Winning the Sale Starts with Winning Marketing
Competition for your prospects’ business is fierce. It’s likely that your competition’s sales team is just as hungry as yours. However, it’s not...
2 min read
Dean Moothart : April 10, 2017
There seems to be a misconception with some that inbound marketing is only for companies that have simple, straightforward, easy-to-understand products in mature (or at least well-established) markets. It makes sense that people will search online for products like office supplies, florists, or pest control services. The keywords for these web searches are fairly obvious, and the products are universally understood by the market. Consequently, it’s imperative that these types of products and services be found online, and their websites should be optimized to capture efficiently and convert visitors into leads and leads into customers.
If your business falls into one or more of these categories, your biggest challenge is not to sell to your target market, but first to educate them. They need to know more than who you are, what you do, and how to contact you.
In short, your target market needs to view you less as a vendor and more as a thought leader, a subject-matter expert and trusted advisor. Easier said than done, right?
Having one-on-one meetings with your target decision-makers and influencers to explain your credentials and solutions is one way of accomplishing this. It’s also extremely inefficient and unrealistic. It’s difficult to get people to carve out even a few minutes in their busy schedules. Hey, it’s even challenging to get them to answer your phone call or read your email.
People have been conditioned to believe that every meeting, phone call, and email is a sales pitch. And people don’t want to be sold to. However, they do want to be educated.
“80% of business decision-makers prefer to get company information in a series of articles vs. an advertisement.” —Forrester Research
So what if you could build a process that…
That would be great, right? That’s what Inbound Marketing does. The fact is, inbound marketing is even more appropriate, more urgently needed, when the product is complex or relatively new, or when it requires some research or education before it can be purchased, or a provider can be selected.
Inbound marketing is about creating marketing content that people seek out, not the kind that people run away from. By publishing the right content in the right place at the right time, your marketing can become relevant and helpful to your prospects. You’ll educate your prospects and over time, and they will begin to understand your solution, your unique differentiators, and the potential value that you can bring to their business—no matter how complex it may be.
Editor's Note: This post was originally published June 12, 2015 and has been updated.
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