How B-to-B Retail Marketers Can Identify Strategies That Will Impact Sales
Do you know what the key is to identifying the right B-to-B marketing strategy? It's probably not what you're thinking. While a lot of people will suggest doing research, it's really not that simple. So what do you do?
A lot of things. You recognize that research is important but that not all research is created equally. You have to be willing to spend time understanding what channels will truly drive results and be relentless in walking away from opportunities that don't drive real results for your business. Here are a couple four things you can do to find the right strategies for you:
1. Talk to customers. Sounds quite elementary, doesn't it? You'd think that talking to customers is something that every organization does, but that's far from the truth. A lot of business relationships end once a client signs the deal, ultimately leaving organizations open to losing loyal customers to their competition.
Send surveys, get on the phone or schedule time to Skype. Talking to your customers can impact the bottom line by helping to retain them, but also opens up opportunities to generate referrals or gather insight on how you closed them.
2. Leverage social selling. Social selling gives you an opportunity to better understand your prospects. It gives you a chance to leverage social insights to better gauge how you should engage, and who exactly on your team is the right person to do so.
It's also a great way to nurture and strengthen relationships. We all know that relationships are the backbone of business, which makes social selling a no brainer. Social selling gives you a chance to learn more, engage more, and establish deeper and more meaningful connections with your customers.
3. Turn big data into smart data. Have you been using social media or technology for the past few years? If so, you've contributed to the millions and millions of data points that have created big data. You can tap into this big data through a wide range of technologies to gather key insights and identify new opportunities.
The key to leveraging big data is in your ability to filter through the noise to uncover smart insights that can help you identify the right channels to tell your story along with the right story to tell.
4. Go where your prospects gather. Another great way to identify sales-driven strategies is to go where your prospects are. The internet acts as a place where professionals gather on a regular basis in a combination of forums, networks, groups and chat rooms. Identifying one open forum or network could unlock a series of insights into how your prospects make decisions. Look for these opportunities to listen and possibly engage.
Rob Begg is the chief marketing officer of Introhive, a relationship analytics platform that helps sales teams plan, sell and retain customers.
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