Getting past “no” then “hell no”
If you want to sell anything nowadays, you need to know who is actually buying. When most companies put together a marketing or sales plan, they identify the most obvious customer groups or “segments” and build a plan to target each segment in the plan. These segments are usually the traditional buyer of the company’s products or services. This is a good practice, but it rarely goes far enough.
If you really look at how most companies buy, you will find a host of hidden buyers and influencers that have as much or more influence in the buying decision than the traditional buyer does. If you look deeper you will also see each influencer in the buying chain have very different requirements. In some cases they are gatekeepers such as procurement officers, a technical buyer such as a CIO, or an economic buyer such as a CFO. Any one may stop or approve an entire category of purchasing. If you are serious about your marketing plan, you will look beyond your traditional buyer and include those he or she must get on board internally to buy from you. Each company is different in this regard, but they often break down into these roles in the buying decision:
Ninety Seconds take away:
The most important part of any good marketing plan is intelligence gathering. Roll your sleeves up and get past the traditional buyers and get to know how your target companies make decisions internally. Make sure to include the important myriad of influencers and gatekeepers who can wave through or kill a purchase with your company. This is a deeper level of investigation than traditional market research. After you gather as much possible intelligence on the decision chain as possible, revisit how you are going to communicate to each of these buyers. This will assure you leave no weak spots in your communications approach. This exercise will also help you avoid being too narrowly focused with a “thin” message that misses addressing critical decision points.
Tags: Chief marketing officer strategy, communicatins strategy, marketing intelligence, marketing research, marketing strategy, messaging strategy, sales strategy, sales technique
