B2B Web Strategy Blog - eMagine

Search can help B2B’s complex sales cycles, too

September 11th, 2008 Posted by: Bill Gadless

Over at marketingprofs.com, we came across some sage advice from Roxanne Lott in her piece, The Power of Search Within a Complex Sales Cycle.  It’s a bit in the tried-&-true category;  but because we continue coming across tech B2Bs who don’t realize or truly believe that search can help sell their $200K widget, we feel it can’t be overemphasized.  We’ve put a good deal of our own spin on Roxanne’s structure, but in broad outline we’re saying much the same thing.

Start from the fact that 85% of B2Bs use the Internet at some point during the buying process.  In fact, StatMarket has reported that 64% of B2B users make search their first stop when researching a new product or service for their company.  That’s more than manufacturer sites, industry portals, consumer review sites or even e-commerce sites directly selling a product.

Only search engine marketing (SEM) can put your product or service offerings in front of people at that critical time when they’re most interested in what you offer and open to listening to what you have to say.  We all know that complex sales cycles play out over several stages, from inception to close;  let’s follow along and see how SEM contributes at each stage…

Stage 1 – Creating awareness.  Chances are that your prospect first becomes aware of you and/or your solution by framing some sort of online search, which either pops your site into the organic results pages or displays one of your pay-per-click ads.  Obviously, if you haven’t search-optimized your site (recently) and aren’t buying any traffic, much of this prospect-driven interest will simply pass you by.

Stage 2 – Internal discussions and due diligence.  Your prospect now needs to determine whether your widget is actually something they need, which will be answered by a broader internal dialog and additional research …much of the latter conducted online.  If your web content doesn’t provide the “meat” required at this stage, you could well be driving this potential business to your competitors.

Stage 3 – Serious interest generated, in-depth research begins.  Done right, your website content for this stage should begin the process of “spec’ing out” your competitors, by highlighting aspects of your solution that you know they can’t match.  Prospects will want to see who best understands the problem/solution space, so your thought-leadership content will pay big dividends here.  Note too that in this stage you’ll be getting visited by prospects who were initially drawn to a competitor’s site, not only those who started with yours (as in our scenario);  so effective SEM gives you a chance to bird-dog some of that business as well.

Stage 4 – Shortlist created, decision made.  At this point, prospects will be looking primarily for reassurance that the decision they’re coalescing on is the right one.  Stage-appropriate website content, such as customer case studies and favorable analyst reports, will go a long way to helping your sales rep seal the deal.

Your Web marketing consultants can help ensure that you’re best leveraging SEM to support your complex sales cycle.

Entry Filed under: B2B Web Strategy, Search Engine Marketing