely.

Social networks, email marketing and other online tools are great BizD resources for preliminary research, staying in touch and featuring your best ideas to get yourself noticed - but don't allow them to trap you into thinking that they are closing tools.

Recruit them to be your point guard who sets up the plays so that you can score easy buckets at trade shows, sales interviews, etc.

Just like the skilled marketing person who blends eye catching layout with content, let your online efforts capture attention and help you earn the right to present content in person after which the prospect says, "I'm glad I made time for that".

Why do my LinkedIn connections only appear when they have new connections?  I'd like to read more posts from them.

The Al Dente` Approach to Marketing

The Al Dente` Marketing Strategy

Throw it on the wall and see what sticks

This strategy is followed by many marketers and it doesn't work very well.  Create a master plan and make sure everything you do is aligned with it.

Likeability Vs. Desirability

Likeability and/or Desirability

Essential Traits for Being Selected

To me, likeability reveals DNA for building a strong network and bringing out the best in others, while desirability is earned by delivering a beneficial result, or providing advantage or pleasure.

What is the golden ratio of desirability [a] to likeability [b]?  Can desirable people thrive with a low likeability factor?  How brightly must their product or service shine as the obvious choice to buyers?  Are they artificially likeable for as long as they continue to help their customers look good based on the excellent results produced by their product or service?

Can likeable people survive for a longer period of time when their products or services aren't always the obvious choice?

How would you want your [a] and [b] to be rated by your customers, prospects and channel partners?

It's Not Micromanaging

Do Employees Say You're Micromanaging Them?

Ever had an employee whose inner child sets you on your heels when they say "you're micro managing me"?

Here's a basketball analogy that you can use to differentiate micromanaging from what you're really doing.

The Right Approach to Practice Optimizes Chances to Win

The best coach/manager leadership persona has vision to structure the team and design a style of play that integrates cohesive rhythm on offense with intensive continuity on defense by players who execute as a seamless unit through teamwork and communication.

The coaching staff avoids ambiguity by breaking down each play in order to transform goals into individual responsibilities and specific steps.  Multidimensional, skilled players fit this style of play each season.  They have strong fundamentals [shoot, pass, dribble, create floor balance, move the ball, move without the ball, exploit mismatches, know when to dish or shoot].

Professionals welcome the opportunity to participate in hours of film sessions listening to coaches and team mates candidly criticize their game and identify opportunities to improve their game.  Imagine if they viewed this as micromanaging?

Business Development In Its Basic Form

Find Ways To Win Today

While Building For The Future

Allow your business to be the best it can be by answering four basic questions every day:

1. What will my business look like in a couple of years if I continue to run it in its current form?
2. What could I be doing today to improve short term results?
3. What would I like my business to look like in 2 to 3 years?
4. Will short term results subsidize my company's future?

Now, you're ready to define business development's role for your business.