Examine the contrasting strategies employed by two sales professionals: John utilized online resources to secure meetings with the largest potential customers he could find, while Dan focused on a more specific and targeted market.
Both John and Dan sought clientele capable of affording their services (in this case, information technology services). However, Dan went a step further by considering additional criteria such as location and the number of IT managers employed by the prospect company, as these factors had proven to be indicators of past sales success. After identifying his top 50 prospects, Dan sent each one a white paper he had authored on IT challenges. A week later, he followed up with a phone call to request an appointment to discuss the white paper and the prospect’s IT challenges. Dan’s success rate in securing that critical initial conversation was 50%, while John’s was only around 10%.
Selling is a challenging endeavor, especially without market awareness. By targeting potential customers and familiarizing them with his services prior to reaching out, Dan effectively managed his time. It’s essential to increase awareness of your company through a targeted marketing strategy before initiating sales calls. Here are five steps to leverage marketing for sales in any industry.
1. Target your market.
Prior to outlining your marketing initiatives, it’s crucial to understand your market. As a small business, you don’t want your marketing efforts to get lost in a sea of competitors. Instead, aim to make a significant impact within a smaller, focused group of prospects. Select a manageable number of top prospects based on factors like the prospect company’s revenue, location, employee count, industry, customer base, and major challenges.
Your target pool should be focused yet substantial enough to meet your revenue objectives. For example, if your revenue goal is $500,000 and you close 50% of proposals averaging $25,000 each, you would require 40 proposals annually to meet your target.
Calculating leads, assuming 30% of leads become proposals, you would need approximately 133 leads per year. If 30% of your contacts transition into leads, you’d require around 443 new contacts yearly, with contact established for about 37 monthly.
Throughout the year, you’ll continually add new contacts and retain current and previous customers in your prospect pool for potential future business.
For instance, Dan maintains a “Top Relationship List” consisting of several hundred individuals in a spreadsheet. He routinely updates it to remove inactive or irrelevant contacts.
2. Obtain insights.
After defining your target market, invest time in thorough research. Put yourself in your prospects’ shoes to understand their needs. Move beyond listing your products and services by considering how your offerings address their specific challenges. Conduct research on articles, blogs, and statistics related to their problems, and reference these sources in your communications.
3. Develop marketing collateral.
To elevate awareness of your company, solutions, and personal brand, enhance your profile with marketing collateral. These materials don’t need to be exhaustive, and you can outsource their creation. However, they should feature a detailed description of customer problems, supported by data or anecdotes, along with information about your company. Distribute this material through blogs, newsletters, social media posts, or infographics that highlight trending problems. If needed, enlist the support of freelance writers or designers to produce marketing collateral.
Regularly engage with your target audience by sharing timely industry updates like articles, research links, or white papers authored by you or a freelancer. Include your contact information and offer assistance in addressing prospects’ challenges.
Dan keeps track of content shared with contacts on his “Top Relationship List” to avoid redundant information. Occasionally, he sends personalized emails to a select group, but typically uses bulk emailing platforms such as iContact, Constant Contact, or MailChimp to disseminate content. These tools allow you to schedule campaigns and track recipient engagement for improved message customization in the future.
4. Connect with prospects.
After sending white papers or articles, it’s easier to follow up with a call rather than initiating a cold call. Position the conversation as an opportunity to learn about their businesses, challenges, and how your solutions align with the information shared. People are more receptive to discussions about their needs rather than hearing a sales pitch.
5. Foster relationships.
The primary aim of your marketing efforts should be building relationships and positioning yourself as a problem solver for your customers. By offering valuable insights, you establish trust and showcase how your products address their needs.
Transitioning from marketing to sales involves sharing product specifications with key contacts at prospect companies, conducting product demos via Skype, or providing trial offers.
Continuously expand your library of marketing content throughout the year. Keep track of shared content in a spreadsheet and monitor delivery dates to contacts on your “Top Relationship List”. Depending on your sales cycle length, you might only need to send a couple of emails to each prospect, or maintain regular content dissemination to nurture relationships.
Even post-sale, utilize marketing strategies to stay engaged with leads and maintain warm connections. When executed effectively, clients view your efforts as a valuable resource for ongoing discussions.
