Closing Sales: Harvesting the eNewsletter Relationship
Nothing happens until somebody buys something
by Tamara Halbritter and Hank Stroll, InternetVIZ
Leaders in business and higher education buy when they trust the value they see is applicable to them and comes from a stable source. This final article in our series, “Six Steps to Successful eNewsletter Marketing” shows how e-newsletters can accomplish this and be used as a tool by the salesperson to close business.
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A Marketers Guide to e-Newsletter Publishing
Published by MarketingProfs
Marketing has a new set of rules. It used to be good enough just to communicate value. Now marketers need to create value their prospects can relate to in order to convert casual suspects into paying customers.
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Previous articles have shown how to use e-newsletters to respectfully gain your prospects attention and build your company’s reputation. A carefully constructed e-newsletter helps your company demonstrate stability and earn trust among your readers by providing information your readers find important to their business.
When your e-newsletter speaks to the hearts and minds of your readers (suspects, prospects, and customers) you will not have to seek out leads, they will come to you.
Value, Applicability, Trust, and Stability
Since your newsletter is built around this mantra - prospects buy when they trust your value is application to them and comes from a stable company - the final step in the e-newsletter marketing process is closing sales by providing the sales team with qualified leads. Once a reader clicks on a link in the e-newsletter from your “call to action,” the reader moves from suspect to prospect and fully enters into the sales cycle as a qualified lead. The reader does this on their own, providing the time for your sales team to focus on closing business.
By demonstrating value, building trust and showing stability, you have proven your e-newsletter’s worth and in turn developed the reader’s interest in your company. By being attuned to your customers and prospect’ businesses, you have shown them you can provide solutions for current problems.
When your readers/prospects believes your company is stable, trustworthy and provides value, they are ready for the salesperson to work their magic. When the reader is ready, he or she will accept your “call to action” within your enewsletter, invest the time required to contact you and provide information about themselves through a questionnaire.
Harvesting the Relationship
When your reader responses to your 'call to action' by signing up for your webinare, you know you’ve captured the right prospect from someone in your targeted audience, and improved your sales odds by earning their respect.
Every prospect that comes through the e-newsletter pipeline will have a wealth of information “attached” to them. Your sales staff will be able to see when the prospect subscribed to your e-newsletter, how often the prospect has read your e- newsletter and even what articles the prospect has read. Your sales team will know a specific prospect's hot buttons before calling them for the first time. Imagine how a good consultative sales person can guide the conversation to topics that the prospect is interested in. Trust is built by being able to address a prospects interests.
Each sales person can rely on information from the e-newsletter to better communicate to the prospect in the following ways.
Tip 1: This one’s simple. Follow up with the prospect’s request for more information, whether that request goes directly to your Web site, is mentioned in a survey or is requested through a direct contact to your company such as the questionnaire. Following up with someone who is already interested in your company is the quickest way to a sale.
Tip 2: Know which e-newsletter articles are most read, and research which articles your specific qualified lead liked and disliked through your e-newsletter tracking system. If the reader filled out a survey, look for explicit comments about problems faced on a regular business or heartfelt comments about a particular solution.
Tip 3: Know the trends and challenges facing your industry. Never let a potential customer know more about the industry than you do. Yes, a reader will know more about their particular company and may know more about their business, but make sure you read the e-newsletter thoroughly and supplement your findings with other trade journals, company information, competitive information and current news.
Tip 4: Steer conversation to topics you know are valuable to the reader by tracking current e-newsletter interests, past e-newsletter behavior and by learning about your prospect’s company. Just imagine a salesperson knowing their prospects ‘hot buttons’ before they even talk to them. The hardest part of the initial sales call is determining the probing questions to ask to stimulate prospect interest.
What type of consultative conversation could they have, if the prospect’s interests are known prior to that first call? An enewsletter can provide the salesperson will prospect specific intelligence that will allow them to formulate probing business questions that will capture the prospects heart and mind.
Tip 5: Identify upsell opportunities, with current customers, as they request information.
A Day in the Life
One way to better understand how to use e-newsletters to close more sales is to spend a day in the life of a sales person. Let’s say this salesperson is a woman named Kathy. Kathy works for your company, a professional services firm.
Kathy’s day starts with a big cup of java and a reading of your latest e-newsletter. As she downs her second cup, she opens up her email and finds six qualified leads forwarded to her from the Web site, the e-newsletter and your marketing department. Her company offers a webinar as their enewsletter’s ‘call to action.’
Kathy looks to see how each lead came in, whether it was a Web site click, a response to your free webinar offer or a referral from an association.
Let’s say she starts to research the enewsletter’s 'call to action' leads first. She goes online and finds: a) prospects name, phone number, company and title; b) tracking information from the last e-newsletter telling which articles were most read; and c) and survey, contest or questionnaire information giving specific comments from the reader.
After a visit to the prospect's orgaonization's Web site showing how they view themselves, their vision, and other organization details, she makes the call to the qualified lead and asks probing questions questions based on information learned by viewing what the prospect was reading in the newsletter. When Kathy determines that this prospect is a good fit, she sets up a follow-up call for the next step in the sales cycle.
After completing the call, Kathy’s phone rings. A prospect is on the line about a tradeshow advertisement featuring the call to action highlighted in the enewsletter. She provides information about the offer, sets up a meeting with the prospect.
Well before lunch, she follows up with three more people who have requested information about financial consulting services from the marketing department. During the phone call she also asks them if they would like a free subscription to the e-newsletter. She schedules two meetings, calls her sales support team to invite them to the sales meeting.
By the end of the day, Kathy has lined up four clients committed to taking the next step. For the two that came in from the enewsletter, she was able to pass over ‘selling’ her company because the enewsletter demonstrated that the value that Kathy's company provides is trustworthy, applicable to them, and comes from a stable source. She is now ready to provide details of how her product adds value to this specific prospect's professional life. She is poised for for the assumptive close.
The Five Benefits of e-Newsletters for You
Throughout this series, Six Steps to Successful eNewsletter Marketing , we’ve focused on targeting your prospects and customers and tailoring your e-newsletter to be more valuable for them. You also reap the following rewards:
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e-Newsletter tracking and reporting keeps you informed about what clients want and need and provides more growth opportunities.
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When your company is perceived as understanding the full picture, your sales staff gets more leads and finds prospects more willing to listen.
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Trust builds loyalty and loyalty builds better retention of your customer base.
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e-Newsletters bring more traffic to your Web site.
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Relying on this low-cost approach to marketing makes you more profitable.
We appreciate all the email from those of you who have found these steps useful and trust you will soon delight in much success by marketing through e-newsletters!
