Marketers, Here's Your Wake-Up Call: Pay Attention to Process

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June 2009, Issue 64

Featured Article
Marketers, Here's Your Wake-Up Call: Pay Attention to Process
By Naylor Gray, Director of Global Marketing, Frost & Sullivan

These are new times we're living in. And for some people, these are tight times. They have a much different outlook on what they are buying and why they are buying it. So as marketers, we need to listen to our buyers, and respond appropriately.

Your

sales team understands the current shifts in buyer behavior at a very fundamental level. And in the recent Frost & Sullivan Growth Team Membership 2009 Sales Survey, we found that they consider one factor over all others when describing the biggest challenge to overcoming their key issues for 2009.

Believe it or not, that one factor is process. Wait, don't glaze over, yet. Process is kind of a boring term, but let's look at exactly what that means.

The Buyer Is In Control

It shouldn't come as a surprise to Marketing Watchdog Journal readers that buyer behavior is changing. There are a number of factors prompting this change. The change in the economy is certainly one, as is the availability of the Internet for research. The complexity of product offerings and the inherent length of the buying cycle have traditionally left online tools seriously disadvantaged against a well-equipped sales force in the BtoB space. However, that's no longer the case, though, as BtoB decision makers have clearly discovered the Web and are adopting it as the primary tool in their arsenal for learning about a company before engaging.

Your prospects are no longer relying on you to push information to them when you want it to be available. They are in control, and they can make decisions about whether to do business with your company without ever even interacting with you.

Sales Execs' Key Issues for 2009

At most organizations, the sales team is at the front lines of a shift created by this misalignment of the goals and objectives of the company and the goals and objectives of its prospects. Our recent survey of leading sales executives in North America and Europe* documents this shift, as sales executives cite these three key issues currently defining their 2009 sales strategies:

Targeting highest-potential new clients. What this really means is: How can the sales team avoid talking to all of those people who just aren't going to buy for whatever reason, so they can spend more time talking to the right people?
Responding to clients' changing business environment and challenges within it. Clients might have budget, but they definitely aren't going to respond to you and buy the exact same thing you sold them two years ago—times have changed.
Increasing share of wallet with current clients. Most companies have cut back everything at least a little bit. How are you differentiating yourself to keep and grow your client list?

*Source: Frost & Sullivan Growth Team Membership 2009 Sales Survey

How Does Process Help?

Here's why process is identified as their top roadblock: Process, or lack thereof, causes some organizations to generate large numbers of unqualified leads that do not convert to sales. In some instances, Frost & Sullivan has identified that over 90% of marketing-generated leads do not convert. Following up on all these leads is time-consuming and frustrating for sales. The addition of process—for targeting leads, for developing appropriate messages, for scoring the ones most likely to convert—is a huge driver of a happier sales team that can be more confident in the leads marketing is sending over.

What can you do? Revise your message creation process to stop treating all buyers exactly the same, paying more attention to their buying cycle rather than your selling cycle. Confirm and test your message positioning with customer research and market intelligence, then develop and refine a lead qualification process that tells you who to engage and who to nurture. Compare your actual practice of lead qualification to existing industry best practices (or next practices) and candidly assess your position. Lastly, acknowledge that some decision makers are extremely hard to reach, and have a process for identifying them and funneling them into high-value calls to action that offer information or insight that makes them willing to spend time with you.

Process, people and technology are the three most critical areas of development for top performing demand generators. This is a wake-up call to marketers. Your buyers and your sales team are telling you to change.

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Naylor Gray is the Director of Global Marketing for Frost & Sullivan.

Marketing Watchdog Journal is a monthly newsletter from Bulldog Solutions, a lead optimization and lead management company dedicated to helping our clients generate more, better leads and turn them into revenue. We welcome your feedback on this newsletter's content and design, and encourage you to share your ideas for topics you would like us to cover in future issues. Please send your comments or questions about Bulldog Solutions to Amy Bills, Director of Field Marketing.