As marketers our goal is to enable sales....obviously! But as we plan our programs and execution, we have to understand the sales process, align activities with it, and what types of marketing programs are required for each step. Here is a basic rule you can follow:
There are four major stages a buyer goes through.
1. Awareness:
This is the stage where the buyer becomes aware of your offering, and knows who you are. Most marketing activities that fall into this category include public relations (PR), analyst relations (AR), web site optimization, adwords, and all activities designed to increase general awareness.
2. Knowledge / Education
This is the state where the buyer knows what you are offering, but wants to become more educated, not only in your solution, but also what he should care about in the decision making process. Marketing activities that align with this category are items such as educational webinars, seminars, whitepapers, white boarding videos, data sheets and other collateral that help the prospect get better educated about your solution, but also about the general topic of which the solution addresses.
3. Trial
Now that the prospect knows who you are, knows what you do, and how you do it, and what he cares about, the next thing they want to do is to touch, fell and see the product in action. This is where the 'trial' stage comes in. You need to make it possible for the customer to experience the product. You can offer custom one-on-one online demos, a version of your product (if software based) to be downloaded for free or for a trial period. Perhaps you want to offer the user a full blown product limited to a few days. At a minimum you should provide some short videos of the product that show the value of the product in an easy to understand format. What I have seen work well is standing demos that occur during a set time in the week that people can join and see the product in action.
4. Preference
This is the final stage where you want to be the preferred vendor to work with, when all else, such as product capabilities, price, etc. is equal. The customer at this point wants to avoid risk to his business, himself and their budget. You want to comfort him that by buying from you, the risk is the lowest compared to anyone else. Here you want to invest heavily in customer testimonials, case studies, ROI calculators, and other tools to validate to the customer that the decision to buy from you is the right decision. Being responsive to their requests, giving them a taste of your excellent support organization, and showing them that it is easiest to do business with you also helps.
Now you know the 4 basic stages of a sales process. Everything you do in marketing needs to align with one of the stages.
There are four major stages a buyer goes through.
1. Awareness:
This is the stage where the buyer becomes aware of your offering, and knows who you are. Most marketing activities that fall into this category include public relations (PR), analyst relations (AR), web site optimization, adwords, and all activities designed to increase general awareness.
2. Knowledge / Education
This is the state where the buyer knows what you are offering, but wants to become more educated, not only in your solution, but also what he should care about in the decision making process. Marketing activities that align with this category are items such as educational webinars, seminars, whitepapers, white boarding videos, data sheets and other collateral that help the prospect get better educated about your solution, but also about the general topic of which the solution addresses.
3. Trial
Now that the prospect knows who you are, knows what you do, and how you do it, and what he cares about, the next thing they want to do is to touch, fell and see the product in action. This is where the 'trial' stage comes in. You need to make it possible for the customer to experience the product. You can offer custom one-on-one online demos, a version of your product (if software based) to be downloaded for free or for a trial period. Perhaps you want to offer the user a full blown product limited to a few days. At a minimum you should provide some short videos of the product that show the value of the product in an easy to understand format. What I have seen work well is standing demos that occur during a set time in the week that people can join and see the product in action.
4. Preference
This is the final stage where you want to be the preferred vendor to work with, when all else, such as product capabilities, price, etc. is equal. The customer at this point wants to avoid risk to his business, himself and their budget. You want to comfort him that by buying from you, the risk is the lowest compared to anyone else. Here you want to invest heavily in customer testimonials, case studies, ROI calculators, and other tools to validate to the customer that the decision to buy from you is the right decision. Being responsive to their requests, giving them a taste of your excellent support organization, and showing them that it is easiest to do business with you also helps.
Now you know the 4 basic stages of a sales process. Everything you do in marketing needs to align with one of the stages.
