How to increase_revenue_from_new_customers

How to Increase
Revenue from
New Customers:
Without Adding More Sales
People

An exclusive whitepaper
from The ROM Group

How to Increase Revenue From New Customers

Contents
Executive Summary 3
How Buyers Choose: The Purchase Decision Process 4
1. Help Buyers Discover What They Are Trying to Find 5
2. Help Buyers Get the Information They Are Seeking 7
3. Help Buyers See What Others Are Saying 8
4. Help Buyers Experience It Before They Purchase 9
5. Help Buyers Buy the Way They Want 10
Conclusion 10
About The ROM Group 11


Executive Summary “Increase sales from
The new mantra in marketing today is: Show me new customers by 20
the leads! But not just leads― sales-ready leads—
leads that are ready to buy today, ready to place an percent.”
order, ready to request a bid or quote— actionable
leads that optimize the sales person’s productivity
and effectiveness.

So how can you cultivate those leads to keep them
active and moving towards purchase-ready in the
most efficient manner? Cold sales calls?
Telemarketing? Social media? Search marketing?
Advertising?

Generating leads is just the beginning. On average,
only 2% of leads generated are purchase-ready.
The remaining 98% of leads generated are not just
tire-kickers. Turns out that most of them will
actually buy sometime in the next 12 months. Until
they are ready to buy, they need to be nurtured—
otherwise they will drift away and buy from
someone else (whoever is most visible at the time
they’re ready to buy).

The most sustainable and effective solution is to
become buyer centric: giving the buyers what they
are seeking-- not pushing what you want to sell.

For business owners on a tight budget looking to
increase the percentage of new leads that close,
this whitepaper will present 5 actionable steps that
will dramatically increase:

• Sales from new customers by 20 percent

• Web site visits and engagement by 100
percent+

• The number of registered leads by 100
percent+

3


How Buyers Choose: The
Purchase Decision
Process
To become buyer centric, business owners need
to first understand and accept how buyers choose
a product or service. Every buyer, before deciding
to buy, goes through a series of steps called the
Purchase Decision Process. It consists of five
stages:

1. Discovery: buyers realize they have a problem
and begin seeking someone or something to help
them solve it.

2. Information: buyers are actively finding
information that answers their questions, solves
their problems or shows them how to accomplish
a task.

3. Endorsement: buyers read and see what their
peers are saying about a product or service.

4. Proof/Demo: buyers want to make sure the
solution accomplishes what they need it to do.

5. Conversion: buyers want to purchase the
product or service in a way that is easy for them.

Buyers want to go through this process without
being forced to have a live interface with a sales
person.

The following pages will describe how you can
make it easy for buyers to do that.

4


1. Help Buyers Discover The only way to get found in the myriad of search
phrases is to publish relevant, granular content.
What They Are Trying to Google relies on Web site content for the most
Find relevant match between the search phrase and
your Web site's content. This is why sites like
Wikipedia and YouTube show up frequently on
During the first step of the Purchase Decision the first page when buyers are searching.
Process, buyers are seeking a solution to their
problem. Leverage Social Media Tools
In order to be found, business owners must build
Much has been said about leveraging social media
a marketing plan that emphasizes these two
to sell. But the real value of social media is its
mediums:
power to increase Web visibility. According to
Nielson Online, nearly 20 percent of people on
• The Web
social media use social networks as their core
• Buyer location
navigation tool. They search for valuable content
within social networks, which directs them to a
Web site.
How to Optimize Your Web
Visibility Both Google and Bing have recognized the trend.
They have incorporated social media feed content
Research reveals that more than 80 percent of from both Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn into
buyers search online to research their purchase search results and algorithms.
before contacting the seller. You increase your Web
visibility by:

• Generating a library of deep, authentic
content, published in a variety of formats
• Leveraging social media tools
• Using content sharing sites
• Keeping an updated blog

Generate a Library of Deep, Authentic
Content

While searching for the same thing, you and a
peer are more than likely to use very unique The chart above shows that the number of site referrals
search phrases. Your buyers are no different than from social networks is greater than the number of referrals
you, but there may be thousands of them, all with from search engines.
their own thousands of individual search phrases--
making SEO virtually impossible.

These phrases are called longtail search phrases.

5


Use Content Sharing Sites Tradeshows

In addition to social media sites, content sharing One of the best location visibility opportunities for
sites are also given a lot of weight by search B2B companies are tradeshows. Tradeshows are
engines. Sites such as: an excellent place to capture leads. In order to
capture these leads, you need to promote several
• YouTube for videos
high-value content pieces that will encourage
• Flickr for photos
visitors to register for.
• Slide Share for presentations
Do a quick search on how to weld, and a series of Trade Associations
videos are ranked high on the results page.
Trade associations are hungry to provide their
Keep an Updated Blog members educational content. They are willing to
work with vendors who are committed to
Search engines pay more attention to a frequently providing purely that-- not promotional, sales
updated blog than to Web pages. While a Web site content.
is a very important piece of content, using that
content on your blog will further drive your Web Trade Associations can open the door for you and
visibility. your company to thousands of buyers. Now be
aware, many of these organizations are hungry for
revenue; they may want you to pay for
sponsorships or other promotions in order to
“Location visibility is all participate. You need to judge the value for
yourself.
about being where the
Webinars
buyers are: where they
spend time and where
Along with providing highly valuable content, not
sales material, gaining a highly visible partner is
they go for information.” key to a successful webinar. Many large
companies strive to promote content, therefore
you can access their customer base via a co-
sponsored webinar.

Speaking Events
How to Leverage Location
Visibility Where there is an audience of prospective buyers,
present high-value content and capture leads.
Location visibility is all about being where the
buyers are: where they spend time and where they
go for information. Simple research on the front-
end of a marketing plan will show you where your
buyers congregate. Use this information to allocate
marketing dollars effectively.

6


2. Help Buyers Get the “If you don't have the
Information They Are content online to back
Seeking it up, buyers will leave
The second phase buyers enter into during the
you and go to
Purchase Decision Process is Information. As someone who does
discussed earlier, in this stage, buyers are seeking
information about solutions available. No matter have the information
they are seeking.”
how good your product or service is at solving a
particular problem, if you don't have the content
online to back it up, buyers will leave you and go to
someone who does have the information they are
seeking.
3. Help Buyers See
As mentioned in step No.1, Help Buyers Discover
What They Are Trying to Find, you need to pack your
What Others Are
Web site with deep, authentic content in multiple Saying
formats. But this content should not contain
promotional product-centric messaging. Buyers are
Step 3 represents the Endorsement stage of the
looking for content that helps them with one or
Purchase Decision Process. In this stage, buyers
more of three things:
are seeking to see what their peers are saying
about a product or service.
1. Answers to their questions
2. Solutions to their problems Prior to this stage, buyers will seek information
until they feel comfortable they understand
3. “How-to's" that show them how to accomplish everything they need to know. They will then
a task seek endorsement to gain the confidence that
others who have experienced a product or
Here are a few formats you can use to get your service have been satisfied.
content library started:
To create content that provides this
• eBooks endorsement piece, have a customer answer
• Web casts these two questions about your product or
• Videos service:
• White papers
• Case studies 1. How did the product or service solve your
• Product Demonstrations problem?

2. Was this company the best choice?

7


Video Testimonials It's better to face the good and the bad-- so
you can work on the bad.
One of the many ways to provide endorsement
content is through testimonials. And in the Web Social Media
world, video is king. So, video testimonials are
very strong and highly authentic. Authenticity is Finally, social media is turning into a valuable
key-- no actors, no glitzy production values.
resource for endorsement. Buyers trust these
conversations to gain insight into authentic
Case Studies experiences. As with open review forums,
there will be people out there slamming a lot
Another tool to fulfill your buyers' endorsement
of people and companies. These people don't
needs are case studies. Write case studies that
describe how you solved a customer's problem. retain many followers and are mostly just
The lesson here is details, details and more making a lot of noise; buyers can determine an
details. Buyers want the unvarnished story, not authentic review from a slanted one.
the dressed-up story. If there were problems, call
them out. Buyers expect problems, and they want
to know how you handle them. 4. Help Buyers
Experience It Before
“They will then seek
They Purchase
endorsement to gain
the confidence that In the fourth stage of the Purchase Decision
Process, buyers want proof the product will
others who have actually do what they need it to do. You can do
this by allowing buyers to experience the product
experienced a or service before they purchase.

product or service Product Demonstrations
have been satisfied.” Again, video is huge. Show off the product from
the buyer’s point of view– not what you want to
Open Review Forums sell.

Open review forums often scare sellers. Many will Free Trial or Low-Risk Offer
argue that reviewers on these forums are the
same type of people who habitually write hate Free trials put the product or service directly into
letters to the editor. There is no question that the the buyer’s hands– getting their feet wet. For
Web world is filled with a lot of very scary people. professional service firms that can’t offer a
But buyers are intelligent and will recognize tangible product, free trials may be difficult to
garbage when they see it. They will also recognize provide to buyers. Low-risk offers can fill the gap.
fluff when they see it. As an example, an architecture firm can offer a
free or lower-cost planning session.
In today's marketing world, you are naked,
whether you're willing to accept it or not.

8


5. Help Buyers Buy the
Way They Want
Subject Matter Expert

Even in this stage, the buyer wants it their way
and smart sellers will give it to them. Here, the
buyer doesn't want to talk to a sales person,
because buyers think the role of a sales person is Buyers want to talk with product experts—
to persuade them to buy something they don't not sales people.
want or need.

Buyers want to talk to a product expert or subject
matter expert. They don't want to talk to the guy
in shiny shoes; they want to talk to the guy that
actually does the work. The buyer may have some
final questions that need to be answered; the
subject matter expert is the only person who can
provide them the direct answers they need.

Multiple Purchase Options

Buyers want multiple purchase options. John
Deere's Web site illustrates how to do this. Not
too long ago, a major brand manufacturer like
John Deere had a dealer network that they
protected. Then they forced the buyer to buy
from a specific dealer, whether the buyer liked
the dealer or not. Today, that has changed.

Now a buyer can choose to buy online, from a
dealer or even from a big-box retailer like Home
Depot or Lowe's. This approach is very buyer
centric.

9


Conclusion
While purchase-ready leads are demanded,
cultivating those leads to that point has become a
daunting task. Frankly, no one has the time to
allocate the required amount of effort—leaving 98
percent of buyers to the wind and hoping it blows
them to the seller. In order to optimize this process
and ensure you are leading buyers toward
purchase-ready, become buyer centric.

Doing this will increase:

• Sales from new customers by 20
percent

• Web site visits and engagement by
100 percent+

• The number of registered leads by 100
percent+

To become buyer centric, follow the 5 steps
described in this whitepaper:

1. Help buyers discover what they are trying to
find
2. Help buyers get the information they are
seeking
3. Help buyers see what others are saying
4. Help buyers experience the solution before
they purchase
5. Help buyers buy the way they want

If you would like to receive solutions that help you
solve your sales and marketing challenges, follow
our blog at www.theromgroup.com/blog.

10


When You Need Top-
Line Revenue, The ROM
Group Delivers
The ROM Group provides buyer centric lead
generation and lead nurturing programs for B2B
companies. ROM’s approach delivers dramatic
increases in top-line revenue by integrating
proprietary buyer research, online lead
generation, lead-profiling phone calls, lead
nurturing, and lead conversion services into a
single, simple-to-use solution.

At each stage in the life of a lead, ROM (return-
on-marketing) measures the key metrics senior
About ROM
managers need to clearly understand the
effectiveness and ROI of their programs.

www.theromgroup.com
920.964.5564

11

How to increase_revenue_from_new_customers

Empfohlen

Empfohlen

Weitere ähnliche Inhalte

Empfohlen

Empfohlen (20)

How to increase_revenue_from_new_customers