"The Most Valuable Commodity...is Information" Gordon Gekko - Wall Street

Friday, December 11 2009

This article is reproduced from our December ’09 newsletter.

Dear old Gordon (Gekko, not Brown) might have taken things a bit too far, but I'm sure you'll agree that the more you and your sales staff know about your prospects, the better you'll be able to respond to their needs and make your own sales. So I hope you also agree that my research, generating the data you can see here, about you and your company, is a worthwhile, helpful start to our possible relationship?

Your company details would have appeared here (name of the sales decision maker, number of sales staff, SIC description etc).

And, if you are impressed with that, could I ask you to consider what advantages there might be to having your own comparable information on your prospects? All available, on tap, right in front of all your sales, prospecting and lead generation staff who are able to collaborate right across the whole organisation and beyond. This is the way to turn a "cold call" into a "hot prospect". There's more though.

Business Magnet
In the 21st Century, if you want to be a business magnate, you’re going to need to be something of a business magnet. Ever heard the phrase “go-to-guy” to describe an expert or guru of some description? It’s the person who gets recommended by most (or all) of the people who have met him/her as the one to seek out, if you have a related problem or question.

Nice idea isn’t it, if you’re selling something, to picture a queue of referred prospects waiting outside your office, queuing up on the phone, pining for an email reply from you, booking out your exhibition seminars or even filling your webinar “virtual” seats? Not only does this provide you with a steady flow of “leads” that marketing might previously have been expected to generate for you, from a clipped coupon or whatever, but also it dramatically shifts the balance of power in each and every conversation you’re having from you being the pushy “seller” (where they are the reluctant “buyer”) into you now being the expert whose advice they are actively seeking out!

Want an example in B2C? Well think about websites like uSwitch or Confused.com. “Expert” and “impartial” advice offered “free” to those seeking utilities or insurance advice. What about B2B? Sure, take the example of wanting to improve the rankings of your website with some Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and then recognise that the thing you are most likely to do will be to search on Google for “SEO Services” or “SEO Company”. That’s a pretty competitive sector and self-evidently, the real experts will be at the top.

OK, so what are these so-called “experts” doing then, to get to these enviable positions? Well we know a few and, first up, we’re afraid to have to tell you that you will indeed have to be something of an expert in your chosen field – because the proof is in the pudding, as they say. And if you fail with your first few referrals or enquiries, the bad news will spread 10 times faster than the good. But if you have the perfect mousetrap, do you indeed sit there waiting for the world to beat a path to your door? No, not a bit of it, well certainly not if the working examples we’ve been watching are anything to go by.

A modern-day business magnate/magnet is likely to be one of the most proficient sellers, marketers, networkers, researchers, promoters and responders you’re ever likely to meet. He/she will be totally up to date with all their own industry gossip and innovations, fully equipped with all the latest tools and techniques for spreading the word, in the first place, then monitoring how the word spreads as well as guiding and controlling to whom, how and where it gets distributed. As well then being able to pick up and manage the flow of enquiries coming back in to most efficiently benefit from what is now their “pipeline”.

Would you like another B2B example? Well how do you feel about me, Richard Nolan, of virtualCONTACT Limited, offering expertise and advice on cloud/web-based contact management and CRM systems? I’ve “invented” a contact management application that will appeal to sales people (yep, “written by sales for sales”) because it actually solves their problems, and helps you (sales management) and wider company integration. Then I’ve found a database supplier (The Sales Direction Database) who can give me the end result of decades of ongoing research into the UK sales profession – so this is my “business intelligence” and research/targeting - to the point where I know so much about you and your company.

And I have crafted and am now distributing this email correspondence, which I can manage and monitor and which is indeed designed to offer a product or service of relevance and potential value to UK sales management – which is Sales Direction’s remit.

Then I’m also equipped to respond to you, whether you telephone, email, click-through, connect via social media or give me your printed business card when we meet (not to mention checking out your LinkedIn profile or Google News to see what you’ve been up to recently). As well as having my marketing, finance, production and delivery/logistics people completely up to date, and able to comment on and react to any business we might end up doing as a result. Obviously though, we can replicate this kind of system and data so that it applies to you and to your contacts and prospects.

So, if that “seems a bit too complicated” or “doesn’t quite fit in with the way we work” you’re probably right, and I look forward to speaking with you next time around. But if you suspect it’s got a bit of “simples” appeal about it, give me a shout and we’ll transform you into a true business magnet.