Why "Shorter" Sales Cycles Mean More Work for Marketers

Last month, MarketingSherpa published a chart-of-the-week that showed how respondents to its 2011 B2B Marketing Benchmark Survey answered the following question:

"Q. Please select the time period closest to the length of your organization's entire sales cycle, from first lead inquiry to purchase."

The chart shows that, on average, sales cycles were shorter in 2011 than in 2010. Jen Doyle, MarketingSherpa's Senior Research Manager, attributed the shorter sales cycles to a decrease in average deal size in 2011 (which MarketingSherpa's survey also revealed).

I have no doubt that deal size has a big influence on the length of the sales cycle, so I can see how a decrease in average deal size would result in shorter average sales cycles. But I suggest that something else is partly responsible for these survey results.

The most significant development in B2B marketing and sales in recent years has been the emergence of what I call the self-directed buyer. Today's business buyers are self-educating and performing research independently, before they identify themselves to potential vendors. In a recent survey by DemandGen Report, 77% of B2B buyers said they did not talk with a sales rep until after they had performed independent research, and 36% of buyers said they didn't engage with a salesperson until after a short list of preferred vendors was established. Other research has shown that business buyers are often more than half way through their buying process when they first meet with potential vendors.

So, the visible sales cycle that we can measure is representing a smaller percentage of the buyers' full decision-making process. This fundamental change in buyer behavior has far-reaching implications. Most importantly, it means that most B2B companies have no real choice but to adopt a new approach to demand generation. Gone are the days when you could rely primarily on your sales reps to acquire new leads and shepherd those prospects through the complete buying process. Today, your prospects are learning about their problems and forming opinions about potential solutions and solution providers before you know who they are.

In these circumstances, it's imperative to have marketing content that can function as a "surrogate salesperson," especially for buyers in the early stages of the buying process. Today, your marketing content must:

• Make potential buyers aware of your company
• Teach prospects about the causes and effects of important business problems or challenges
• Educate prospects about potential solutions for these problems or challenges
• Demonstrate your company's expertise
• Persuade prospects to identify themselves and give you permission to communicate with them

If you don't have content that can perform these marketing functions, why would you think your company would have a seat at the table when a prospect is ready to have a serious sales conversation?

All I ever Needed to Know...I learned at the Grammy's!

Greetings...

The Grammy's were watched by an estimated 39 million people last night... it must be true-- music brings people together!  I had an "a ha" moment during the 2012 Grammy telecast -- specifically during the section that Paul McCartney performed followed by Taylor Swift -- EVERYTHING
I ever needed to know about marketing was summed up by the Grammy's!

There were three key lessons that jumped out at me...while watching the Grammy's last night...

1. Relevance matters:  How can Paul McCartney STILL draw attention and a standing ovation?  He has stayed relevant!  How does Chris Brown attract any attention?  He is relevant to his target audience!  Both important points for marketers in every industry...relevance is the ONLY thing that matters.
2. YOU can win:  How does Susan Boyle make TV and better yet...make records?  Because she has talent! No matter how small, how remote, how unknown you are today...tomorrow can be a different day is you have a true point of difference!
3. Music connects:  Regardless of age, color, creed, economic, or social...music connects people.  8-track, cassette tape, 45, CD, Walk Man, or iTune...that format has mattered little...the music has mattered greatly. 

Money connects people, too.  Big bank, small bank, savings and loan or credit union....we can ALL connect to our customers/members.  We operate in the banking industry that money is the great connector for us.  People want access to it...more of it... security for it.  EXACTLY what we as bankers and credit union folks provide. 

Our challenge??

Being Relevant...Realizing that WE CAN win...and connecting people to US how they want and when they want...regardless of the format.  Sure, some formats offer better sound or better service but the bottom-line...there is ROOM for each of us to stake our claim and be a Grammy winner.

It just takes focus and energy...

But that is the next blog!

Cheers!

Bruce

MarketMatch is a full-service marketing consulting firm, dedicated to the credit union and community banking community.  We utilize knowledge-based strategies to help you FOCUS on the efforts that will generate MOMENTUM and yield the greatest RESULTS for your bottom line.

Learn more here.

Chat with me LIVE!

Or contact me directly (click here).

 

Marketing lessons from the financial crisis

The saying “Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan” goes back at least as far as Tacitus (around 100 B.C.). So calling the financial crisis of 2008 a financial crisis, has the benefit of finding at least one father for that failure: the field of finance, and its real-world embodiment, Wall Street. But calling it a financial crisis may obscure some of the lessons to be learned from

Banking's First Life Stage Ad. An Inspiration. A Warning.

In 1970, Crocker Bank in San Francisco was an old fashioned bank with old fashioned customers who had one foot in the grave (sound familiar?).


They were facing competition by other banks who had exactly the same products and exactly the same "traditional" service. If you think we're all a commodity now ... look at banking in the 60's and 70's! This was the age where the biggest toaster won the business.


In short, Crocker had NOTHING of note to offer or advertise. So they turned to Hal Riney and Partners, a local ad agency who decided to focus solely on a younger demographic. They got the Carpenters to write and record a song ... not a JINGLE, but a song ... and created a TV campaign around it. This song, We've Only Just Begun, turned out to be a #1 hit.

The concept was elegantly simply, monumentally groundbreaking and tragically flawed.

You've got a long way to go.

We'd like to help you get there.

Simple: All the campaign did was reflect on the target's lives in a way that touched them. No old white guys in pinstripes, no handshakes, no branches, no rates.
Groundbreaking: Crocker Bank differentiated itself from rates and toasters. The target was drawn to the bank in swarms.  
Flawed: The bank needed deposits and the 20-something crowd had none to give. What the demo needed were loans and the bank was too conservative to lend to them. The campaign was pulled - but they franchised the campaign to other banks all over the country.


The Lessons:

• Life stage works!
• Banking is 2 parts emotion and 1 part commodity
• Real value can win over price
• Differentiate, differentiate, differentiate
• If you're going to work with an agency, make sure they understand your balance sheet.

In 42 years, little has changed in our industry.  Most banks rely on rates - or the best Free Checking ... we've moved on from toasters to Gas Cards ... and few financial institutions seek to differentiate themselves.  I truly believe that if you updated the look of this ad for 2012, it would work today in most markets. 

How are you differentiating and adding value?

Learn more here.
Chat with me LIVE!
Or contact me directly (click here).

MarketMatch is a full-service marketing firm, dedicated to the credit union and community banking community.  We utilize knowledge-based strategies to help you FOCUS on the efforts that will generate MOMENTUM and yield the greatest RESULTS for your bottom line.

If Your Marketing Content Was for Sale, Would Anybody Buy?

Would prospects pay to get access to your marketing content? That may sound like a strange question since, of course, we don't charge prospects for our marketing content. Or do we?

The truth is, we regularly ask potential buyers to pay for the privilege of reading, or watching, or listening to our content. The payment may not be in "coin of the realm," but it's something that is just as valuable - the time and attention of our prospects.

We ask our prospects to pay by:

• Responding to our offers
• Downloading and reading our white papers
• Attending our webinars
• Reading our blog posts
• Viewing our online demos and/or other videos
• Reading our case studies
• Viewing the pages on our website

There are many other examples, but you get the idea.

So, why will (or should) our prospects invest their time and attention to consume our marketing content? For content to be "worth the price of admission," it must deliver value to potential buyers. Content can create value for prospects in a variety of ways. For example, it can:

• Describe the nature and causes of an important problem or challenge
• Describe the likely impacts of the problem or challenge on the prospect's business
• Lay out the alternatives for dealing with the problem or challenge and explain the pros and cons of each approach
• Demonstrate how companies similar to the prospect have successfully addressed the problem or challenge and describe the results they obtained

From these examples, it should be clear that marketing content creates value primarily by helping potential buyers identify ways to improve their business. Most of this content says little about the specific products or services offered by the company that publishes the content.

Does this mean there's no place for promotional content? Not at all. When prospects reach the right stage of their buying process, they will want and need to learn about the features and benefits of your particular product or service. At that point, they'll be willing to "pay" for your promotional content. Just don't try to sell the dessert before your prospect has enjoyed the main course.

What about your marketing content? Does it attract enough "buyers" to help you grow your business?

GAFA, the new face of marketing

It is a misconception that the dominant businesses of Silicon
Valley are technology companies. Sure, when you think of the venerable old
names such as Intel and HP, semiconductor chips and hardware based on those
chips come to mind. But just as the 1980s saw the Valley shift to software, and
in the 1990s the Valley rode the internet boom, the present century has so far
been about consumers and

Just Marketing and the INSEAD Blog

Starting this past week some posts from the Just Marketing blog will also appear on the INSEAD Blog.