Sales Prospecting Perspectives

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest blog post from Andrew Moravick, Content Marketing Manager at Aberdeen. 

As marketing or sales professionals, we’re often very deliberate in what we do. If I’m creating marketing content, I should be sure to position the brand well, deliver relevant value, and drive toward a measurable conversion. Many sellers I’ve encountered also feel the very literal pressure to always be closing. Sometimes, however, the most direct or obvious path isn’t always the most effective…

In cases where a buyer or prospect doesn’t want to be marketed to or sold to, overtly communicating in marketing or sales speak isn’t going to pay off. In these cases, you need to leverage the art of marketing without marketing, or the art of selling without selling.

Loosely based off of Bruce Lee’s “art of fighting without fighting,” these arts revolve around playing off an opponent’s (or prospect’s) interests or passions, and redirecting them toward your desired result. In other words, you let go of your own marketing or sales agenda, and you utilize the buyer process as the driving force. There are a few specific scenarios where the art of marketing without marketing and the art of selling without selling are not only effective, but necessary, which I’ve outlined below.

Top Funnel Media / Industry Coverage:

Just as it’s often impolite to talk about politics or religion at the dinner table, as a marketer, it’s equally impolite – and extremely ill-advised – to talk products or services at the top of the marketing funnel. It’s bad enough if you bring up such things at your own table (or in your own funnel), but if you’re a guest in another person’s home (or marketing channel), chances are, you’re not going to get invited back. In cases of media coverage, interviews, or content marketing collaborations with peers in your industry, you really are a guest operating in someone else’s home, so overtly aiming to market your products or services is asking for trouble.

Instead, to actually make the most of the added exposure in the coverage you’ve earned or secured, you need to use the art of marketing without marketing to deliver value for your host (the publication, peer, media outpost, etc.) and your host’s audience. Just as highly effective B2B inside sales and marketing managers position themselves as trusted coaches to their teams, by delivering unbiased, non-self-promotional value, you can earn the trust of your host’s audience – thereby inviting them into your own funnel as prospects. Moreover, if the value you deliver is directly beneficial to the host publisher, peer, media outpost, etc., that host will more actively advocate for your contributed content – thereby earning you a kind of third party validation on top the initial coverage.

Sales’ First Follow Up on Marketing Sourced Leads:

There’s a big difference between “marketing qualified” leads and “sales ready” leads. No matter how seamless or well-structured your lead management process may be, for your buyers, the switch from interacting with an organization on marketing terms to communicating directly with a salesperson can often be surprising, if not jarring as well. In this transitional situation, the art of selling without selling is vital in order to maintain the initial buying momentum established by marketing.

Before discussing any of your organization’s offerings, ask about the buyer’s current efforts, initiatives, objectives, and challenges in order to understand the buyer pains and needs. Even if you already have rich marketing automation and buyer activity data, these questions can subtly get the buyer thinking about the value points your offerings may deliver – even before you bring them up. Then, when you need to start closing, you can talk in the buyer’s terms and leverage the buyer’s own momentum in seeking a solution.

Post-Conversion Communications:

Whether you just converted a prospect into a marketing qualified lead, or an opportunity into a closed-won deal, you’d probably assume that your role in communicating with that contact is done. Why market where there’s no longer a need for marketing, or sell where there’s no longer a need for selling? To a point, your assumption could be right; your role in communicating with that contact as a marketer or as a salesperson is done, and yet… it’s not done. From your last relevant conversion on, you’re not trying to market or sell, but to ensure the success and growth of that contact in dealing with your business. Here, the art of marketing without marketing and selling without selling means ensuring return business in the future by aiding the contact’s present activities.

In post-conversion communications, your aim is to share content or insights that will make your contacts successful beyond your own purview. If you’re lucky enough to have a customer success team, you may wish to sync up or collaborate with them, but if you don’t, you may want to build out regular communications cadences. Over time, offer up contacts useful tips for success, check in to see how they’re doing, or connect with them for any relevant feedback or requests. The more you can be a valuable resource, even after the conversion, the more likely you’ll be able to build a meaningful relationship, and earn return business.

Do you have any additional examples of marketing without marketing or selling without selling? Share your insights in the comments below.