Sales/Lead Generation (15.390, Wednesday, Week 9)
new-enterprisesyear-twoThe Sales Funnel
How to generate high-quality leads: no formula; try multiple avenues and measure success.
The purpose of marketing is to drive leads to your sales force. You can spend a lot of marketing money foolishly if you are not disciplined. Do not confuse activity with progress.
Orient marketing towards finding "early majority" (in Crossing the Chasm-speak). Otherwise, you'll need a dramatic shift later on.
Good book: "Inbound Marketing," Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah (HubSpot guys).
The HubSpot thesis: the way people shop and learn about products has changed dramatically. New "smarketing" process:
(1) Get found => create remarkable content; build a website, blog, useful tools, media coverage; start EARLY
(2) Convert and personalize.
(3) Close.
Your company should form its own persona!
On buying PPC keywords: figure out how your customers describe the problem ("red bumps on my legs"), not how you describe the problem ("erythema nodosum").
Getting sales structure right is critical
Some products are almost un-sellable. Pitching something with $3K of value to dentists = the Valley of Death. Too complex/pricey for no-touch sales model; too cheap for high-touch sales force.
Solutions: partner with someone else who already sells to that customer; still hard to do.