Marketing and Sales Techniques that Work in Today’s Market

Jennifer VesselsJuly 15, 2009

Today’s World

Keys to Success Today

1. Spend sales time on Sales Ready prospects

2. Manage the pipeline closely

3. Build credibility through marketing assets

4. Focus messages to specific audiences

5. Refine approaches to address today’s needs

Alignment of Sales and Marketing

Branding, PR, advertising

Website, SEO, direct mail

Events, seminars, trade shows, webinars

Inbound telephone/email/web inquiries

Lead nurturing opt-in email

Sales calls, meetings

Follow-up/close

Problem identification

Solution exploration

Solution selection

Vendorselection

Engage

Inquiry(Suspect)

Lead(Prospect)

Sales-Ready Lead

Qualified Prospect

Customer

Lea

d N

urtu

ring

Pro

cess

Sale

s Pro

cess

Marketing Success Today

Trade Shows

Seminars

Telemarketing for leads

Broad campaigns

Purchasing a list of contacts

Direct mail

Brochures

Advertising

Prior to 2007

Search engines

Virtual events and workshopsCalling on clients/partnersSegmented campaignsDevelopment of house listUse of marketing assets

Vendor websites

Social media

Today’s World

Marketing to YOUR target audience

• Specific ads, offers in third party newsletters, white papers

Small organizations:

• Case studies, webinars, emails re new research andhow-to’s

Medium size organizations:

• Personal relationships, targeted success stories, virtual workshops

Enterprise:

The Value Selling Process

Value Selling CustomerEngagement Process

Create Interest with Prospects

• Introduce yourself and your company

• Share the value YOU bring to clients

• Relate to their issues • Provide validation and

proof • Ask for follow-up

Purpose: Create demand for further discussion

ACTIVITY: Elevator Pitch

• Consider one of your clients or prospects • What are their ‘top of mind issues’• Fine tune your elevator pitch based on the

framework• Prepare to practice with the group• Listen for:

• Value of ‘what you do’• Link to top of mind issues• Validation and proof

Uncovering Customer Needs

• Sales diagnosis is performed by questioning and listening

• Question to direct conversation into areas that allow you to determine if the prospect has needs for your solution.

• Listen to issues, problems, or opportunities that you can impact.

Don’t prescribe before you diagnose!

Uncovering Needs DialogueM

utual Value

Needs Payoff

Implication

Problem

Status

Value Selling CustomerEngagement Process

Business Value of Your Offerings

• Functional

• Financial

• Emotional

Assessing your Sales People

• Hiring the RIGHT sales people

• Time management and utilization• Calling on sales ready leads• Focus on qualified accounts

• Value Selling Skills• Use of discovery questions• Building the business case

• Ultimate assessment is in the pipeline

What you can do today

1. Enhance value sales techniques

2. Assess / improve sales team’s effectiveness

3. Nurture leads until they are Sales Ready

4. Build targeted marketing campaigns

5. Refine messages to address today’s needs

Action Plan

Action Completed By

1.

2.

3.

I commit to completing the following actions within the month:

Next Step Delivers Revenue Results

• Take your company to the Next Step through:• Alignment of sales and marketing programs • Cost-effective lead generation / nurturing programs• Assessment and enhancement of sales team

effectiveness • Targeted marketing programs that deliver revenue

results.

“Thanks to Next Step we now have the right team, sales process and marketing resources in place for peak

performance despite the current economic conditions.”

“Thanks to Next Step we now have the right team, sales process and marketing resources in place for peak

performance despite the current economic conditions.”

Amir Zoufonoun CEO Exalt Communications

Jennifer VesselsNext Step

650.361.1902www.nextstepgrowth.com

Marketing and Sales Techniques that Work in Today’s Market