by tradesmeninsights | Jun 29, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Traditional Marketing
When generating leads from various sources, how do you qualify them to see if they’re ready to buy? Not all leads are ready to buy, and it’s important to have a process in place to sort them out. According to Russ Hill from Ultimate Lead Systems:
- 67% of all leads are legitimate prospects.
- 34% have a need that must be satisfied in the next 6 months.
- 70% of those prospects didn’t know you made that product.
- It takes on average 5-6 sales calls to close a sale.
- 80% give up after the first call and 90% plus give up after the second call.
Doesn’t it make sense to have a process in place to monitor and track?
Most capital equipment purchases, for example, have a buying team in place to make recommendations. You need to identify them through your initial contact (or at least the job functions) so you know what areas you need to cover. We’ve found that a quick survey along with what they asked for can help you find out if they are in the information-gathering stage or the PO stage and you can act accordingly. If you know what other type of information they may want to see, or if a demonstration would be in order to better show them the product, that would help you prioritize your salesmen’s efforts.
As you can see in the following chart, people at different stages in the buying cycle need different things. Once you understand where they are in the process, then you can start asking the appropriate questions about budgets, timelines, etc.
What kind of process do you have in place to qualify leads?
by tradesmeninsights | Jun 28, 2011 | Marketing Trends, Traditional Marketing
As the world grows more mobile, it’s inevitable that smartphones are and will become a more intricate part of our daily routine. It’s my contention that in our world of reaching the professional tradesmen these phones are being used on a regular basis.
I don’t have the data to back that up since there have been no formalized studies done specifically on this market segment. But if you make the assumption that what we do in our everyday lives rolls over to our work day routines, then a new study out by Google that looks at the purchasing habits of smartphone users in the U.S. may be of interest to you.
Chris Crum from Webpronews.com outlines the highlights of the study. Among them are these points that I find interesting:
- 89% of smartphone owners use their device throughout the day for a variety of activities.
- 82% notice ads on their phones and half of them take action.
- 95% of users have looked for local information
- 77% have contacted a business by either calling or visiting
What kinds of trends are you seeing out there?
by tradesmeninsights | Jun 21, 2011 | Marketing Trends, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
The Institute for the Study of Business Markets (ISBM) recently released their new finding on B-to-B Marketing Trends for 2012. The study highlights the need for change from investing in the best tools available to truly understanding the needs of your customers. This means getting access to meaningful market and competitive insights and helping clients understand the power of business segmentation.
Among the top 3 quantitative study results were:
- More effectively quantify and communicate value created for customers.
- Better understand what the customer really needs.
- Identify new opportunities for organic growth.
The study breaks down each of the seven findings into key findings, examples of who’s doing it right and a resource to help you along the way. It’s an easy read and one I’d recommend any marketer take the time to review.
by tradesmeninsights | Jun 16, 2011 | Marketing Trends, Traditional Marketing
The last two years for most of us in the B-to-B space hasn’t been much fun. Budgets cut, every move or project had to be justified seven different ways. When leads came in, ALL were followed. We ran a tight ship. Today, business is beginning to improve, budgets are increasing, new products are being launched, and for some of us, social media has been introduced which needs our attention.
All of these are good things, right? On the surface you’d probably say yes. But reality is your staff was probably cut when the downturn happened, but your workload wasn’t. Now with the increase in activity, new product launches and the additional responsibility, you’re probably pulling out your hair!
The sad truth is you may either be executing projects in a production style to get them out the door, or not spending the time on looking at or developing a plan to close the loop when leads do come in. I understand you may be under staffed and overworked, but management will be judging you on results and the famous ROI.
So how are you dealing with this? Some of our clients are looking outside at least temporarily to support programs (which is a good thing), and others are so busy putting out fires they don’t realize as fast as one goes out, another one is lit.
Reality is most marketing departments aren’t going to get back to staffing levels pre-2009. I’d like to hear what you’re doing to stay sane and deliver a good quality product.
by tradesmeninsights | Jun 15, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
Most of us spend a considerable amount of time online. Did you realize that almost half that time is spent with published content?
Over 27 million pieces of content are shared everyday according to AOL/Nielsen research. Most of the content is shared with family, friends and business associates. E-mail and social networking sites are the two most popular ways of sharing.
I recently read a post by Heidi Cohen that outlines 8 Tips to Share Content via Social Media and Email that’s worth the read. She explains that when it comes to sharing information, it’s critical to establish your organization as a trusted source so you can build relationships. Here are a few tips I like:
- Create attention-getting headlines.
- Share content your target audience wants to read.
- Integrate a call to action to engage readers and hopefully they in turn will share.
- Facilitate social sharing by giving readers options of ways to share.
Don’t miss out on the opportunity to share good content that’s already been published. You can enlighten the world and build credibility at the same time.
by tradesmeninsights | Jun 14, 2011 | Marketing Trends, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
If you’re looking to reach the professionals who run and manage manufacturing facilities, which media would serve you best? It appears that an integrated plan is best. Gardner Publishing recently released findings from a survey, Media Usage of Manufacturing Facilities that showed high usage of the web, other e-forms of content delivery, along with traditional print advertising to be the leading sources of information.
They surveyed 1885 manufacturing executives, production managers and engineers mainly serving the durable goods industries. 80% of those surveyed indicated they had direct responsibility for the purpose of manufacturing equipment, software or tooling. Here are some key findings:
- Almost 90% use trade magazines, search engines, supplier or industry websites to locate info.
- There are few differences in preference for print versus digital media. There are generational differences though in the use of social media.
- Trade magazines continue to be the most preferred source for industry news, events and business/market data.
- Purchasing influences in this sector tend to be older, well educated and technically oriented.
- Trade shows remain a strong source of information.
- E-newletters also rank high for discovering new products and processes.
- Most used mobile device is a laptop followed by the smart phone.
The 28 page report details the findings and is available free.
