Sales budget and targets

The sales budget is based upon the achievements of the current year and the expectations of next year taking into account all possible parameters and influencing facts. Still every year the sales budget gets increased. As a result salesmen will start to hide purchase orders once they have reached their budget as else they will have an unachievable target for next year.

Ever increasing sales goal

The reason the VP Sales or Sales Manager imposes an ever higher target is because the CEO is under pressure to grow the company. Both pressure from the investors, pressure from the media and pressure from his social environment as the expectation is that companies need to grow in order:
- To obtain more market share
- To increase production capacities for lowering cost per unit
- To increase purchase quantities giving lower purchase prices
- To stay ahead of competitors

The real goal is profitability

However the main goal of a entrepreneur or an investor is not more sales but more revenue on his investments. The bottom line is important.
Thus instead of the chase forever growth the goal should be to increase the bottom line. In many cases this doesn’t require more sales but more efficient production, better management, optimizing production capacities.
The real goal is profitability and all other goals are subject to this.

Most mid-sized companies already operate in a niche market which is likely not to grow significantly. Instead of going into fierce competition with all competitors in this niche market, it could be better to optimize the product offering or even carve out an even more specific part of the current niche market in order to increase profitability by having a more specific offering leading to better targeted marketing and less wasted time of salesmen.

Optimization of bottom line

If a company wants to achieve growth by more sales then it will need to spend more on marketing and sales efforts, each of the increase in spending includes an additional risk.

Thus instead of the ever increasing sales budgets it might be opportune to aim for a more profitable bottom line. Instead of putting all efforts in all kinds of marketing campaigns and chasing every probable customer, the goal would be:
- To spend wisely on effective marketing campaigns and events
- To increase the qualifications for lead qualification
- To chase only the most profitable customers or projects
In order to optimize the bottom line.

Would you dare to propose this when your next sales target is being proposed to you ?

Target all

If you trying to:
- Try to target every possible buyer with your website
- Interest all possible people with your email
- Please everybody with your blog
- Address your advertising too generic: a too wide marketing segment

Hence:
- Your website will become to cluttered with too many different propositions
- Your marketing message in your email campaigns will get deleted immediately
- Your blog will become too mainstream
- Your advertising will not affect anybody or have an impact on anybody

Results in nothing

All your marketing efforts will have no real focus on specific issues or problems or target group.
The marketing message will miss all possible impact as not a single potential customer will remember, consider and eventually buy your products or services.

Niche market for success

Instead seek or carve out a niche market, which you can analyze for their issues and problems, allowing you understanding the constraints, views and perceptions. This will enable you to:
- Specifically target a market segment
- Create email campaigns concerning a specific issue or problem
- Cover the interests of this target market in your blog
- Advertise about the issues, problems that your solution solves and the benefits

Don’t please everybody with your marketing – just your target group.

Growing big in your market segment is already a big achievement.

What is your target market ?

Online ads can be very effectively used in B2C, but in B2B online advertising will only work for certain products or services.

Our findings:
1) If your products or solutions are not mainstream then online ads won’t work as you can’t explain the different approach. People won’t notice it.

2) If your product is a new kind of solution then then the message explaining this new concept will be too complex or too long. People will ignore it.

3) If your product is complex with many features, functions and whistles it is hard to explain in a short (25 char) online ad or banner. Too cumbersome to understand.

4) If your landing page is not in sync with the online message people will feel lost after landing. Wondering what they are doing there.

5) If your landing page doesn’t hold the promises that were suggested in the online ad, the ad-clickers will hit the back button fast.

6) Natural Born Clickers also exist in B2B. Strange but true as some people seem to click on any ad without any reason or interest.

7) If your brand is unknown, chances of your ads getting clicked are less likely. Known brand names give trust even for clicking on ads.

Think twice before spending money on online ads.

Attitude change implies marketing change

As people change in attitudes and methods of work, marketing needs to change too. Instead of using purely outbound marketing approaches with mainly interruption marketing, companies are now becoming aware of the significant benefits of inbound marketing. Inbound marketing offers new opportunities, new technologies and new techniques.

Inbound marketing for ‘Generation Me’

Inbound marketing allows the probable customers to be in the drivers’ seat which they really want as our society and attitudes have changed by the ‘Me Generation‘. This generation is direct, has self-esteem, wants entitlement, is thin-skin, are dreaming the impossible dream, have educational drive, don’t want no boredom, blames external forces, has it tough to make a living, finds it impossible to make changes.

Funnel and pipeline almost empty

Potential customers will only contact you when they have made up their mind: the specifications, the features and the short list. They have collected all this information from different sources like the Internet and competitors.

As a result your funnel will shorten considerably and your pipeline will be almost empty as you will only know the leads just before they are going to make their buying decision: during the ‘last round’.

Contact prospects early in their buying cycle

The challenge now is to contact your probable customers early in their decision process: when they start to visit websites for craving for knowledge.
This when the caller display of your website is a must have as it also provides their interest and level of interest in your products, solutions or services.
Using this knowledge you can re-target these highly interested visiting companies by email.

Outflank competitors

As your competitors will need to wait until the probable customers contact them, you have long established a relation with them and have taken the opportunity to nurture them with adequate and relevant information as you exactly know what they require. This will allow you to outflank competitors using inbound-outbound marketing.

How are you handling in marketing the change in buying attitude ?

Risk perception

In B2B Sales the most important part is the Closing of a prospect. It is make or break. Win or lose.
All the functions, features and benefits of your solution are important in the purchase decision.
However as any purchase decision comes with a risk:
- Taking the wrong decision
- All the problems and costs afterwards

Remove the risk perception

The salesman or marketing should take way the risk perception or lower significantly the perception of risk.
Thus instead of hammering on all the benefits, advantages, functions and features, it is more important to hammer out all the risks.
This risk avoidance is why people and companies buy IBM, Oracle, GE or other established brand names. “You will never get fired buying IBM“.

If your brand has a higher risk perception than your competition, you have an uphill battle to fight, which you still can win if you investigate about the risk perception and convince with all your sales talents and skills.

Try to understand the perceived risks they have about your competitors and show this is not valid for your company and solution.

Close Sales Deals better

Thus in order to close more effectively and better: find out what your customer perceives as a risk and try to remove it.
It is as simple (or difficult) as that. Being supported by a big brand name or a massive advertising campaign will certainly help.

- Find the perceived risks involved with the purchase decision
- Use all your talent to remove this risk perception
- Then close better, faster more efficiently

Keep in mind that the goal of the decision makers is to avoid all risks that can influence their career, their life and lastly the business.

How many Sales Deals did you miss due to the risk perception?

Praising Mobile Marketing

Marketing Guru’s, bloggers, advertising agencies, marketing consultants praise the concept of mobile B2B marketing.
- Marketing Guru’s as they need to give you vision
- Bloggers like to write about new technologies
- Advertising agencies need the new revenue source
- Marketing consultants can exploit the new medium

Interruption Marketing

However customers don’t want to be interrupted anymore with marketing messages. Especially not on their almost private cell phone. ‘Almost private’: although the company paid for the mobile phone, they consider it as their private communications channel for business, family and relations.
A marketing message has no place in this personal and partly private environment. Certainly not a B2B marketing message on a mobile.

Interruption marketing is a thing of the PAST.
Text messages on your cell phone are the most interrupting messages that exist as they require immediate attention like a crying baby.

It’s time for inbound marketing where mobile marketing in B2B doesn’t fit in.
Content marketing is the way to go in B2B (and B2C).

In sales you have Winners and Losers.
Some salesmen win all the time.
Others seem to lose all the time.

Attitude

The Winner will see the gain.
The Loser will see the pain.

The Winner sees opportunities.
The Loser sees problems.

The Winner always has a guideline.
The Loser always has an excuse.

The Winner is nothing impossible.
The Loser will find all too difficult.

The Winner is always part of the solution.
The Loser sees only the problem.

The Winner will admit his mistake.
The Loser will try to blame it on someone else or the system.

The Winner compromises but stands firm on values.
The Loser stands firm but compromises on values.

The Winner has dreams.
The Loser has schemes.

Anticipation

The Winner will learn from his mistakes.
The Losers will avoid all risks.

The Winner is a part of the team.
The Loser is apart from the team.

The Winner will see the future potential.
The Loser will see the past loss.

The Winner seeks to learn and explore.
The Loser seeks to continue like before.

The Winner chooses what he says.
The Loser say what he has chosen.

Reaction

The Winner will do it for you or at least help you.
The Loser give suggestions which are obvious or might not help.

The Winner will look for alternatives.
The Loser will continue like it always was done.

The Winner makes commitments.
The Loser makes promises.

The Winner will execute.
The Loser will discuss what could be done.

The Winner will do something.
The Loser will hope someone else does it.

The Winner is self-controlled.
The Loser will only report.

The Winner uses soft words with hard arguments.
The Loser uses soft arguments but hard words.

The Winner makes it happen.
The Losers watches it happen.

Are you a Loser or a Winner ?

The Winner takes it all
The Loser standing small
Besides the victory
That’s her destiny.

The Conference decline

As Sales or Business Development we used to go to conferences in order to encounter people that could become leads and prospects.

Until the majority in the venue had sales purposes: from the speakers to the attendees: most are into sales.

The Social Media decline

Although the Social Media (like Linkedin, Ecademy, Viadeo or Xing) started out with discussion platforms with good intentions, it soon became apparent more and more discussion were turned into a sales pitch or the discussions were stared as a sales pitch.
- The speakers of conferences have turned into discussion starters.
- The salesmen in the audience have turned into discussion comment posters.

Exactly the Social Media face exactly the same decline as the conferences due to the majority being into Sales.
And if the discussion started is not a sales pitch it is likely to be a job posting.

Hence slowly the interest in discussions on Social Media will die too.

Do you participate or start discussions on Social Media in order to promote your business ?

Blocked images in emails

Why do marketers send emails with images for their email campaigns ?
- To make a better impression ?
- To communicate their message better ?

The problems with images are:
- Images blocked by most email clients for several reasons
- The receiver needs to click in order to download and to see the images
- The larger size of the email: takes more time to load and a bigger volume sent.
- Security/Vulnerability: images can contain all kinds of viruses

Moreover: creating great and appealing images are hard and costly to make.

Message content

If the receiving party doesn’t see the images then the emailed message will surely miss its’ goal. No impact at all – no result.

If marketers can’t use images then the text itself needs to be persuading and convincing, which is harder to do than just having images that stand out.
Instead of visual appealing content, the paragraphs, phrases and words need to create the interest or state the message clearly. Moreover the layout needs to be appealing and help to communicate the message.

Do you use images in your email campaigns ?

If you leave a brochure after a meeting, chances are your communication stops there.
If you give a brochure during a trade show, chances are your communication stops there.
However if you send an email after the meeting or trade show with a pdf and open questions chances are high your communication continues.

Moreover by sending an email afterwards:
- You can bring more selling points to the table or focus on certain benefits
- It is likely people will click on the link(s) to your website in the email

Draw backs:
- Printing a brochure costs money: investment
- Printed brochures can become outdated fast: changes of features or functions
- Distributing printed brochures to all of your marketing and sales is cumbersome
- Shredding the old brochures is a requirement and costs time
- Printed brochures are not “Green”

Why print a brochure as an emailed pdf brochure brings so much more opportunities?