Great, you've got a list of contacts. Now what? Send them a generic promotional email and hope for the best? Good luck with that. In B2B marketing, the fact of the matter is, if you don't email your leads something suited to where they are at in the buyers cycle, specific to their business problems, they won't be interested. So how do you know where they are in the buyers cycle and what to say to them in order to generate some significant sales? I'm about to reveal!
Do you ever feel like a hamster on the B2B sales and marketing wheel? Running faster and faster just to stand still? Executing the same old campaigns quarter after quarter because...well you simply don't have the time or capacity to stop and think of a better way. While a nagging doubt is growing in the back of your mind; that your same old tactics just aren't working very well any more - No wonder you have to run so fast.
Understand and use these "Fab 5" Marketing Metrics, to prove to your boss Marketing is WAY more than the (highly insulting) so called colouring-in department and build a different relationship with the senior executives within your company.
Perhaps B2B sales and marketing professionals tasked with generating leads and closing deals should spare a thought for those individuals tasked with buying solutions for their organisation.
Buying B2B solutions for one's organisation is a long hard slog. Gartner says the median B2B buying group consists of between 6 and 10 people. Each of these people need four to five pieces of information to help them. Usually, around 83% of the time they have gone and sourced this information themselves.
Then starts the painful process of achieving consensus amongst the buying group and forming a concrete action plan. Brent Adamson, a Gartner distinguished VP, puts it this way.
"The hardest part about B2B solutions isn't selling them but buying them. Today's buying journey has effectively reached a tipping point where it's become unnavigable without a significant amount of help"
Showing you understand the challenge B2B buying centres face, showing empathy for their plight and providing information and tools that aim to reduce this purchase friction is the secret to building an authentic and trusted relationship with your target audience.
How do you achieve this?
Sales and Marketing alignment is difficult for most organisations causing many internal and external challenges that affect the bottom line. Now more than ever, fundamental changes in your buyers behaviour are increasingly creating misalignment between these two functional areas. Misalignment breeds inefficiency. This misalignment causes propose to close rates falling, the quality of leads falling and the cost of acquisition increases.
As discussed in part one of this blog a solid sales and marketing strategy is the key first step to achieving growth. Just to recap, in part 1 we discussed how to develop "The 4xWs" of strategy, namely:
The 4xWs sets up a clear framework for your sales and marketing team to align and focus their efforts around your buyer.
Now we'll turn our attention to the next critical step. Tying your go to market strategy and investments to your business' financial goals. Firstly, clearly understand your businesses new revenue goals that are coming from marketing's activities and then, using an average sales value, work out the number of net new clients you need for each time period.
Your sales and marketing are like the heart and lungs of your business. They provide crucial oxygen to your business which it needs to survive and thrive. In this week's blog, we discuss how the business environment in which we all exist is changing rapidly. If your sales and marketing fail to adapt to these new conditions, your business will fail to thrive and potentially survive.
Lead generation is at the forefront of the marketing and sales world. Increasing traffic, attracting potential buyers and engaging with them has been continually emphasised in the context of inbound marketing - bringing the buyer to you. Lead generation is the next step, after grabbing the attention of your market. Here are 5 lead conversion strategies that can strengthen and help maximise business growth.
Many Australian B2B firms can increase there marketing reach using a social media strategy that includes LinkedIn.
When talking to B2B companies about their marketing strategy, I ask if social media and LinkedIn in particular has a place in their communications and marketing plans. I generally get a look that is best be described as worried or hesitant and occasionally dismissive.
