Marketers have historically been at the forefront of brand creation and marketing messaging, but the real opportunity to break through as a true sales asset is being relevant to the customer. There in lies sales message management. The reality is that marketing messaging plays little role in the sales process. Companies have got to get down to the front lines and see what is happening and come up with new ways of delivering what customers want... relevant data. Customers aren't buying brand heavy company pitches anymore. They can't tell one product pitch from the next. It all sounds the same and your value propositions likely get lost in the shuffle. The burden then lies with the sales force to connect the customer situation with the product benefit. The answer is Customer Centered Messaging!
On the front lines, customers are reaching out for solutions. They want and need their objectives met and will gladly invest in authentic solutions. However, they don't want to risk their budgets or even their jobs on bad decisions. The job of salespeople is to learn about the customer, their problems and needs. They explain how the features and benefits will help. And then, they hand them the product centered stock brochure which is filled with features but does little to communicate value to the customer. Or they email a ten page whitepaper that covers the entire product spectrum. Or they give the same presentation they give to everyone esle. It's just not enough anymore to apply one size fits all marketing to the sales process.
Imagine that your sales messages were actually read. Imagine the customer was eager to learn about your offer and actually requested a meeting. Imagine that the information you provided was instantly reviewed and the customer called you back right away. That's right... imagine they called you back without you needing to call them. Sounds too good to be true? Well not only is it possible, but at this moment you are embarking on a journey to making it a reality for your company.
Sales messaging may be a hot topic, but it is not the answer. Sales and marketing executives are striving to get more productivity out of their teams, more client contacts, more pitches and more sales. They want the 80% to perform like the 20% who get the best results. It is believed that with a well organized sales message system, sales teams will be able to communicate better and win more sales.
But what about the customer? Who is catering to their needs? Who is concerned about their performance and results? It all starts with the customer and Customer Centered Messaging is the solution. Think about your customer conversations. Are they customer focused or product focused? And now compare it to the message in your literature, your web site, your case studies. There is probably a pretty big disconnect between the two. The one to one conversation is (or at least should be) customer oriented meaning the customers objectives are the nucleus of the process. Then if you send them or hand them a stock sales proposition that is product focused, you are regressing. What does the customer want to know? They want to know what they want to know. They don't care about what makes you great. They care only whether or not you can make them great.
And that task falls on you sales message model and how you execute it. Good sales message management sure does make a difference, but customer messaging delivers "where the rubber meets the road." It is heavily supported that customers make brand decisions and opinions as a result of their interaction with the salesperson. With CFM, their opinion will be elevated to a new level.
For marketers, sales message management gives you the ability protect the brand and keep the sales communication on track and consistent from rep to rep. Further, studies reveal that 90% of the support material provided by marketing goes unused by salespeople. It has also been determined that reps spend 60 hours of the month finding and customizing marketing messages to fit the opportunity. That is more than a full week of selling time used doing what many sales people believe is just part of selling.
Companies invest in CRM solutions to monitor sales activities, manage forecasts and keep track of customers. CRM has made contributions to sales organizations, but what impact has CRM made on sales?
You may have noticed there's change in the air. Just check your Blackberry and see for yourself. Technology is creating new efficiencies allowing us to do business at all times and in many ways. If you've been around sales and marketing or are a CEO, CMO or CSO you've probably realized that sales techniques and strategies today are dramatically different than just 10 years ago. Has the role of the salesperson changed? Not necessarily. Have customers changed? Not necessarily. So what has changed? Technology has and is changing the way we do business. Customers are not buying based on a good sales pitch. They require good solid data that validates their decision to buy for their reasons. ThinkStart's on-demand software provides fast, relevant customer centered messages that win sales.
More and more sales organizations employ digital technologies to increase sales efficiency and reduce marketing costs. Sales force tools like web conferencing and presentations and digital marketing materials such as PDF brochures, testimonials and white papers. In most cases, the presentation and the follow-up information is the same for every customer. As a result the sales person spends more time trying to explain the relevant points either by phone or in emails. This is neither efficient nor effective. Let’s explore the most common mistakes and the best practices regarding use of collateral materials used by sales people.
Some sales organizations welcome new technology like, sales collateral creation software, sales collateral creators, sales effectiveness software, sales enablement application; sales enablement marketing, sales enablement technology, sales enablement tools, and sales force enablement. Other reps, dread using sales force tools or sales process tools because they just don’t understand the value. Imagine your company had a sales enablement strategy that included a one to one marketing software that enabled your sales reps to create relevant and personalized brochures, emails, presentations and web sites using a personalized web site tool. Imagine if your company could reduce print costs associated with product based brochures. A good one to one marketing strategy would minimize the use of generic literature and replace it with a sales collateral creation software that served as a sales enablement marketing system. This sales enablement technology would be used by the sales reps during the sales cycle with speed and relevance. Imagine what that could do to increase sales productivity and performance, whilst creating lasting impressions on your prospects and building great relationships with customers.
Sales executives and managers are always looking for tools for their sales force referred to as sales process tools. These tools are designed to improve sales performance, increase revenue and reduce costs. But are there really any good sales productivity tools on the market. Many companies that offer selling software like the Savogroup and Kadient provide what they deem to be sales process tools, but ThinkStart is different the savo type offers. ThinkStart salescreator doesn’t require months and months of implementation or a significant change in the sales model or sales culture. ThinkStart can be customized to fit your sales process making it more efficient and your sales people more effective and productive.
The management of a sales force can be daunting, but with ThinkStart it is much easier. It makes getting new reps up to speed faster. It helps new reps to navigate the customer needs and then ultimately it makes it fast and easy to create a custom sales brochure and any custom sales literature. The custom brochure creator delivers relevant and meaningful content in minutes saving your sales people the burden of cutting and pasting, digging for information or asking others what to do. Traditionally, the brochure builder of an organization was the marketing team, but with the ThinkStart automatic brochure creator, the sales rep can make a brochure on demand from anywhere at any time that is relevant and personalized. Providing a customer with a custom sales brochure or any custom sales literature has far more impact than the stock brochure of the past.
If you want to increase sales, increase sales effectiveness, increase sales efficiency by using a true sales enablement marketing software, ThinkStart SalesCreator can be just what the doctor ordered. If you have priced an enterprise 2.0 software tool or any other sales enablement technology, you know the costs can be significant. With ThinkStart, once it is set-up, the cost of use is easily affordable for any size salesforce. And the best part is, this sales enablement tool will deliver ROI in multiple ways. Here of some of the average value markers:
The fact is, what you will be saving using ThinkStart is costing you that much on a daily basis by not having this sales force technology. The difference is exponential. This is why we consider SalesCreator to be the ultimate sales productivity tool. It is the best sales enablement solution and the least costly sale productivity software available today.
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