14 Apr Get Kipling’s men to work for you…
Kipling had six honest serving men – What, and Where and When; and Why and How and Who – how well do your words serve you? In this blog we look at Kipling’s man ‘Who’ to drive home the importance of identifying key contacts.
Who are you going to target?
Although we have more ways of communicating today, reaching people is difficult. Yet, getting the right message to the right person, in the right context at the right time will enable you to increase your sales.
Focus is absolutely critical for any marketing campaign. Identifying ‘Who’ you are going to target in a key market sector based on the value you can bring based on your experience or capability is essential. Better still if you can narrow the field down further by sub-sector or a establishing a particular solution to address a specific market need then this will make a significant difference.
An Incognate campaign focused on 28 accounts generated excellent ROI
More haste less speed
All too often there is a rush to get the message out. This often leads to a ‘spray and pray’ approach but narrowing down the ‘Who’ will help to create much clearer and focused propositions. In doing this you are more likely to identify the right message hitting the right notes to increase your chance of being heard. Therefore, spending a little more time and thought on identifying your ideal contact can accelerate your sales and is time well spent. And with more than 70% of millennials accounting for the B2B buyers you need to consider video.
What characteristics?
One way of finding the best ‘Who’, particularly when you are focused on an existing market is by recognising characteristics of your current successful client accounts. What are the key identifiers of the company; are they a particular size? Are they growing or displaying certain problems? Who is dealing with the problem you can solve?
Alternatively, do they have a specialist that you know will be interested in what you have to sell? For example, if you are selling HR solutions you may find that accounts with a HR Director understand the significance of your solution and also have the power to act. Therefore, they are your ‘Who’ person. If an account doesn’t have a HR Director sitting on the board, with influence, you may well be wasting your time approaching them – so why bother?
Stopping and checking out existing successful and profitable accounts is very useful in identifying who you should be targeting in new or prospective accounts. That said not all propositions will gain traction but knowing your ‘Who’ is before launching a campaign is very important to optimising the opportunity, getting your message heard and generating sales.
If you are a sales or marketing director and you recognise the need to generate more sales, we can help you to identify who your best contact is and get you in front of them.