By Mike San Fratello, Principal, PathCut Partners, LLC
In this article, you will learn:
1. How to create meaningful marketing materials that can optimize the power of your sales-force; and
2. How to do a self-assessment so your marketing materials have more impact.
The American Marketing Association reports that people in sales don’t use about 90% of the materials that are created for them by the marketing department. Think of it this way: for every dollar spent on sales materials, only 10 cents worth gets used. The only way it could get any worse is if the materials were translated into ancient Aramaic.
Very few companies do a good job communicating information about complex business solutions to buyers with complex business problems. How can marketing get more meaningful content into the sales team’s hands?
The root cause of the problem is that for most marketers, the complex sales process is something of a black box. If they don’t really understand how a sale progresses from start to finish, what the sales representative needs to accomplish to be successful, or who is involved from a prospect organization, we can’t be surprised that they can’t create content to support it. Instead, they over-focus on features and functionality and usually throw in some meaningless phrases like “The leading vendor in…” and “A top provider of…” Every competitor sounds the same.
This all results in the sales team calling on multiple decision makers and influencers across various functions with the same generic materials, value propositions, and messaging. It means the sales person has to be able to “figure it out” on their own so they can bridge the gap between the decision maker’s business needs and what the solution does to meet those needs. It’s important to understand: Buyers don’t really care how something works; only what it can do for them (e.g. I don’t care how the operating system on my PC manages more than one open application – I only care that it enables me to work on multiple things at once!).
Here’s a quick self-assessment for your organization. Ask yourself if members of your Marketing Communications or Product Marketing teams can answer the following questions:
- Who are the decision-makers and influencers involved in a typical deal?
- For each decision-maker or influencer involved in a typical deal, what are the top five to ten business problems, or needs?
- For each business problem or need, what are the top five to ten business impacts? A business impact results from a problem. For example, if product development delays occur (the problem) impacts might include sales results that suffer due to product availability, sales force turnover may increase because good sales representatives can find better opportunities elsewhere, customer retention may decline because competitors have a better product to meet needs, and so on.
- For each business problem and its associated impacts, can they articulate how your solution addresses each, how it is differentiated from what competitors are saying, and how each difference creates value for the buyer’s business?
If your Marcom team can’t answer these questions, you’re about average. Few companies have taken a content development approach that targets individual decision makers and influencers. That means sales reps don’t have the content support they need to be able to engage with different decision makers and influencers, and it shows. Recent research among business executives evaluated less than one in ten sales calls as worth their time (PathCut Research 2007). Content that lacks relevance isn’t engaging—you won’t capture the buyer’s attention for one minute, let alone making an impression that stands out when the buyer is evaluating your proposal or considering who to recommend to a peer. However, focus the information to the individual needs of each person in the decision process, and you can differentiate your solution very effectively!
We’re not suggesting you only hire Marcom team members with a background in sales. It means that you develop targeted content based on who the key decision makers and influencers are, what their primary business problems are, and how your solution addresses these issues. There are numerous advantages to implementing a targeted content approach no matter how large or small your organization may be. First and foremost – sales reps will be better equipped to engage with prospects and have a ready resource of meaningful information that is targeted for each decision maker or influencer. Marketing will increase its relevancy and ultimately improve ROI. Certainly, usage of materials created by marketing will increase. When content is specific to your prospect’s needs, it helps you break through the clutter differentiate your solution and your company, and close more business.
Mike San Fratello is the Founder and Principal of PathCut Partners, LLC, a company that delivers sales effectiveness solutions through the development of content strategy and targeted content that enables sales people to better engage decision makers and close more business in less time.
© 2008 The 60 Second Marketer
