Sales Tactics for a New Product Launch

by | Sep 29, 2014

Do you have questions about the right sales tactics for a new product launch?

Here are several great tactics for a new product sales launch.

Are your executives squeezed for bandwidth? Is sales or product development your core competency? Do investors and executives want to see closed deals and metrics they can forecast against? If you are like most companies you are probably under resourced and under pressure to close business while continuing to develop your product and service customers. As a sales outsourcing and B2B demand generation company we have been involved in 100s of new product launches. Below are some of the best practices and tactics Gabriel Sales recommends and tips from some of the thought leaders we work with.

 

Things to Consider

Top 10 Sales & Marketing Strategies for a New Product Launch

Sales outsourcing for new product is about closing business, so it’s paramount you have a solid stable of new product launch sales tactics. However, with the right feedback loops, insights and B2B digital content you can align your inbound and outbound efforts to build exponential sales growth and drive market intelligence back into the entire enterprise. Here are our Top 10 strategies and tactics for a successful new product launch.

 

Close Faster

How to Integrate Sales Team, Marketing  and Digital Content

Successful new product launches now require you to align sales and marketing and to integrate inbound marketing and outbound sales efforts to get the most out of your sales and marketing budget.  Winning is now about getting the right message, to the right prospect at the right time. You can make it easy for you and your buyer with straight forward video content.  Visit this landing page to check out video that works for every stage of your sales process and your buyer’s journey

 

Higher Velocity

How to Build a High Velocity Sales Machine

A quick 3 minute video overview of the unique sales challenges faced for new product launches. This video discusses the part you need to build a scalable high velocity sales machine designed to close your first round of deals and to build on that success for exponential growth at a decreased cost of sales and marketing.

Learn how the right sales outsourcing partner can integrate inside sales reps, B2B digital content, social media and technology to augment and increase the performance of your existing team to drive your sales, your inbound marketing and your sales pipe velocity.

Sell Money to Sell Faster

In this economy “nice to have” no longer gets deals done. One of the key’s to creating a repeatable and scalable sales process is crafting a Return On Investment (ROI) value statement that gets the attention of CFOs and P&L owners. This blog shares our formula for crafting an ROI statement that hits both top line and bottom budgets to get deals done.  Read here to learn the basics

 

 

Compare Tactics

Where Does Outsourcing Fit?

No two product launches are the same.  Team skill sets are different. Markets and products are at different stages of maturity.  Some go-to-market budgets are larger than others. And revenue, deal and strategic goals and targets vary.   Below are a couple examples of how company’s integrated sales outsourcing or outsourcing demand generation to help exceed their goals.

Social Media Analytics SaaS Sales Outsourcing  – Company needed to close business and document sales metrics for new product to close Series B round.  Sales outsourcing drives 2M in annual run rate.

Fortune 500 Sales Outsourcing for New Product Launch –  Middleware Software and Hardware Solution needed to lead score and map demand generation sales process and turns to sales consulting and demand generation outsourcing to avoid disrupting existing sales team.

VIEW MORE CASE STUDIES HERE

 

Better Intel

The Right Feedback Loops and Market Intelligence for a New Product Launch

A 3:00 minute video interview with Nielsen’s VNU Global Media SVP of US Sales, James Miller. He discusses how the right feedback loops implemented at the front end of a new product launch save critical time to beat the competition with product innovations, by making a business case based on hard data that ultimately increases sales success and the valuation of properties for successful exits.

 

Improve Targeting

How to Improve Targeting and Close the Right Customers

Smart targeting leads to faster deal flow and higher revenue.  Smart target starts with Pareto’s Principal. This principal is also known as ‘the law of the vital few’, or the 80:20 rule, it states that 80% of your revenue is going to come from 20% of your customers.   These are the customers you want to go after.  However targeting does not stop here.  You also need to consider who the right customers are for your business long term and at what level your customer service will need to increase and if you are a young company where the early adopters and champions will sit.  Read article to learn more

 

How an Outsourced B2B Sales Team Can Help Your Marketing Efforts

by | Jul 17, 2014

outsourced b2b sales team In our last blog, we discussed some of the main challenges B2B companies are having with sales and marketing today. To summarize, the three main challenges are technology implementation and use, developing content that engages customers and proving marketing’s value in a business sense.

This blog will discuss three ways a B2B outsourced sales team can help your marketing efforts by helping to solve these challenges for their clients.

1.  They can tell you what types of content you need and what types of content you shouldn’t waste your time with.

Many B2B companies entering the complex world of content marketing know they need content, but they don’t what type of content works in B2B and what type is needed for their specific sales. B2B sales outsourcing teams generally have experience working with dozens of clients in multiple markets and industries and therefore can offer insights and best practices based on what has worked in the past.

For example, engaging in social media marketing can be a lot of work. A B2B sales outsourcing team can tell you which platforms are most and least effective for your solution or market, and save you from spending hours on Twitter when your customers use LinkedIn. An outsourced team can also help in optimizing the content you already have so it is more engaging for buyers. For instance, they may tell you to break up an hour-long webcast into 5-10 minute chunks, making the content more accessible and less overwhelming for those on a time crunch.

2.  They can help you use technology to make sure the content gets to the right people.

In addition to helping you create content that delights and engages your customer base, an outsourced B2B sales team can also help you to target the best decision makers and implement technology solutions to help manage and streamline the entire sales and marketing process.

In regards to complex software solutions like marketing automation, an outsourced team can help you through the implementation process and give you the do’s and don’t they have learned along the way. Additionally, they generally know how to integrate content with marketing technology through features like email drip programs, content/lead scoring and real-time alerts.

3.  Their reporting yields insights that enable you to quickly improve and refine as time goes on.

An outsourced B2B sales team should report on the work that they do. The type of reporting you receive may vary depending on what company you work with and what your specific sales and marketing goals are. For example, at Gabriel Sales, we provide our clients with at least 12 different types of reporting on a weekly basis—including conversion ratios, email campaign analytics, verbatims of cold calls, etc. We also have weekly or bi-weekly status meeting to discuss progress and needs for improvement.

With this level of detail and transparency, it becomes much easier for companies to understand the value that marketing efforts contribute to the overall business. With all of the relevant data in front of them, companies are able to make better choices regarding strategy, and spend less time trying to figure out whether or not something is working.

If you’d like to know more about the value of B2B sales outsourcing, read 3 Ways B2B Sales Outsourcing Can Turn Around Stagnant Sales. Feel free to check out our services page to learn more about what we do and how we can help.

How an Outsourced Sales Team Can Help Your Marketing Team

by | Dec 13, 2013

outsourced sales teamThere comes a time for every B2B business owner, where they must decide how to approach their sales and marketing. There are many different routes you can take: hiring part-time or full-time staff, purchasing consulting services, hiring an outsourced sales team, or some combination of these.

The best option for your company is going to depend on your resources, your specific situation and your goals. If your goal is to dramatically increase revenue through your sales efforts, an outsourced sales team might be your best option. By leveraging a B2B outsourced sales team, you gain access to sales talent that you generally could not afford to hire internally. Additionally, the experience and expertise that comes with an outsourced sales team will help support and optimize your marketing efforts for greater effectiveness and efficiency.

Here are 5 ways an outsourced sales team can help your marketing team:

1. Content development

There have been a few articles recently that talk about the need for B2B companies to act like publishers in terms of their marketing content. For many companies, coming up with fresh content on a regular basis (that provides real value for prospects) is an extremely time consuming task.

At Gabriel Sales, one of the ways our sales outsourcing services support marketing teams is by providing detailed feedback from prospects on the value or effectiveness of different pieces of marketing content. Based on our analysis of phone calls with prospects and marketing analytics data, we provide recommendations for content that your prospects will find engaging and valuable (we can also produce the content for you if you have the need).

2. Augment your under staffed sales team

In recent years, budget limitations and other factors have left many B2B sales teams understaffed. In addition, cold calling just isn’t as effective as it used to be—making it much more expensive to succeed with this tactic. By going with an outsourcing option, you can gain access to an entire sales team for approximately the cost of one internal rep.

Despite how incredible an individual may be in terms of talent and skill, that person can never match the combined training, experience and established relationships that an outsourced sales team can provide. So, instead of spending money internally to hire someone new, it may be more cost-effective to outsource a whole team.

3. Leverage your investment in CRM and MA software

For many B2B companies, technologies like marketing automation and customer relationship management (CRM) software may still be relatively new and confusing. For an outsourced sales team like we have at Gabriel Sales, navigating these technologies is now second-nature. By leveraging an outsourced team, you can therefore bypass months or even years trying to figure it out on your own.

Additionally, one of the top two reasons for dissatisfaction with marketing automation is poor integration with sales. By leveraging an outsourced sales team with over 10,000 hours of marketing automation experience, you gain access to best practices and tips for better sales and marketing alignment. In other words, you let the experts show you how to succeed and what to avoid without having to go through all the headaches of learning on your own.

4. Provide qualitative and quantitative feedback on all tactics.

Every outsourced sales team needs to provide evidence of the value of their work. At Gabriel Sales, we provide our clients twelve different types of reporting on our efforts—from data on conversion ratios to verbatim transcripts of cold calls. We also have weekly meetings with each of our clients to discuss our successes and areas for improvement.

This much transparency and visibility allows your marketing team to easily understand how best to support sales with content and determine what campaigns would be most effective. With the detailed reporting of an outsourced sales team, determining how and where to optimize is greatly simplified.

5. Convert quality inbound leads to qualified prospects

Even when inbound leads come in with a high level of perceived interest, they still need to be qualified. By using an outsourced sales team, you can follow up on inbound leads and nurture them until they are sales qualified for a much lower price than handling it internally.

With a dedicated and experienced outsourced sales team at your service, your marketing team gains the data, technological skills and overall expertise they need to do their jobs as efficiently and effectively as possible.

You can learn more about the value of a B2B outsourced sales team here. To learn about the outsourced sales solutions we offer, visit our services page. Feel free to contact us with any questions.

Using Marketing Automation for B2B Lead Nurturing

by | Oct 2, 2013

Photo of green plant between male hands on a black background[/caption]B2B marketers today face a complex landscape.

Old marketing tactics have dropped in effectiveness (cold calling, trade shows) while technological innovations have created an entire new way of buying and selling (digital content marketing, customer relationship management). Buyers now control the sales process and selling to them now requires the ability to reach and interact with prospects in an entirely new way.

Evidence of this shift can be seen in the findings of a February 2013 eMarketer report that lists the top challenges from B2B marketers today. Apart from not having enough budget (59%), marketers largest struggle is the ability to “reach the right target at the right time in the buying decision” (39%).  This shows that B2B marketers have started to recognize that the buyer needs to be the main focus of all marketing efforts.

This also helps to explain why from 2011 to 2012, there was a 233% increase in the portion of marketing budgets allocated to marketing automation solutions (eMarketer).

Marketing automation platforms allow marketers to manage of all of their prospects from one database and track their prospects digital behaviors to help understand where each prospect is at in their buying decision at any given time. Within the platform, you can assign different numerical scores to each piece of marketing content you create—with lower scores assigned to early stage content and high scores assigned to late stage content like pricing pages or product comparisons. By looking at prospects consumption of all marketing efforts (website, blogs, email marketing, social), you can determine what “next step” is going to be most appropriate for each prospect.

This is why using marketing automation for B2B lead nurturing is so effective, as some of the prospects that come into your pipe are not ready to buy right away. You will know this because your marketing automation solution will tell you that the prospect is not engaging with any high-scoring digital content that signals he or she is near a purchase decision, which tells you the prospect needs to go into a lead nurturing stage.

B2B lead nurturing consists of sending your ‘not-yet-ready-to-buy’ prospects marketing content that educates them on your solution and industry in a non-threatening way. A quarterly company newsletter or educational email campaign are good examples of this. By tracking consumption of your nurturing efforts using your marketing automation platform, you will know when a prospect moves out of the nurturing phase and is ready to be engaged by sales.

When done correctly, lead nurturing helps to build trust and keep your company top of mind when your prospect is finally ready to make a buying decision.

To learn more about the importance of B2B lead nurturing, click here. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.

The Five Myths of B2B Outsourced Marketing and Sales

by | May 2, 2013

myth versus realityIn our work as a B2B outsourced marketing and sales company, we have found that many people have a misunderstanding of what sales and marketing outsourcing companies do. This blog explains these misconceptions and details how an outsourcing company uses their services to solve business problems and drive sales growth for their clients.

At Gabriel Sales, we understand that many businesses are just now beginning to look into the possibility of outsourcing marketing and sales.  Most B2B businesses have no prior experience working with an outsourcing company, they therefore may be confused or apprehensive about hiring one.

To help clear up some of this confusion, here are the five myths or misconceptions about sales and marketing outsourcing that we see the most:

1.    “If I outsource, I will lose control of my sales process.”

While it may feel as though you are handing the keys to your Corvette convertible over to a complete stranger, this does not mean you have to lose control over your sales process.  It is no doubt unnerving to hand the reigns over to someone else, but we have found that open communication between both partners can alleviate this tension.  At Gabriel Sales, we keep our clients informed of all of our activities and progress at all times and during all situations.

2.    “Hiring a full-time sales rep will not do anything for me.”

We understand many businesses do not want to staff a sales rep full-time, but our experience shows us this seldom works in the long-term. Usually, a company will start with a part-time rep, but soon needs to scale to full-time. A sales and marketing outsourcing company can help you to determine what the most effective balance is for you in this regard and help you to implement it. Gabriel Sales offers temporary, part-time, and full-time options for lead generation and inside sales.

3.    “I don’t need outsourcing because I already have a sales team.”

Just because you have a sales team in place already does not mean you cannot benefit from sales outsourcing.  Many of our clients already have internal sales teams of their own.  It is our job as an outsourcing company to improve on what you have.  We can act as an extension of your current sales team, and if we do employ a sales rep, it is usually exclusively for setting sales appointments, sales qualifying or B2B lead generation. We have also been taken on primarily to aid in the launch of a new product.  There are a variety sales services an outsourcing sales company can provide to an existing sales team; to see more of them, check out our services page.

4.    “My recruiting process cannot be improved.”

If you are now considering outsourcing your sales and marketing, that is a good indication your current process needs improvement.  An outsourced sales company can certainly help if you do not have years upon years of experience attaining salespeople who can execute at a high level. Hiring an outsourcing company allows you to take advantage of the vast sales expertise experienced sales personnel provide to them and therefore saves you the time and money usually put into the recruiting process.

5.    “Hiring an outsourcing company builds the outsourcer’s brand, not mine.”

Once you have hired an outsourcing company, their job should always be to sell you and not themselves. At Gabriel Sales, we perpetually put the client first and train our sales reps to act as your employees during all business calls and interactions.  We define our success in terms of your success.

We hope this blog helps to clear up any confusion you may have regarding sales and marketing outsourcing companies.  If you have further questions or concerns, or would simply like to know more about B2B sales outsourcing, please feel free to contact us.

B2B Marketing Strategies and Sales Tips in 2013

by | Feb 28, 2013

 

 

It is 2013 at last, and finally the economy is starting to show steady signs of improvement and increased momentum. Your sales plan should use this momentum to increase your sales performance in the coming year. here are our b2b marketing strategies and sales tips you may want to take into account in 2013 to increase sales.

10 B2B Marketing Strategies and Sales Tips for 2013:

  1. Evaluate your sales process. In order to improve your process in the future, you need to have a clear understanding of your process as it is now. Work to ascertain what worked for your top performers in 2012, and share their techniques and processes with your entire company. In our work as a sales and marketing outsourcing company, we have found much success in improving efficiency by replicating what works for top sales producers.
  2. Measure your sales pipe velocity. Putting the metrics in place to analyze your sales pipe velocity is a part of evaluating your sales process. These metrics will help you understand what specific message or piece of content causes someone to move from one stage of the sales process to the next.
  3. Nurture your sales pipe. Our data at Gabriel sales, along with other research, suggests that over 50% of closed deals come from leads educated a year ago. This means you should not ignore past prospects, especially for complex sales.
  4. Align your sales and marketing.  The last thing you want to do in 2013 is measure what marketing puts into the pipe and what sales closes separately.  You need to give your marketing team a “sales quota” and foster a team environment. You should also create shared success metrics in order to make sure everyone is focused on closing business with customers ready to buy and at the same time nurturing prospects that are not quite ready.  In other words, you want to create content that supports the sale across its lifecycle.
  5. Sell money. If you have a complex sales process or multi-dimensional product or service, you need to make sure your buyer can clearly understand and measure their return. You need to somehow be able to prove the ROI you can deliver with your product or service.
  6. Build an ideal customer profile. Analyze the demographics of your current group of customers. Use this information to determine what companies give you the biggest profit, are the least demanding and quickest to scale.
  7. Improve your lead targeting quality.  Once you understand your ideal customer profile, you can immediately use this information to improve the quality of your leads. The first step in creating a successful pipe is improving the quality of what you put into it.
  8. Use Social Media.  In 2013, every B2B company needs to be plugged into the social media world.  This means that (depending on your specific products or services), you need to have active profiles on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+.  You may also want to start a company blog that works in concert with the rest of your digital marketing strategies.
  9. Consider marketing automation software. Now that it is 2013, marketing automation is becoming a standard for B2B sales. In our experience as a sales outsourcing organization, the insights and efficiency gains are critical for us to compete in the new sales engagement model.
  10. Join forces with others.  With the increasing use of social media, digital content, marketing automation, webcasting and SEO tools in B2B sales, it might make sense to look at how a top sales outsourcing and marketing outsourcing company can help you augment capability and increase capacity, to increase your sales in the 2013.

In B2B sales and marketing, there are numerous strategies and tactics that have potential to drive sales growth, which correlate to what stage you are at in terms of sales and marketing alignment.  Our experience has shown that a tactic is most effective when anchored in an overarching b2b marketing strategy based on real numbers and has the objective of targeting specific sales goals.  A sales and marketing outsourcing company can help you create these types of strategies and tactics by working to create a unique plan to improve what is not working and build what is working based on hard sales targets.

If you would like to know more B2B Sales & Marketing Tips for 2013, please contact us.