"There are three big problems brewing between B2B marketing and sales teams. CEOs need to be aware of them because these challenges will directly affect 2019 growth."
Stephen Turcotte, President of Backbone Media, Inc.
The average B2B buyer is already 57% of the way through their buyer journey before engaging a supplier’s sales rep. Your customers have already done for themselves what you (or your sales reps) were hoping to do.
They’ve already identified a need, prioritized the need, looked at capabilities, and figured out the costs. So, by the time your prospects make the call (at the tip of the blue arrow), price is all they have left to discuss. With price as the only discussion point, your service offering has been commoditized. How does this affect your sales efforts? It’s simple: You get fewer quality inbound leads generated by marketing efforts and lower sales margins. Maybe you’ve already tried going down the solutions road to escape commoditization. But did the leads and margins continue to slip? Here’s a hint: You can’t just shift to solutions and expect the word to change. Your sales and marketing model must align with the new way your customers buy.
At any given time, only 3% of your market is actively buying. That’s right. Of the remaining 97%, 40% are poised to begin and 57% are not ready. If you focus on that thin blue slice of prospects who are actively buying, then much of your marketing and sales efforts are going to waste.
Even with all the potential in that 97%, research shows that most marketing and sales organizations don’t nurture leads that are not immediately ready to buy. Instead, they fill their pipeline with tons of warm leads at the top. Sales then cherrypicks the best ones so that the less-than-ready leads to “leak” out of the funnel for good.
In this era of the empowered consumer, marketing and sales still has to identify and pounce on the hot sales leads. But it must also nurture its valuable leads while they’re in the funnel to keep them engaged until they’re ready to buy.
Effective content attracts visitors and helps you convert and nurture prospects through the sales funnel. Some think that effective content is just telling prospects what they want to hear. But the key to compelling content is actually teaching the customer about their business needs. Content should provide prospects with compelling reasons to engage with you and take action.
Compelling content—the kind that engages prospects and converts them into customers—is a product of well-researched insight into the customer. Then, it takes an equally good process to bring the content to life in the form of a video, podcast, webinar, blog post, case study or ebook. Most B2B marketers understand the importance of creating engaging content but many completely miss the mark. That’s because most marketers don’t understand their customers well enough.
Backbone Media has developed a unique and cost-efficient marketing service
for small-to-medium B2B companies. Our Closed-Loop Marketing solution is
a proven marketing and sales growth engine that has helped our clients
transform their digital marketing efforts into a cohesive, measurable strategy.
It can work for you as well.
We do our homework so we minimize ramp up time. We’ll work as your virtual
marketing and sales team in a comprehensive yet affordable approach that
can help your business scale to new heights.
The Closed-Loop Marketing solution has two modules. Use either one—or both.
The Inside Sales Module installs a virtual inbound sales engine with a mission to cultivate new prospects for your sales and marketing pipelines. This program generates new LinkedIn connections and leads that are ready to engage.
The Marketing Module is centered around knowing your target audience. This insight drives the development of a content marketing strategy, sales outreach, setup of marketing automation and analytics tracking to generate qualified leads. New leads can then be nurtured via personalized automated lead nurturing sequences. Everything between marketing and sales is measurable and transparent.
If you want to learn more about how Closed-Loop Marketing can transform
your marketing and sales, we’ve got you covered.
For a limited time, we’re offering a one-hour strategy session for
qualified B2B professionals.
We’ll dive into your business, examine your challenges, and guide you
on how to take things to the next level.
There’s no obligation. So fill out the form and we’ll be in touch.
Then you’ll be on your way to marketing and sales success.
Backbone Media, inc.
69 Milk Street, Suite 306
Westborough, MA 01581 USA
P:
+508 366 2100 x201
W
: www.backbonemedia.com
Founded in 1996, Backbone Media, Inc. is one of the first original Search
Engine Optimization (SEO) firms. Nowadays, we take a more comprehensive
approach to helping companies build their content footprint and drive
revenue.
We’d love to discuss your next project with you. Give us a call, or contact
us here through the website, and let’s see if we can help maximize your
digital marketing ROI.