As a kid, I loved the “Choose Your Own Adventure” books. I found it interesting that depending on how you chose to read the book, it would turn out with a different ending. There were usually some endings that were more “winning” than “losing”. At first reading, I would always try to figure out what type of “moves” in the books would lead me to the best outcome.
The love for those books prepared me well for getting the right prospects for clients, because the way that you go through the process of Marketing and Selling can determine whether you are a “winner” or a “loser” in your business.
Scenario: Mike has a $150 out-of-the-box software package that helps consultants with their time tracking. Prospective Consultants could be from a wide variety of industries and geographies. Mike has one very experienced sales executive. Other than that, he does not have a large staff, but he hopes to build one in the future as the business grows.
Choice 1: Sales or Marketing?
Sales and Marketing often report to the same people or department. Although there are many war stories of Marketers who have hated reporting to clueless Sales bosses, or Salespeople who have hated reporting to head-in-the-clouds Marketing bosses, since they don’t understand each other, I think that it is pretty clear that we are doing the same thing: bringing in new business.
Sales is more “custom” and marketing as more mass appeal. Although there are many ways to customize marketing with geotargeting and demographically targeted messages, there is really nothing that beats having a live person talking to another live person. For example, custom vertical market software packages with a 40K + price tag will likely need more sales, since there are probably very few people that would go through some customized pre-built software wizard where the options would be so endless as to make it not worthwhile to build. Given that the nature of the product is out-of-the-box, it seems that Mike should opt for Marketing.
Sales is better for a known market. If Mike’s software was for hospitals in Canada for example, doing a broad-based campaign does not make sense, since it is known that there are about 600 hospitals in Canada and the prospects within them are known on many lists. Since the market is unknown and international, Mike should go for Marketing. However, he should have people on-hand to do phone sales where necessary.
Choice: Marketing
Choice 2: Search or Direct Marketing?
Online campaigns are effective for many products or services. Typically, I use online marketing campaigns for a market of unknown targets. It can be useful for markets with known targets, since sometimes it is not the person within the organization that you think it is doing the primary research. For example, a low-level clerk can be doing preliminary research for a buy decision, and could leave your company out if you are not reaching them through sales channels, but I use this as a secondary tactic only. Since the targets are unknown, I would lean towards search.
Although search is king when it comes to online marketing, it does not always get the best quality prospects. Prospects that are known to you, such as old customers that are on an opt-in list, will be much more loyal. Prospects found through search are ones who are thinking of you as a contestant among a long line of people, rather than thinking of you and only you. For example, you line up Hollywood’s hottest actors, and you compare and measure their features against each other. But if any of those actors walked into your local coffee shop, he would quickly become the centre of the room. Since Mike does not have an opt-in list, and has few connections in the industry, I think search marketing is appropriate.
Choice: Search Marketing
Choice 3: Qualify or Don’t Qualify?
I have already mentioned that search prospects are lower quality than those who are known to you. The question of qualifying the leads or not is a good one. Because of the potential quality issue, I would say that Mike should qualify.
Forms are often intimidating to users, and lead to sharp drop-off. Like many in the industry, I tend to shy away from them. Instead of large forms, use simple ones that collect little information. If there is a large volume of filled-in forms, I will suggest getting a more junior person to qualify them. If this is an intimidating prospect, it is always possible to get a work-from-home lead qualifier who will do it part time, or some companies source this abroad (I am not against this in principle, but I have simply never seen it done with success).
Having a qualifier is also good if there are more high-quality salespeople. If they are wasting their time on leads that are not worthwhile, they won’t have time to use their sales skills. Since Mike’s salesperson is very experienced, I would lean towards having a qualifier.
Choice: Qualify
I don’t have all the “choose your own adventure” options here, so you can’t see what the “losers” ended up with. But, I hopefully this adventure will help elucidate your adventure.
