Sales and Marketing Strategies to Consider for 2012

Sales and Marketing Strategies to Consider for 2012:

Start looking ahead for how to improve business in 2012

As you head toward the end of 2011, you’re probably evaluating what you did well this past year and what you need to improve in 2012.

You may have adapted to the challenges of the struggling economy and seen your business grow. Or your business development and sales accomplishments may have fallen short, leaving you wondering what you need to do differently. If you fall into the latter category, here are some ideas that can help you turn things around.

1. Motivate Your Business Development Team

More firms are asking their principals to develop new business. But with already time-strapped schedules, those principals may be reluctant to give much effort to it. To help them get over that reluctance, Anne Scarlett says business development managers need to increase their desire to do good work for you.

“Make it a point to figure out each individual’s ‘happy buttons,’” writes Scarlett in her article 10 Ways to Keep Your Business Development Team Motivated and Productive. One person may hope that you’ll ask how they are doing on their studies for the LEED exam. Another may want you to take notice of an exceptional graphic that they produced for your presentation using BIM. Still another may respond best to a literal pat on the back.”

Scarlett also says it’s also important to maintain a human connection with team members, especially during stressful times. You should meet in person often and if possible, make your schedule flexible enough to be available at short notice to talk in person.

Further, consider offering rewards as incentives. Their liking you or having pride in their work may not be enough, especially in high-stress situation, Scarlett says.

“Figure out what your team members find the most rewarding (remember point #1, everyone is different) and offer those incentives,” she says.

2. Revise Your Trade Show Strategy

The traditional approach of going to a trade show to collect as many names and email addresses as possible is no longer an effective strategy. People go to shows to learn and connect with people. If you want to be among the people they connect with, you need innovative ways to educate them. Simply handing out collateral won’t cut it.

“You really need to engage with a little more interactive educational experience,” says Todd Schnick in his podcast interview The Trade Show Is Not Dead, but Your Show Strategy Might Be.

You can provide video demonstrations, teach classes, conduct in-person demonstrations, or interview industry experts. To further interest and engage with attendees, take advantage of technology such as social media, QR codes, and geo-location services, Schnick says.

The key is to pique their interest and then initiate a relationship.

“The strategy has to be I want to walk out of there with 25 real honest-to-goodness people who know who I am, care about what I can do and how I can serve them, and are interested in learning more. To me, that’s money versus a thousand meaningless emails or handing out a thousand trinkets,” says Schnick.

3. Get Your Foot in the Door of Large Companies

You might think being a jack of all trades and offering one-stop shopping will capture the interest of large companies that have a multitude of needs, but that isn’t the case, says Jill Konrath in her article The Best Way to Start Selling to Large Companies.

“When you dump your entire offering on them, you’re not connecting with any urgent or compelling business need. With no focus, there’s nothing there for your customers to grab on to,” she says.

A better approach is to focus on a specific business problem their current provider isn’t addressing. That means you need a strategy that revolves around a subset of your entire offering, Konrath says.

To get your foot in the door of large companies, look at existing clients to see if there are any similarities and if the approach used with them will work with new companies. You should also look for gaps in competitors’ offerings and pursue smaller pieces of business rather than go head to head with an incumbent.

Once you’re in and have proven yourself, then you can introduce the company to more of your services.

4. Align Your Sales and Marketing Teams

Failing to align your sales and marketing teams can result in your company being caught in the Sales Trap, writes Eric Keiles in his article The Sales Trap: Know It, Avoid It. Once caught, your sales efforts fail to generate good results and no amount of training, coaching, or support for the sales team will make a difference.

To remedy this, make sure the teams are in agreement with what a good lead is, that the marketing message matches the client need, that the marketing message gets to the real decision maker, and that the sales follow-up matches the marketing message.

“When your sales activity doesn’t match your business’ marketing, your salespeople get left behind,” says Keiles. “Businesses today often switch up marketing strategies quickly as different mediums (such as social networking) become more popular. When the sales department isn’t clued in, the whole operation looks confusing to the prospect, and the sale dies—especially when the competition’s marketing works in harmony with their salespeople.”

Photo by sardinelly