The Software Marketer's Lead Generation Report
Practical tips, ideas, and techniques to help software and technology marketers maximize every precious marketing dollar.
Are You Overwhelming Your Prospects?
July 2008
When you receive an inquiry — either via lead generation or through your website — how much information are you sending the potential prospect? How long is the email delivering the requested information? And if it involves a white paper, how long is that document?
What about your inside sales team? At this stage, how aggressive are they with prospect follow up?
Here’s the issue: Today’s busy and overworked buyer doesn’t have the time or patience to absorb a great deal of information about products and services, especially early in the buying process. At this point, the less you send, the better.
Yet the natural reaction of so many software companies is to do the opposite: flood inquirers with too much information.
Too Much — And All at Once
So here’s what happens. The email with the requested information is too long or contains too many attachments or links. So the buyer “sets it aside” to read later (they were in the middle of something when they received it). They end up forgetting about it, and their interest eventually fades.
Or maybe the information packet you sent them is bursting at the seams, so they again set it aside to review later. Or maybe your inside sales team is hungry and aggressive and overwhelms (or scares!) the prospect away by trying to do too much too soon (i.e., trying to get the buyer to commit to an appointment too early).
Fact is, there’s a direct correlation between the amount of information buyers want and where they are in their buying process. For example, at the early stages there’s only an identified need, and often not very well defined. At this point, prospects are merely scanning the horizon for possible solutions. Their goal? To narrow down the list of choices — an overwhelming challenge when so
many vendors are firing away every piece of collateral in their arsenal.
Put Yourself in Their Shoes
So what do buyers do when they receive too much information from too many sources? They do exactly what we would do in the same situation. They naturally gravitate to the most appealing and digestible set of information. The packet or email that contains just enough to help them identify potential solutions to their problem.
And this is critical because the vendor that can communicate the right message clearly and succinctly will often help shape the selection criteria.
This month’s takeaway:
Resist the temptation to send too much. At the early stages of a sales cycle, send only the bare minimum. Qualify the prospect well.
Then send only what they need to easily determine if you can potentially solve their problems. This goes for print and digital content as well as phone follow up.
Of course, as you move forward in the selling process with the prospect, the amount and depth of information required will increase.
But early in the cycle, less is more.
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“Ed Gandia helps software and high tech companies write direct response and marcom pieces that feed pipelines and drive revenue. Ed’s focus on producing results-oriented copy stems from a successful, 11- year career in high tech and industrial sales. To subscribe to his free e-newsletter on copywriting and lead generation, go to www.EdGandia.com/GetMoreLeads”
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