MAIN INSIGHT 32
Richard Boston
MARKETING DIRECTOR
How has the pandemic changed the relationship between businesses and customers?
The pandemic taught businesses to think before sending any communication to customers or prospects, knowing that they had to be far more sensitive and relevant to what was happening worldwide. Post-pandemic, buyers still expect the same level of sensitivity and relevance. Buyers are bombarded by poorly targeted emails every day, so businesses need to make sure that the benefits of their product or service are crystal clear and demonstrate to buyers how they will be supported in realising the value of that product or offering. Support your customers through both the good & bad times, and they'll remain loyal to you for a long time.
As well as sending appropriate digital communications, businesses also need to reflect on when the right time for human interaction is - be it face-to-face or over a video call. We've become so accustomed to researching a product or service online, professionally and personally, that we often make purchases without human interaction. But for more complex purchases, introducing the human connection at the right time can really help the buyer understand what problem they are trying to solve and, more importantly, how your offering could be a good fit for them. Companies that make it too difficult for people to talk to a real person will find that buyers take their business elsewhere.
Should marketing teams focus on new technologies to support sales teams?
New technology can help to improve the experience a customer or prospect has with your business, but it needs to be adopted and supported across sales & marketing teams. If you bring in new technology for the sake of having new technology, you'll find that frustration starts to creep in; the technology doesn't get used correctly and ultimately delivers a poor customer experience.
The focus instead for marketing should be to empower sales teams to have more meaningful conversations, which in turn will lead to improved conversion rates. The more rich information that marketing can give to sales teams, the better their conversations will be - how did the contact first engage with us? Has the contact downloaded something from our website? Recording this information in a CRM system shared by sales and marketing means that all engagements are tracked, allowing both departments to avoid working in silo and collaborate to achieve better results.
The focus instead for marketing should be to empower sales teams to have more meaningful conversations, which in turn will lead to improved conversion rates. The more rich information that marketing can give to sales teams, the better their conversations will be.
If you're a business that offers an industry-specific product or service, then you need to focus on both awareness and education at the early stage of the buying journey.
How can businesses with industry-specific offerings improve their relationships with prospects?
In many industries, many businesses won't know that specific products and services are created exclusively for that industry, and therefore they won't be searching for them, making life a little bit harder for sales and marketing teams. If you're a business that offers an industry-specific product or service, then you need to focus on both awareness and education at the early stage of the buying journey. If you can show prospects that they have a problem, which perhaps they weren't aware of before, and demonstrate how you've resolved this problem and turned it into an opportunity for others in the same industry, then you stand a much stronger chance of engaging with them.
There is a delicate balance to this, as many businesses won't accept that they have a problem - they have a particular way of working that has always been ok, so why change it? This is where valuable, educational content plays a significant role. For example, if you can show a construction company, through a free resource, how they might be able to manage their subcontractors better, then they will likely start to think, 'what else can they help me with?' At this stage, it would be appropriate to bring telemarketers into the sales journey, as you have started to establish authenticity and credibility.
Eque2 are a market-leading supplier of business management / ERP software to the construction, contracting and house building sectors. They offer modern solutions which allow all types and sizes of construction, contracting, housebuilding and maintenance companies to manage the full lifecycle of a project.
