The Business Process That No Longer Works

Life used to be simple for companies who sold complex products to businesses, like software, networking, services, etc. They all followed a simple formula in the 80′s, 90′s and most of the ’00′s.

It used to work quite well.

Back then we had a simple approach. Use this formula to drive revenue for y our software company, for instance:

1. Create a great product. (Major focus on this.)
2. Develop some collateral. (product marketing)
3. Hire some salespeople and train them on Solution Selling.
4. Pound the phones and emails to uncover leads.
5. Set meetings with prospects.
6. Demo the product.
7. Close the deals.
8. Fire salespeople who didn’t make quota.
9. Hire new salespeople.
10. Repeat.

One small problem with that . The business process doesn’t work anymore. The advent of high speed internet connections rendered it obsolete. Here’s what resulted:

• Product-oriented marketing is boring and unnecessary
• Calls go to voice-mail hell.
• Emails aren’t opened.

A new and vastly more scientific approach is needed in B2B lead generation: Buyer personas, content marketing, lead nurturing and scoring, and metrics – that’s what you need today. Here’s my advice:

1. Invest in strong marketing leadership.
2. Develop great content focused on buyers
3. Invest in marketing automation.
4. Focus on lead nurturing and scoring.
5. Design key metrics.
6. Test and refine.

Companies who embrace a new approach prosper, while companies who continually rely on the old approach struggle. What do you think? Are lots of companies still using the old obsolete approach? What do you think?