Should businesses who offer premise-specific services prioritise video conferencing as part of their sales process?
During the global pandemic, we all became very used to spending time on Zoom calls, both professionally and personally. As the world continues to open up again following the pandemic, there is now a tendency to use Zoom or other video conferencing services in the early stages of a sales process instead of physically meeting face-to-face. This digital engagement is great for building relationships without the commitment of travel and time out of the office, but if you offer solutions based on the individual needs of a premise, then it can be harder to get the information you need to accurately quote. Instead of offering a personal service, your sales become more of a commodity i.e. here is the price, do you like it? There’s also no substitute for seeing a prospect’s face when talking to them, being able to gauge their reactions is invaluable. Over video conferencing, if they choose to have their camera off or you share your screen and their video is hidden, then you cannot see their reactions and miss out on valuable insight.
Regardless of whether you use video conferencing or meet in person, understanding your buyers’ motivations and values is crucial. Take time to research their website and what they post about on social media channels such as LinkedIn to see what matters to them, and use this research as a conversation starter to establish what matters most to them. If you can show the buyer that you understand and resonate with their values and priorities, they are far more likely to choose you as a vendor.
Should early-stage companies use marketing agencies or focus on internal capabilities?
Being able to portray your company culture externally is hugely valuable as it helps potential buyers to understand whether you could be a good fit for them as a vendor. Whilst external agencies have many fantastic qualities, they won’t live your company culture in the same way that an internal team member will. A successful internal hire will become embedded within your culture and help to communicate it externally both honestly and accurately. Having your first marketing hire be an internal one also helps to deliver consistency, because they can speak daily with your sales teams and ensure that any content they put out supports the efforts of the sales team and isn’t simply being produced for the sake of it.
Being able to portray your company culture externally is hugely valuable as it helps potential buyers to understand whether you could be a good fit for them as a vendor.
Buyers are not receptive to traditional cold calling anymore, they need to be warmed up first.
What role does digital marketing play in creating meaningful sales conversations?
Digital marketing should be as targeted and relevant to your market as possible. Sending the wrong message or reaching the wrong people will just lead to wasted budget and create frustration internally. Because of this, sales and marketing teams should be aligned on the digital strategy so that their efforts complement one another instead of conflicting.
Digital marketing can empower sales teams to have more meaningful conversations at their first point of contact with a buyer. Buyers are not receptive to traditional cold calling anymore, they need to be warmed up first. Digital touchpoints are a great way to do this because they are unobtrusive and often form part of the buyers’ everyday life anyway. Make sure they are personalised though and based on the information you can learn about that particular buyer through their social media presence. This means that when a member of your sales team makes their first call to the buyer, the buyer knows who they are and what they want to talk about. Whilst this won’t guarantee success with every call of course, it will open more doors than if using the telephone call as the very first touchpoint.
With a turnover of more than €3 billion, and 125,000+ employees looking after clients in 33 countries, Atalian Servest is one of the world’s largest facilities services providers. The company offers cleaning, catering, security, building services, energy management and compliance, front of house, landscaping, logistics, waste management and pest control services to more than 32,000 clients in the public and private sectors.