Designing a sales and marketing plan for 2019 doesn’t have to be hard and complicated.
Yet, I see clients and colleagues get wrapped around the axle on this all the time. Meetings are convened, spreadsheets are built, and grand plans for conquering the world are developed.
Sounds good, right?
But there’s usually one key question that stops sales and marketing teams in their tracks.
“What should we write, say and do?”
This seems to be one of the more common stress-inducing questions that comes up during the process.
If you’re struggling with messaging, sales strategy, and how to move prospects through your pipeline in a productive way, try oversimplifying your sales and marketing process by thinking about it in its most basic parts and pieces.
When I think about turning prospects into client partners, I focus on these simple stages and questions:
Stage 1: Should we talk? The messaging here is very direct and short – we solve these problems, for these kinds of organizations, do you want to find out more? The goal is to gain attention and get a call or meeting to see if there’s any common interest or need at all.
Stage 2: Should we keep talking? After an initial call or meeting to exchange more info, the question is should we continue to pursue a working relationship? Is the problem or need big enough? Is it important? Is it the right time? Is someone prepared to spend hard-earned money to solve it?
Stage 3: Should we try something? Now we’re exploring fit, design and execution. What should we deliver, how would we do it, what should we expect as a result? Also, how can we get started small so we can learn, review and revise before we go big?
Stage 4: Should we do something – big? So we’ve talked, we’ve learned, we’ve tried and now the question is do we take action, go forward and go live?
The most important stage or step is always the next one.
Anticipate it, be ready for it, and communicate accordingly.
Your team will understand it, your prospects will appreciate it, and your business will be better for it.
Have a great week.
Sign up for The Sunday Snippet!
Good ideas to help you prosper delivered fresh each Sunday morning.