Know-How Exchange : Strategy

I think one of the primary needs of a CIO is to work with vendors who are technically up to speed, who have recently completed similar work, who understand the needs of their specific business and also understand their market.

Therefore I would suggest that one strategy would be to pick some specific cases in which you have recent excellent experiences and references, generate a list of similar businesses, write some short white papers or case studies, and get the word out.

It sounds like you need to do two forms of segmentation plus an exercise in mapping and matching the stages in the buyers and sellers journeys.

Let me explain:

First segment your customers into groups by the products they buy, and identify where the main value chunks are that contribute to the company's revenue streams.

Make sure you really understand the value proposition applying to each of those key segments.

Then examine the structure within each of the client companies in the key segments so you understand who you have to sell to; i.e. are they User-Buyers, Economic-Buyers, Approver-Buyers, or some other class. Use position titles instead if that helps.

Then examine the buyers journey, in terms of the steps they need to make in order to buy from you. Match those where possible against the steps you need to take to get them to each next step...

If that seems complicated (it really isn't) then go look at a book called The Leaky Funnel written by Hugh McFarlane who is a KHE member, you can get it from Amazon or via his profile here at https://www.marketingprofs.com/ea/profile.asp?userID=185982

This should give you:

- Who you should be selling to;

- What you are selling them;

- Why they are buying it;

- How they are buying it;

- Who you are selling to within the customer account;

- What steps you and they need to take for the sale to proceed smoothly.

Hope this helps.

ChrisB