How well do you know your customers?

Know your customer has become quite a cliché in marketing. There has never been a business that didn’t start out fulfilling unmet needs for a very specific group of people.  

We suspect you probably know your customer  fairly well,  but let’s turn this question on its head and  instead ask: 

 How well do you know your prospects?  

Air Marketing Group know that a lack of qualified prospects moving through your sales process today, can mean trouble for your business tomorrow. We understand that a strong sales pipeline is critical to attain revenue goals 6 – 12 months from now.  

So what steps should you take to build and sustain a healthy sales pipeline? 

Start with enough leads 

Sales is a numbers game and to develop a strong sales pipeline you must accumulate enough leads to drive through your marketing and sales engine. If you have a good understanding of the pipeline process you’ll know only a proportion of your targeted leads will become qualified, and a fraction will convert and be ready to buy at any given time.  

Qualify every lead  

Generating a list of qualifying questions to ask every interested lead will allow you to determine if there’s a real business opportunity or not.  

Ask: Has your prospect got a realistic need you can fill? 

  • What are their major challenges in this area? 
  • Have they tried to solve these issues? If so, how? 
  • How soon do they want to find a solution?  

Ask: Is the prospect an appropriate lead for the value and price point of your offering? 

  • What solutions would they consider? 
  • What is the budget to address this solution?  

Be careful of time wasters. If it appears there’s little budget for your solution, put this lead into your low-quality category and concentrate on higher priority prospects.  

Use lead quality for targeted marketing  

It’s important to use resulting lead quality data to develop more tailored campaigns. At Air Marketing all our campaigns use bespoke lead generation strategies and are tailored to meet individual business requirements. This strategy allows us to provide clients with quality sales leads that meet specified criteria.  

Nurture qualified prospects  

Not every qualified prospect will be ready to buy today. Once qualified leads have been identified you can leverage the use of content based email marketing, and follow up calls, to continue to nurture leads and identify interested prospects.  

Create a next step for every interested lead. Base this on need, interest and timing: 

  • Schedule a demo or follow up call to share additional insights. 
  • Send a follow up email that needs a response within  a requested time. 
  • Send an industry-related article every month to stay in  touch and keep educating them.  

Remaining in front of interested, qualified prospects will mean you are at the front of their mind  to assist when the time of their need arises.  

CRM systems 

A customer relationship management system (CRM) will improve your sales efficiencies, and allow you to track and report on sales opportunities, leads and prospects.  

Remember a healthy sales pipeline will have the following attributes: 

  • Many opportunities at every stage of the funnel. 
  • New opportunities coming into the top of the funnel regularly. 
  • New sales being converted  at the bottom of the sales funnel regularly . 

Here at Air Marketing Group, we pride ourselves on our ability to get under the skin of your business, speaking with your prospects and where possible and relevant warm the lead into a position where they can be converted into an opportunity. In addition to this, we  provide a transparent reporting service, and the delivery of each call recording to ensure our clients that  any leads we’ve secured will convert.  

If knowing your prospect is still an area you would like help with get in touch today to find out how we can help on 03452413038 or get in touch.

Sales and Business Tips – How To Find Customers And Data

Looking to find new customers but not sure where to start? Data is key to helping you reach new customers, but you need to be careful. Here are some tips from Owen Richards, our MD here at Air Marketing.

Reaching customers is easy – but delivering the right message is getting harder

The digital space is full of noise – tv adverts, Google adverts, social media adverts, emails all trying to target you using the cookies collected from your online browsing. Many of these online efforts with general messages end up as nothing more than an annoyance to consumers because it’s almost impossible for them to address specific issues or problems facing a customer.

For years, we have been bombarded with generic sales messages and brand information which has accumulated to make noise. The digital space now offers more affordable marketing than the traditional tv, radio and magazine advertising – so more companies jump on the bandwagon and before we know it, we are drowning in noise with no clear message.

We have more tools than ever at our disposal to create specific targeted messages but for some, marketing still seems to be a bit of a hit and miss affair. The saying “If you throw enough mud at the wall, some of it will stick” rings true here.

Buyers can now find all the information they need online, so the methods that sales people use for presenting their value proposition must change.

This is easier said than done, and the inability to communicate value messages is one of the biggest inhibitors to attracting new customers and achieving sales success.

Modern day buyers are only interested in how a product can benefit them.

The features of a product might be interesting, but if it’s not going to provide a direct benefit and help them achieve their desired outcomes, then they’re simply not interested. In a world where consumers have all the information they need at their fingertips, selling has become harder than ever.

Value messaging needs to change to keep up with this evolution of the buyer. Selling a product is no longer about the product. It’s all about the buyer.

Making a purchase is now a journey that involves emotions, feelings, goals and solutions. And a salesperson can only facilitate this journey if they know their customer well. They need to have conversations and truly get to the heart of their problems.

Sales message dynamics

Value messages need to follow a process that changes and meanders with the customer’s buying journey. There is a definite beginning, middle and end in the sales process, and salespeople need to help customers understand their own challenges (because often they don’t) and provide a solution that will achieve a desired result. A proper conversation with a customer opens the lines of communication and can address a problem the customer wasn’t even aware they had.

Creating new business

The inability to communicate value messages effectively not only inhibits sales success, but also impedes the ability to attract new leads and clients and expand existing ones into more valuable clients. This makes sales messaging even more important when it comes to successful business.

Customer-centric messaging

It’s imperative that sales people know how to plan, construct and present their messages effectively. We need to focus more on the customers’ pain points and explain the value they will get from the product. This is where personalised, one-on-one sales techniques make a difference.

What’s the best way to begin the process of communicating value messages that will ensure that the right people sit up and listen? Attract, train and retain exceptional salespeople.

Great salespeople engage prospects and build trust. While many lead generation methods and sales processes involve online communication methods, salespeople provide what digital marketing can’t – a human connection and an ongoing relationship.

Are you looking to reap the benefits that outsourced business development assistance can provide? Outsourcing your telemarketing to Air allows boosted revenue through successful campaigns, with our average return being £18 for every £1 our clients invest. To find out more about how we could help you open the conversation with your customers and deliver the right message get in touch on 0345 241 3038.