B2B Marketing White Paper Boost Profits by Better Prospecting

October 27, 2013

Kennard L. Brown • 848 Mark Place • Columbus, OH • 43204 Phone: 614.276.1200 • Fax: 614.340.7255

Copyright © 2009-2013 by Kennard L. Brown All Rights Reserved

Table of Contents

HOW COMPANIES GENERATE LEADS .......................................................................................................... 3

LEADS ............................................................................................................................................................... 3 GENERATING LEADS.......................................................................................................................................... 3

HOW TO DEVELOP AN EFFECTIVE MARKETING PLAN ............................................................................ 4

RESIDUAL INCOME & HIGH PROFIT PER SALE ................................................................................................... 4 THE FOUR AREAS OF CONCENTRATION FOR AN EFFECTIVE MARKETING PLAN ................................................ 5 TARGET MARKET .............................................................................................................................................. 5 RESOURCES TO HELP YOU DEVELOP A MARKETING PLAN ................................................................................ 6 FORMULA FOR INCREASING YOUR SALES .......................................................................................................... 6 THE IMPORTANCE OF GIVING SOMETHING OF VALUE TO YOUR PROSPECTS, CUSTOMERS AND EMPLOYEES...... 7

B2B TELEMARKETING ..................................................................................................................................... 7

DIAL SPINS ........................................................................................................................................................ 8

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How Companies Generate Leads

The best way to generate only hot or warm prospects (leads) is the following:

1. Referrals 2. Internet marketing (this involves SEO & Social Media marketing, Pay-Per-Click, using White

Papers, E-mail Campaigns and Online Videos) 3. Postcard marketing designed to motivate prospects to go to your website and/or call your

business 4. Direct mail sales letter designed to motivate prospects to go to your website and/or call your

business

When people contact your business, they are usually looking to invest in a product or service. The four above marketing techniques influence a prospect to contact your company. It is wise to utilize and combine all four marketing techniques to help lower the sales cycle.

Leads

Every business must have a constant flow of leads to survive. What are leads? Leads are people who have expressed interest in your service or product. Another name for leads is Prospects. Many people confuse leads with suspects. Suspects are people who may be interested in your service or product. Yet, you have not contacted these suspects to see if they are interested. A major part of any type of market research is to locate suspects who have a high probability of being interested in your service or product.

Generating Leads

Well, how do companies usually generate leads? Companies generate leads using different medium. Mediums are sources where companies advertise. According to Coen’s 2009 US Ad Spend by Medium, the following are the most popular media (plural for mediums) in reference to spending:

• Direct Mail ($58.43 billion) • Broadcast TV ($40.51 billion – network, spot, syndicated) • Newspaper ($31.61 billion) • Cable TV ($21.65 billion) • Radio ($16.46 billion) • Yellow Pages ($13.2 billion) • Consumer magazine ($12.05 billion) • Internet ($11.94 billion) • Other ($52.85 billion)

According to Business Insider, TV spending up to 2012 will increase to over $200 billion dollars followed by direct mail spending at $150 billion dollars.

Businesses spend a lot of money on direct mail. Integrating direct mail with other low cost mediums (Telemarketing and Internet) that are designed to get the suspect or prospect to respond will ultimately

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increase sales and lower advertising expenses. Direct marketing & copywriting expert Bob Bly in his excellent book The Complete Idiot's Guide to Direct Marketing (pg. 4) states:

"Direct Marketing is any type of marketing that seeks some sort of reply from the reader, typically by phone, mail, e-mail, or fax. Direct marketing print materials usually have response coupons or reply cards you can use to request more information or order the product. Direct marketing TV and radio commercials typically use toll-free 800 numbers (and nowadays, 900 numbers as well). Many encourage prospects to respond via e-mail or visit a website."

How to Develop an Effective Marketing Plan

Residual Income & High Profit per Sale You need to generate income two ways for your business to survive:

• Residual Income • High Profit per Sale

Residual income generates every month. You make the sale once and the business or individual you sold buys your service every month. If you are looking to increase sales for your business, then you must offer a service or product that will produce residual monthly income. Examples of Monthly Residual Income:

• Utility (Telephone, Gas, Electric) Service • Insurance • Financing (Cars, Real Estate & Credit Cards) • Groceries • Any consumable product that has to be replaced monthly • Online subscription services • Any monthly service • Vital marketing services like telemarketing and direct mail

The great thing about offering a service or highly consumable product that generates monthly residual income is the more people you sell, then the more money you will generate. This is why many companies on the Fortune 500 list sell highly consumable products or services. If you do not desire to sell a service or product that produces consistent, monthly residual income, then you must sell a product or service that generates a very high profit. Example: You are a marketing consultant and you survive by producing just four sales per year. Your cost of sales is only $1,000 per sale. Yet, each sale is $25,000. Therefore, your profit is $24,000 every three months for a total of $96,000 before taxes per year. Examples of High Profit per Sale Income:

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• Consulting • Information Technology Service for Businesses • Professional Speaker Service • Any service or product that is high priced and has a very low cost of sales

If you have to make many sales per month to break even, then your business is in danger of elimination.

The Four Areas of Concentration for an Effective Marketing Plan According to 7 Steps To Freedom II by Benjamin D. Suarez (1994) pg. 2-6, these are the four areas of concentration for an effective marketing plan: (1) Demand for Product: What kind of service/product do you plan to sell and market and is there a GREAT demand for it? (2) Effectiveness of the Sales Promotion: What type of marketing message and materials will you use to promote your service/product? Please understand your marketing message is different for each service/product you offer. If you are going to utilize a marketing message that is working successfully for another service/product, then you must test the application of the message toward the new service/product before considering to regularly use it. Don't assume it will work for the new service/product. If a marketing message is successful for one of your services or products, then don't permanently change the message. Test the new message. If the new message is more effective, then use it. (3) Quality of the Prospect: Who is your ideal customer for your service/product? (4) Efficiency of the Medium to Reach Prospect: What type of medium will you use and is it efficient? The answers to the above questions will produce a marketing plan for your business. Of course, you will need to charge a profitable price.

Target Market Realize not everyone will buy your product or service. This is why you need to find out WHO will have a high probability of buying your product or service. One of the most important things you must discover is the target market of your product or service. Try to picture target marketing like playing a game of darts. Your goal is to hit the bull’s-eye with your product or service. Visualize hitting the bull's-eye and money spills out of the bull's-eye. This is how you should approach each product or service you are planning to sell. Lots of money should spill out because you are offering a valuable service or product that people need. Target market information for consumers usually is the following:

• Gender • Age • Income

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• Location • Buying patterns

Click Nielsen to find out what marketers know about you and the people who live around you! When you get to the website, just input your zip code. You can also utilize this information to prepare for a consumer-marketing program. Target market information for businesses usually is the following:

• Annual Revenue or Sales • Number of Employees • Location/Geography • Decision maker (C-level Executive or Middle Managers) • Type of Business

The size of businesses:

• Very small (1 to 19 employees) • Small (20 to 99 employees) • Medium (100-499 employees) • Large (500+)

Analyzing your own customer database for consistent buying patterns and characteristics can produce target market information for consumers & businesses. Companies like Nielsen can do this for you. If you are just starting out or you are diversifying, then you must find out the target market of any service/product you desire to sell by asking companies that sell similar services/products or by conducting industry research.

Resources to Help You Develop a Marketing Plan

• Hoover's Online - Industry & Business Information • Plunkett Research, LTD. - Industry & Business Information • U.S. Census Bureau - Industry & Business Markets • infoUSA - Local Market Concentration • SRDS - Leading provider of media rates and data for the advertising industry

Formula for Increasing Your Sales The concept of the following formula is from The 17 Principles Of Personal Achievement by Napoleon Hill (1997) pg. 75: Q1 + Q2 + MA = INCREASE OR DECREASE IN SALES Q1 = Quality of service or product rendered

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Q2 = Quantity of service or product rendered MA = The Mental Attitude in which it is rendered If you increase the quality, quantity and positive mental attitude associated with your product or service rendered, then sales will increase.

The Importance of Giving Something of Value to Your Prospects, Customers and Employees This FREE report is an example of giving something of value. We could easily charge for this information. To be TRULY successful in your business, you must show you care about your prospects, customers and employees by giving something of value FREE. One way successful businesses do this is by offering advertising specialties. The promotional product advertising industry is a $19 billion dollar industry and many companies annually invest to have their logos imprinted on watches, jackets, shirts, hats, bags, calendars . . . etc. You should utilize promotional products for the following reasons:

• Attract customers • Revive inactive accounts • Improve employee performance • Reduce employee turnover • Improve company image

B2B Telemarketing

Telemarketing is the ability to contact decision makers via phone and influence them to consider buying your service or product. Telemarketing is generating prospects over the telephone and Telesales is generating prospects and closing the sale over the phone.

Companies use telemarketing to generate hot, warm and cold prospects (any prospects-anyone who is interested in a service or product regardless of length of sales cycle). They are not concerned about a long sales cycle. In most cases, you will have a longer sales cycle by using telemarketing-most people you contact are not ready to buy right now (hot prospect) or soon (warm prospect)-there is not a sense of urgency. Telemarketing still is a good way to generate prospects who are interested in your service or product if you do not mind long sales cycles. It is also a good way to follow up after using referral, Internet, postcard and direct mail sales letter marketing techniques.

Business-to-Business (B2B) telemarketing is a cost efficient medium for advertising. Consider many long distance companies offer unlimited calling packages. Ultimately, this will save any company THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS by utilizing telemarketing as a lead generation medium. C.J. Hayden mentions the most effective marketing strategies for service businesses are (Get Clients Now! pg. 9-19, 1999):

• Direct Contact and Follow Up • Networking and Referral Building

B2B telemarketing is PERFECT for direct contact. Many companies are utilizing telemarketing to cost effectively generate quality prospects.

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• According to Telesales (2003) by Steve Schiffman pg. 41 and 48, the average telesales/sales ratio is 20 conversations with decision makers = 5 prospects = 1 sale (20:5:1).

• EVERY SALE MUST BE REPLACED BY 5 ADDITIONAL PROSPECTS • 80% of sales are made on the 5th to 12th conversation with the same prospect (National Association

of Sales Executives) • Best time to call is between 9:00 am to 10:00 am to reach someone for conversation (American

Telesales Association)

Dial Spins It is very important to make enough dials per hour so you can speak to a sufficient number of decision makers. According to the Advertising Manager's Handbook Second Edition by Bob Bly (pg. 365), the average dial spin metrics are presented in the following tables. Businesses telemarketing dial spins

Dial spins per hour 20 to 40

Completed decision maker presentations per hour 5 to 9

In reference to B2B telemarketing: The larger the company (500 and more employees)-the more difficult it is to get in contact with a decision maker. In the Fortune 500 world of B2B Telemarketing, voice mail is a very popular method of communication for cold calls. Consumer telemarketing dial spins

Dial spins per hour 40 to 60

Completed decision maker presentations per hour 9 to 15

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