While catching up on some reading, I came across a Marketing News article entitled "It takes a comittee to buy into b-to-b". Compared to a BtoC sale, the BtoB sales process is often long and complex, involves many variables, and just as many decision makers. The article, available here, gives three suggestions of how to handle these comittee driven decisions. I wanted to discuss how CRM can make these suggestions possible in your business.
"In 2005, 3.5 more people on average were involved in making a purchasing decision than in 2001."
This is the heart of the matter. Anyone who has sold in a BtoB enviornment knows the large amount of people involved in any purchasing decision. According to Sirius Decisions Inc., that number is continuing to swell.
The question becomes, "How do you manage a relationship with all these people?" Each one has their own agenda and needs that must be met. Basic contact management within a CRM system is a good start. You start forgetting names, including the wrong people on emails, or missing appointments and you're in real trouble. That's step one. Where CRM really shines is in enabling the articles first suggestion -- Focusing on function and influence.
Tony Jaros, VP of research at Sirius suggests breaking contacts into different categories:
"The category designations may include (using definitions developed by Sirius) the Champion, a user with purchasing authority; the Influencer, a person without the buying authority but with signifigant input, such as a consultant or middle manager or user; and the CXO, a member of the executive staff."
When you start segmenting roles, you'll want all that information within a CRM system. It's not enough to try and remember or keep on a pad of paper. Your conversation with the head decision maker may be very different than the one with your Champion.
That's not to say that you can just ignore the lower level needs. They may not have the power to purchase, but they do have the power to disqualify you. You'll need to know the requirements of each of these different people, and then work to address them.
Again, with so many people and so many issues involved, paper and memory will fail. Enter this information into a CRM system and you'll have a full picture of what the company needs based on different prioroties.
Once you get involved with a company, a marketers best source of information is from sales, but if you believe Marketing Sherpa, only 40% of sales and marketing departments work together consistently on leads. Communication between the two departments is critical.
"In the business-to-business economy, marketers pave the way for sales to get their foot in the door, but the sales team gets clued in on the contacts and needs through direct contact. The two departments have to communicate in order to raise the bar on marketing effectiveness."
Collaboration is the key word here, and this is one of the main purposes of CRM. In the article Brian Carroll, president of InTouch Inc. talks about a scenario in which sales knows of six contacts involved in a decision, but marketing is only aware of two. Without an effective system your marketing team is going to be in the dark and can't offer the supporting materials and evidence that sales needs to close the deal.
The BtoB sales process is much different than the BtoC. Michael T. Brandt of Marketing Resources Ltd. puts it best in my favorite quote from the article:
"The decision to spend $4 million on a new software service is a lot more complicated than buying a box of cereal."
The stakes are higher and the penalty for making the wrong decision is much greater. That's why we are seeing swelling purchasing teams and longer sales cycles. Whether you are selling software, corporate services, or manufacturing tools, the job is getting harder. That's the bad news. The good news is that it's happening across the board to everyone.
By putting in place standard processes, communicating with sales, and recording important details of everyone involved, you'll have a leg up on the competition.
Nice piece of common sense and thanks for the memo.
Often inexperienced sales people will make the very severe mistake of asking if "you are the decision maker" and then giving them less kudos. Many thanks again. The Baldchemist
Posted by: The Baldchemist | September 01, 2007 at 11:22 PM