Identify, connect, explore, advise. We use a variation on Hubspot’s inbound sales method, but the main points are the same: by educational and consultative in your sales process. The idea (and, in practice, the reality) is that prospects have already done a majority of their research about you and your products before they are ready to talk to a salesperson. As a result, salespeople must adapt to today's buyers.
As content marketing becomes a more important part of your B2B marketing strategy as a whole, traditional roles of sales and marketing teams are being revised.
The best, and sometimes worst, part of these digitized times is that an abundance of information is a few clicks, taps or swipes away. The upside is that, if you are a stealthy enough, you can triumph in any trivia game. The downside is that consumers are inundated with a staggering stream of information on a daily basis. The average urban American is exposed to an outrageous 5,000 advertisements each day through television, radio, websites, billboards and various social media portals, according to NYTimes.com.
I have to admit to some major annoyance lately by people trying to sell to me using social media. Normally I’m a big proponent of social media as a business tool. Recently though, it seems like the sales pitch is in my inbox before I’ve finished clicking the “Accept” button to connect. It’s part of a bigger communication issue in our society often described like this: We don’t listen with the intent to understand; we listen with the intent to reply. I mean, how can someone send me a sales pitch when they don’t even know what my pain point is?
I had four things on my to-do list today:
Our home-base of Milwaukee, Wisconsin is hosting the International Cheese Technology Expo just up the road from our office this week. Our strategist has written about prepping for tradeshows the inbound way, but how are you planning to conduct lead follow up post-show? Or, better yet, during the show? With inbound, the final to-do item on my list isn't disa-brie-able at all (see what I did there?). Don’t make these critical errors when following up on qualified leads.
