How to Find, Influence & Convert More Prospects Into Customers

Matt Heinz

President, Heinz Marketing Inc

matt@heinzmarketing.com

@heinzmarketing

Last Slide First

1. Find & engage prospects “upstream” before they are active buyers

2. Understand your customer, product & objective before executing

3. Publish your own content to attract prospects

4. Practice customer-centric selling every day

5. Sales & marketing is too important to leave to salespeople and marketers

Let’s talk about you first…

Your business objectives

Your business objectives

Prospect Engagement Funnel

Active Sales CycleChannels: CRM, 1:1

Goal: Sell

New Customer

Drip MarketingChannels: Email Newsletters, CRM System

Goal: Drive Active Prospects

Network / Open CommunityChannels: Twitter, Facebook, Blog, LinkedIn

Goal: Drive Registration

Network-exclusive access to contentValue-added special offersDiscovery eventsWhite papers, top ten tips, etc.

Testimonials, Success StoriesProfile-Specific MessagesNew product/service offers

Referral & Tell-a-Friend OffersNetwork / Community Invites

New Opportunity Alerts1:1 with Existing CustomerIn-Market Events

Next Step Accelerator Ideas

Customer Targets (based on persona profiles)

Your customers

Marketing Plan in 5 Questions

1. What/who are your targets?

2. What do they care about? What outcome are they seeking?

3. Where do you find them?

4. What or who influences them?

5. How do they want to engage and (eventually) buy?

Listening

Listening via Twitter

Vertical Groups

• ActiveRain

• SHRM

• ChurchCrunch

• Focus

What are yours?

What do customers care about?

The buying progression

SolutionProblem/Pain

Objective/Outcome

5 tips for better customer-centric sales

1. Use “you” instead of “I”

2. Treat the first sales call like an interview

3. Align yourself with existing customer priorities

4. Respect their time

5. Let your current customer sell for you

Prospect Engagement Funnel

Active Sales CycleChannels: CRM, 1:1

Goal: Sell

New Customer

Drip MarketingChannels: Email Newsletters, CRM System

Goal: Drive Active Prospects

Network / Open CommunityChannels: Twitter, Facebook, Blog, LinkedIn

Goal: Drive Registration

Network-exclusive access to contentValue-added special offersDiscovery eventsWhite papers, top ten tips, etc.

Testimonials, Success StoriesProfile-Specific MessagesNew product/service offers

Referral & Tell-a-Friend OffersNetwork / Community Invites

New Opportunity Alerts1:1 with Existing CustomerIn-Market Events

Next Step Accelerator Ideas

Customer Targets (based on persona profiles)

Three types of content

1.Proactive

2.Reactive

3.Participatory

Planning content

Theme 1

Week 1

Theme 2

Theme 3

Theme 4

Week 2 Week 3 Week 4

“Reactive proactive”

Gist as your dashboard

Participation Best Practices

• Share

• Don’t sell

• Be a trusted advisor

• Don’t sell

• Connect, recommend, refer

• Don’t sell

Why do you need this?

Needs/QualificationGoal: Secure Presentation

PresentationGoal: Establish decision

date, send proposal

ProposalGoal: BUY

ApproachGoal: Accelerate urgency, timeline to purchase

Open/AttemptedGoal: Get prospect on the phone

Actively WorkingGoal: Qualify prospect as 30-60 day opportunityLEADS

OPPORTUNITIES

Lead becomes Active Opportunity

Why do you need a pipeline?

• Most leads aren’t sales ready

• You can’t focus on everything

• The right message at the right time

• Maximum sales, minimum work

How to approach your pipeline

• It’s a pipeline (but your prospects shouldn’t know that)

• Differentiate from your competitors

• DO NOT SELL

• Automate as much as you can

Keys to effective pipeline execution

• Use a lead management system

• Clearly define lead & opportunity stages

• Focus on great content

• Make it easy for prospects to self-select and move forward

Last Slide Last

1. Find & engage prospects “upstream” before they are active buyers

2. Understand your customer, product & objective before executing

3. Publish your own content to attract prospects

4. Practice customer-centric selling every day

5. Sales & marketing is too important to leave to salespeople and marketers

Questions?