Archive for Working with Sales
Why Do Buyers Agonize?
Posted by: | CommentsBuyers have been disappointed so often that they are determined not to be disappointed by you. Salespeople have told them, “No problem,” and whatever it was turned out to be a BIG problem. Websites have promised, “easy to use,” and the product ended up being infuriatingly unintuitive and didn’t do what it was supposed to do.
via Why Do Buyers Agonize? | Revenue Journal.
Stop selling. Start educating. Great article by Kristin.
Why Asking Sales What They Need from Marketing is a Bad Idea
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A cardinal sin of a marketer is to ask the sales team what they need to be competitive. The response to that question elicits a range of requests, often unrelated to the realities of the market.
Recently, two independent reports confirmed for me a trend I’ve been seeing for years: that sellers have far less control over how products are sold than they believe, and it’s buyers that are increasingly making up their minds before contacting a supplier.
MarketingSherpa published a B2B Marketing Benchmark Survey that reported that B2B sales cycles are getting shorter.
The MarketingSherpa survey correlated lower deal prices to shorter sales cycles, but I believe something more significant is happening.
The Corporate Executive Board published a study reporting that…
“Buyers are not contacting suppliers until they are, on average, 57% of the way through their purchase process —meaning they have already determined their needs, completed due diligence, and have even begun to do some comparison shopping.”
Given this market dynamic, asking the sales team what they need would be a foolish exercise and a waste of company resources. In the end, the sales team would get what they asked for, but not get what they need to be competitive.
Customer engagement starts well before first contact with a salesperson and they are much further along in their purchase decision. Whether the prospect makes contact or not will largely be determined by the information provided to the buyer, the company’s reputation, and market visibility. The marketing team, therefore, plays a decisive role in helping prospects with needs determination and due diligence.
Update: Additional insight from Beth Negus Viveiros over at Chief Marketer
“Recent Corporate Executive Board research shows that B2B customers may look at up to 10 sources of information about potential purchases prior talking to a vendor. Many of these sources are typically not supplier related. In a survey of 1,900 B2B customers, word of mouth was cited by 72% of respondents, while 62% cited non-supplier blogs and 47% cited trade journals.”
How to Say ‘No’ Without Getting Fired (part 3)
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Marketers struggle to say ‘No’ to requests they know are frivolous. Sometimes it’s just easier to go with the status quo than make waves. But admit it: you (and your team) do a lot of extra stuff that is a waste of time and resources.
Part 1 was about linking everything you do in marketing to the goals the CEO values.
Part 2 discussed the importance of knowing your buyers.
The final installment of “How to Say ‘No’ Without Getting Fired” is an exploration into one more thing effective product marketers need to know: the buyer’s process for making a purchase decision.
Buyers follow a process that leads to a purchase decision
Why should anyone in Marketing be concerned about how buyers buy? Your Sales team takes care of that, right?
Salespeople are expected to know how buyers in an individual deal make a purchase decision. Marketing should know how buyers in a market segment make a purchase decision.
First, there are patterns (steps) in the way buyers in a market segment arrive at a purchase decision. The pattern is logical and predictable. Second, there are different buying roles that get involved in making a purchase decision, and they get involved at different times in the process for different reasons. Third, is the two previous items sets the stage for identifying marketing gaps that can facilitate a purchase decision, and help prioritize marketing projects.
According to the Corporate Executive Board…
“57 percent of the purchase decision is complete before a customer calls a supplier, providing a large opportunity for Marketing to influence the early stages of the purchase process.” – http://www.executiveboard.com/sales-marketing/challenger/insight-led-marcomm/index.html
Where do you go from here?
Three things are needed to confidently say ‘No’ to frivolous marketing requests without getting fired:
- Having a clear understanding of business goals and how they relate to what you do
- Mastery of the people who influence a purchase decision
- Knowledge of the purchase decision process
Saying ‘No’ Without Getting Fired is about knowledge not power. Oh and it makes it much easier to say ‘Yes’ with confidence too.
The Sales Engineer Guy: What is a Sales Engineer (SE)?
Posted by: | CommentsA Sales Engineer is a part of a technology sales team, for an organisation trying to sell Hardware, Software or Services. The sales engineer’s role is to ensure the technical part of this sale removes any obstacles and helps ensure the deal happens with a good value to the seller.
Read more in The Sales Engineer Guy: What is a Sales Engineer (SE)?.
How the Rift Between Sales and Marketing Undermines Reps – Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson – Harvard Business Review
Posted by: Steve Johnson on November 10, 2011 | Comments (0)In a recent Corporate Executive Board survey, sales executives’ top terms for their marketing colleagues included “paper pushers,” “academic,” and perhaps worst of all, “irrelevant.” On the other hand, marketing executives called out their sales counterparts as “simple minded,” “cowboys,” and flat out “incompetent.” Strikingly, across several hundred sales and marketing responses, a full 87% were negative.
Read more in How the Rift Between Sales and Marketing Undermines Reps – Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson – Harvard Business Review.