Ardath Albee is CEO and B2B marketing strategist for her consulting firm Marketing Interactions, Inc.. She helps her clients create customer-focused eMarketing strategies that produce more sales opportunities.
In January, of this year - shortly after Albee’s book was published - she wrote a piece for the Smart Selling Tools newsletter called “How Sales Conversations are Changing”. You can read the full article here: http://www.smartsellingtools.com/jan07.html
In that article, and in her book (and in her consulting practice)- she examines how the Internet has irrevocably changed the way customers buy. That means that companies must sell differently. Albee’s book explains how companies can sell more by using the Internet to communicate their differentiating value with effective, continuous, and consistent eMarketing initiatives.
Albee writes, “The last couple of years have turned the B2B buying process inside out. Instead of seeking out salespeople to gain answers to their questions about solving problems, buyers now push sales conversations to the end of their purchasing process.
The information they need for most of their research and consideration is now in plentiful supply on the Web. This is downright frustrating for salespeople who are used to establishing a relationship at the start and guiding their prospective customers toward a purchase decision across the entire process.
Because buyers now decide when to involve sales, stepping into the relationship in mid-stream is a new skill that requires salespeople to focus more on extending conversations than on starting them.”
The way people and companies buy has changed forever. Sales conversations have changed and the timing of sales conversations has changed.
As Albee points out, “Continuous movement driven by sales conversations is the key to conversions—even if the movement is one step at a time.”
The book explains how to:
- Build a foundation for eMarketing strategies based on buyer perspectives.
- Use a buyer synopsis to develop personalized content.
- Transform prospect engagement with natural nurturing.
- Create a contagious content structure for competitive differentiation.
- Generate increased pipeline with attraction marketing.
- Facilitate faster prospect progression to sales readiness.
- Perfect the transition of sales-ready leads to your sales force.
- Measure the impact of eMarketing programs against business objectives.
If you haven’t added her book to your aresenal you are missing out.
Seriously.
You can see why I say that by downloading 2 chapters for free. But then buy the book. It will help you align the way you sell with the way your customers are now buying.
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Hi Nancy,
Thanks very much for the fabulous review of my book!
Ardath