Since business-centric buyers in the complex world of IT want to be educated and sold to in layman’s terms (not “techy” terms) and without over-wordy documentation, it helps to explain a systematic process using a graphical diagram to illustrate the “big idea” upfront (example). Whenever you can use a graphic, visual aid, or picture to explain anything, it generally pays off handsomely. For instance, all types of personnel can understand a process much better if there is a simple graphic to anchor the team’s view of the project life-cycle and future expectations. Or, in manufacturing, a visual aid can be used to show the key elements of a process so all audiences comprehend a new method for marking assets with unique identifiers (example). Providing graphical diagrams to your current and potential buyers directly aligns sales, marketing, and delivery with your buyers’ expectations, reducing risk, and ensuring a better project outcome.
Posts Tagged ‘Sales Process’
A picture is worth a thousand words: Selling using visual marketing
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010
Yes, there is still value in hosting traditional offline events
Wednesday, January 6th, 2010In the world of technology consulting, current and prospective customers who are serious about investing in enterprise-wide IT solutions from a strategic viewpoint, often prefer traditional events—executive roundtables, seminars, etc—where the attendance is purposely limited and that offer the greatest potential for peer-to-peer interaction. But, in order to justify the expense for higher value/lower quantity attendance, getting the event off the ground involves key steps even before any promotions are factored. Here’s my checklist:
- Build a “power-team” by actively involving your sales team in each phase — while planning, during joint event promotion, during the event to spur networking discussions, and during attendee follow-up. Gain firm cooperation, and hold them accountable.
- Together, identify a compelling topic that is most pertinent to expediting the sales process.
- Align with co-sponsors for co-funding to keep costs predictable and reasonable, and boost brand power to attract the attendees you want in the seats.
- Select a convenient, unique venue and appropriate time slot. We all like an excuse to check out something out of the ordinary, and talk about it later.
Aligning sales and marketing throughout the event planning process will help reduce or even eliminate common disconnect that can occur, and keep focus on driving quality attendees to push the sales pipeline along.
Let marketing build your product sales pipeline
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009Yes, I said marketing. When it comes to B2B product sales, we believe that sales and marketing should work as a team, with separate roles but a shared aim—shortening the sales cycle. The way we see it, marketing’s primary role should be prequalification of suspect lists to build the sales pipeline and provide cleaner databases. Marketing should focus on suspects, freeing frontline sales to concentrate on customers and prospects already in the pipeline and ready to purchase or upgrade. So how does marketing prequalify and warm up those suspects? With integrated lead generation programs—like webinars, trade shows, partner marketing, sponsorship with trade affiliations—or isolated online and offline tactics, or timed teleservices with pre-call tactics (NOT “script-read” cold calling). Know your role and success is yours!
What’s your call to action?
Thursday, December 10th, 2009Assumption: your offerings were developed because they were new and innovative and served a specific need or they were more superior to what was on the market. But, the Internet has conditioned us all to evaluate solutions as far as we can go without having to speak to a sales consultant. What will persuade interested parties to move from a competitive offering or to justify the adoption of a new concept? Product companies may consider quick-see demos, trial offers, pre-paid subscription models, and other ways to prove value quickly. Service companies may consider unique ways to package or productize their solutions so that prospects can see clear, tangible deliverables upfront. The easier you make it for your prospects to visualize their potential with your offerings, the shorter your sales cycle will be.
Building a community of life sciences professionals across a rarely accessible audience
Friday, December 4th, 2009To build a community in the pharmaceutical market, you must first understand your target constituents and then build their trust with your communication approach. For example, microbiologists working in the Quality Control (QC) department are very difficult to reach in a real-time fashion, especially for that initial door opening conversation. Unlike their colleagues in the Research & Development (R&D) and Regulatory departments, QC Micro professionals are rarely at their desk. Instead, they might be taking test samples in a clean room or processing results in a lab. With an audience profile such as this, it is even more important to provide convenient access to your information and offerings; be available online and build trust with a peer-to-peer approach. Establishing recurring webinar events, which are recorded and made available on your website, and require client input and experiences and partner sponsorship, creates virtual interaction between your company and your current and potential clients. A trusted community for scientific discussion is established, providing that door opener for sales follow-up.
