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The Hottest Rootin' Tootin' Tool in B2B Sales

From suspects to prospects to qualified leads

eNewsletter Journal interviews Jeff Mesnik, author of Informative Marketing

There is a new sheriff in B2B sales town. B2B sales must do more than demonstrate a company's value. To be successful with today’s sophisticated B2B buyer, it must create value in a specific prospect's mind.

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The sheriff of a B2B company should not focus on the product, service, capability or company. Business prospects (business executives) respond best to information that is relevant to the suspects’ everyday professional lives. "Informative marketing" can help the salespeople know what value to create for their suspects.

A B2B e-newsletter is the shining star the sheriff proudly displays as it supports the selling process. e-newsletters can tie together many pieces of the marketing puzzle for the salesperson. They can be used to provide the salesperson with data needed to better understand a specific suspect prior to an arrest, err ... sales call. This is called "prospect intelligence."

Jeff Mesnik, co-founder and vice president of business development of iMakeNews, Inc. and the co-author of 'Informative Marketing,'(PDF file) recently spoke with eNewsletter Journal about prospect intelligence. He explains how e-newsletters give companies the intelligence to command attention and respect even from the wiliest suspects.

eNewsletter Journal: How does a B2B e-newsletter differ from a B2C e-newsletter?

Jeff Mesnik: B2C e-newsletters support a consumer buying pattern: research then buy. B2B e-newsletters support developing a recurring relationship with another party to encourage business in a number of ways, which takes a real investment of time and information.

B2B e-newsletters are used for retention, acquisition, channel communications, inter-company communications and have direct ROI measurement. They serve up targeted, relevant content to meet a definitive business need versus simply a propensity to purchase.

eNJ: What are five ways to build a B2B mailing list?

Mesnik:

1. Be sure to have a subscribe box on your Web site.

2. Syndicate content via RSS that drives people back to Web site.

3. Invite prospects to join through sales calls.

4. Make subscription a part of every marketing campaign.

5. Optimize your newsletter for search engines.

eNJ: How can a company create value using a newsletter?

Mesnik: Practicing Informative Marketing™ — Serving relevant content on a regular basis builds strong, ongoing relationships and ultimately gets you closer to your customers and prospects.

eNJ: What is 'informative marketing' and how is it different from other forms of marketing?

Mesnik: Informative marketing is based on the continuous honing of content in response to readership behaviors. In this spam-conscious world, it is critically important for businesses to serve only the content that their readers want, need and look forward to receiving.

For example, iMakeNews’ behavioral reporting allows instant measurement of individual responses to specific content—from what subscribers open first to the topics that engage them for the longest time. Armed with this level of intelligence, businesses are able to ensure that only the most relevant information is sent, increasing loyalty, retention and ROI.

eNJ: In your words, what is prospect intelligence and its value?

Mesnik: By understanding your prospects’ needs, you are better able to target them with online and offline conversations, which will ultimately compress the sales cycle. Conversations should not be limited to one marketing format; however, the more you can learn from every conversation—face-to-face, email, direct marketing, etc.—the more able you are to move that prospect to the next level.

eNJ: It's said that email newsletters can integrate marketing and sales in a way that wasn't previously possible. How so?

Mesnik: Information garnered from the response to your e-newsletter can enable you to refocus your communication efforts via phone, direct mail and other channels. As this information gets added to your CRM repository, a full profile begins to emerge of your prospect.

eNJ: In what specific ways can a salesperson use the data collected from a B2B e-newsletter?

Mesnik: Primus uses the behavioral data gathered from its e-newsletter to walk prospects through a lengthy sales cycle. The data is added to its CRM repository and improves the salesperson’s ability to fully understand what interests prospects have by the content that they read.

For example, if a prospect attends a webinar on a particular topic, responds favorably to a face-to-face sales presentation and has read four e-newsletter articles relating to this topic, a salesperson can feel confident that this prospect is very interested in this topic and is probably close to making a buying decision.

eNJ: Regarding a day in the life of a salesperson, please describe a typical day for a salesperson empowered with this integrated marketing approach.

Mesnik: When to call, whom to call, what to talk about—sales is all about planning. Arming your sales teams with behavioral analytics helps them to architect their call planning strategies. Additionally, these same analytics may assist them in preparing what materials are most appropriate to bring, whom to invite to webinars / seminars, better plan the content to be delivered and to ensure that support materials (case studies, application stories, etc.) that are left behind truly support a prospect's defined needs.

eNJ: How do you see email newsletter marketing on the Internet changing in the next six months and beyond?

Mesnik: We see a real expansion into underserved markets. For example, many industries (auto dealers being one) have worked diligently to establish an e-commerce presence. They are now realizing that e-communications can assist them in driving new traffic to the Internet AND help them improve loyalty among their existing customers.

RSS will continue to become a new transfer medium. Blogs will continue to forge ahead in the B2B world. Communicating frequently with disparate and remotely located sales teams / channels is a perfect application for a corporate blog. However, for all of these new initiatives to be successful, content will continue to become more and more targeted toward individual needs.

The sales sheriffs must create value in the wanted suspects' minds if they aim to capture them. Smaller businesses and company divisions can use 'informative marketing' to gain a larger market share of the range. Now, get out there and capture your suspects.

Jeff Mesnik is co-founder and vice president of business development at IMN. Jeff and his brother, Peter Mesnik, founded IMN in 1998. Prior to that, Jeff was Global Product Marketing Manager for Axis Communications, where he orchestrated a number of important product launches. Previously, at Spirit Technologies, a supplier of storage subsystems, Jeff wore several hats, helping to set up the retail channel and creating new retail products. He received a bachelor’s degree in political science from Brandeis University.