It has never been easier to produce great marketing content and sales
collateral. And yet, 90% of the content that marketing produces is NEVER
used by sales. Why not? Because it's not relevant to the audience or the
prospect doesn't even know the content exists. Furthermore 58% of deals
end up in "no decision" because Sales has not presented value
effectively.
Companies are creating lots of noise but failing to resonate with the
customers.
So what? The danger, aside from marketing wasting tens of millions of
dollars on ineffective content and tools, is that customers will
disengage. 94% of prospects say they have completely disengaged with
vendors because of irrelevant content.
In order to grow fast, the authors argue, Sales and Marketing teams need
to slow down. They need to work together to truly understand their
customers' needs, wants, motivations and pain points so that they can
offer customized "value". The book sets out how to establish a formal
program to continuously capture customer intelligence and insights - the
shiny gems of understanding that help prospects to connect the dots - so
that value can be consistently articulated in marketing and sales
conversations.
By integrating the best ideas and practice from commercial experience
and academic research the authors show how to create value across the
entire marketing and sales value chain - not only get a new customer,
but to continue to create value for future purchases by creating
"post-sales" value.