Why is it that so many businesses fail within the business-to-business markets? For many the reason is plain and simple – these companies fail to put enough emphasis on their marketing initiatives. Often they have a strong sales focus but in today’s challenging climate have the drive to sell products will not be enough to drum up demand.
Generation of leads is often left to the sales team to handle in isolation way from any marketing input and without any clear strategy in mind. Those that succeed to penetrate their B2B markets are those that operate in a connected and strategic way fusing sales and marketing to achieve their end goals.
One of the biggest mistakes that are made in B2B lead generation is that marketing is viewed simply as advertising. Although advertising has its place it accounts for only a small portion of the integrated marketing pie. Marketing in the business-to-business arena should be viewed as the integration and implantation of a wide range of tactics with the end goal of selling a product or service. This encompasses a wide range of areas such as market research, competitor analysis, personal selling, telemarketing services, e-marketing, support documentation and after-care, exhibitions and trade shows, PR and customer retention. As you can see advertising is part of a much larger machine.
The sales team will be much more effective if they have the integrated support of the marketing team. Telemarketing services can provide a great medium to bridge the gap between sales and marketing. At the outset telemarketers can research the market, glean useful information about competitors and highlight great opportunities to the sales team. They can support other marketing mediums such as exhibitions by drumming up support and awareness. And they can play a vital role in customer retention maintaining contact with customers, offering support and cross selling opportunities.
At IZEN Marketing we can provide a professional team to support your sales and marketing initiatives.
