Archive for Marketing Funnel
Work in Process is Wasteful even in Sales and Marketing
Posted by: | CommentsOne of the tenants I am convinced of is that Work in Process is wasteful and unproductive. If you look at this from a Sales and Marketing Process it basically says that the more people you have in your sales and marketing funnel the more unproductive you are. A blog recently by Jim Benson of Personal Kanban said this (and more) in a recent post Inventory makes Work:
Inventory lowers organizational effectiveness because the time and money spent taking care of the inventory could have been spent making the company more successful. Therefore, Lean organizations tend to receive the things they need to operate at the last responsible moment, this is called “Just in Time” (JIT). A JIT organization does not take on inventory until the moment they need it and therefore spends as little as possible maintaining inventory, greatly reducing the risk of having overstock.
But inventory isn’t just “stuff.” Inventory for us as individuals includes anything we have that requires maintenance or on-going attention. We have responsibilities, they aren’t going away. We will have a yard, it will need to be mowed. Dishes need to be washed. Children need to be raised.
Inventory for sales and marketing is prospects! As you think about what stops your marketing from being effective it is all about trying to appeal to the masses and as a result losing effectiveness both in time and money. As Jim said above, you should be taking the time making your company more successful and working on ineffective or wasteful leads is not going to do it.
The past several years the buzz word has been Inbound Marketing. Though I am a advocate of the basic approach and an advocate of using Social Media I have found that it really has resulted in a failed marketing strategy for many companies. Though it has increased the number of prospects it has done little to increase qualified buyers. That is why there has been push back from many organizations. It just has not been effective as the principle seems to indicate. Just because we automated the process does not mean we are managing Work in Process better.
So what happens if we limit work in process or the numbers of leads that we receive? Marketing to a targeted audience results in a cost savings and time savings. Would you need to hire more salespeople? Would you be able to use more experienced people at the right time and in the right place more often? Would you nurture and promote to a better qualified prospect? I believe the most important part of limiting Work in Process is that your message would simply be better. Not only would your information packet be much more targeted and information rich, it would also have a better chance to be delivered on time or in other words when a prospect is ready for it. Giving a prospect what he needs, when he needs it and how he wants it is a pretty important factor in today’s market. If you look at what vehicles prospects and your customers use to acquire the information they need, you will notice one important factor: they are just about all different. Multiplying that number by the number of prospects should certainly give you reason to start narrowing your field.
Why is now, the best time to convert to this strategy? The market itself has caused a constriction for most companies. This constriction has narrowed your market that should enable you to readily identify your target market. What are the last minute adjustments or concessions you make (JIT) to capture the sale? These are the present value drivers of your business. Are these the value drivers that you are willing to live with in the long term? How do they help you in identifying your present and future market?
Work in process is wasteful. It is wasteful in your personal life when not managed well, it is bad in manufacturing, it is bad from a sales and marketing perspective. Quit marketing at the top of your funnel. Instead learn how to manage your Work in Process!
P.S. By the way, I don’t even believe in a marketing funnel anymore. I will tell you more about that later!
Related Posts:
Improve throughput, cut your customers in half!
Lean your Marketing thru Segmentation
Are you in your Prospects Circle of Trust?
Posted by: | CommentsIn the movies, Meet the Parents and Meet the Fockers the soon to be Father in Law, Jack, so brilliantly played by Robert DeNiro had a Circle of Trust that Ben Stiller, Greg, so desperately tries to become accepted into. Greg just keeps stumbling as he tries to penetrate that invisible barrier. As you sit back and look at the different things that happen; the cat’s tail, the truth serum and the babysitting adventure you may be able to create an analogy of your own trust building attempts with prospects. Have you ever tried being a little more than you are? Have you ever attempted to disguise the truth? Probably not, but have you ever told a prospect what you really thought of them?
We many times talk about partnering; being close or a term I like to use is to be intimate with our customers. In essence, we are really after gaining their acceptance, exactly what Greg Focker so valiantly tries. Have you ever felt like your prospects are checking you out in their own control center and sometimes even unfairly? No matter what size of sale though, you do have to crack that circle of trust. Fortunately, seldom do you have to gain the trust of such a skeptic like Jack.
I find it interesting that many of us struggle in this area; I certainly do on just defining what trust might mean to our customers. That word “Trust” how do you define that? Do you believe trust emerges from meeting obligations or just being open with a prospect? That’s probably part of it. But these alone will not build trust. To leverage the power of choice in interpersonal relationships, trust must be built into the fabric of the relationship through continual reinforcement. It must be focused, manage, nurtured, and rewarded. Before someone decides to grant trust in a working relationship, a calculation goes on in the mind. The person granting your permission into their Circle of Trust can be simplified around these four dimensions:
- Confidence: Does the person have the skills necessary to accomplish the past?
- Reliability: Does the person deliver what is expected, when it is expected and in the form it is expected?
- Open/Honest communications: Is the person forthright in his or her dealings?
- Caring: Is this person willing to defend the interests of the other, even when that interest may affect his or her own interests?
According to the book,The Strongest Link: Forging a Profitable and Enduring Corporate Alliance, if the person scores are low on any one dimension, trust is difficult to achieve. The higher the person scores in each dimension, the stronger the trust. If someone is confident, reliable, honest, and willing to risk their career for you, what’s not to like about them? Ask anyone about these dimensions of trust, and they usually place confidence, reliability, and honesty on the list. However, caring is a different issue. We asked people in a business relationship how they show caring for their counterparts, he had some interesting answers. Typical responses you should listen to the prospects views, think about issues from their perspective, and include that person in all decision-making. But that answer does not go deep enough. Carrying in a business relationship means taking risk even risks that threaten one’s own standing in the firm. That is where true trust lies.
It would be great if your salespeople could develop this kind of trust. However, stop for a second and ask; does your organization build this kind of trust, internally and externally?
Rethinking your Sales Cycle
Posted by: | CommentsJohn Holland and Tim Young have just co-authored a book titled Rethinking the Sales Cycle: How Superior Sellers Embrace the Buying Cycle to Achieve a Sustainable and Competitive Advantage. This book contains a detailed explanation of the three phases of the buying cycle popularized by Mike Bosworth in Solution Selling and had been created in a dinner conversation with Neil Rackham, author of Spin Selling. If anyone has ever discussed sales and marketing with me for any length of time; the buying cycle, Spin Selling and Solution Selling has crept into the conversation. In fact, the buying cycle I include in just about every presentation I give on marketing. I have depicted a copy of it below that I use instead of the more common graph.
An Excerpt from a presentation I recently did with this slide:
The next thing that I want to take a quick look at is the actual buying phases of a customer. This is from the book, Solution Selling. The slide is particularly interesting and I’ve used it for a very long time. Just think of someone that goes into a store to purchase an item. What they need for their solution and the cost of it is a primary concern as they walk in the door. The salesperson greets them and discusses their needs and price range. They suggest the proper solution. The prospect gets excited about the solution. You know this is the solution you need and the cost is not a primary importance. The risk factors start becoming a concern on whether this store, company can deliver the product. Are they trustworthy? Can they do what is required? Now, a decision needs to be reached. Price again becomes a factor and risk starts climbing up again. What can you take from this? You must provide value statements during the early phases and reduce the risk and price issues that will certainly surface. You have to have very specific value points and they must have been made very clear to the prospect throughout the buying phases. Just as importantly, you have to be a safe choice. Fear (Risk) will break or make the decision at the end of the buying cycle. Many times, you will lose to larger competition or a better brand name and at the final hour, just because of the risk.
Rethinking the Sales Cycle takes this concept and uses it as the base for the book. However, they go much further in discussing modern day concepts as they apply to this cycle. What attracted me most about the book is their ability to bridge that online to offline gap that I believe that has been developing. Crossing that Chasm, a meaningful pun attended, will be an interesting course of events in the next few years.
This is first and foremost a sales book with marketing in the supportive role. It is line of thinking that I enjoy reading. From that viewpoint, I typically gather more direct actionable ideas that are pertinent to my customers and theirs. From the book:
Let’s Make Deal
- Eliminate the use of deal from your vocabulary
- Eliminate the use of phrase sales cycle (I have started a crusade today on getting rid of the Marketing Funnel)
- Refrain from using the term buyer objection
- Do not focus on a close date; focus on when a prospect will be ready to buy.
This book goes over similar material that I have written about and labeled Mirror Marketing. The old saying about marketing: It’s not about you, it’s about the customer. I think salespeople understand that so well (The Eagles always understood!).
Read the book!
P.S. The question I have for the authors is if I should eliminate using the phrase sales cycles, why did they use it?
Related Search: Mirror Marketing
