Insights and Research for Marketing, Sales Development and Sales

As companies reinvent their sales and marketing efforts, the number one challenge remains how to effectively engage buyers. Based on the popular keynote from Virtual Summit and On-Demand Webinar from CEO and Founder of TOPO covers the topic of how to engage buyers right now.

Do you know what your buyers are doing?

In March, they were focused on stabilizing their business / function developing new scenario and budget plans. Some purchasing decisions delayed until Q2 but most individual buyers remained unaware of major changes.

During April and May, companies do hard reset of plans effective April 1st. Extreme uncertainty becomes defining attribute of buyer mindset. Adjusting their teams working 100% from home, most buyers spend April/May navigating new reality both personally and professionally.

Today, uncertainty remains defining characteristic. Majority of buyers are cutting budgets (but important to understand this by segment). At the same time, new mission critical priorities have emerged. Buyers anticipate a rapid rebound this year which will be a month-month adjustment based on internal and external factors.

3 Steps To Increase Engagement Now

1. The Market: Get clear visibility into your target market

2. The Offer: Create compelling offers in response to today’s market

3 The Tactics: We can’t engage buyers without tactics –double down on the the ones that work

The Market

Target the right segments and accounts. With 59% of organizations shifting headcount and budget to stronger segments and a majority of these shifts have been upmarket or into strong verticals. Be intentional on allocating your resources to the market segments and accounts that are most likely to engage.

Recognize the deals that are getting done right now. Generally speaking the two areas where deals are getting done are either:

1. Where buyers have a mission critical need. Example of this type of buyer, the IT security officer needing to ensure people can work from home while protecting company assets.
2. Determine if the deal is C-level priority or not. The further the offer is away from addressing a true pain or challenge of doing business will limit your potential of getting the deal done (at least any time soon).

The Buyer Decision-Making Process Has Also Changed Dramatically:

1. Heavier scrutiny and due diligence
2. Fewer participants in buying process
3. Champions and influencers have a reduced role
4. Finance is waiting for you at the end of every sales cycle

The Offer

The product pivot is table stakes in today’s market. Understanding your current product / market fit and where to adjust will help inform the extent of the offer. Start by understanding the true buyer priorities and requirements.

Once you understand the buyer intent and given the scarce buyer engagement makes insights and offers critical.

The high-value offer (HVO): a meeting where the value to the buyers is so undeniable, they are compelled to attend.

Here are examples:

The Tactics

Prioritize tactics that drive engagement. Use data to identify “engage-able” accounts. It’s critical to use data to identify accounts that are ready to engage with you such as Intent data –3rd party signals and engagement data –your own data such as your sales engagement platform or conversational intelligence data from live call qualification.

Key Takeaways

1 .Focus on high priority segments/accounts
2. Adapt to new buyer priorities
3. Prioritize insights and high value offers
4. The product pivot is table stakes
5. Adopt tactics proven to drive buyer engagement

Looking to accelerate your engagement? Contact Us