But others aren’t ready because the time isn’t right (see our earlier post on Why Timing Matters in B2B Marketing).

So, if you’ve got some leads, but they’re not ready to buy just yet, what are you going to do with them?

1. Be Patient

The prospects that have responded but who are not ready to buy now have done so because they believe you may be able to help them solve their problem – when the time comes. Your challenge is to keep them engaged. Do this by showing you are the expert that understands the problem. Don’t just dive in with the solution.

2. Engage, don’t preach

The process of engaging leads is a complex, multi-stage activity that may require several different marketing channels. Little helpful ‘nurturing’ emails that are interesting, useful and relevant, and that don’t make your prospects work too hard, will keep you on the radar. That way, they’ll know you’re there and can turn to you when they are ready to buy.

3. Personalise

If people feel you are making the effort to tailor your communications specifically to them, they will feel individual and special. Try and understand what attracted your leads to respond to your original campaign, and then build on it by tailoring your further communications to those individual customer interests. The investment of time will be worth it in the long run.

4. Give

Don’t be afraid to give stuff away. It’s one of the oldest tricks in the book, except that these days it doesn’t always have to be a free sample. On the web, helpful ‘How To’ guides that address specific problems or demonstrate knowledge can be important ways of ensuring that your prospects don’t opt out of your emails. That way they will perceive you as an expert and allow you to continue reaching out to them until they are ready to buy.

5. Evolve

If your engagement campaign isn’t working (because you’re getting high levels of unsubscribes, or low conversion rates), there is no shame in changing it or even stopping it. The key is to evolve, using what works, and ditching what doesn’t. That means measuring response in different ways and in different timescales.

Lots of other factors come into play such as the frequency of your communications, the ‘closing’ of your opportunities, and, not least, the constant feeding of the pipeline with new leads. The golden rule is simple: keep at it, find out what works.

Photo credit: graur razvan ionut / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

What is marketing to you?

Years ago whilst studying for my MBA at Cass Business School in London, I came across a definition of marketing I hadn’t heard before.

In fact nobody had heard it before.  The individual behind it had literally made it up, there and then on the spot.

By the way, he wasn’t a marketer. He was an IT guy. Whether that tells us something is another matter.

But to get to the definition. This person described marketing as “The art of intellectualising the bleedin’ obvious”.  For the marketing purists who subscribe to the ‘pure’ definitions of what marketing is all about, this may be rather insulting.

But you know what? I kind of like it. It’s kind of true.

The point of this is that marketing is many things to many people. Ask 100 people and you’ll probably get 100 different answers.

So what is it to you?

If you’re struggling, you’re not alone. So here are a few possibles to get you ticking over.

• Understanding who your competitors are, what they offer and prices they charge
• Having a clear definition of who your prospective customers are
• Knowing what problem(s) your products and services solve for your customers
• Having a clear message that is easily understood by your prospective customers
• Being in the media and places where your customers are so they can find you and talk to you easily
• Offering value that is appreciated and understood by your customers

You see? Maybe it’s obvious. But it does actually need intellectualising.

No Marketing? No Presence.

When times are hard, costs inevitably come under the spotlight, and as any marketer knows, marketing budgets and overheads are not immune from that. It goes with the job that questions about return on investment, value and worth crop up and intensify.

So it’s a paradox that just at the time businesses need to be fighting for visibility and attention harder than ever before, the very resources that are required to fund this work come under the cosh.

We’re a marketing agency so – obviously – we believe in the power of marketing. We also believe passionately that with good management, marketing will pay dividends, recession or not.

­Unless you’re promoting your products and services somehow, you run the risk of seeing the flow of new business opportunities dry up. Here are our very good easons to keep marketing in the hard times, as well as the time of plenty.

1. Show your market you are open for business

Tough times means having to work harder to generate new business opportunities. Cutting out your marketing altogether – especially at a time when your competitors may be working harder on marketing themselves – will almost certainly put you at a disadvantage. If your current and prospective customers don’t know you’re there, they may forget about you and instead, next time they need to make a purchase, they’ll go to whoever happens to be visible at the time.

2. Do more with less – and be stronger for it

If handled properly, investing in regular, targeted marketing will generate a return in the form of new sales opportunities and conversions. But if you learn to run smart marketing campaigns on less budget, you’ll get better at it, become more efficient, and find that you can do more with less. The result is that when the good times return your business will be in better shape to take  advantage of the upturn.

3. Give your customers the confidence to continue buying from you

Existing and potential customers need to see that your business is still strong despite the difficult economic climate or they’ll lose faith in your ability to deliver. If you look and sound confident, they will, in turn,  feel confident in continuing to buy from you. If nothing else, continue to market directly to your existing customers to let them know you are ready to serve them whenever the need arises.

4. Reinforce supplier confidence for improved financial terms

If your suppliers see you actively looking for business and working hard to achieve sales, they too will have greater confidence in your business. This knowledge that that you are out their fighting for business – which will ultimately benefit them – will send a strong, positive message. Some suppliers may be willing to offer better payment and contractual terms, benefiting your cash flow and liquidity.

5. Raise staff morale to drive your business forward

With so much focus on the economy, sales and the bottom line, it is sometimes easy to overlook staff motivation. Employees naturally look for signs that the business is doing well, and in some cases may be fearing for their jobs. Morale can suffer, particularly amongst the sales force who may feel that they need marketing support to do their job. By proactively promoting your business, you’re showing them that you believe in the company and its future prosperity, and that they can too.

In summary: as with any business function, marketing shouldn’t be exempt from the cost spotlight. It needs to pay its way. But investing intelligently, making your marketing budget work harder and ensuring that every pound spent is accounted for will help you manage, survive and, ultimately, thrive.

Quick follow up of trade show leads is vital

Tradeshows, exhibitions and events are expensive, time consuming and – let’s face it – a lot of work.

The ideal way to make the most of your presence is to have a complete marketing plan for the show, including a strategy for following up the leads you get.

Yet many trade show strategies fall down when it comes to lead follow up.  Reasons include weak qualification by stand staffers, lack of personal information about the lead’s actual requirement and too much time between the event and the follow up.

So if you’re investing in a trade show presence, here are our 6 Killer Strategies for Trade Show Follow Up – to help you make the most of your investment.

1. Plan your lead capture

Define how you will collect leads and what data you’ll gather. Badge scan? Lead form? Define what qualifies as a ‘good’ lead, so you’ll know which ones to prioritise. Finally, try and make a few notes after the conversation with your prospect. This will help your callers personalise the follow up – which will be appreciated.

2. Follow up quickly

It’s OK to appear keen!  Follow up needs to take place within a week of the trade show while the conversation is still fresh in your leads’ minds. Don’t wait for them to contact you – it’s not likely to happen. Start with the best qualified leads and work through, and be prepared to make several-to-many attempts to reach them before your competitors get hold of them.

3. Use a ‘joined up’ follow up strategy

If you’ve captured phone, email and office address details, you can use them all as part of a multi-channel follow up approach. Use different information and marketing collateral, so your leads see more than just the flyer they picked up on your stand. If you picked up information about a specific requirement, be sure to address it.

4. Carry through your trade show message

If you’ve had a special offer, slogan or theme running as part of your trade show marketing strategy and branding, it’s important that you carry it through into your follow up. Special offers can be extended to your leads post-event too, so your leads will feel you’re reaching out to them and making them feel special.

5. Don’t assume your leads will contact you

The fact that your leads stopped by your stand for a chat and picked up a brochure and a free pen doesn’t mean they’ll be calling you as soon as they get back to the office. They’ll have visited other stands too, and will not only have your competitors’ information but will also be getting follow up calls from them.

6. Keep it personal

If you want to give your business an edge when you follow up, make it personal. Thank your leads for stopping by the stand, tell them you know what they were asking about and refer to something relevant about them such as the sector they’re in or the location of the business. Also make sure that if they specified how they want to be contacted, you use that channel.

If you can answer these questions, you probably don’t need to read this post. If not, you could probably do with a marketing plan.

A marketing plan is vital in uncertain economic times, and will bring greater definition, direction, focus, structure – and improved sales to your business.

Without a plan of some kind, you risk being reactive only, on the back foot, stressed and pulled in every direction.

If nothing else, a Marketing Plan is good discipline, and will shape your business marketing mindset. Here are our 5 Reasons Why You Need a Marketing Plan:

Definition: helps define your goals
Your Marketing Plan will help you define your targets i.e. where you want to get to. You’re at Point A now, and you want to get to Point B. Where or what is ‘Point B’? Sales turnover? Number of customers? Gross profit?

Direction: shows how you will achieve your goals
Your Marketing Plan will give you a road map for reaching your goals. If your ‘Point B’ is doubling your sales, you’ll need clear marketing strategy to get you there. Your Marketing Plan will help you identify the actions and milestones to keep your goals on track.

Focus: provides a focal point for you and your team
A Marketing Plan gives you and your whole team something to get behind. Sharing the plan will help your staff understand your business goals, give them confidence that you know how you are going to achieve them and re-inforce the importance of their role.

Structure: Helps you stick to your game plan
Your Marketing Plan is a written document that acts as a reference point. It can stay as a constant even when your business or staff changes. By documenting your Marketing Plan, you are much more likely to follow them through to conclusion.

Improved sales: Helps you understand your market better
Writing your Marketing Plan will make you analyse your key competitors, the prices they charge, how they sell their products and their strengths and weaknesses relative to your own. This is the market you are operating in, and knowing more about it will inform and improve your sales approach.

There are lots of other very good reasons you need a Marketing Plan. It won’t be the answer to all your business problems, but it will help you focus on the areas of your business that matter most: customers and sales.

Business buyers used make do with a conventional ‘buying approach’ which involved ‘being sold to’.

Today, buyers don’t wait to be ‘sold to’. They search the web for what they want, form their

Getting your timing right: key to marketing

own opinions about the reputation and expertise of suppliers, then narrow the field to make their choice.

This means that companies depending only on the “knocking on doors” approach to sales and marketing to book their sales appointments don’t even get a look in.

The buying process simply passes them by, because buyers are using new influencers to arrive at their decision at their own pace, when the need arises.

The ‘sales cycle’ is being replaced by the ‘buying cycle’.

Timing is the great unknown quantity in sales and marketing. If your marketing strategy depends only on outbound prospecting activity to your sales appointments, you should consider adding an ‘inbound’ element to it.  The window of opportunity – i.e. the chance of calling at just the right time – is getting narrower.

Instead, getting on the buyer’s radar before the requirement arises - and staying there – so you’re ‘visible’ when the buyer is ready to make the decision, is the key.

The way to achieve this is to:

• ATTRACT prospects to your business without selling
  

• ENGAGE and nurture prospects, building  influence and authority and staying ‘on the radar’

• CONVERT prospects into clients by ‘being there’ at the time they are ready to buy

Buyers are influenced by whoever manages to ‘engage’ them authoritatively, and to position themselves as a leading expert that can demonstrate knowledge and experience in the field. Getting found on the web, blogging with useful, interesting and relevant content and building up a social media presence.

For these reasons, we believe that what used to be referred to as the ‘conventional’ sales cycle is an outmoded concept.

Instead there is just a ‘buying cycle’. And your marketing strategy should be planned and managed with this in mind.

But targets are not only about ‘how much’. They’re also about ‘when’.

“I really need to hit my target this month. So how about I cut you a deal?”

Ever heard that before?

The problem is that if you’re a B2B sales person or business owner looking to hit your monthly target, you have a massive problem:  you have little or no control over when you prospect is going to be ready to buy.

People aren’t going to buy just because you’re ready to sell. In fact, if anyone pleads with me to buy from them just so they can hit their target this month….sorry, not a chance.

No. People will buy when the time is right for them. And not before.

It’s frustrating. It’s not fair. It’s hard. And it’s tempting to throw away any lead you get that isn’t going to help you reach this month’s (or next month’s) sales target.

Actually, you probably won’t throw it away. But you’ll ‘de-prioritise’ it. You might revisit it once or twice, but over time you’ll let it decay and it’ll leak away out of your sales pipeline.

It’s only natural. You’ve got more important bonus-busting fish to fry this month, so you can afford to let anything but the hottest prospects slip down the priority stack.

But what happens to them? Surely not everyone is a tyre kicker. How did they get into the hopper in the first place? Have you ever thought about:

a) How much money it cost your business to get that lead in the first place, and

b) What it might be worth to keep the lead warm until it is ready to buy?

Research from US-based consultancy Sirius Decisions shows that 80% of prospects that are discarded early because they’re not ready to buy now do in fact go on to buy within 12 months.

So, if the prospects are not buying from you, they’re buying from your competitors. It could be next week, next month, even next year by the time they do.

But they’re going to buy from someone.

There’s no such thing as a ‘sales cycle’. Only a ‘buying cycle’. It’s a message that target-driven businesses and sales people need to listen to.

For your email newsletter to “work”, it must engage your customers and prospects so they open your email and click through to your website.

Follow these 6 Top Tips to create excellent newsletters that will engage your customers and prospects and help to build your subscriber list.

1. Give people a reason to read

Why do a newsletter? Are people interested in your news? Why should they read it? Answer all these questions and recognise that people will be turned off by an overtly salesy newsletter. So it needs to be interesting, relevant and useful for your readers.

Content should be compelling. That way, you’ll keep and add subscribers.

2. Make it look good

Sloppy appearance affects what people think of you. It’s as true for email newsletters as for the way you dress. Keep the graphics neat, simple and consistent with your existing branding – especially with your website.

As with many things in life, appearance and first impressions count.

3. Personalise the experience

Making newsletter conent relevant for every reader is hard. You can use each recipient’s name and company name, but personalise what you write with your own style too. Make it entertaining, even quirky, and project your own – and your company’s – personality.

The old “people buy from people” thing is still true, even with email newsletters.

4. Open me now!

Using a compelling subject line is really, really important. If you can’t think of anything original, you’ll have to go with ‘Here’s our latest newsletter’ – but that’s kind of boring. So try and tap into the interests and issues that motivate your recipients to open your email.

And, of course, make sure you deliver on what your subject line promises!

5. Show and tell

With all your marketing, you should be aiming to build a reputation as an expert authority in your chosen field. So load your newsletter with useful hints, tips, advice and links to free in-depth articles about how to do things better, solve problems or make more money.

The more you give, the more you’ll show you know, so you’ll be perceived as the expert.

6. Think beyond the email newsletter…

So now you’re delivering useful, interesting and compelling information in a well-presented format that’s consistent with your existing marketing media. What next?

The answer is to have two similar versions: the email newsletter, with article excerpts and teasers and links through to…. the full version on a page on your website, or to dedicated landing pages that will convert your visitors to prospects.

But that’s another story.

A classic problem faced by many B2B marketers is that they generate prospects who are interested in purchasing – but just not right now.

Hungry business owners and sales people are mostly interested in qualified leads – where qualified equals ‘have budget and authority to purchase within a defined timeline’.

If only! Because of the necessary focus on short term sales, a great many ‘future prospects’ are contacted once, then allowed to leak away out of the pipeline.

This is to be expected, particularly in the scramble to hit month end targets.

But it’s also a great shame.

Research from Reed Business shows that 77% of sales come from long term leads. In other words, most window shoppers go on to make the purchase eventually – from someone.

Wouldn’t it be great if that someone was you?

At Contacts4Business we talk a lot about lead nurturing – keeping your prospects and clients engaged so that you stay on their radar.

Marketing Automation gives marketers the means to stay in touch with their prospects via behaviour-based email campaigns until the time comes for them to buy.

It’s especially useful for B2B companies with long sale cycles where ROI is difficult to calculate. Here’s how it works:

Lead generation

Leads come in through a lead generation campaign.

Key point: Not every lead is ready to buy now.

Scoring

Leads are assessed using a quantitative approach based on type of response, visit to website, article downloads and other metrics and allocated a ‘score’.

Key point: Scores build with time, based on subsequent contacts with the prospect.

Nurturing

Leads can now be engaged and nursed through the buying decision process depending on the speed with which the prospect wants to move

Key point: Marketing Automation tracks the touch points and keeps the cycle progressing by ‘drip feeding’ relevant content to the prospect.

Closure

Instead of allowing those future prospects to ‘leak away’ from the pipeline because their buying decision appeared too far away, the nurturing campaign keeps them ‘warm’ until the time is right for them to buy.

Key point: There’s no such thing anymore as the ‘sales cycle’. Just a buying cycle, which is driven by the customer’s own buying decision process.

The benefit of Marketing Automation is that it’s a clear solution to a clear and known problem: the disconnect between the motivations of the buyer, the short term expectations of the seller, and the abilities of the B2B marketer to satisfy the requirements of both.

As with CRM and sales force automation systems, Marketing Automation technology is only ever as good as the strategy behind it. If you recognise the problems described here, don’t expect technology alone to solve the problem.

But do expect results in return for a commitment to changing the way you do your marketing.

Something in a presentation shocked me. It serves as a reminder of how fast the world is moving. According to Ashley Friedlein, CEO of Econsultancy, “60% of Apple’s 2010 sales came from products that did not exist 3 years ago”.

Consider this for a moment. Apple have been around since 1976! This got me thinking. Although not all companies are as fast moving as Apple, there’s a lesson here for businesses about keeping up with our market, with what our clients want (or need), with changes in technology. In fact with every dynamic that may affect our company, our customers and the market we work in.

I’m sure we can all think of companies that have not kept pace with the changing market. The UK is, to our shame, littered with the remnants of once great companies that failed to do so.

So, here’s a quick 3 point action plan to ensure we keep up with the times! Use these questions to prick your conscience every day:

1. What do your clients think of you?

Find out what your existing clients think – good and bad. Then act on it. It gives you the opportunity to talk about new services/products you might be thinking about offering and to find out what’s happening in their business.

Choose the best and easiest method of contacting your customers depending on how much time you’ve got, how many customers you want to reach and what you want to find out.

Many companies use online or email-based surveys (you can use our email system C4B Messenger to do this). Others use a telemarketing service to call them.

Using an external telemarketing company will give you a lot of objectivity and if done properly will encourage clients to be frank and not worry about offending anyone. Online surveys allow you to target a lot of people, but the questions need to be very direct and specific and the format doesn’t allow room for “open” conversations.

Whatever you choose, always make time to talk to your customers yourself. Find out about your existing clients…….and keep up!

2. Who are your competitors – and what are they doing?

All businesses face competition. The internet adds competitive pressure because it gives people looking for products and services like yours the power to find alternative suppliers beyond just the local area.

We advise our clients to accept this, and to use it to their advantage. As a business owner, you can find out a lot about your competitors on their website, at trade shows, from their advertising and from their blogs and newsletters. Look at what they are offering and how they market themselves. Find out the prices they charge.

Adjust your approach accordingly, not necessarily by copying what your competitors do, but by improving on it, or by developing an alternate approach that stands out. You may also uncover areas in which you can partner with some of your competitors to mutual benefit, for instance by referring customers to each other.

In particular, keep tabs on companies that you respect for their success or that are working at a level you are aiming to get to. Find out about your competitors…….and keep up!

3. What and where are the relevant industry events and seminars?

Seminars, tradeshows and events give you an excellent opportunity to find out what’s going on in your market. Networking with like-minded people, checking out what other suppliers are offering and learning from expert presenters about likely future trends are just some of the benefits of attending.

There’s always a cost in terms of time and travel but trade shows like TFM & A are free to attend. View them as an investment.

While being surrounded by like minded people is always beneficial, it’s also inspiring to be rubbing shoulders with the successful business leaders and ideas people in your industry. Hearing first hand what they have to say, and listening in to your competitors’ presentations also gives you huge insight into areas that would otherwise be closed off to you.

You also have the opportunity to network, develop relationships and exchange business cards! Then, linking up with these people through online networks like LinkedIn gives you the power to reach out to hundreds more people.

That and actually breaking the mundane every day cycle, has its own benefits. Find out about events and tradeshows in your industry sector, know your market…….and keep up!