When you receive pre-qualified leads who are ready to buy, they will still need compelling reasons to buy from you rather than from your competitor. You can increase sales up to 30 percent by creating a sales message that is relevant to your buyers’ questions.

A 2008 survey by International Data Group found that the chance of closing a sale was reduced by 45 percent when the content of the sales message was not relevant to buyers’ most pressing questions. The study also found that 42 percent of the time, sales teams had not been provided with adequate training and tools to help them answer these questions persuasively. Although the survey participants were IT buyers, the same principles of effective and relevant sales messaging applies to virtually all types of marketing.

Sales messaging is defined as offering a persuasive and compelling answer to a buyer’s primary questions regarding the services you offer. The three basic questions buyers have are:

• Why should I meet with you? (If an initial appointment is the next step in your sales process.)
• Why should I replace my current solution with your company’s services?
• Why buy this solution from your company and not from your competitor?

According to a recent poll by BtoB Magazine, 70 percent of marketers graded themselves at “D” or an “F” level in regard to how well they prepared sales messaging and supporting materials for their sales team. If you feel you fall into this category, the good news is that you have the opportunity to increase sales by analyzing and strengthening your sales messaging.

The first step toward stronger sales messaging is to know your target market well. This will enable you to replace weak generalities such as “great customer service” with specific information about how your company is uniquely positioned to fill a buyer’s needs.

A future post will go into further detail about how you can create a compelling sales message.

Tags: Lead Management, lead roi, marketing tips, sales messaging

This entry was posted on Monday, August 23rd, 2010 at 5:16 pm and is filed under Lead Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.