New Business - Sales and Marketing Plan

[Kurtis]

Hi Guys,

Looking for a bit of advice if possible, read so much information in the past few weeks I just want to get some direction on selling B2B and try clear my head a bit.

So some information I work in a highly technical industry (penetration testing) and have decided with a colleague to start on our own, now we have a bit of work lined up but we know this won't last forever. So we are going to have to sell, the question is how?!

Should I literally be grabbing a list of CISO etc emails and phone numbers and just start pounding the phone? Do I spend thousands of pounds on lots of different bits of software? Can I outsource some of the sales side? Do we need someone who knows marketing and sales to help us create a plan? I have so many questions and when I start out looking at resolving one I just find myself going down a rabbit hole.

So basically any advice appreciated

 

[AllUpHere]

If you want to get an idea of what you should be doing yourself, do some research based on 'strategic marketing'. Don't start to think about tactics, until you understand the importance of an underlying strategy on which to build your plan.

Or, if you fancy a chat to point you in the right direction, send me a quick pm.

 

[webgeek]

Marketing Automation for the win!

Plan and prepare some blog posts and emails to point to them, sequence them to build trust & awareness of their need, then trust & how your service can solve that need, then trust & how your service is a better value.

There's a plethora of data providers, but get your targeted list of contacts that fit the role, location, company size, etc, and then get started drip-fed nurturing.

As long as you've installed the tracking script on the website, your clickers will be logged in the MA CRM and automagically get scored appropriately, and moved along through the posts down the funnel, based on their interest.

Once they've move far enough along, then pick up the phone. There's no point in contacting those that aren't sales ready leads - until they've warmed up to the brand and shown interest in getting their itch scratched. Those who perceive a need but aren't quite ready, need to cook on the drip until they are sales ready. Front of mind = front of wallet.

 

[Business News]

If you are just starting out then now is the best time to plan.

You really need to have a good idea what you are trying to achieve. Do you want to be the very best, the biggest, the cheapest, innovative or one amongst the crowd? What you want to be will largely play into developing strategically. So start of with a mission statement and then that can be referenced when you devise marketing and sales strategy. If they don't compliment each other then you have a problem with you goals or your strategy of how to deliver those goals, then at least you know if you are on the right track or not.

An example would be if you decided you wanted to establish yourself as an innovative company then that would largely preclude a sales and marketing strategy based on licencing on products or services or operating a franchise.

If you know your goals then the strategy will be the easiest logical path to deliver those goals.

 

[Mike_Cartwright]

Don't separate sales and marketing. Align them immediately. You have the chance to do this since it's a new business. Make sure that their goals and metrics are the same. Use tools/software that they can both share to track their performance. Make them bond and meet them together.