How do you create a marketing/sales alignment plan ? How do you know if it is working at it's full potential?

Today’s consumers are entering the buying process much more educated and from a number of entry points. Some will come to your brand based on the recommendation of a friend, others will see a sponsored social media post, others will come in “cold” from a generalized search engine query. Your sales process must be able to accommodate these various entry points and anticipate the needs of these folks.

The hardened sales process of yesterday will not work for today’s buyers, and certainly not for tomorrow’s.
With some simple steps, such as defining your customer’s buying process, behavior monitoring, and measuring; you can begin to create a sales pipeline that is more customer-focused to provide services or products that gets them closer to closing.

Sales-Oriented Pipeline vs Customer-Oriented Pipeline
A sales-oriented pipeline is outbound focused, it’s mission is to reach as many people as possible, with little regard to the buying stage of the consumer. Sales-oriented is a broad, untargeted blanket.

A traditional sales-oriented process is quick to “close the deal” and often leads with the close. This is not only highly ineffective, but is also off-putting to the customer; whose defenses are now high. The sales person has done themselves a great disservice and now must work harder to establish a bond of trust.

In contrast, a customer-focused sales process puts the sales person in the shoes of the customer and allows the customer to feel as though they are in charge of the buying decision. The result is a sales process that is much more comfortable for the buyer, thus lowering their defenses and being more open to options and the idea of buying.

Customer-oriented process is inbound focused, it’s mission is to attract the right prospect at the right time, meeting them in their time of need. Customer-oriented is highly targeted and focused.

Pillars of an Customer-Oriented Pipeline:
- Clearly Defined Customer Personas
- Content Creation & Marketing Strategy
- Lead Nurturing
- Monitoring & Measurement

Step 1: Defining Ideal Customer Personas
A persona is a representation of your ideal customer. There is a careful balance between detail and generalization. A well defined persona addresses your ideal customer’s demographic information, their job title and responsibilities, their daily routines and habits, pain points or frustrations, what they value, their goals, where they seek information (their watering holes), and common objections they present to your product or service.

Using High-level Content to Attract Your Personas
Next, to attract those customers seeking answers, we must position our website in front of them through search engines.
Search engines are driven by high quality, original content that is published on a regular basis. High quality means content that is deep in knowledge, well-written (i.e. uses proper spelling and grammar), and addresses the query that originally brought the visitor to the site.

A blog is the perfect tool to publish educational content pieces on your brand’s website. These content pieces are extremely Top of The Funnel and serve to attract visitors to your website to answer their question and establish yourself or brand as an authority.

When a blog is frequently updated with fresh content surrounding a particular topic, search engines display the site higher in search rankings. This results in new visitors being sent to your website.

TIP: Use the answers to your ideal persona’s objections as fuel for your blog topics. Address one question or objection per blog post.

Don’t write content to sell your services, rather, write content that addresses the questions, concerns, or objections of your ideal customer.

When trying to think about what to blog about, one simple exercise is to imagine your perfect, ideal customer approaching you on the sidewalk. Imagine they asked you one question facing them. What would you say, if you knew you could not “Sell them”. You have only one sentence to answer their question to the best of your ability – but not sell them.

For example, if the ideal customer of my fictional home-building company, Acme Builders & Bricks, was approaching me and asked a very common question: “how do I build a house?” My response would be “Start by choosing a location and blueprint.”

Now, I know this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how to build a house, but this is the purest, non-salesy answer I have given the short amount of time I have as I pass this prospective customer. This is a bit of information that he or she can take and improve their life immediately.

This answer can be broken into two different blog posts, one that discusses how to choose the perfect location and one that discusses how to design your ideal home. The point is, answering your customer’s questions often leads to more questions – and a bounty of exceptional blogging content.

Step 2: Using Offers to Convert Visitors to Leads
Sales Process ExampleIn keeping with our fictional home building company, there is a level of information that we freely give away on our blog. There is a secondary level of information that is reserved for those who are more serious about committing to the process. This “premium content” is often referred to as an “offer” available in exchange for some identifying information.

As a sales-savvy marketer, if you have done your job correctly, your blog will establish a level of trust and authority that lends itself to your visitor voluntarily giving their contact information for a deeper, more detailed piece. This could be an ebook, a tip sheet, or a How-To pdf.

By downloading this, the visitor has gone from an anonymous reader to a Information Qualified Lead. They have begun the formal process of educating themselves about their need and your proposed solution.

Step 3: Using Automated Lead Nurturing to Convert Leads to Customers

Since the visitor has provided their name and email, we can use a series of automated emails to send supporting content and information to the lead. At this point, we can identify their pain point based on the content offer — or offers — they have accessed.

A successful lead nurturing campaign moves the lead through the sales funnel by sending further content that addresses common sales questions, introduces the brand and it’s position, and encourages another download of material. This Middle of the Funnel offer is usually product and service information and clearly answers common push backs of customers.

All of this serves to lower the defensive barrier of the buyer. It educates them on the product and brand, without being overly pushy or going for the close too quickly.

If a lead converts and downloads a middle of the funnel offer, they have become a Sales Qualified Lead and are often ready for a product demo or sample. This is the ideal time for the sales team to reach out to the lead and schedule an appointment.

As you can see, this process saves the sales team an incredible amount of time and allows them to focus on the highly qualified leads, rather than wasting time with lookie-loos.

The customer is able to progress through the process at their own rate, but is never pressured into dealing with a sales person until they have expressed interest in learning more.

Step 4: Monitoring & Measuring Your Process

“If it can be measured, it can be improved.”

The last step of any closed-loop marketing system is monitoring your efforts. Without clear analytics, your ability to measure what works and what is failing is nearly impossible.

You must be able to track which blog posts are attracting the most highly-qualified leads, which content offers are converting to sales, and which automated lead nurturing emails and producing results. A constant “pruning” may be necessary to maintain optimal performance, but the result is a highly-effecient sales process that generates greater sales and lower wasted time for your sales and marketing team.

Measurable Metrics include:
Blogging
• Organic, Referral & Social Media Traffic
• CTA Click Through Rate
• New Leads Generated
• Quality of Lead Generated
Content Offers
• CTA Click through Rate
• Landing Page “New Contact” Rate
• Quality of Leads Generated
Email Lead Nurturing
• Overall Nurture Rate (TOFU – MOFU)
• Email Open Rate
• Email Click Through Rate
Creating a Closed-Loop Reporting Process
• Provides Accountability between sales and marketing departments
• Closes the “gaps” and keeps leads in the nurturing process longer, if needed
• Identify content that is working, and what is not

Understanding Lead Scoring
Uses sales team’s time most efficiently
Used to identify cool, warm, and hot leads
Reduces lead “drop out” within the nurturing process

Conclusion
This customer-oriented sales process allows the customer to navigate your buying path at their own pace, with minimal, low-pressure sales tactics.

Rather than lead with your close, start with by answering the customer’s question, educating them further, and showing how your product is the ideal solution for their need. A customer-focused sales process is efficient, optimized, and highly-profitable.

If you would like help designing a marketing blueprint for your brand, I would love to help. Drop me a note and we can schedule a time to talk about your needs and goals.

This is a complex question, anyone trying to answer this will most likely give you a generic approach.
1. list priorities/goals
2. list of resources (financial/creative/tools/labor force,etc)
3. evaluate your non customers persona
4. evaluate your current customer person
5. cross reference with your substitute competitor and look for similarities
6. then focus on the differences and based on your goals (after being prioritized https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-beehag-humberto-valle-mba-lrea-sam?trk=mp-author-card) create marketing objectives that align with current customers, non customers, differences between brands and align them with your market.

A strategy or plan is not something that can be thought up without insight in your business.
As far as knowing if is working, well that is part of the strategy and objectives you have set in motion to be achieved. If you have short term goals you should be able to quantify or gauge yourself whether there has been improvement in work, employee, satisfaction, sales, profits, extensions - whatever your goal is.
Hire a marketing consultant for this and together build a plan that can be easily implemented and is cohesive with your goals, brand and resources.
You can give me a call or google me and consider hiring me as well as I have been doing this type of work for many businesses already.

Hi,

First of all make sure you are listed in at least one Google Maps. I have listed my online businesses in several locations many times. I also list the businesses in all the old standbys, Yahoo, Yelp, LinkedIn, FB, etc. This will generate some organic traffic and help establish business legitimacy. Then, follow the steps below.

Bonus:
Here is $10,000 worth of information for free and in a nutshell. (each of these proven concepts could actually be worth millions of dollars in the right hands.

I didn't come close to inventing the pre-launch or the launch. Concert goers are very familiar with winning concert tickets by calling into radio stations or winning vip treatment, or back stage passes, lunch with a star, the list goes on.

Likewise, if you look at "professional wrestling," the whole fitting before the fight is just a pre-launch. PT Barnum was doing this for circus goers over 100 years earlier. And I can only imagine the pre-launch of the Romans for the Gladiator Fights.

In more recent history, every type of business from Retail Stores to Real Estate companies have used multiple pre-launch techniques. Believe me, tourists are bombarded with Condo deals when they visit Disney Land.

This is similar, but different from lead generation (I don't have the enough space to discuss this powerful technique here). But I use both of these techniques in my own businesses including offering a free information packed newsletter and encouraging my clients to move up my sales latter because it is best for them. Most do move up the sales latter as their ambition and drive increases. Some move all the way up from the very beginning. Both benefit from this, one just takes longer to receive the benefits. Others will never take a chance on becoming successful.

Okay, more to your pre-launch campaign for SaaS. Simply, come up with a taste of what you have, ask a serious question and answer it. At the end of the end of the first "answer and solution" set the potential client up with another problem that is very familiar to them. Tell them that you have the answer. Follow this technique several time. I believe most do this repetition 2 or 3 times, but a famous golfer has sent me literally dozens of how to videos in order for me to take the bait.

You might think that giving the answer to a solution makes your product less valuable and your opinion less valuable. If you think that, you would be wrong. Heck, look at what I have given out in this answer. My experience is if you give you will receive. That is if you know what to give, how much to give, and how to receive.

I am not trying to sell you on calling me. Most people frankly cannot afford it. Really, I am pretty busy with my businesses and consulting. However, I need more info before I could have a greater impact in helping you.

Most solutions involved this: Ask, Ask, Ask, then Ask again.

Concentrate on the 3 M's. There are actually 7, but 3 will do for now. These are Market, Message, and Media. They come in that order.
Who is your target market (customer, clients, buyers, users, etc.)?
Tailor your laser focused message for this target market.
What is the best media mix to get your message to that market?
Here's what you do...first, make it an offer that is so incredible that they cannot resist. Secondly, do all the work for them. Make it so easy to make the purchase now that they can do it virtually without effort. Thirdly, give them an incentive to act right now. Fourthly, offer an almost unbelievable guarantee. Fifth, offer a bonus for acting now. There are many other incredible steps, but these steps should help the novice to the professional sell anything.
Whether you are selling B2B or B2C, you have to focus on selling to only one person. You can actually sell to one person at a time while selling to millions at a time. They are one and the same. Don't get off track, what we call digital marketing selling is just selling in print. And that has not changed since Cluade Hopkins wrote "Scientific Advertising." Really long before he wrote the book.
The secret to success: I have had the pleasure of knowing and working with some of the biggest names in business, celebrities, actors, entrepreneurs, business people, and companies from startup to billion dollar operations. The number one reason for their success is doing what they know and love while doing it in new, creative, and innovative ways.
Ask, Ask, Ask. Have thick skin and learn from each "mistake." In a short while, the market will tell you what you need to do and who and what you need to ask. But get started now even if that just means asking a contact on LinkedIn.
While you are thinking, think big and think of something at least 1% better, newer, or different. And being cheaper is not a winning strategy.
Make decisions quickly and change decisions slowly..unless you are actually going off a cliff.
Remember these two 11 letter words...persistence and consistency. They are two of the most important tools ever invented.
Even better yet, remember my 411 Rule of Achievement – It consists of (4) eleven letter words for super achievement (also an 11 letter word). Here it is, my 411 Rule of Super Achievement:

Persistence and
Consistency can change even the smallest
Possibility into a big time
Probability

Persistence + Consistency =
Possibility  Probability

By the way, I get a lot of people asking me if I can take phone calls for free (a free sample). Sorry, I can’t. I respect Clarity.fm and what they are trying to accomplish.
Treat everybody you talk to and everybody you meet (including yourself) like each is your number one million dollar customer.
Remember this for most people who really want to achieve a dream:
First: Your dreams are important and those who don’t support and believe in your dreams either don’t understand your desire and ambition or they have some other reason (many times reasons they themselves don’t understand) for not wanting you to spend the time and effort necessary to achieve your dreams.
Secondly: If you haven’t achieved your dreams and goals so far, it is not your fault. I know that this goes against what you usually hear, but it is true. Stop blaming yourself. You have a whole world of obstacles that are truly the blame. You only need to figure out how to go over, go under, go through, go around, or go with these obstacles in the direction of your dreams.
Thirdly: Fear is normal, but don’t give into it. Use it to motivate you and guide you.
Fourth: You are right; there are probably some people who don’t want you to succeed.
Fifth: Keep this in mind, there are people competing to get their first, do more, have more, invent what you are considering inventing, or simply trying to win. Believing in yourself and what you are doing is part of a strong recipe for winning over your competition.

I also always suggest that everybody at every stage work with a coach, mentor, or consultant. Heck, it works for Tiger Woods, every team in the NFL, the NBA, and etc. We all need guidance and support.

Best of luck,
Take massive action and never give up.
Michael
Michael Irvin, MBA, RN
www.michaelvonirvin.com

PS – Many people have “Upvoted” my answers. Thanks to those who do this. I really appreciate it.