A prospect recently called into one of my client’s 1-800 number. The inside sales person answering the phone asked the proverbial, “How did you find us?”
Which answer would you prefer?
1. I was returning your call
2. I found you on the internet or
3. I’ve been following you for some time, and I think I need your help.
In my second post, I stated a statistic that 80% of buyers indicate they find their vendors and not the other way around. In another post I showed the power of the nurturing cycle. In either case, prospects now days are much further down the buying funnel, having either found you, or followed you for some time until their need bubbled up against the value of your expertise, product or service.
So if you are an emerging B2B business, how should you address this change in sales and marketing? I find many CEOs stuck with antiquated ideas about sales and marketing. For example, they first want to hire sales people because everyone knows you need sales people in order to sell. Then they want to hire a marketing communications person to create a brochure and do outbound marketing. The element they forget about is the 80% statistic.
Here’s a simple model for looking at your prospects:
You will need “Sales” to close the business, but having “Sales” find the prospect is inefficient. (See “How many sales people does it take to screw in a forecast?”) You can also do Outbound Calling, but this can be like shooting a .22 rifle into an empty metal grain elevator. You’re not going to hit much, and you’re likely to get a lot of ricocheting. Instead, targeted email marketing will get better results. But if you want to generate leads and sales, it’s necessary to allow the prospect to find you using inbound Internet marketing. They will percolate up through your lead scoring process and be qualified by Outbound Calling who can then pass then along to Sales. A strong marketing and sales plan incorporates elements of all three depending on your business.
Lee Stocking
Prairie Sky Group
Making Sales Cry with Qualified Leads
lee.stocking@gmail.com
651-357-0110 (Cell 24×7)