"We don't get enough
qualified leads!" How many
times have you heard your VP of
Sales make this statement? The
common answer from marketing is
"we have generated lots of
leads, but sales doesn't follow
up on them." "But
these leads are not
qualified", would be the
familiar rebuttal from the sales
trenches.
The reason this is such a
frequent scene in the enterprise
software world is rather
obvious: what sales considers a
Lead is not what marketing calls
one. Marketing is looking for
interest; salespeople look for
budget, authority, and decision
timeframe.
I know it may sound
counterintuitive, but here is my
take: the most probable way to
guarantee that your lead
generation efforts miss what
sales calls "qualified
leads" is to aim for those
that are late in the buying
cycle.
Let me explain. Buyers that
are actively looking usually
make an effort to find and
evaluate potential solutions. If
such a buyer is not talking to
you, it could be for a number of
reasons:
- She never heard of you.
- He doesn't think you have
a viable solution.
- They have already narrowed
down the field.
All of these reasons are best
addressed by finding qualified
buyers early in the buying
cycle, or even before a cycle
has actually begun. To those of
you that are aware of Michael
Bosworth's Solution Selling and
Seth Godin's Permission
Marketing, this should all sound
very familiar.
What is the Role of
Marketing in Solution Selling?
The Solution Selling approach
advocates farming rather than
hunting. Hunting might work when
large herds of buyers keep
running in front of you, like we
had in the high-tech boom days.
But hunting is very difficult
and extremely unpredictable when
buyers are scarce.
The approach we propose may
take longer to develop, but it
is the only way that guarantees
results, if you stick to it.
1. Find a Real Problem
All too often I see dismal
sales and lead generation
results blamed on insufficient
budgets or lack of marketing
pizzazz, when the real reason is
lack of a compelling offer to
begin with. Since all buyers
have limited budgets and time,
only the very few top priority
problems get addressed at any
given time. I frequently hear
the statement "our biggest
competition is no
decision". That's a clear
sign that you haven't made it to
the top of your buyers' priority
list, which is usually an
indication that they don't feel
enough pain related to your
solution.
The problem you solve doesn't
have to be painful to a lot of
people, but it has to be painful
enough to some people to make it
to the top of their priority
list. Narrowing down your target
market will usually help finding
such a problem. Geoffrey Moore
offers a simple methodology for
identifying such "must
have" problems through use
case scenarios in Crossing the
Chasm. It is a good exercise to
examine how painful the problem
you solve really is.
Once you find a problem, talk
about it. Don't rush to the
solution. Then get your
customers to talk about it.
While you may solve a real
problem, your target audience
may still not be aware of the
extent of its implications. They
are also influenced by peer
pressure when it comes to
prioritizing the problems.
2. Know Your Target Market
(by name, including all decision
makers)
This theme is so fundamental
that I find myself going back to
it in ever discussion about
successful B2B marketing. There
is no point in talking about
your solution to someone who
doesn't suffer from the problem
you can solve. Your marketing
efforts should target only the
companies that could feel this
pain, whether they are aware of
it yet or not.
Targeting the right people
within these companies is just
as important. As Bosworth says
in Solution Selling, you cannot
make a sale until a decision
maker has recognized the problem
and the solution. As you build
your target market database, use
your initial contact within a
company to reach additional
contacts at relevant power
positions.
3. Develop Credibility and
Gain Increasing Levels of
Permission
Another reason for the
"no decision" syndrome
is that buyers don't see your
solution as viable. It may be
deemed too expensive or
technologically immature. Your
marketing dialogues should aim
to gain increasing level of
permission to study the specific
nuances of their problem and
demonstrate the viability of
your solution.
Too many lead generation
efforts focus on the question
"are you ready to
buy?" In Permission
Marketing, Seth Godin compares
marketing to dating. This would
be like trying to get a first
date by popping the "will
you marry me?" question.
Developing confidence and trust
with your buyers takes time and
requires multiple proof points.
Bosworth emphasizes the
importance of the reference
story to develop credibility and
get the buyer's attention.
Marketing has a primary role in
identifying these stories,
articulating them, and planting
them in multiple points of
interaction with potential
buyers, such as your website,
webinars, and other direct
marketing efforts.
As you can see, Solution
Selling and Permission Marketing
offer a very similar approach to
enterprise selling and
marketing:
- Looking for people who are
"ready to buy" is
a fallacy: all potential
buyers are qualified leads.
- Engage with them early and
develop trust and ongoing
dialogue.
- The role of marketing is
to gain increasing levels of
permission to help the buyer
learn more, first about the
problem and then about your
solution.
Can your marketing and sales
organizations agree on such
common approach? When should
sales get involved with a buyer?
We will further examine the
subject of marketing and sales
collaboration in future issues.
Stay tuned and -
let
us know what you think! »
