A Spread Risk Approach To Lead Generation

When you sell services to businesses, you’re likely to have a spectrum of work that companies can buy from you. At one extreme, there are large, complex projects – often bespoke in nature and involving a wide range of services. At the other end of the spectrum, there are simple, tactical ‘products’ which are more price sensitive. Large, complex projects are usually made up of many small tactical products, plus consultancy and project management.

For example a market research company might set its stall out to be an integrated, multichannel, global research agency. Large complex projects may involve telephone, in person and online surveying and a team of statisticians and graphic designers to create high impact reports. But the business could equally accept a project simply to conduct a single telephone survey or to format one report so that it is of board level quality.

Top down marketing

Pitching specifically for large, complex projects is a good example of top down marketing. The decision maker will be high up the organisational food chain, the conversation will be more ‘blue sky’ and the focus will be on relationship and partnership. The principle is that winning a few larger projects will be far more worthwhile than chasing a large number of small or tactical projects where margins may be lower.

Bottom up marketing

Conversely, pitching specifically for small, tactical projects is an excellent example of bottom up marketing. People further down the organisation will have the authority to buy these smaller projects and the conversation will largely be centred around deliverables/functionality and price. The principle is that once you've won a small contract, you can demonstrate your capability on the job and develop more and more business in the account.

Which is best?

Both of these approaches have risks and benefits, advantages and disadvantages.

Top down marketing could be considered a high risk, high return approach.

Advantages:

  • you have the opportunity to build a strong, credible relationship
  • you’re talking to the right person – either the decision maker or the budget holder
  • opportunities under discussion are likely to be far bigger
  • you’re less likely to compete on price


Risks:

  • it’s time-consuming to build and maintain a large number of relationships of which only a proportion will turn into business
  • you can't use a telemarketing resource or less experienced sales people
  • it can be difficult to get access to these large, complex opportunities
  • a certain amount of ‘grey hair’ is required to ensure credibility with senior audiences
  • buyers find it hard to take a chance on a new company with a big piece of work
  • proposals will be unique, complex and time-consuming to create
  • you may get gazzumped by the competitor with the stronger relationship or by the 'safer pair of hands'
  • top down marketing can lead to lumpy cash flow!


Examples of top down marketing: networking or referral campaign, white papers on website, thought leadership PR campaign.

Bottom up marketing could described as “easy entry, hard to work up”

Advantages:

  • it can be easy to enter into a conversation about a tactic sell
  • sometimes it is easier to specify differentiators because the project in mind has a defined shape and size
  • there is likely to be one person in charge of the decision making
  • the opportunity may come round on a regular basis, making targeting and timing tighter
  • the low risk, tactical contract can be developed into a much bigger opportunity over time, once your competence and value has been proved
  • you can build your client list in a particular industry very quickly
  • less experienced or less knowledgable sales people are unlikely to be at a disadvantage
  • lots of smaller projects are excellent for cash flow!


Risks:

  • it may be time consuming to submit numerous proposals
  • you may end up competitively tendering more often than you would like
  • escalating the relationship may prove difficult, particularly if there is a high staff turnover
  • you may end up competing on price more than you’d like


Examples of bottom up marketing: product based direct mail or telemarketing campaign, heavy emphasis on tactical products on the website, product focused PR campaign.

So what’s the solution?

B2B marketers, you have two choices!

You could opt to put all your time and money into either top down or bottom up marketing. Depending on the services you sell, you may feel one approach is more likely to achieve success than the other.

Alternatively you can adopt a spread-risk lead generation campaign which balances the two. For example you could commission a telemarketing company to open up small, tactical opportunities. Simpler ‘products’ like these are easier for external agencies to get their arms around and high volume is the right way to approach bottom up marketing. At the same time your senior account managers could embark on a networking and referral campaign, attending specific events in your sector, perhaps backed up by a PR campaign which takes a holistic approach to your services.

 

Getting the best out of a top down campaign

  • Top down is all about credibility – and credibility is a function of visibility and third party endorsement. A strong PR campaign is a great asset here.
  • Top down is also about relationships – so create a systematic process for starting and continuing relationships. This may include a schedule of industry events to attend and a series of ‘taking people out to lunch’ dates.
  • Join up the dots – no single tactic will be successful on its own. For example, if you’re trying to be perceived as gurus in leadership development, the only way senior people will buy into this is if they see multiple pieces of evidence that this is the case e.g. their colleague mentions you, they read your rivoting and insightful white paper and they see an article about your expertise in the Financial Times.  All channels should tell exactly the same story.

 

Getting the best out of a bottom up campaign

  • There are two fundamental principles to a successful bottom up campaign. The first is positioning. By homing in on a specific, tangible service it is much easier to position yourself accurately and memorably against the competition. So take some time doing so and use this as the foundation for all your marketing communication.
  • The second is volume. Smaller deals are only worthwhile if you have enough of them. Choose a campaign method which has the capacity to generate a large enough volume.
  • High volume becomes very tiresome and time consuming unless you have an excellent sales process and set of sales tools which are repeatable. Invest time in developing collateral, contact management systems and processes and proposal material (if needed) which will make high volume a breeze.