Thought leadership selling can be a simple as a letter with a compelling call to action as long as:
- Your organization is prepared to back it up with substance.
- It solves a problem or uncovers and opportunity (as Grant Butler the author of Think, Write, Grow insists)
Dell Computer recently executed a smart b2b direct response campaign by old fashioned mail. But the execution is very effective because it offers advice and solves a problem. The primary call to action in the campaign was to have a conversation about gettting more for less – trying to find ways maximizing your storage. It is not a “product push”. Rather it solves a problem in a simple and immediate way.
What makes it work it the ability of the consultant in the call center to back it up with a smart conversation and quality advice. This campaign offers a comprehensive report with recommendations of how much storage you might conserve (is it worth it) and practical ways you can go about saving it. The conversation must not be painful and long. Or make the client feel like they are being profiled or sold to. And that’s not easy. It takes alot of training and integration to sales. That is the art of effective thought leadership selling.
To make sure your organization can deliver the advice to match a compelling offer like this requires skills, training and tools. Organizations like Symantec, SunTrust and PNC make similar claims in their direct response advertisements and prospecting calls. But they also invest significantly to ensure their tele-web channels can deliver a quality conversation and relevant advice if a prospect chooses to engage.
For example, Symantec Corporation makes a similar offer to business owners with their Small Business Check-up web marketing campaign. To back it up they launched a new tool giving small businesses a holistic view of how they measure up against their peers in terms of information protection efficiency and effectiveness. The Symantec Small Business Check-up tool is a simple-to-complete online questionnaire that enables small businesses to benchmark themselves against survey results from 700 small businesses across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). The comparison allows owners to assess their organization’s relative vulnerability to data risk compared to peer firms across the globe. Then it provides them with an analysis of any gaps or inconsistencies that might cause additional exposure.
PNC and SunTrust make similar offers to help small businesses with their cash flow. In both cases these quality organizations have invested in backing up the promise of good advice with training, tools and content to back up the promise and differentiate the client experience with education, advice and relevant solutions. PNC CFO Options Campaign points clients to a tele-channel where they have trained bankers to be ready to offer consultative advice on the issues and examples highlighted on their web site. Aligning and integrating their investment in training with marketing content and sales process is what makes this work. Likewise, SunTrust smartly lined up their marketing dollars with advisory tools, content and training. SunTrust ads and web promotions point clients to a web channels – backed up by a powerful tool called the Cash Management Evaluator and original thought leadership content on Cash Flow Management Best practices (The Financial Fitness Kit). Bankers include these tools in their training so they are articulate in the issues when they come up.