by Sonnhalter | Aug 29, 2017 | Tradesmen Insights
By John Sonnhalter, Rainmaker Journeyman, Sonnhalter
For some reason there’s always been a disconnect between sales and marketing, and for the life of me I can’t understand why they can’t play nice. After all isn’t the objective of both is to increase sales?
I recently read an article in Duct Tape Marketing, Counseling the Marriage Between Marketing and Sales to Generate Revenue that got me thinking of why they should work together towards the same goal.
Most of the journey your contractors take is already over by the time they speak with a salesperson. That’s a tremendous opportunity for marketing to influence the sales process and dovetail together in creating a seamless experience.
Here’s an interesting statistic: 57% of the buyer’s journey is completed before the buyer talks to sales, according to Gartner. Prospects know more about you than you know about them.
Mutual Expectations
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by Sonnhalter | Apr 12, 2017 | Tradesmen Insights
How often have you heard sales people say leads generated by marketing are just “literature collectors, college professors, students, lookers or tire kickers?” Or, “I don’t have time for sales lead follow-up.” Or the sales manager who says, “I know my sales people are following up. They just don’t have time to provide feedback.”
All carrot no stick
I’ve worked with many companies over the years that made lead follow-up an imperative with their sales forces. In every case where it was required it yielded significant and profitable results reporting hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars in sales.
There is much discussion in internet groups about “aligning marketing and sales” and lead follow-up is a critical part of this discussion. (more…)
by Sonnhalter | Feb 1, 2017 | Marketing Tips, Tradesmen Insights
By Chris Ilcin, Account Superintendent, Sonnhalter
By now, if you have a presence on social media, and are involved in sales or marketing, you’ve seen this:
Well, bad news.
- “Fourth” isn’t spelled that way
- The National Sales Executive Association doesn’t exist
- There’s no study to be found that supports any of these statistics
There’s a great blog here that goes in to more detail. But I’d rather focus on something else:
Why do we want this to be real?
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by tradesmeninsights | Sep 6, 2016 | Uncategorized
Today we have a guest post from Russ Hill, Founder and CEO of Ultimate Lead Systems.
OK, let’s get real about sales people for a minute. Sales people want to make sales calls. They want to make calls on qualified leads and on profitable customers who can generate sales and compensation. They are like gunslingers interested in the “quick kill.” You hire them to sell and that’s where you want them to spend their time.
But they are also given business plans and projections to write and update. They also have prospecting and travel to schedule. And they are frequently required to spend time on software training…you know the CRM program, Excel, quote building software, the ERP system and the other third-party programs and resources that are pushed out to them, so they can be “more productive.”
The days of sales people making sales calls and writing up “simple” call reports (primarily for their own benefit) are long gone. Besides making calls, today’s sales people need to master and manage a variety of tasks and complex software. The need for the fundamental call report stills exists and management would be wise to keep that in mind. That means that one of the most important things management can do to help their sales people be more productive is to reduce the sales person’s administrative and non-sales related tasks.
by tradesmeninsights | Mar 16, 2016 | Uncategorized
This post originally appeared on INSIGHT2PROFIT.com
Does this sound familiar? A new customer promised they would place a $30,000 order, but only at an average price per unit of $0.16. The sales rep ran the requested price through their internal process, and because $0.16 was above the required 20 percent margin, the sales rep approved the discount. End of consideration.
But here’s where the story gets interesting. After looking at the average price points for the top 20 customers of this product, the pricing manager determined that significantly bigger customers – with purchase volumes in excess of $100,000 – were paying $0.18 to $0.22 per unit on average. In fact, the third largest customer, at $468,000 in volume, was paying a $0.22 average sale price.
What was the justification for the lower price for the smaller customer – other than the fact that the customer simply asked for it?
For many companies, pricing decisions are largely made in a vacuum, without regard to pricing data, market circumstances, product value or customer differentiation. The situation is usually exacerbated by a compensation structure that rewards revenue and volume over margins and profitability.
The solution, therefore, typically requires a completely new mindset for the sales team and organization—one focused on margins over top-line revenue.
It All Begins with Pricing Data Visibility
The beauty of the role of data in pricing decisions is that it lends an important clarity to difficult choices. A sales rep is naturally inclined to want to make the customer happy. But if you are armed with the right data, you can not only rationalize why a price discount might be a poor decision, you can also provide informed alternatives the sales rep can present to the customer – providing an opportunity for the sales rep to save face, the customer to get a great price and your organization to get the margin it needs.
In our story above, for example, you can start by showing the sales rep the list of average price points. This puts the requested price discount in an important context – that the discount amounts to asking the organization to offer better treatment to a relatively small customer than it offers to its third largest customer.
The Power of Informed Pricing Options
You can also take this reasoning a step further. Rather than saying “No” outright, you can provide alternatives. For instance, the sales rep could tell the customer that $0.16 is possible, but only with a certain volume of purchases. If the customer is willing to increase the size of its order, you’ll be happy to provide the more favorable price. Or, if the customer is unable to purchase more than the anticipated $30,000, the sales rep can offer a price in the range of $0.18 to $0.19 – still a significant discount, but more in line with the organization’s average selling prices.
Always Look at the Big Picture
When it comes to pricing, you should never make decisions without looking at the big picture. Think it through. Take the time to look at similar customer segments so you can see the prices and margins other customers are paying. And always make sure the volume justifies the price.
After all, the goal in business is not to just gain market share. It’s to gain profitable market share. Consistently offering a low-ball price eventually hurts everyone in the industry; ultimately, you’re creating pressure to make prices so low no one will be able to compete profitably – and everyone will lose. But with the right data, you can make more informed decisions and provide the options that will help your team win the sale without giving away the house.
Learn more about how top executives approach pricing decisions in our eBook: B2B Pricing without Fear.
