Know-How Exchange : Strategy

Start by reading Hugh MacFarlane's book "The Leaky Funnel". Details at Amazon or at www.mathmarketing.com .

The book describes a fictional company's development of a sales process which matches the buyer's journey.

You need to develop two parallel processes (Sales and Buyer) to map the paths to the intended destination of a sale. The time it takes to develop will be repaid multiple times over in understanding the process and ensuring you cultivate the clients to "keep the funnel flowing".

It's not some new-age management fad-of-the-month, this is based on all the solid principles pioneered and used by IBM and Xerox several decades ago. But packaged up simply and comprehensively.

Need more help? Contact me via my profile.

ChrisB

Tall order, Sarah... You can't do research, you want the cycle duration to be constrained to 3 months, you haven't told us what the product is, you just want an answer now?

I can tell you what I know, but it's already apparent that whatever process you define today will probably be unrealistic. Here goes...

One:
Touch each target 6 times with PR, trade advertising, keyword purchases, and search engine optimization tactics. This will generate contacts.


Two:
Touch each contact 4 times with direct marketing techniques such as direct mail, ezine publishing, self-guided demos, exhibiting at trade shows and association conferences. This will generate prospects.


Three:
Touch each prospect 4 times with telesales follow-up, emarketing follow-up, and promotional offers.


Four:
Convert those prosects into paying customers.

Easy, isn't it? ;]

Shelley

Sarah,
The first rule of sales is that you have to be in front of the prospect when he wants to buy not when you want to sell, so I think you can forget the 3 months sales cycle; the prospect will decide if it is 3 months or 12 months. At a total market size of 150, I assume that you are talking about high value ($100K+) sales/life time value for each customer, otherwise you may have to question if the sector is worth targeting e.g. if each sale is worth $10k the total potential, even if you got 100%, is $1,500K over perhaps 5 years.

If you are talking about the higher end of the price scale, the prospect will certainly drive the process, rather than you forcing it into 3 months. You mention that some are existing users of competitive products. What is the average life of the product? Will the customer replace the product every 3 or every 5 years. If it is every 5 years, then on average one fifth of the 150 total potential market will go to the market to purchase each year.

Thus, the total potential in any one year is 30 sales opportunities.

You need to identify influencers and decision makers in each of the 150 prospect organisations, as you have no way of knowing which 30 are ready to buy this year. You then need to begin a dialog with these people. The purpose of the dialog should be to create awareness of your company and your solution, so that when they are ready to buy that you have created the credibility that they are prepared to consider you as a potential supplier. Direct mail and particularly email (if you get permission) are particularly effective in carrying out the dialog at a low cost. Items like white papers and case studies that are useful to the prospect and underline your expertise are far more effective that flashy brochures or any number of pens or USB keys.

Now that you have established a low cost dialog with the total potential market you need to establish where each of them are in the buying process, i.e. which ones will go to the market this year.

What pain does your product address? Where are each of the 150 in terms of having the pain and how severe is that pain? Do they recognise the pain and are they prepared to do something about it now (the next 12 months)? Those who are prepared to take action are your short list of better quality leads. For those who are prepared to do something, have they set a timescale and have they approved a budget?

You then need to define the buying process that the prospect will go through until he has become a satisfied customer for some supplier. Definition of the need to address the pain, evaluation of alternative solutions, supplier selection, contract negotiation, etc.

Your sales process has to mirror the buying process. Only when the prospect has resolved the issues in each stage of the buying process, will he move on to the next stage. The aim of your selling process should be to address each of his issues better that the alternative suppliers.

Bear in mind that the sales process has to address the needs of each individual involved in the buying process. The technical influencer has a different need to the business decision maker. Don't forget to identify if any of the buying team has the power of veto. Your sales process must also address his needs.

In summary, I don't think you can get a sales process off the shelf. You need to look at the needs of the target market, the characteristics of the sector, etc. and develop a sales process to respond to the typical buying process.

I hope this helps

Pat Divilly
CEO MarketWare International
www.marketware.biz

Sarah
Your info about selling a service via specialists puts a whole new perspective on your question.

You are essentially selling a revenue opportunity to the specialists and I think you have to present it in that way. If they use your product they can (a) charge more to their client and/or (b) provide a better service. Your product will also help to keep competitors out of their customer base.

My comments about building a relationahip by way of an email dialog, that made last several months, are very important here. Their buying timescale will be diven by their client's need. Nothing may happen for several months and within a week they might have 3 or 4 clients who are willing to pay the $1,000. So you have to keep the dialog open for when that might happen.

I would hand pick say 20 of the specialists. Not the biggest or those with most customers, rather the second tier who are aggressive in the marketplace and show that they have a strong desire to grow rapidly. I would then put a partnership type proposition to them. Maybe initially by way of a direct mail piece with a follow-up call to get a face-to-face meeting.

You have already spent $10,000 on advertising. Your partnership proposition should focus on what partnerning with you will offer to them and their clients. To indicate your good faith, you might offer that the first time the specialist signs up a client you will offer a 50% discount. If all 20 each sign up a client it has only cost you $10,000, the same as your advertising to date. But you also have $10,000 in revenue and 20 references. You also have 20 specialists who have experienced the benifits of your product and will be more willing to offer it to their other clients. You should be able to get some case studies and some good PR out of the 20 users. If nobody takes up your offer it has cost you nothing.

You might also offer to do a joint seminar or joint sales calls with the specilaist to help him sell the initial clients on the benifits of using your product/service.

By the way what is the business application that the ASP package addresses?

Hope this helps

Pat