Captivate Prospects: Your Pre-Sales Response Is Key

Before a prospect even makes the first contact to a provider (Product or Service) company, the digital presence of the provider company is reviewed carefully. Industry stats confirms that 70% of the impression formation about the provider company happens before first touch point. Where do prospects scan for your information to form an impression?  

A prospect starts with the provider’s website, google reviews, then the social handles (LinkedIn Company page, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and others), check the personal profiles of the Leadership Team, their profile description, and activities like thought leadership content posts etc. Some might even go as far as Glassdoor and Ambition Box reviews to see how the company is fairing with regards to work culture, employee feedback and ratings, salary ranges etc. It’s after this detailed review do that respond to Lead generation agencies and/or the providers own Inside-sales teams when they are contacted for the first meeting. One important aspect to be very careful about is the public alignment of the Marketing and Sales departments of the Provider company. 80% of the time there is no alignment between what is being Marketed and what the lead generation agency or the Providers own inside sales team is reaching out for. The prospect will lose trust immediately if we do not see the provider walking the talk in terms of their public presentation of the company and the offerings and the problems it is solving.  

If the prospect is impressed by the first-hand online review, only then will they reach out for more information or to set up a meeting to understand the offerings and/or discuss their requirement in detail. Second important step in the process is the quality of the first meeting. Quality on every front in terms of the quality of the meeting invite sent, clear agenda setting, attaching relevant Company introductory content like the Company profile (top quality and error-free) and the related reminders sent before the first meeting happens. Prospect then will provide details of the requirement and here is where the third important step in the process kicks in.  

The prospect will ask for solution details specific to their pain point and might challenge by asking for customer stories of similar nature or request for the Proof-of-concept engagement. The readiness of the provider company here matters the most and the quality of the response, both in terms of time and quality is most important to take the discussion to the next stage. Many providers organization delay these technical pre-sales type requests and the prospects sees through it from a mile. It indicated that the provider company is not competent or has not done something similar or for a similar industry and this is where a lot of the good work goes down the drain. Here is where the Go-To-Market readiness and alignment between Marketing and Sales team gets exposed. Is the lead generation activity performed as part of a structured Marketing and Sales Strategy or was it just by fluke? Meticulous progression of the lead with maximum attention to details results in a positive outcome i.e. Sales closure. 

Question remains “How many provider companies proactively invest so much time and effort to make this happen?”  

This is where a partnership will a good, efficient, and structured B2B or enterprise consultative Sales agency can add tremendous value.  

Build great products and services, Leave the sales to performant Sales agencies.