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[separator headline=”h2″ title=”Traditional lead generation isn’t working anymore”]

It’s often tough to develop the optimal digital marketing strategy.  Sales conversations with informed buyers are becoming more challenging

The Internet has put information at everyones fingertips; selling has changed, for ever.

Buyers are now in control, they don’t want to be interrupted, they communicate on their terms, they respond to what interests them.

Enterprise-class organisations with deep pockets can afford the specialists and systems needed to adapt.

For SME’s it’s much harder. Tight budgets and little in-house expertise make it tough to make the right decisions and squeeze the most out of limited resources.

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[separator headline=”h3″ title=”Cold Calling Is Becoming Less And Less Effective”]

Who likes taking cold calls? Who likes spam? Nobody, we’ve all become sensitised and hate them.

So the cost of buying a list and getting a telemarketing agency to make calls has become so expensive per lead that, in most cases, it’s not worth while. It can be done, but to do it well takes a great deal of time and resources so its use is limited to very specific, high value targets.

Blasting out emails is equally fraught, spam is detested so one slip can mean that you’re blacklisted and the reputation you’re trying to build, destroyed.

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[separator headline=”h3″ title=”Success In A Digital World Means Becoming Attractive And Attentive”]

It may be tough to do but the path to digital success is well established by many successful companies

• You must understand your prospect if you’re going to identify them and hit their hot button
• You have to meet and communicate with them where they meet & talk, that’s increasingly digital
• You have to tempt them with messages and content they’ll find compelling, monitoring their interest
• You have to nurture their interest in you with intelligent conversations

It requires intelligent rifleshot marketing, not blasting at anything that moves with a scattergun.

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[separator headline=”h3″ title=”Selling Techniques Need Sharpening In A Connected World”]

With so many players now connected, so much information, so much noise, it’s easy for sales people to miss a trick or lose their way. Missing a trick means losing the sale.

Buyers have a tough time too, they’re busy, under pressure to deliver so they rely on research, referrals and recommendations, all made easier with internet applications. By recognising this a smart sales person can be helpful rather than a hinderance and build a strong relationship.

Time-honoured sales techniques are not always adequate anymore. It’s critically important to understand your prospect better, become more solution focused, qualify to stay focused on the best opportunities, and exploit new networking opportunities especially LinkedIn.

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Thought provoking statistics:

[skill percentage=”70″ title=”70% of sales are now influenced by the web (Deloitte Digital)“]
[skill percentage=”90.9” title=”Cold calling doesn’t work for 90.9% of the time (Harvard Business Review)“]
[skill percentage=”67” title=”B2B companies that Blog generate 67% more leads that those that don’t (WebDAM)“]

There’s a plethora of techniques and experts competing for your budget:

• Interactive web content
• Search engine optimisation
• Web activity analysis
• Social networking
• Email marketing
• Web research
• Blogging
• Campaign management
• Pipeline management
• Lead scoring
• Telemarketing
• Database marketing
• Solutions selling
• Needs analysis
• Qualification

[teaser]The reality is that they’re all important, they all form part of the mix. The difficult bit is to work out how much of each you need without wasting precious resources.[/teaser]

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