By West McDonald, Vice President of Business Development, Print Audit & Owner, FocusMPS
On Tuesday September 15th, I co-hosted a webinar that was presented by Aaron Dyck and Matthew McGuire of Digitek. I don’t usually write posts about webinars but this one really struck a bunch of nerves in all the right ways. The title session was “8 Ways to Generate More Sales Leads” and as vanilla as that sounds it was one of the most potent sessions I’ve sat on in a long long time.
The 30,000 foot overview is simple: The traditional sales funnel is broken when it comes to Buyer 2.0. Because of the easy access to information in a hyper-connected world, buyers may enter the sales cycle at any point in the so-called “funnel”. Some buyers will do 90% of their research on a solution before they ever pick up the phone to find a supplier. Others will do 50%, some will do 10%. The point is, the modern lead generation engine has to adapt to look less like a funnel and more like a spiderweb: You don’t know which part of the web the prospect is going to land on. You just need to make sure they stick and that you are ready to sell them no matter where they land.
Who, you might ask, is Buyer 2.0? A few years ago they started out as Millennials. Nowadays it’s anybody who has made a smartphone part of their daily lives. I’m guilty as charged. When I go to Best Buy looking at electronics I always have my phone out to read reviews and do my homework on the spot. I’ll also check pricing at competitive retailers and compare warranty and service upgrades right there in the store. I do the same thing when renting movies or going to a new restaurant. We are all Buyer 2.0, and if you don’t think you are yet you will be soon.
There are a host of tactics to attract Buyer 2.0, and the webinar introduces 8 key areas to focus on. Some are around social media and content generation. Others are related to downloadable guides that go deeper. Some relate to sustainability and making sure you have a strong message. And yet other areas focus on modern methods for search ranking optimization. One of my favorites is the necessity of using video to get your message across.
Video. Imagine! Instead of me writing a 6 page novel to share all the actionable content from the webinar I can do something better. I can share the video of the webinar with you! If you believe that your funnel is broken and are looking for new and effective ways to influence Buyer 2.0 you won’t want to miss this recording. Just click on the video below.
Is Buyer 2.0 the new customer or just a distraction? Is there a need to change how we sell to them or do you believe that as much things change they stay the same? Please be sure to let us know what you think in the comments section and be sure to hit “share” if you think somebody else could benefit from this article!