New research by KnowledgeStorm supports what many already knew: vendors are more likely to close new business when they do a good job of educating potential buyers in the earliest stages of the sales cycle.

While sales reps often avoid prospects who are “just kicking the tires,” these prospects are usually doing important research. In most cases, they have not yet established standard metrics such as budget and timetable—and are looking to vendors to help them set realistic expectations. So vendors that help educate and influence these early stage prospects have a greater chance of being on the short list when it comes time to buy—and buy they do. KnowledgeStorm shows that the majority of these “tire kickers” do end up signing on the dotted line.

White papers that educate without blatantly selling are great sales tools at the early stage. They help develop insight and interest in prospects that frequently have little knowledge about your product or service. More importantly, they can help prospects develop a preference for your solution over the competition’s, and they start a relationship with your company that might be the first one that the prospect makes with a vendor in your space.

Yes, focusing on early stage buyers takes a bit longer, but isn’t educating a prospect from the start better than getting a picked-over (and highly competitive) RFP at the end of the sales cycle? And white papers are relatively easy and affordable ways to get those early relationships started, answer the common questions that “tire kickers” have, and establish your company as a knowledgeable resource.

If you’d like to know more about how to create a white paper, check out our Eight Rules for Creating Great White Papers, or visit the white paper Gallery on our website for some samples.

Labels: lead generation, white papers

Trying to break in to a new market segment? Wanting to make an impression with an audience that doesn’t know your name (yet)? Conducting a survey is an effective and surprisingly easy way to break through. Collect valuable, relevant data from the group you are trying to reach, and then distribute that data to the participants. You provide value and make your first impression as an industry expert—while your new target audience has an interactive and rewarding experience with your company.

Charlton Consulting Group had a recent success with survey marketing. Charlton is a small company with a big challenge. The firm is a turnkey provider of total compensation statements that show employees the total value of all their benefits, not just salary and wages. The firm had been doing a great job for smaller employers, but wanted to break through to mid-sized and larger companies and compete with the larger HR consulting firms. Charlton surveyed high-level HR executives about their usage, views, and experience with total compensation statements. Working with the Content Factor, they prepared an electronic survey and sent it out to an email list supplied by an HR trade publication. Executive participation in the survey was strong, partly due to the interesting nature of the content, a promise to supply the results and an incentive for $50 Amazon.com gift certificates.

Once survey results were tabulated and analyzed, Charlton distributed a summary report to survey respondents. They also posted the results on their web site and offered it through their print ads. Additionally, they sent out a news release summarizing the findings; and published a bylined article about the study along with a case study illustration in an HR trade publication.

The result? All 128 respondents to the survey requested copies of the survey findings. Therefore, these 128 executives received three “touches” from Charlton (the invitation, the survey, and the findings), and opted-in for future campaigns. The buzz surrounding the survey and its report generated an interview of a Charlton Consulting Group principal for a story about total compensation statements; coverage of the findings by all the major HR trades and some online news sources including Yahoo! Finance; and placement of a bylined article in Benefit & Compensation Solutions Magazine.

Labels: lead generation, surveys

Feeling misunderstood? Do your clients or prospects have a popular misconception about what you deliver…or about what you should deliver? You can jar them out of their confusion—and relieve your frustration—with a snappy article or white paper that brings the misconception into focus. While your competition is doing what’s safe (and sometimes just plain boring), like playing up the company’s strengths, focusing on testimonials, or simply listing obvious benefits—you can be turning a misconception into thought leadership.

Dan McDade, founder and CEO of PointClear, was frustrated with his prospects. PointClear is a lead generation and sales development company. Prospects expected PointClear to deliver leads, leads, and more leads, at the lowest cost possible. But after 20 years in the lead generation business, McDade knows that it’s quality, not quantity, that makes a good lead gen program. Only the right kind of leads can be converted into customers. The misconception was costing PointClear valuable business opportunities.

So PointClear turned the problem on its head. Working with The Content Factor, the company created a position paper entitled: Why Your Sales Force Needs Fewer Leads. This paradoxical play on words was a bit risky for a firm whose business is lead generation, but denigrating the value of leads worked. Because McDade knew what he was talking about, the piece rang true and came off as good, sound advice—not just marketing. The position paper has been effective in building business for McDade and his 100-person firm. It’s been repurposed as a webinar and in contributed articles. In fact, one of PointClear’s prospects at Xerox said that Why Your Sales Force Needs Fewer Leads was the “best piece of marketing content he has ever seen.”

Why was this paper so effective? Because the title immediately grabs the attention of lead-hungry sales execs. And the content inside provides valuable insight and competitive advantage; sales organizations can outsmart their competition by pursuing fewer high-quality leads. Readers win, and PointClear scores big.

Labels: lead generation, white papers

I'm in a networking group called PowerCore, led by Wendy Kinney. Wendy, the diva of Referral Marketing, teaches a terrific seminar on how to educate people to give you referrals in one minute. One of the most valuable things I learned from her is: specific beats general--always.

She instructs us not to say, "If you know anybody who needs a white paper or a blog for their business, please let me know."

Instead, she would have us say something like this: "I would love to meet your brother-in-law Bob, the VP of a scientific company that just got a big contract and is hiring. Bob's company is in growth mode, so they probably need updates to their web site, and a white paper to describe the new services they are offering."

My listener, Fred, understands that Bob is just an example. It is not important that Fred does not really have a brother-in-law, let alone one named Bob. The important thing is that by picturing Bob in his mind, Fred can think laterally to his college friend, Sue, who is the HR director of a financial software company, and recently mentioned that she is in high-gear recruitment mode because the company just launched a very successful new product.

See how this works?

The "Specific Beats General" rule especially applies to the web. The copy in too many web sites is too general. Writers fear alienating somebody--anybody. As a result, they put everybody to sleep. Web copy sizzles when it is specific, and targeted to a specific individual--as if the writer, Tom, were having a conversation with a fictional target customer named Bridget.

A recent post on the GrokDotCom blog, 2 Simple Steps to Finding Your Website's Voice, reminded me of the "Specific Beats General" rule. Holly Buchanan asks: "If your company/brand were a person, who would it be?"

If we think of our voices, as well as our audiences, as actual people--even fictional people, like Bob, Fred, and Sue--then we have a conversation instead of pontificating to the masses. And then we really sell.