Prospects Need Another Pitch Like A Baseball In The Head

Buyers aren’t interested in features and benefits, laundry lists of capabilities and data dumps. Top executives and business owners, the people who sign the checks, simply don’t have time for it.

Their brains are jam-packed with information and all they care about is if you can help them get something done and not make an expensive mistake because they allowed themselves to be sold a bill of goods.

At Entercom my modus operandi is to build products around market demand. In stark contrast to the proverbial “build it and they will come,” product development is more about finding a pool of money that your competitors don’t have and quickly locking it up with a new solution that serves that marketplace with direct return on investment.

As an industry, we must be viewed as a resource. Salespeople, marketers and product development executives will increasingly be commoditized.

Unless entire organizations stay sharply focused on delivering solutions to the customer, their salespeople will be viewed as adversaries, marginally helpful clerks or fair weather friends.

Those who thrive in the profession will possess the confidence to become subject matter experts in one lucrative niche with a diversified but highly targeted array of products and services custom tailored to each customer’s individual needs.

That being said, the consultative or “educational” approach can be a two-edged sword. Give prospects too much information without commitment beyond learning more via in-depth needs analysis, seminars, trade shows, webinars and so forth and you could end up doing a lot of unpaid consulting.

There needs to be a give and take relationship in the learning process with all the educational components of the sales and marketing mix aimed at delivering demand-driven solutions at reasonable price points that deliver strong ROI.

Critical to this process is a series of “mini-agreements” to ensure that organizational resources aren’t being wasted on the wrong prospects and stealing time from more qualified ones.

In business, there must always be a delicate balance of short-term thinking to keep the cash flowing and sufficient operating capital to stay above water on profit margins combined with a long-term strategic vision that positions the company and its brightest performers as the “go to gurus” months, if not years, ahead of the “now” buying phase.

The original commentary and analysis in this E-Brief was written by Andrew Ellenberg, Group Executive Producer, Entercom Communications. His roles in the organization include enterprise sales, sales management, product development, integrated marketing and strategic alliances.

Email him directly at aellenberg@entercom.com to network, discuss strategic alliances, share industry knowledge or develop new projects. You can also call him at 913-744-3647.