In most companies, especially larger ones, there is no single decision-maker. Even the top boss needs to consult other people in the management team. Salespeople often attempt to get all the decisionmakers together for a presentation, but in practice this is usually impossible: senior individuals have busy diaries, and are certainly not going to inconvenience themselves for the purpose of being sold to.
Key-account salespeople therefore need to talk towards the numerous decision-makers individually, and hope that when they do talk to each other (usually with out the salesperson being present) they'll agree to go ahead and buy.
In many cases, individuals who do the everyday buying function within tight parameters that they cannot contravene. In order to alter anything, they need permission from someone else, who will usually pass the buck back again. Inventive marketing can break this deadlock. Using the correct kind of promotion can make certain that the key decision-makers speak to each other: if it's done really well, they think the meeting was their own concept.
When the first long-life low-energy light bulbs appeared they price around ten times the cost of a tungsten-filament bulb. Even though they used only one-fifth of the energy of a traditional bulb, this was not sufficient to make them cost-effective, but they last 50 occasions longer, which is a main advantage. The problem for marketers lay in persuading individuals that this was worth while. Osram, Britain's biggest light bulb manufacturer, reasoned that the new bulbs would benefit businesses much more than customers.
The cause isn't the energy savings: it is the maintenance cost of replacing bulbs. Paying someone to alter light bulbs in an office building is costly - but nothing like as expensive as changing them in a warehouse or factory, exactly where the bulbs may be 30 feet above the ground.
Unfortunately, Osram's salespeople reported that maintenance managers had been usually given a maximum per-bulb price by their finance directors, a cost far too low to cover the cost of long-life bulbs. Finance directors would not talk to Osram salespeople, instead referring them back to the maintenance managers.
Osram's marketing individuals came up having a way of getting the maintenance managers and the finance directors together. They mailed a small cashbox to the finance director, with a covering letter telling them that the box contained information that would save their company £50,000 a year.
The letter went on to say that the maintenance manager had the key. Keys were mailed towards the maintenance managers, having a comparable note. Clearly one or other manager would contact the other out of easy curiosity - opening the box provided them using the calculation on the price savings they could make, if they agreed in between them to switch to long-life low-energy bulbs.
You need to identify the decision-makers in each organization and personalize the method. Do your homework - you need to spell out to them how it will benefit their business specifically, and if feasible how it'll benefit them personally. Make certain that there's no way they can access the information without getting together. Make the promotion intriguing, preferably with a tangible product so that they cannot simply speak on the phone.
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Note: This article was sent to us by: Alan G. Nicholson at 01202011
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