How To Get Leads To Qualify Themselves
Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from Dan Vuksanovich, the Website Traffic Increaser Guy.
We all want leads. Better yet, we all want qualified leads. A sales rep’s first duty is usually to ask some probing questions of a new lead in order to determine if the prospect’s interests are aligned with whatever that sales rep has to sell. Wouldn’t it be great, though, if leads would pre-qualify themselves? With Integrated Marketing Communications, they can and will.
Integrated Marketing Communications, also known as IMC, aligns every aspect of a company’s marketing messaging with the company’s core strategic identity. A company in alignment with itself will naturally, organically attract the kinds of prospects it wants and repel the kinds of prospects it doesn’t want.
Let’s look at two hypothetical cases: One in which a company’s marketing communications are aligned strategically, and one where those communications are out of alignment.
First, a sad story:
Christopher’s Construction does luxury kitchen and bathroom upgrades in New York City. The company’s clientele is high earners with excess cash to spend upgrading kitchens and bathrooms that are functional, but not quite “keeping up with the Joneses” spectacular. Christopher isn’t a big believer in spending money on marketing, so he paid his nephew $100 to design a logo, some brochures and a website. Business cards are purchased on the cheap from the local office supply store. Everything about Christopher’s Construction, including the company’s name, screams “pedestrian,” which is totally out of alignment with the company’s incredible luxury work product. As a result, Christopher’s construction wastes lots of business development time qualifying out prospects who cannot possibly afford to pay the costs of a luxury upgrade, but were attracted by the inherent messaging of the Christopher’s Construction marketing materials. Worse, many people who CAN afford to pay for high-end work done by Christopher’s company are turned off by the bland, sophomoric marketing materials and never even contact Christopher’s Construction in the first place.
This is a tragic story of marketing messaging out of alignment with strategic identity. By sending the wrong message out into the marketplace, Christopher is attracting the wrong kinds of prospects, and he’s paying for it on both his top and bottom lines.
Now a happy story:
Cost Conscious Consulting does operational efficiency improvement consulting for manufacturing companies across the US. Everything about Cost Conscious Consulting, literally everything, is designed to reflect efficiency. The firm’s color scheme and logo have been designed to be indicative of “a well-oiled machine.” All of the firm’s own internal components and processes (marketing, business development, billing, etc.) have been optimized to give manufacturing clients and prospects a no-hassle (efficient!) experience when dealing with the firm. Marketing messaging is descriptive, but short and to the point, using the fewest words possible (efficient!). For example, the company’s tagline is “Done” which is the one word that says everything. The firm even refers to itself as C3 because it’s a more efficient use of space and syllables.
As a result, C3 attracts EXACTLY the kinds of prospects that it wants. Manufacturing company representatives in need of operational efficiency improvements know instantly when they see C3’s marketing materials that this is a consulting firm serious about efficiency. Prospects searching for anything other than exactly what the firm offers automatically go elsewhere, because it’s easy to see that the firm’s services are not a match.
There are real world examples of this phenomenon, too. Take Best Buy, the big box tech retailer that really wants to portray itself as service oriented, when in reality its sales reps are little more than annoying. On the other hand, look at a company like Jimmy John’s. Everything about Jimmy John’s says “freaky fast” including their service once you step inside a store. Little wonder, then, that Jimmy John’s is thriving while Best Buy is tanking. Best Buy markets to prospects who want something other than what the company has to offer. Jimmy John’s markets to prospects who want exactly what the company has to offer.
There will always be work involved in taking a lead and converting it to a sale, but if you align your marketing messaging with your company’s strategic identity, you can make it a whole lot easier on yourself.
About the author: Dan Vuksanovich is the Website Traffic Increaser Guy. He works exclusively with small businesses on getting more targeted web traffic and increasing conversion rates. Follow Dan at Google+.