Intentional Marketing: 100 Questions

Most companies grow their sales and marketing efforts based upon the talents of the founders or early employees. Adjustments usually result in quick fixes that resolve issues short term but create longer-term inefficiency and misdirection. Often, the end result is mediocrity for both company and customer.

Some believe that sales drives marketing and some believe that marketing drives sales. Both are correct to some extent. Even more importantly, both processes are driven by customer needs and desire. Differentiating the sales process actions from marketing tools and strategy helps companies focus on integrating sales and marketing with clear intent to achieve management goals effectively and efficiently.

Sales? Marketing? Business Development?  What’s the difference?

Ask a Salesperson, a Marketer and a Biz Dev Person the question and you will get 10 different answers.  (6 of them from the marketer. Those folks love to write.) It’s not important that the world agree on the same definition. It is important to have a definition for your business that helps define roles, responsibilities and resources to achieve success.

Here is a definition you can use for conversation to align your teams and budget.

Business Development – The act of developing strategic and tactical opportunities that ultimately result in revenue generating business. This may include: Networking, Marketing, Sales, Promotion, Business Modeling, Business Strategy. 

Sales – The act of aquiring, qualifying and closing a customer through the entire Sales Process lifecycle. (See Chart below)

Marketing – The creation of application of efficiency tools designed to accelerate exponential success in the sales process.

Applying Intentional Marketing to a clearly defined sales process will allow you to scale that process for growth. It won’t happen by accident. You will need to apply Forethought, Efficiency and Integration to your marketing approach if you want to attract and close buyers effectively in a leveraged manner.

• Forethought — analyzing questions and objections in advance to open a successful sales path with your prospects.
• Efficiency — the productive use of resources. In sales and marketing, getting the most return on investment of time, energy, and resources.
• Integration—having a consistent value proposition in all materials, and that all materials work consistently with one another.

Sales Process Diagnosis

For the Excel Spreadsheet version, click here.

Lead Generation

• What are the attractive emotions?
• What are the attractive aesthetics?
• Where can buyers be found?
• What will pique their interests?
• What is the recognizable pain we can identify
• Where do buyers congregate?
• What is the best opening line?
• What is the identifiable fear component?
• What is the identifiable greed component?
• What are the identifiable logic components?

For Business Clientele

• Are they public?
• Are they government?
• Are they non-profit?
• Are they a start-up?
• Are they entrepreneurial?
• Who is the decision maker?
• What is their buying process?
• What is their buying motivation?
• What is their risk tolerance?
• What is their ethical structure?
• What is their likely budget?
• Does our product fit their budget?
• Does our product solve their problem?

Client Analysis

• What direct data do we need to know about the customer?
• What indirect data would help identify the right prescription?
• What other opportunities can we surmise from both direct and indirect data?
• How much probative capital do we have with the client?
• How can we gain more probative capital?
• What is our probative process?
• What emotions should our client have during analysis?
• How much time should be required for probing?
• How much time should be allowed for gestation?

Client Prescription

• What do we have to offer the client that they want?
• Why do they want it?
• What problem do they think it solves?
• How will they feel when they get it?
• What do they have to offer the client that they need?
• Is it different from what they want?
• Why do they need it?
• Do they understand that they need it?
• Do they understand why they need it?
• How will they feel when they get it?
• Does the client perceive value relative to the cost of the product?
• What are they willing to pay for it?
• Are we under priced or over priced for the value we are providing?
• Are there ways to price it that bring more value to the client and us?
• What are the client expectations in receiving what we have?

Objection Removal

• What would be the reasons the client won’t buy from us?
• Have we established credibility?
• Is our pricing correct?
• Can the client afford our offering?
• Does the client believe our ability to deliver?
• What potential objections do we have the ability to remove and how?
• What potential objections do we not have the ability to remove and why?
• How do we know when the client assessment is incorrect?
• Have we broken through all of the client’s emotional barriers?

Transaction

• What are the step-by-step mechanics of delivering our product to the client?
• What is the timing?
• What part of the process can we control?
• What part of the process is out of our control?
• What is our communication system with the client during the process?
• What does the client need to know in the process, and when?
• What does the client want to know in the process, and when?
• What do we need to know from the client in the process, and when?
• How do we manage the client’s expectations in the process?
• What happens when something goes wrong?
• How does the client feel at each stage in the process?
• How do we collect payment?
• How do we make the client feel when we collect payment?

Repeat

• Can the client come back to us for any other products?
• Why would they want to come back?
• Why wouldn’t they want to come back?
• How can we encourage them to come back to us?
• How will we make them feel when they come back?
• What will we do differently for repeat clients?
• How do we mechanically manage the repeat process?

Referral

• Does the client connect with others who would fit our client assessment profile?
• Why would the client want to refer to us?
• Why wouldn’t the client want to refer to us?
• How can we encourage the client to refer to us?
• How will we make the client feel when they refer to us?
• What will we do differently for referred clients?
• How will we mechanically manage the referral process?