In B2B Direct Mail Lead Generation, Work Backwards
Business-to-business lead generation is one of the
few times in life when you should start at the end
and work backwards.
Before you write a single line of copy or design a
single element of your direct mail package, sit down
with the sales people who close the sales. Find out
when and how they get prospects to sign on the line
that is dotted, and work backwards from there to
discover what you need to do to capture the
attention of these prospects in the first place and
get them into your sales funnel.
Here are some questions to ask the sales team:
- What makes a prospect buy? (Is it price? terms?
guarantee? after-sales service? quality?)
making a decision?
I am assuming that your clients B2B buying process
(and your sales process) consists of more than a few
steps. Usually, it looks something like this:
- Identify need
- Gather information on solutions
- Establish specifications
- Request proposals or quotations
- Interview top suppliers
- Make short list of suppliers
- Check references
- Test sample or demo product
- Select supplier
- Negotiate terms and price
- Sign contract
- Make first purchase
- Evaluate performance
- Make repeat purchases
- Remain loyal to valued, long-term supplier
- Drop supplier and start over again
Your goal with every direct mail lead generation
mailing is to figure out where prospects are in their
buying cycle and to target them there. The thing to
remember in all of this is that your goal in a multi-
step, complex buying process is not to close the sale
but to move the prospect to the next stage. Here
are some ideas:
If prospects are at the needs-identification stage,
offer them a white paper or similar document that
describes the customer problem that your product or
service solves.
If prospects are gathering information on solutions,
offer them a series of case studies or success stories
that demonstrate why your solution is superior.
If your sale involves many stakeholders, consider
mailing a different direct mail package to each person
who influences the buying decision. In complex high-
tech sales, for example, you can target the CIO
(offer ROI benefits), the CFO (offer cost-cutting
benefits) and the IT manager (offer scalability and
ease of integration benefits).
In many B2B lead generation efforts, you will need to
mail or contact leads more than once before you
generate a response and have a chance to qualify
them. Thats why starting at the end makes such
good sense. Youll know how many steps you need to
take to reach the sale, and how many times you
need to mail each prospect (and what to mail) to
turn them into a customer.
About the author
Alan Sharpe is a business-to-business direct mail copywriter and lead generation specialist who helps business owners and marketing managers generate leads, close sales and retain customers using business-to-business direct mail marketing. Learn more about his creative direct mail writing services and sign up for free weekly tips like this at http://www.sharpecopy.com.
2005 Sharpe Copy Inc. You may reprint this article online and in print provided the links remain live and the content remains unaltered (including the "About the author" message).
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