January 2004

Sometimes the solution to a vexing marketing problem comes down to the basics. This month's experts remind us about fundamentals we may have forgotten in our rush to market.

Got a marketing problem that's been bugging you? Ask a BMA expert for his or her thoughts for a solution. Each month we present questions and answers that a broad spectrum of BMA members would find useful in their work.

Chris Pareja, President, Leadgenaires, a marketing consultancy that provides dramatic results in marketing programs, from generating leads to developing tools that eliminate barriers from the sales process

"Sales are down and the CEO demands that Marketing find ways to help our sales representatives sell more products. We have done all of the standard advertising, direct marketing and lead generation campaigns. What else can we do?"

The first step is to understand the sales process and, perhaps more importantly, your customers' buying process to find out what Marketing can do to assist sales with business development.

Find out what successful sales representatives are doing to close business:

• What steps does the representative take to prepare for each phase in the sales process?
• What "marketing tools" does the representative create on his/her own?
• Who is the representative talking to in the customer organization?
• Who is making the purchase decisions?
• What information do those decision makers need?
• What challenges stop or delay the customer's decision to buy?

In other cases, you may find that products are being marketed that Sales is not capable of selling. This may be due to lack of familiarity with the product or not understanding the value of the product to your customers. Both issues could be solved with an internal training program.

Since these strategies involve marketing to an objective, results are measurable. Prior to initiating a training program, for example, you can establish a baseline. Then you can track increases in new appointments, proposals, and closes after the sales representatives have attended the program.

Results from programs like this will not only build rapport with your sales team, but also reinforce your value to upper management.

Katherine Kerber President of TechStories, Inc., a full-service marketing communications agency.

"How important is the 'offer' in an e-mail marketing campaign?"

Very.

Setting the appropriate offer is an ideal way to separate the prospects from the tire kickers. The best offer for generating qualified responses includes original content that helps the potential prospect understand which problems your product solves and how your product differs from others in your category. When you offer something like a cool T-shirt, you are likely to generate a higher response rate, but you run the risk of generating responses from people who are more interested in the T-shirt than in your product.

So, get creative with your offer. Make it more enticing than the average white paper. You just may find that you generate a high opt-in rate, which I believe is the true measure of success and an important first stage in developing a relationship with a potential buyer.