“Make the buying process easier for the customer.”
Anthony DeGraw is the Director of Partnerships here at Integris, and works hand in hand with our Marketing Department. In this 3 part Discussions by Integris series, Anthony is interviewed by Kevin Vitale, Senior Manage Services Account Executive. They discuss 3 important topics that are applicable to any company that wants to overcome industry roadblocks and change for the better. In part one, Anthony provides tips on how everyday businesses can improve their sales and marketing strategy.
How to be a problem solving consultant.
Anthony: “The framework that I’ve used is what I would call gap selling. I truly want to understand where are you at today. Tell me about your current situation. This can apply to so many different industries, it’s not just technology. But, tell me about your current situation, what’s going on. At the end of the day, that’s going to shape the solutions that we actually recommend. It truly is there is no one size fits all.”
Anthony: “Tell me what you’ve tried. If I’m going to come in and recommend something you’ve already tried, and you didn’t like, that’s going to be a big problem. We’re not going to mesh very well. So I always want to understand what have people tried, what have they experimented with.”
Anthony: “The final piece is, ‘where are you trying to go, what does the business look like?’ Because that also plays into the solutions that you’re going to recommend. The thing that I would hate, and I think everybody would hate is if we were to come in and recommend a solution for exactly today, but weren’t to account for what would be needed in the immediate future.”
What should your sales and marketing strategy focus on?
Anthony: “I would focus on what we would call the bottom of the funnel, or the flywheel, and really focus on how can you make the buying process easier. How do you get ahead of things for them to make that whole process enjoyable. I would be looking to give them some sort of value in return for the time that you’re asking. Guide them to where they need to go. A lot of people nowadays are so overwhelmed with the amount of information out there. So I would focus at the bottom and make the buying process easier for the customer.”
Anthony: “You have to transition your messaging from ‘Me, me, me,’ to ‘You, you, you.’ What I mean by that is, you’ll hear people say they’re the best because of their people, or they’re the best because they’ve been in business for 30 years. That’s very self-centered. People nowadays are very skeptical in the world of reviews being everywhere.”
Anthony: “People want that social proof, and that’s where they’re going to look for validation. They don’t necessarily want to hear it out of your mouth. So the way to change the messaging is start to talk about the customer, what are the problems they’re typically facing, how do you help ease those, and how do you give them strategy.”
If you don’t have clients, or you’re a new company, what do you have to look for?
Anthony: “My common theme is ask the market. Everything is almost it’s own hypothesis, and you’ve got to be willing to fail. Not every science experiment works out in the end result that you’re looking for. Go and test, and see what’s actually resonating with people. If you have customers, one of the best ways to do it is go ask them. If you don’t have customers, you need to go out to friends, family, colleagues of your past life, whatever it may be, but you need to go see what resonates for them.”