Warming Up to Cool Prospects
By Joyce L. Bosc
In any marketing effort, there is a pool of prospects deemed more attractive than
the others. In a business-to-business marketing effort, these hot prospects enjoy
the greatest benefits of our direct marketing attention: frequent, consistent communication;
expensive (and often elaborate) direct mail campaigns; seminars; lunch invitations;
and other all-out efforts to create face-to-face opportunities or otherwise motivate
the prospect into becoming a paying customer.
But what about "cool" prospects? Especially in the b-to-b market, there
is often a much larger pool of prospects who have been designated as less qualified,
more difficult to reach, or generally not worth the time and money we are putting
into our hot prospects—even though we recognize that this group could make
use of our goods and services, if the timing is right. With marketing budgets, staff
resources and time constraints tight today, this hot- vs.-cool prospect situation
is no surprise. It happens all the time. But that doesn't mean shunning cool prospects
is the smart move.
Take a step back from your b-to-b campaigns for just a moment and look at the cast-offs
you have created in your prospect pool. Draw a pyramid diagram of your entire prospect
universe, with the hottest prospects at the top. Now take a good, hard look at all
those cool prospects floating around at the bottom of that pyramid and ask yourself
these questions:
- What do they have in common?
- What channel will reach them?
- How can you access that channel quickly and efficiently?
If you can focus on simplicity as you examine this group of cool prospects, oftentimes
a low-cost, high-return method will surface for reaching and marketing to the very
businesses you thought were outside your scope or not worth the effort.
Hot tips for cool-prospect campaigns
Now that you've recognized the possibilities, where do you start? Even though we
are excited now about their potential, these are still cool prospects. You cannot
approach them in the same manner as you would your hot prospects if you want to end
up with a viable return on your cool-prospect investment. Cooler prospects require
careful examination of your options.
There are three basic principles to keep in mind when developing a strategy to
go after cool prospects:
1. Remember: Your team is still devoting the lion's share of your marketing resources
to those critically important top prospects, so keep it simple. Look for ways to
create a cool-prospect campaign to reach lower-tier b-to-b prospects without taking
valuable time away from the rest of your b-to-b efforts. Revisit that prospect pyramid
as you develop a straightforward approach to getting your message to these previously
neglected prospects.
2. Consider creating a parallel path for electronic and traditional tools in this
new b-to-b marketing effort. Oftentimes, Web marketing and more traditional direct
mail or direct response advertising can work together to create a simple but effective
way to reach your cool prospects with a series of carefully planned messages and
images that work on many levels. This high-tech/high-touch integrated approach is
not as complicated as you might think; many marketing principles are similar for
the Web and direct mail, right down to writing style and tone.
3. Most of the time you spend on a b-to-b campaign for cool prospects should come
up front, in planning and development—not in execution. The goal is to create
a b-to-b vehicle that reaches lower-tier prospects and develops solid leads while
leaving you free to focus on other prospect groups. A good rule of thumb is to spend
80 percent of your time, effort and resources on the top 20 percent of your prospects—your
hot prospects. Spend 20 percent on the remaining 80 percent of your prospects. Don't
leave any prospects out if you can help it.
If you've done your homework, then you're already focusing your b-to-b marketing
efforts on your most likely future customers. But in the hubbub of prospecting, marketing,
and ROI justifications, do not forget about or ignore lower-tier prospects. After
all, if they made it into your prospect pool in the first place, there is a valid
reason to pursue these cool prospects. It is up to you to build a simple b-to-b marketing
effort to bring your message to them.
Cool prospects have money to spend. They need goods and services. They just need
a little warming up, too.
-------------------------------
Joyce L. Bosc is founder and CEO of Boscobel Marketing Communications
Inc., Silver Spring, MD, a branding, public
relations and marketing consulting
firm.
-------------------------------
Looking for an article or trusted interview
source on advertising, branding, marketing and public relations? Contact
Jessica Klenk at 301.588.2900 or via email. |
