First it was the Internet; then it was the recession; and now it’s Social Media. They all changed the way IT buyers buy. And each of those changes has created the need for IT Sales and Marketing people to adapt.
Social media and search have irreversibly merged the worlds of Sales and Marketing. Where marketing messages and sales relationship building begin and end is a moving target. So SMB IT providers must adopt a new set of marketing-related behaviors to thrive in this new environment.
Selling evolved long ago from an act of presenting and closing, to one of educating and consulting; but access to information via online sources (rating sites, filtering social media streams, and tools for competitive analysis) has changed the game.
Over the past five years B2B buyers have learned to research online. They don’t want to see or talk to a salesperson until they’re nearing a buy decision. That means Marketing, specifically online marketing, must create demand, nurture leads and keep them engaged until they’re ready for Sales.
Some businesses are attempting to meet this challenge by expecting salespeople to learn the ins and outs of the internet as a sales enabler, while also carrying a quota, building relationships, managing accounts and internal resources, upselling current customers, and prospecting! That’s a great way to set your salespeople up for failure.
My clients – SMB (20 to 100 employee) IT providers (hardware, software and/or services) have been evolving and they need to continue to do so. My experience with them (MSPs, SIs, VARs), is that they’ve been struggling to transition from a direct sales model to a model that better fits how their prospects want to buy.
SMB IT providers are still trying to get their web channel aligned (if they even understand that the web is their de facto channel to market). Now there’s another paradigm shift; and that’s social media. There’s the added challenge of figuring out how to reach prospects through blogs, LinkedIn, paid search, personalized email, and the new question burning up Twitter today – should we buy promoted tweets?
I want to draw an analogy here to earlier forms of media. Books were invented hundreds of years ago and they’re still going strong. Newspapers and magazines were invented later, and they’re still here, maybe not so strong. Radio is still here. So are movies and TV.
With each paradigm shift, the old way wasn’t destroyed, it was added to. That’s the situation with SMB IT providers – there’s still basic selling of boxes going on and that will continue, but there’s no margin in it. There’s still consultative selling of solutions going on, and that will continue, but now the prospect is in the driver’s seat and margins are under pressure. Effective Marketing (content marketing, inbound marketing, online marketing, social media marketing) can reduce the Cost of Sales and help IT providers to maintain margins.
There are no more blind dates. Your prospects can learn just about all there is to know re your company, your products and services, and your personnel. Some of my clients say, “Then let’s not tell them. Let’s leave that information off our website. Let’s not participate in social media. Then they’ll have to speak to our salespeople.” I disagree… vehemently. No SMB IT provider is selling any solution that prospects can’t find elsewhere. If your site doesn’t contain the relevant and useful information that people need to make an informed decision, you’ve already lost the sale.
In order to beat the competition, you need to be playing the social media game, and you need to do it well. There’s a misconception that social media is free. The platforms typically are free. Using them effectively takes time, knowledge (platform knowledge, but also business and people knowledge), and a well thought through strategy.
I have a client who asked me to help him find a recent college grad to do his company’s social media marketing. He figured that there are plenty of recent grads looking for work and they understand this social networking stuff. We couldn’t find anybody. There were plenty of applicants, just nobody capable. They didn’t understand business. They couldn’t discern what was appropriate communication, and what was not. They didn’t know the industry. When a client or prospect engaged them online, they didn’t comprehend the context of the message. They couldn’t reply in a meaningful way.
Social media is conversation. You need to make sure your end of that conversation is interesting, knowledgeable, relevant and courteous.
Social media presents a gigantic opportunity for SMBs. You can engage your prospects where they’re already congregating online, build credibility in your expertise, and (over time) gently persuade them to purchase from you. This takes both Sales and Marketing participation (and cooperation), time, effort, some money, planning, and a willingness to develop processes. It takes a concerted effort over time and across platforms. The payback is orders of magnitude greater than the Sales and Marketing ROI you’re used to.
Tags: Bob Leonard, digital relationships, execution, Sales and Marketing, social media, social networking sites
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Bob,
I agree with your argument. I just don’t know how we could make it happen. We’re a small MSP – 8 people. I’ve done some social media marketing and had some success. I can see how it could be very effective, but I just don’t have the time.
I’m guessing that you don’t work with clients as small as us. Have you heard of Robin Robins? Do you think she would be a good alternative for us?
Sam,
Yes I have heard of Robin. We’ve exchanged emails and a phone call or two. I recommend her. She knows what she’s doing… she follows the philosophies of the same marketing gurus (Dan Kennedy, Jay Abraham, Perry Marshall) that I do.
I think she’d be a good fit for you. The issue there, though, is also going to be time. Robin will tell you what to do, and how to do it. If you follow what she tells you to the letter, you’ll grow your business and your profits. But she doesn’t execute. You have to do the work yourself.
The difference between Robin and acSellerant is that we build the strategy with you, develop the marketing plan, and then execute the plan for you. All the time interacting closely with whoever is responsible for Sales.
I say give Robin a try. At least you’ll have a proven game plan to follow.
Hi Bob -
Great post — I especially like the observation that in a social media landscape, “there are no blind dates”. I also agree with the “Conversation” aspect and that still takes time and “authenticity”, meaning real-time dialog as you get to know prospects and colleagues online. I think a lot of gurus who talk only about automatic redistribution of content miss this — you have to be there to make a real connection.
Finally, I think SMBs will do well to have a hard look at how CRMs are now integrating social media. Websites should feed leads directly into CRMs – BatchBook.com for smaller companies, SalesForce.com for larger operations.
- Scott
WebFadds.com – Optimize * Connect * Convert
Scott,
You’re right on re the CRM integration. Once you begin to engage prospects, you need to track the conversations. You can easily have 50 of them going concurrently. I know I can’t keep track of that many. The CRM is a way to organize, prioritize, and make sure your responses are appropriate for each individual.
Thanks for the comment.
Bob
The line between sales and marketing blurred a very long time ago. In the early 90′s, it became clear that marketing’s responsibility was to communicate a strong value proposition, identify qualified prospects and establish a rapport with customers through high value touch points. Social media is simply a new enabler of that imperative.
For very small firms, current technology allows you to play on the big stage and compete with anyone. Of course, there are only so many hours in the day. As a result, some things haven’t changed. You must be sure your offer is truly differentiated. If not, you may still do okay, but your cost of sales will be higher and your close ratio lower.
The most difficult thing for very small businesses is to focus. On the one hand, cash is king. So you chase every deal. That is a path to slow growth. In that respect, social media can be a distraction.
If you have eight employees, my advice is to focus your resources on some key markets. Don’t try to be everything to everyone.Develop a good customer data base of your best prospects and focus on them.
Best,
Dan Ross
Executive Director
Entrepreneurs Forum of Greater Philadelphia
I recently attended a workshop in Social Media marketing and my take is that it’s an ocean. A social media strategy needs a concerted vision, patience and resources to ensure that your campaigns/messaging is relevant and engaging.Though its early to predict the returns and to measure its effectiveness for SMBs, it is imperative to leverage the social media sites/tools and be a part of the action!
We are a VAR with a B2B clientele and part of our challenge is to find those people who are already engaged in the social media conversation that we can talk to. We are just early in our use, although we have been active in linkedIn for some time. I find it a bit of a challenge to decide which conversations we should be monitoring and participating in, since most are from across North America and at this point we are much more locally focused. How have others dealt with this dilemma?
Lee,
I checked out your website. It looks like you’re doing all the right things. Plenty of relevant and useful content on the site. You have a well-written blog that’s frequently updated and contains meaningful info.
Re your location dilemma. Here’s what I’d recommend… it’s going to take time and effort. First define your prime suspects. Develop a profile of the types of businesses (size, location, industry, etc.) that are your best targets. Use your most profitable customers as a guideline. Then use LinkedIn and Twitter (maybe Facebook and FourSquare) to find the companies and people who fit your prime suspect profile.
Once you’ve targeted them, see where they’re hanging out. It may be in groups that are geographically dispersed, but that’s OK. Follow the individuals, listen to what their issues are, and when it’s appropriate, when you can give value, join the conversations. There are a number of tools that can help. HootSuite is an excellent one to aggregate across social media platforms. And, as in the comment above from Scott, use a CRM to keep track of the people and conversations.
Let me know how it works out 4 u.
Bob