Easier Said Than Done

It sounds deceptively simple. To increase business-to-business leads and sales, all you have to do is make four rights: right people, right offer, right time and right place.

For most direct marketers this is easier said than done. And that last right — location, location, location — is playing a larger role than ever in driving additional leads and sales.

Multiple marketing and sales channels offer real benefits, among them lower marketing and sales costs and faster leads and sales. But with all that good comes challenges. Let’s look at three of these and see how they can be turned into key opportunities.

• Channel conflict

  It’s an inevitable byproduct of multichannel marketing. Sell direct and resellers will complain that you’re competing with them for sales. Sell online and your salespeople and resellers will claim they deserve the credit and commission. If your resellers sell online, their competitors will start to beef about lost sales in their territory.

  Ugh! What’s a B-to-B marketer to do?

  Focus first on making it easy for prospects to find and buy your offerings through the channels they prefer. Why? Ask travel agents. The vast majority of their customers have chosen to move their business to travel agencies that let them shop online or by phone 24/7.

  Then, rather than hope to eliminate channel conflict, try to minimize it.

• Pricing

  How do you accommodate prospects’ need to understand pricing in order to make their buying decisions, and at the same time address your company’s desire to offer different prices via different channels to different categories of customers in different parts of the country or the world?

  Make it fast and easy for prospects to get the pricing information that’ll help them make their buying decision.

  For example, Staples’ Web site simply asks visitors to enter their ZIP code to get prices. Many other sites require that prospective customers register, log in or call for pricing information, which often causes them to look elsewhere.

  You also have to try hard to avoid losing the sale on price alone. Is your product substantially better than the competition? Do you offer faster order turnaround and delivery? Are your shipping costs lower? Do you offer better after-sales service and support? If so, be sure to say so right alongside the pricing information.

• Brand messaging

  This issue comes up often in discussions about multichannel marketing, but the solution is a no-brainer. Set up guidelines and procedures to ensure that the look and feel of your marketing and sales communications, and the key brand messages they carry, are consistent across all channels.

Remember, the interactions prospects and customers have with you create the real brand message in their minds. It’s what will bring these people to recommend your company to others — or tell them to stay away.

M.H. “Mac” McIntosh ([email protected]) is a North Kingston, RI-based B-to-B marketing consultant, specializing in lead generation and sales.