Guest

After speaking with my friend Jill Konrath, I realized that I can<br />
actually help those of you who are bringing prospects in the door with a<br />
great stratigic marketing plan.<br />
<br />
Let’s look at the layout of how companies are using marketing today:<br />
with great content, white papers, webinars and podcasts, companies are<br />
driving interested buyers to their sites. With good content, prospects are<br />
being educated, informed, and hopefully influenced, and get great data to<br />
help them make informed decisions as to how to become Excellent. In fact,<br />
Ardath Albees new book [http://www.emarketingstrategiesbook.com/]<br />
eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale she talks about how B2B<br />
marketers need to really get to know their customers in order to improve<br />
their marketing effectiveness. [Peronal note: Ardath is the queen of<br />
helping buyers develop content strategies. But her book immediately if you<br />
want to know what to do and how to do it. She's light years ahead of any<br />
other thinker in the field. Here is a link to read two chapters of her new<br />
book: [http://budurl.com/2chap] download 2 chapters]<br />
<br />
With all of the competition out there, having good content is not enough<br />
so companies need to not only offer great content, but follow up<br />
strategically so prospects can get everything they need when it’s time<br />
for them to need it during their decision making process when choosing a<br />
new vendor.<br />
<br />
HOW WE DECIDE TO BUY MAY OR MAY NOT BE CONTENT BASED<br />
<br />
In reality, with all of the content we’re offering and strategically<br />
placing, we cannot be assured that the buyer’s buying decision will<br />
include us. Certainly we’ve influenced the process. But what happens when<br />
we actually speak with them?<br />
<br />
And here is where Buying Facilitation® comes in. As Ardath says in her<br />
book, “It’s ridiculous to think that your company will be involved in<br />
all the crucial conversations that take place during the course of a<br />
complex purchase.” We know that. We know that we are not there when the<br />
department heads speak to each other, when the tech team wants to be<br />
involved and they shouldn’t be. Sharing content is a great first step,<br />
but what do you actually say to someone when you follow up a great lead, or<br />
they call you?<br />
<br />
As we drive sales by having the right content and following up<br />
strategically, what is stopping us from closing the sales we should be<br />
closing? Obviously it’s not our product or our content. It’s just that<br />
sales does not manage the strategic facilitation of the internal,<br />
behind-the-scenes issues that buyers must address before they can choose us<br />
– whether they need us or not.<br />
<br />
But by adding decision facilitation skills to our conversations, we can<br />
actually take the next step once we’ve driven prospects to our door. And<br />
I’m not necessarily suggesting we can change buyer’s behaviors<br />
(although Buying Facilitation® can influence the stakeholders by helping<br />
them make decisions that will ensure the integrity of their culture and<br />
relationships), but I am suggesting we can influence the behaviors of<br />
sellers.<br />
<br />
I recently was on a site that seemed as if it might give me something I<br />
needed. I began signing up, and then decided to not send the query.<br />
Miraculously, I got a call from this company seconds (yes seconds) after I<br />
left the site.<br />
<br />
“Hi there. I’m from X company. I saw that you were on our site (gosh<br />
– it really feels like Big Brother is Watching me) and saw that you<br />
didn’t complete. Is there anything you’d like to know about us that I<br />
can help you with?”<br />
<br />
“Nope. I’m ok.”<br />
<br />
“Well, if you need me, here is my number.”<br />
<br />
I didn’t take the number down. That was the end of the relationship.<br />
Did they have good data? Yup. But I didn’t think I could use it.<br />
<br />
Imagine if the conversation had gone like this:<br />
“Hi there. I am calling from X company. I saw that you were just on our<br />
site, and I hope you don’t mind me calling and following up. I noticed<br />
you got off the site before completing. Is there anything you would have<br />
liked to have gotten from our site that we didn’t make available to<br />
you?”<br />
<br />
Companies are doing a fabulous job with their content strategies. It’s<br />
now time to add some skills for the sellers to bring home the business. And<br />
if you want even more content, take a look at my new book<br />
[http://dirtylittlesecretsbook.com/] Dirty Little Secrets to help you start<br />
thinking about how to add new skills to be even more successful.<br />