Sales stages and information needs
You may not consider yourself to be a sales person, but the likely hood is that at some point you’ve sold something. It may have been an idea, experience or skill in a particular field to an employer or client, or something more tangible such as your used car. In any case, applying the learnings from the Phil Dobbie/Neil Rackham podcast on getting a sale over the line may be useful in securing a sales quicker.
Your task as a ‘sales’ person is to provide information that simplifies the decision making for the buyer. To do this, you need to recognise that there are distinct stages in sales process, and each stage requires different type of information. The four stages are:
a) Recognition of needs.
Client has a problem and needs to do something about it.
i.e. I have too much work and need help (employee, consultant, contractor, etc).
b) Evaluating the options.
Client evaluates the options available and each of their advantages.
i.e. Who should I hire and why?
c) Risk awareness.
Client is concerned about the decision being risky.
i.e. What if I hire you and it doesn’t work-out?
d) Negotiation.
Client now wants to buy (and get a good deal).
i.e. How much will it cost me to hire you?
So, what type of information does Neil Rackham say you require at each stage of the sale?
Recognition of needs.
Provide tools to analyse the problem (i.e. cost or savings reports, etc)
Evaluating the options.
Differentiating tools that clearly and easily explain why your service is better (i.e. experience, skills, etc)
Risk awareness.
Reassure that buying your service is low risk (i.e. testimonials, recommendations, referees, etc)
Negotiation.
Provide pricing tools/options that make purchasing your services attractive (i.e. predominantly salary, hourly rate, fixed-fee services and so on.)
I hope this helps you frame your thinking when you are next speaking to a prospective employer or client. Good luck!
Digital Marketing Framework
Digital marketers have never had so many options available to communicate with customers. The AddtoAny screen below provides just a snapshot of the many communication tools available to reach customers. The challenge, from a marketers perspective, is to figure out when to use one over another.
To aid my thinking, I’ve generated a simple yet effective framework that helps bring the overall marketing efforts into distinct categories with unique definitions, activities and objectives. Strategic objectives should dictate the type of communication tool and not the other way around. So I won’t attempt to categorise the tools, but instead to categorise the marketing goals and objectives, and then identify the tools best suited to each.
These four areas are generally related to an overarching strategic goal, yet remain distinct enough to have individual objectives and tools. The table below presents a summary of what they stand for:
As in any campaign, the focus should be first on the customer. Identifying who we are wanting to talk to (Segmentation), how best to reach them (Targeting) and how will we communicate our message (Positioning) remain fundamental tenants of any campaign. Digital marketing stages and tools will overlap with these marketing fundamentals.
About me
Eduardo Chavez's blog on digital media news, views and analysis.
