After you have identified your target market niches for 2009 (concentrating on revenue retention from current customers and seeking new revenue in all the right places) it is time to decide what steps to take to bring in the revenue.
Marketing and sales differ, of course. Marketing activities are to generate qualified leads, and sales activities are to take the leads to a successful, prompt conclusion (i.e. get an order from good leads, and quickly drop leads that have limited potential to close.)
Here are some areas to consider in developing 2009 sales and marketing activities that do not cost a fortune to implement.
More B2B sales are made through referrals than any other way these days. Prospects are more willing to give you a chance if they know someone who has used your product or service. The problem is most of us are afraid to ask for a referral. It’s awkward, isn’t it? Well, if someone is really happy with what you do for them, they are probably comfortable giving you the name of someone they think might want to use your product or service too. Asking is the only way this will happen. And what’s the worst response you will get? Probably nothing more than a polite “can’t think of anyone right now.” Here’s a website with a useful article “7 Sure Fire Ways to Build Your Referral Business.” Check it out at
http://sbinformation.about.com/cs/advertising/a/aa020203a.htm
A close second in using customer help in building business is getting testimonials. These endorsements for your business can be used on your website, in marketing collateral material, and in your sales presentation portfolio.
I’ve asked customers to provide testimonials and it usually has been a difficult process to complete. They took forever and when it showed up, it was not as good as I would have liked. But then it's awkward to go back to get an improved one.
A better way to go about it is to tell the customer that you know he has found your product/service valuable. Tell the person your understanding of the specific value you believe he has experienced. Explain that your company likes to use testimonials. Next ask him if you could send him a draft of a testimonial for his review and approval. Follow through promptly with a draft and be sure to include his name and company at the bottom as part of the testimonial. Unsigned testimonials are not too effective. If there is a confidentiality problem with this, suggest his title and a generic industry description be used at the bottom, e.g. Chief Financial Officer, Large Eastern Manufacturer. If someone later questions this, you can, with the CFO’s permission, identify the company specifically. You can find a useful article on testimonials at
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/testimonials-increase-sales/
There is another way to find prospects/suspects. Consider using an online lead provider, like Salesgenie. You can slice and dice the lead search a number of ways and to give it a try, you can get 200 leaders free. Check it out at
http://www.salesgenie.com.
Improve your sales productivity by using contact management software. Google the term and you will get a good list to consider. Most popular is ACT by Sage. Good contact management software gives you a complete, integrated view of your contact relationships. It promotes the follow-up that can make a difference between winning and losing a sale.
The Internet is more important than ever in generating leads. Everyone turns first to a search engine to find a supplier. So if your website needs freshening, this is the time to do it. Look at your website with an objective, critical eye. (Or get someone else whose judgment you trust to look at it with you.) Does it have a look that matches your collateral material? Is there a call to action on each page links to an email form? Can a visitor sign up for your newsletter?
But even more important is the need to be sure your website address comes up on the first page of a relevant search. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is now an arcane science that should be outsourced. Costs can range from a couple of thousand dollars for a six month program to four or five times that. Selecting an SEO provider can also be tricky. Perhaps a referral is the best way to go. But you could also use a search engine to find one. If an SEO provider can come up at the top of the page maybe the company can do the same for you. But certainly ask for references and check them out before committing. SEO needs to be redone periodically. Google offers some helpful guidance at
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35291
Have you thought about using Webinars to educate prospects and customers about your product or service offering? It can beat the cost of in-person sales calls by a lot. Yes, it takes some preparation and not everyone is a skilled presenter, but once the Webinar presentation is developed, it is easily reusable. I’ve known some small companies that service the whole country and use Webinars to make individual sales calls. It’s an easy way to present a complex product or service.
Webinars services come in various “flavors” and you need to do a little online research before signing up with any particular provider. Here’s one article on running a successful Webinar:
http://www.buyerzone.com/telecom_services/web_conferencing/webinar.html. I’m not endorsing this provider because I know nothing about him. The article is a quick overview of the process, however. There is also a white paper from Citrix Online “How to Present Effectively Online” at
http://www.webbuyersguide.com/resource/white-paper/8803/How-to-Present-Effectively-Online. However, you do need to register to download the paper.
Stories in the trade press have always appealed to me as a way to promote a business. While they are not easy to get placed, they provide an implied third party endorsement of your product or service, and they are excellent reprints to use as a “leave behind.” The stories usually are about applications of your product or service, and involve interviews with users, as well as a description of the product or service and perhaps a few paragraphs about your business plus contact information. If you advertise in a trade publication, ask your ad rep for the editorial calendar. Or else go to the publication’s website and look for the calendar there. Check three months and more out from the current month and note what subjects are featured in future issues. When your product or service application fits into one of the featured subjects you have the potential for a story.
Finally, you need to contact the editor to see if there is interest in your story, and if so would the editor assign a writer to work with you on it. Or you can offer to hire your own writer to do the story for the editor, if that is acceptable. Remember that editors need to find material to fill every issue, and they need to have stories that would be of interest to readers. So think like a reader when you are pitching your story idea to the editor. In the trade press, by the way, the traditional wall between the advertising and editorial departments is a lot lower than in regular publications. So if you advertise, you may have a built in favorable bias.
This blog has gone on too long! Sorry, but I kept thinking of ideas and adding them. I have still more, e.g. writing press releases that get printed, low cost postcard direct mail lead generation, and using email newsletters. But I’ll cover these in a later blog.
