1. B2B Go-To-Market Strategy
By Ted Mercer
Helping B2B Technology Companies Grow their Revenues

2. B2B Sales Framework
Each box on the following slide can be expanded into a one page strategy which can be aggregated into a Go to Market Strategy for companies who sell their products and services to other companies.

3. Opportunity Management
B2B Sales Framework
Value Proposition
Sales Capabilities
Sales Resources
Lead Generation
Networking
Inbound
Referrals
Outbound
Partnership
Opportunity Management

4. Refining the Value Proposition
Articulate the Value Proposition in a way that reflects your understanding of the clients’ needs
Develop the Ideal Client by considering the size, maturity, industry, niche, etc.
Develop the Prospect Target List, including the company name, decision maker’s name and contact details
Goal should feed your Brand

5. Sales Capabilities
Many companies at the early stage have ad hoc sales processes that do not provide adequate reporting, efficient management of sales people, effective tracking of opportunities or appropriate marketing materials
Pipeline management enhances the accuracy of opportunity forecasting to management and the board
A CRM tool helps organize and report on the opportunities
Tie all this work together with a set of metrics to measure and improve your performance over time and appropriately compensate sales people.

6. Pipeline
Cold Lead
Warm Lead
Demo
Negotiation
Client

7. Sales Resources
Culture – Decide what kind of culture you want early and relentlessly pursue it
Roles – What kind of sales roles do you need? Cold callers, Inside Sales, Outbound Sales Execs
Seniority - Make sure that your sales resources are the appropriate level of seniority
Number - Determine the appropriate number of sales resources to grow your business

8. Opportunity Management
The goal of the sale is to gain the client’s trust and prove to them that you can deliver what is promised and will be around for long enough to support them during the contract period
Product Demonstrations – Listen more than

9. Product Demonstrations
Use the product demonstration to prove to the client that your product/service can meet their needs
Ask questions to understand what the client REALLY wants to see in your demo
Show them what they asked to see and nothing more
Ask them whether they understand your offering often

10. Lead Generation Strategy
In the early stages of a company, leads are driven by networking though existing relationships and inbound marketing in the form of SEO and Content generation
Then a company can leverage those relationships to get referrals to new clients
Building an outbound sales team to open doors of clients on your target client list
Developing partnerships to scale up with other companies’ relationships

11. Networking
Networking includes the events that you attend with the intention of meeting prospects
Targeted networking events will drive significant placement in clients’ minds
Speaking at carefully selected conferences and events can help to define your company as a thought leader
Prepare an appropriate networking plan to increase the value of networking dramatically. The plan should include the list of potential events to attend.
Obtain the list of attendees beforehand
Research the attendees on LinkedIn to see their picture so that you can identify them when you are at the event

12. Inbound
Inbound includes the efforts undertaken to encourage prospects to contact you about your solution offering and convert those prospects to leads
Create a great website with exceptional SEO
Feed high value content through your website to educate your market and warm up your leads
Distribute your content through relevant social media
Remember the 70/20/10 content generation rule. 10% thought leadership; 20% valuable content that makes people think; and 70% of the content should contain your company name and brand and nothing more
Three components to the inbound strategy:
Website SEO
Content Generation
Social Media
Traditional Marketing Activities

13. Referrals
Referrals are the activities undertaken to encourage existing clients and other organizations to send leads to you.
Take a strategic approach to getting your business to the top of your clients’ minds
Campaigns are an effective way to do this
Remember that the best way to get referrals is to provide fabulous service to your existing clients

14. Outbound
Outbound includes the efforts undertaken to solicit business from organizations on your Prospect Target List.
Cold calls and cold s are less effective than they used to be because every company uses them; so warm up your target list with content generation and distribution and only call those prospects who have been warmed up
Outbound is the most expensive lead gen strategy so think about how to improve your other strategies before ramping this area up
Tie your outbound efforts back into your Networking, Referral and Inbound strategies

15. Partnerships
Partnerships are your relationships with other companies who can be motivated to sell your company’s solution on a regular and ongoing basis.
Vet new partners to ensure your goals are aligned
Enable partners properly with training and marketing materials
Motivate partners with appropriate compensation models and relationship building activities
Monitor the performance of the partners with regular meetings and reporting of sales results
Don’t waste your time on bad partners

16. Overall Lead Generation Strategy
Individually, the lead generation strategies will increase your sales. When integrated, they will maximize the leads from the money spent.
When you have an effective inbound lead strategy via your website and social media work,
Your networking efforts will be enhanced because potential prospects will Google your product, service or firm and find you more easily
When that prospect hits your site, their information will be automatically captured and the outbound sales process can cause a sales person to give that prospect a call

17. Lead Generation Resource Allocation
Allocate your resource spend across the areas appropriately to maximize the benefit of you spend
This table is an allocation that we might recommend for a company like FI. The specifics would be developed further after more work is performed.

18. Stress Testing the Go-to-Market Strategy
After creating the Go-to-Market strategy, there are a number of activities that can be done to stress test whether the strategy will be effective including:
Contacting a selected number of prospects on the target list
Performing A/B testing on the various website versions
Tracking the metrics from campaigns
Presenting to peers and colleagues to gain their opinions and improve your pitch

19. B2B Go-To-Market Strategy
By Ted Mercer
Helping B2B Technology Companies Grow their Revenues