How to solve the Challenges of a Single Target Market -2

B2B, Marketing, niche, single target market, Testing

Continuing from yesterday’s post , you have identified what you think is a good Market to enter. Now if you have been working in the overall market with your offerings and you chose the Single Target Market based on that knowledge, then you have a good place to start.

But if you’re coming out with a new product or service and you don’t have knowledge and you have chosen the market based on “armchair ” thinking, then you can be in for a big shock if you deploy all your resources for this.

In these situations, especially in the case of B2B where there are too many moving parts, you need to be testing with limited investments.

Its happened multiple times with me, that the market-product match which I had thought of, for my single target market, didn’t materialize or it took a much longer time to materialize .

These things happen because while you may have observed a niche in the market there’s no “market” in the niche. And this could happen, as an example, because that there’s already a solution to the problem which you are solving and its much easier to use / lower cost or any other reason.

You can only figure these things out if you’re testing. After feedback from each test you tweak a little and test again, till you start getting a response. That becomes your base from which you start.

This testing need to be on the product itself, it could be on the market, it could be on the people that you’re targeting in the company. After testing you may realise that the solution does not have a significance for the specified problem, but when re-purposed, it can be a best seller.

The faster you can do the iterations, the quicker you’re to pick up the market.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

The more people you know….the more you sell in B2B

B2B, Customers, Networking, Sales

It doesn’t matter what you know, what matters is who you know.

A lot of internet marketers will talk about this when selling their mastermind programs. Some of it is actually very true. If you’re in the right masterminds , where people are of the sharing type, then you do get to learn a lot.

But since my focus is on the corporate type of environments, the so called B2B space, just the simple concept of meeting and knowing everyone from the peon (junior most level) to the CEO is very valuable.

I continuously emphasize this to my sales team. A lot of times the small talk with people at the junior levels can give you insights about the organization and its situation. Most senior people are generally formal and carry a facade. They meet a lot of people all day and they are conditioned to give out only as much information as necessary.

On the other hand people at the junior level are not used to getting attention. So if you genuinely, they key term is genuinely, give them the attention and respect, they will open up to you and talk freely.

The other thing which happens because of this is that they also help you navigate into other departments within the company. Due to this you’re able to figure out either more opportunities or more applicability of your services or products.

However with these pieces of information, its your responsibility to put all of them together to figure out the insights and accordingly add value to your customers.

Today’s customers can get almost 80-90% information from the net. But in a lot of cases they are starved for insights of how they can do better. If you can become that advisor, you can pick a lot of sales.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Budgeting for Marketing Activities – 3

B2B, budget, campaign, Marketing, Marketing Stamina

In the last 2 posts I have written about how you can estimate a rough budget and then what you need to figure out in the B2B market. In yesterday’s post I again emphasized on the concept of Marketing Stamina.

Today we will look at how you work out the economics of your marketing.

So we know we have $25000 with us, we also know that the lead time to convert an enquiry into an order could be about 3 months (longer if it’s a high value purchase). What we don’t know is that who among your prospects is going to raise their hand to ask you for your product or service.

If we start with a pack of say 1000 company names then you the inevitability principle 500 of them will change their vendor in the next 3-5 years. You only don’t know which 500 of them will and when in the next 5 years. They obviously won’t all happen in the last quarter of the 5th year also.

So we have to figure out a way to be in front of these 1000 prospects continuously. The media you choose can vary – print, PPC, LinkedIn etc. Depending on the demographic profile and the cost of reaching that profile on a regular basis.

What you have to keep in mind that your budget has to last you through the year such that you can get at the least 10 customers.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Budgeting for Marketing Activities – 2

B2B, budget, Marketing, Marketing Stamina

In yesterday’s post I showcased a quick and dirty method to identify your budget for doing marketing activities. Once you have identified with your rough calculation the amount of marketing budget you need to ask for and the outcome you have to deliver, you now need to figure out how you will go about your campaigns

In B2B the lead time to get an order is quite large – large is a relative term – depending on the size of the deals that you are looking for. The second characteristic of the B2B market is that generally there is no impulse buying especially in the mid to large companies. The third characteristic is that there are multiple buyers involved in most B2B deals, so the inertia is larger and the decision cycle is complex.

What this means is that you have to have the marketing stamina to ensure that you are able to consistently get in front of the customer with your content so that when the need arises at the customer end, you are in front of them and they call you first.

The advantage with B2B customers is that they are what Dean Jackson would call as semi visible. Meaning you can get a list of companies for most combinations. However within the company its difficult to identify who are the people involved with what you sell and the dynamics within them. Where are the power centers that you need to be aware of.

Since it is easy to identify them, B2B customers are inundated with a whole lot of marketing material. the other challenge is that even if you know say the decision maker is a CFO, chances are that the research on a new vendor or product will be done by a junior who will be assigned the job. So you either run parallel campaigns for different levels, or you run the campaigns in such a way that the people can easily remember you and handover details to the person who is researching.

Due to this I used the term, Marketing Stamina. It takes time to build a momentum before which you can get some real enquiries.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!