We all know that closing a consistent, steady pipeline of proposals require buyers to perceive your business as credible and knowledgeable; i.e. a leader in your market or niche. However, the most common mistake owners make with sales people is not focusing them. More importantly, if you only focus on “ideal prospective clients” your sales people will close a higher percentage of their opportunities which will enable you to scale your business.
To focus your sales resources, first you must cultivate a “proprietary community of highly profiled and qualified opportunities” which Ephor Group refers to as the “PBP – Prospective Buyer Pool.”
The PBP is created, maintained, and nurtured through repeatable sales and marketing activities and communications. The PBP approach includes identifying multiple contacts within each opportunity and governs the journey of a prospect through the buying cycle from awareness to interest to evaluation to decision and ultimately action.
The goal of PBP nurturing is to cultivate a community of active sales opportunities that creates a steady pipeline, removes “event orientation” and makes the element of time an ally!
PBP Objectives
- Improve sales professionals deal conversion closing rates from new prospect to client.
- Create a program to proactively target temporarily “Lost Opportunities” whereby the opportunity stalled, but is a qualified long-term prospect. Sales opportunities that “stall” in the pipeline or are “Lost” should be nurtured on a regular basis so that your firm stays “top-of-mind” with these prospects.
- “PBP Nurturing” is defined as regular, consistent, and frequent two-way communication with prospects.
Other important notes:
- PBP sales opportunities will convert to new clients at a rate of 10% per year (this does not include prospects that are ready to buy the first time you approach them, but rather the 10% should be added to your existing close rate).
- Research shows that when a PBP has 6 to 8 conversations they are either ready to buy or can be ruled out as a non-fit.
- PBP nurturing should include multiple contacts per company (i.e. the entire Buying Committee)
- Start with a small PBP list size for each sales and marketing representative such as thirty companies (that’s 60 or more contacts!).
- Establish regular meeting and communication rhythms to monitor progress.
- Focus on quality not quantity first; improve conversion rates before increasing activity levels!
- Utilize your CRM to nurture prospects.
- Rotate reps’ PBP list constantly (i.e. your top 40) turning over every few quarters.
- Inside sales reps can actively work (call, email, nurture) a larger volume of PBPs.
Qualifying Your PBPs
A market segment is a subgroup of people / organizations sharing common characteristics that cause them to have similar needs. A well-qualified market segment meets all of the following criteria: it is distinct from other segments (different segments have different needs), it is homogeneous within the segment (exhibits common needs); it responds similarly to a market stimulus, and it can be reached by a market interaction.
The process of PBP segmentation is distinct from targeting (choosing which segments to address), positioning (designing an appropriate marketing mix for each segment), and profiling (creating the contact record and capturing data). The overall intent is to prioritize which target market segments to focus resources; to understand their behavior; and to respond with appropriate marketing strategies that satisfy the different preferences of each chosen segment. Revenues are thus improved.
Target market segmentation is conducted by ranking PBPs according to their profile. A PBP profile contains the following information:
- Firmographics, the characteristics of an organization used to segment markets in market research. What demographics are to people, firmographics are to organizations. Commonly-used firmographics include employee size, revenue size, industry, growth rates, number of locations, location of headquarters, etc..
- Demographics refers to a measurable characteristic of a population for statistical purposes such as role, title, mobility (in terms of travel time to work or number of vehicles available), educational attainment, home ownership, employment status, and even location.
- Attitudinal or behavioral data commonly referred to as psychographics is the study of people's lifestyles, personality, habits, population movements, spending, age, social grade, employment, etc. They are also referred to as IAO variables (for Interests, Attitudes, and Opinions).
- “Buyergraphics” are specific to your product or service and are used to rank prospects into groups based on their probability of buying. There are several categories of buyergraphics:
- behavioral variables (such as usage rate or loyalty)
- bizographic variables (such as industry, seniority and functional area)
- ROI variables (TCO, ROI in months or dollars, etc.)
- Buying process probability (sales stage)
Once these profiles are constructed, they can be used to develop a marketing strategy and sales plan that will cost-effectively improve your customer acquisition metrics.
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