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| Newsletter – September 2009 |
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| Enterprise Value Enhancement (EVE) is the strategic integration of business performance management, business intelligence and live human interaction. EVE improves the fundamental value creation capability of the enterprise through improved business results and increased enterprise value. At NVal, we offer specialized solutions comprising eCommerce, CRM & demand creation, business intelligence, eMarketing, and strategy alignment, which are integrated and delivered in a unique way that maximize value creation. |
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Enterprise Value |
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Vol. 1 No. 9 – September 1, 2009 |
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Welcome to this issue of the Enterprise Value in which we will be covering ecommerce and lead generation. |
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Lead generation has been around for a long time. There was a time when direct marketing (mailing printed materials / catalogs) was considered a good way to reach out to prospects. Some B2B offerings have been promoted with sales people dropping in on prospects without an appointment, and trying to engage them – and some Fortune 500 companies still continue to do that. Others have used inside sales teams to set up appointments for face-to-face calls with their sales executives. All these methods have worked with varying rates of success, however, due to time constraints, decreased attention spans and increased competition (lower margins), we need to reexamine and optimize how we approach prospects and customers.
Studies have shown that among the top five reasons why people don’t buy (yes “don’t buy”) is the fact that they have sales people calling on them. And on the other hand, we have data on the fact that 80% of all sales take place only after the 5th customer contact while 48% of sales people give up after their 1st contact (and another 25% give up after the 2nd). So, there is a lot of waste so to speak in both how leads are approached as well as in how many times these leads are approached. There is a fine balance that needs to be maintained so that one can advance the sales cycle forward
and increase the number of customer touch points while building credibility at the same time. And all this has to be done speedily and cost-effectively - that is the name of the game today. To increase sales with fewer face-to-face calls (and therefore at a lower cost) and to achieve a higher conversion ratio (or increased sales productivity).
Ecommerce sales are expected to double over the next four years. Even as the economy slows, ecommerce sales are on the rise. B2B ecommerce has become an important channel as it provides in-depth information much more efficiently to prospects and customers alike, makes a company’s value proposition and pricing more transparent, and enables “lead nurturing”. Lead generation and ecommerce strategies thus have to deployed synergistically in the current market context.
Just as searchability, scalability, and personalization are important for B2C ecommerce sites, the keys to success with
B2B ecommerce sites are: (1) having a clear and precise navigational path for accessing site content, (2) a clear offering and call to action, and (3) integration of ‘content management’ with ‘ecommerce’ and ‘crm’ - so as to increase customer contacts more efficiently than by any other method. A company that works a set of leads, nurtures them with targeted inside sales call activity, directs interested leads to a well-designed ecommerce site for a good customer experience, and then follows up on these leads with specific information and/or meetings – will have a much higher probability of
converting the prospects into customers. Ecommerce is now an important channel for customer interaction and those
who integrate their websites with content, ecommerce and crm and use emarketing as a lead generation tool, will
maximize their prospect to customer conversion ratios in the most cost-effective manner.
Aaron Sanders, NVal, Boston, MA |
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