Business strategy:
A more effective
approach to
marketing and sales

The choice of your B2B business strategy can make an enormous difference in sales & results

The subject of business strategy is often obscure and theoretical... and the concept itself isn't always understood to mean the same thing by everyone concerned.

In this article we will look at the subject of B2B business strategies solely as strategies for procuring sales.

To expand this definition and to delineate the purpose of this article, "to find the most effective strategy for creating interest in our products / services, to acquire the highest attainable number of prospective clients, and to sell to these successfully with an optimally high ratio."

So, what would be an ideal B2B business strategy for marketing and sales?

B2B business strategy: How does a child learn to walk?

I know the headline seems rather idiotic, but bear with me.

Essentially, the art of marketing and selling involve one specific function whose importance is not commonly realised.

This element or function is EDUCATION.

Education, in its basic form, is the action of learning something new.

It can be new data for an existing situation, allowing the person to reevaluate the issue in the light of new information. Or it could be knowledge that opens up whole new possibilities for the person learning about it.

Anything new, and not necessarily something one would PERCEIVE as "education" or "learning."

It could be new as in "here's a new company" or "here's something I've not seen before." Or it could be "Oh, I didn't actually ever realise you could do THAT too..." or "NOW I understand why it all went haywire previously... now I know how to do it right."

It could be anything, in fact.

As long as it is something new and gives cause to reevaluate one's previous information, it can be classified as "educational."

So, let's look at a business activity as a set of educational cycles.

Let's start with advertising and marketing. To create interest for your services / products, a heretofore unknown member of your target group must LEARN something.

To kindle his interest into a proper blaze, we need to have him learn additional things.

To propel him onwards on our sales cycle from presentation to sales closure, more new and interesting (and positive) things must be learned by the soon-to-be client.

Once he becomes a client, the learning process continues, now with the actual services (and products) delivered to him.

If this keeps him learning positive things then the probability of repeat purchases is extremely high... well, as close to a certainty as anything can be in business.

But why do we assume that prospective clients KNOW all about OUR area of expertise and what they can do with our products / services?

In reality, every prospect needs to be educated to understand the unique benefits you can provide BEFORE we can expect him to be able to make an informed decision.

And every client needs to be educated to utilise the benefits and PERCEIVE the quality of our service.

That's how we teach the child to walk, be it a disrespectful analogy perhaps... but that's how it's done.

Obviously, with clients it needs to be done discreetly and with definite finesse. But that's just planning and the way to do that perfect every time is the secret of "ready-to-use tools..."

But that will be explained later in this article.

B2B business strategy & troubleshooting: Educational steps going backwards

This "scale of continuance of positive education" can invert on itself as well, going to wrong way, which is when you'll have problems.

Whenever a member of your target group receives information about you and your products/services and does NOT become interested, learning did not occur OR wrong conclusions were (formed and) learned.

And each time your prospective client does NOT end up on your client list, something happened to DISCONTINUE LEARNING for the person.

He encountered something that was too big to face up to or too unpleasant, or it required too steep a jump from him, or something happened that simply ceased his desire to learn more about your solution.

While this analogy might not be the most intriguing one, it works.

Trust me on this one:

You can always find what went wrong if you look at each step of your marketing and sales with the viewpoint of "what unsuitable / unworkable / inefficient / misunderstood information did we give OR what information should have been given but wasn't, to keep this person progressing toward signing a contract?"

It's always something in the educational process. And debugging the system is, in itself, educational too since we learn from mistakes.

Now we see that the same process could also be applied to those employees who deal with prospective customers.

And perhaps it should, for the sake of your own nerves... because it enables you to achieve the goals you've set for the business activity's marketing and sales.

Having full control over HOW each salesperson presents the goods, knowing that the way they do it is exactly as YOU want it to be... and being able to train salespersons quickly so they start producing results... and being able to spot the problem a mile away when they don't.

Now that doesn't sound too shabby, or what?

B2B business strategy built on doable educational steps correctly sequenced

To optimise the likelihood of success with each unknown and known prospective customer, we would have to devise a strategy that researches, tests, pilots and executes A SEQUENCE OF DOABLE EDUCATIONAL STEPS starting from advertising / prospecting, going through presentation and sales, and ending with closure and the signing of the contract.

This is also what salespeople are trying to learn, each on their own and without the benefit of accurate research data or some centralised planning of these steps by someone whose expertise is just that.

Some salespersons are naturals and they pull it off frequently. Some just never get the hang of it and they fumble, producing results with less reliability and frequency.

But the thing that often brings the executive most aggravation is finding out what's wrong when someone won't produce results.

On one hand you have to DEMAND results from your marketing & sales personnel... but on the other, you end up trying to help them find what's wrong when they simply cannot produce.

That can be a painful combination of duties to bear. And it is, too. Ideally, you would demand production and someone else would help the sales persons whenever their sales wane or stop.

And that's what's possible IF you have TOOLS for your marketing and sales personnel to use in achieving their set production quotas.

With "tools" I simply mean various interviews and step-by-step programmes of doing things which list each stage or point or procedure exactly as it is done... and written in ready-to-use format.

After all, MOST actions a salesperson needs to take in the sales cycle have to do with SAYING something.

"Oh really," you may say, "but that's just the problem... they come to me and ask me what they should say or do in this or that situation..."

Well, if that happens then the cause of it is that they don't have a way to CONTROL WHERE THE SALES CYCLE IS GOING.

This is what happens when the prospective client gets to control the sales cycle far too much. He takes it into realms unknown, sets the salesperson up in various quandaries that force him to prove a negative.

You cannot prove a negative.

That's to say, if someone suspects you of dishonesty, there's no way to prove you're NOT something. You can only prove what you ARE... and only if the other person still TRUSTS YOU at that.

So our salesmen go astray and stumble into the dead end of "prove to me that I'm wrong" with prospects and that's basically the end of the line.

The trick is not to go there at all.

And the only way that's possible with the vast majority of prospects is if you have TOOLS that allow the salesman stay in control of the sales cycle.

When I say "control" I don't mean anything unpleasant or untoward. SOMEONE has got to keep the show on the road and progressing toward the end result... and if it's not your sales person then the sales cycle rarely finds its way to the fruition of the intended goal.

Controlling the sales cycle simply means keeping it going on the road you've envisioned, the one that leads to a sale with the highest probability.

The road has width so the prospect still has some leeway to stray from the subject, but the tool itself (if used by the salesperson) will RETURN him onto the right path very politely and nicely... and then invite him to take the next step toward the intended destination.

It's merely a question of maximising YOUR chances of getting the sale and minimising the likelihood (and effects) of any uncontrolled or unwanted actions on the way.

Some people see control the army way as strict discipline of the masterly sergeant-major barking orders to subjugated soldiers whose willpower and volitional control are suppressed at every turn.

But that's not good control and if that's all the sergeant-major can do. Given half a chance, the soldiers will disobey him eagerly just to prove a point.

In sales control the only successful method of control involves employing the WILLINGNESS of the prospective client so that HE creates a solution to the problem he has.

It's HE who's the boss ostensibly.

HE tells the salesman what's needed and wanted, HE feels fully in control of the whole thing, setting demands on your salesman and gaining concessions all through the way.

But the METHOD that the clever salesman uses to create this effect is by having a prepared interview whose questions are planned in such manner that the prospect just happens to want, demand, request, and realise things which are factually part and parcel of your service.

These "new demands" are EVOKED by the questions and then conceded by the salesman. It is preplanned, all incorporated into the tool with the benefit of planning instead of leaving it up to the salesman to think on his feet in the heat of the moment.

Much more planned equals far better control on the sales cycle.

By asking questions the salesman gently controls the sales cycle, directing the prospect's attention onto a set of issues, each in correct sequence and approached from a new angle, building on the previous answers... all resulting in a lot of realisations in the mind of the prospect.

Note that these questions are always asked pleasantly, gently and politely. The questions need to be OF INTEREST to the prospect but never challenge him in any way.

That way it works like a dream and the prospect experiences the interview as something very pleasant. He is the star of the show, he feels all powerful and intelligent... well, you get the idea.

By answering the questions, the prospect INVENTS these data, creating them in his mind at that moment...and, because they're HIS IDEAS now, he adopts them with absolute truth value.

These are HIS ideas now... and slowly he starts to SELL HIS IDEAS TO YOUR SALESMAN.

It's quite amazing to witness, actually.

It does require that the salesman keeps a straight face and let's the prospect be the star of the show... but other than that it is quite effortless.

It's effortless because the prospect is actually pulling the cycle towards its intended conclusion rather than resisting it.

Thus, the salesman doesn't have to pull the prospect up the ladder but allow the prospect do his own climbing (thinking)... and the prospect will actually pull the salesman up!

And that's what's so brilliant about prepared tools for sales. With preplanned tools based on careful planning based on thorough market survey...

Well, let's just say that the odds of something going wrong are minimised. The prospect will be thinking off the cuff while your sales person implements a carefully planned strategy that's simply irresistible for most prospects...

Much better odds in your favour, I'd say.

Done right, your salesman will have an easy time closing most prospects onto your services while those prospects will feel absolutely GREAT about having finally found the one service provider who LISTENS to their needs and tailors the service accordingly.

From the prospect's viewpoint, he would be mad to let this one slip by, see?

B2B business strategy — whom do you want in control?

Essentially, this business strategy of ready-useable tools offers many advantages to the executive.

Firstly, by being in charge of the assignment of planning and creating the tools, YOU get to decide exactly how your company and its products / services are presented... and then these are set in the tools and thereafter used by every sales & marketing person.

Thus you establish firm policy on how the company is presented and the tools give a way to ensure that this remains as you want it.

You carefully plan each of the steps of educating prospective customers and then make it the standard operating procedure, thereby ensuring each new prospect receives all the data needed to understand the unique benefits of your service/products.

Secondly, the issue of training sales and/or marketing personnel becomes a very solvable problem. You only need to look for suitable characteristics in a person and then train them to use their tool... and then put them to work... and continue training them whenever there's a problem.

Such tools should always come with a simple troubleshooting tool which makes it simple to debug anyone who has become stuck in the use of the tool.

You simply locate WHERE he has changed the script (omitting or adding or changing something) and reinstate it... and the sales results will resume onto the level they were before he made the change.

Each problem will EDUCATE the salesperson and soon there won't be anything to teach him about the use of his tools.

Thirdly, you can maximise the success ratio of your marketing & sales team because nothing is left to chance and every single datum is planned to be given to prospects in the correct gradient and in the correct sequence.

Thus you optimise the likelihood that every single prospect UNDERSTANDS... and chances are you'll be the very first service provider within your industry from whom he has experienced such customer care.

Fourthly, this tool-based method of prospecting, marketing, and selling will maximise the FLOW (number) of prospective customers, so that you begin to receive "more than your fair share" of enquiries and interested contacts and sales leads.

Combine that with the quicker sales cycle and higher success ratio in sales closing and you begin to get the idea what this business strategy could do for you.

There are additional points of value with this system.

For instance, it will give YOU a way to control your personnel's production far more effectively because you can influence their production directly and relatively quickly at that.

Of course, no system will guarantee 100% success.

The tool-based system won't impress every prospect. But the good thing is that it will impress those who are the more positive and constructive among the available clients.

But the embittered, totally cynical prospects won't be impressed.

They've lost the ability to trust anyone and they're justifying their own lack of production by blaming everyone else (your industry's suppliers among others) for their own problems... which makes it impossible for them to admit that your service COULD contain anything positive... so they refuse to walk the road used with such tools.

Yet these guys, minority as they may be, are no pearls as clients. These are the clients who make up the statistics of the 20/80 rule — 20 percent of clients who cause 80% of the work (trouble) but not the income.

So, you might be better off leaving these clients to the competition.

And you can, because increase inflow of prospects and an elevated success ratio in obtaining sales from these will give you the freedom of choice when it comes to whom you want to accept as a client.

B2B business strategy of educational elements: Learning the right thing and retaining it forever

To take this all back to the analogy of education, you see that this tool-based business strategy will allow you to learn new things as well.

However, this time it will be good news and pleasant realisations as things will be easier and more effective.

This tool-based business system will teach the prospects and the personnel. The skills and understanding thus provided will be RETAINED as the tools are part and parcel of their work-a-day life.

Thus, you don't have to keep teaching the same things over again.

This system also allows you to be the one who calls the shots without having to watch over what everyone says or does. And within a few years, such control over marketing and sales will inevitably also increase the value of the business itself.

So, there are a lot of positive potentials available here.

It may well be in your interests to decide what is said to prospective clients, how prospects are found, how the sales cycle is directed and things like that.

Come to think of it... Why leave it up to each salesperson to hack their path through the dense jungle?

Why not create those steps centrally and invest a bit of effort so that the staircase is truly complete, ensuring maximal success with minimal skills / experience required from the sales people?

All you really need is a thorough marketing survey on what your target group wants, likes, dislikes, thinks and so on... then formulating the ideal service concept based on what the market wants... and then these tools can be created.

If the idea of ready-to-use tools as a business strategy interests you, please read the presentation of our Marketing Analysis introductory service which could start you on your way and certainly offer a lot more insight into the strategy of ready-to-use tools for marketing and sales functions.

And if web site presentation is more important to you at this point in time, click here to read about our Internet Marketing & Search Engine Optimization Analysis.

Give it some thought. It may well be just the thing that solves many problems previously thought unavoidable for the top executive!

Best wishes,

Harry Kafka
HDK Consultants Ltd
32 Manning Close
Richmond Square
East Grinstead RH19 2DR
West Sussex, United Kingdom
Tel. 01342-328 116
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