We are growing because many clients agree to pay Agilytic to provide beneficial services. In other words, because one of your colleagues sold a project.
To sell is not a dirty word, nor is it avoidable. Without commercial activity, there would be nothing to pay employees and no growth in sight.
People tend to misunderstand marketing and sales. Instead of giving an academic lecture about each, we will try to explain how those activities help us build a sustainable business.
Marketing: message meets audience
Marketing is not just the act of creating adverts, brochures, or attending conferences. Marketing ensures that the right people can see the right message at the right moment. And to do that, we first need to understand what our clients need.
Agilytic is a brand, and you are responsible for it
Agilytic has an identity: a logo, preferred colors, fonts, document templates, and even a writing style. We try to keep those up to date on the Intranet, and you should check them out if you plan on creating original content.
If you think you have a better, more efficient, more aesthetic way to illustrate things, do not branch out on your own with your own variation Share your proposal to reach a shared output:
- Best case, it will be applied to the whole organization, with our highest praise for your contribution.
- Worst case, we will politely decline it while providing you with a justification. Maybe we tried what you propose before, and it didn't work. Perhaps there are other constraints that you didn't think of (e.g., those two colors don't print well in grayscale).
A brand is a promise. A good brand is a promise kept.
We spent years building a reputation for our brand. It doesn't take much to impact it negatively.
We are not (yet 😇) at "McKinsey" levels of brand recognition where clients might buy their services "just for the brand," but we are known. We can be comfortable saying that the Agilytic brand positively impacts our activity (i.e., it is easier to pitch as Agilytic than as a "white label").
Marketing starts by listening.
We should always start by identifying needs where our approach can add significant value. Currently, we identify five main areas of impact:
- Commercial performance: helping organizations sell better, be it through a more efficient marketing or an improved sales organization.
- Optimize processes: make organizations' processes smarter by improving speed, quality, or cost through data science.
- Reduce financial risks through better reporting, alert mechanisms, or improved ways to recuperate unpaid amounts.
- Strengthen customer loyalty: proactively identify customers at risk of leaving for competing products/services, and suggest the best courses of action for each client.
- Improve how companies deal with human resources: use data science to improve recruitment, optimize staffing, and secure employee retention.
If you feel we are missing something, if you identify new needs, once again: you must speak up.
The right people: getting our personas
Personas are fictional representations and generalizations of a cluster of our target customers who exhibit similar attitudes, goals, and attitudes towards our services. They are human-like snapshots of relevant and meaningful commonalities in our customer groups. You will find them in our sales tool (HubSpot).
We use them extensively to customize our messaging to various target groups (CEOs, marketers, CFOs).
Because they are abstract, personas can be misunderstood and misused. Ask around and use them: personas are crucial in our commercial efforts. Whenever you encounter an opportunity, think about how your contacts fit with given personas.
The right themes: sectorial expertise
You will likely hear the theme of "sectorial expertise" from time to time. Since we are a small structure, we expect everyone to develop a more carefully tuned interest in a few sectors.
This curiosity is essential to identify what themes/trends we should keep in mind when discussing with prospects and clients.
We don't expect you to become a bona fide expert overnight. Still, we'd like you to be sufficiently knowledgeable and willing to share with your colleagues enough to present a credible and efficient solution to our clients.
The right message: our case studies
One of the biggest challenges we face is telling the stories about all our successful projects (more than 80 as we are editing this). Each project is worthy of a case study, both for internal review (what we did well / not so well / points to improve next time) and as the best way to tell the broader world how competent we are.
As a project lead, it will be your responsibility to ensure all the case study materials are ready as you finish your project.
Focus on the outcome (not the technology or the analysis).
It is a typical reflex in our profession to explain in detail the technology or the type of analysis that we will perform.
Never forget that we are in the business of selling results. You will find case studies guidelines on the Intranet. Once again, we trust you to draft your case studies with the same amount of attention as anything else you do.
The underrated importance of writing well
Writing well is an underestimated skill. It starts with correct spelling, but it doesn't stop there. Writing a wonderfully detailed technical requirement or emailing a busy CEO are two very different things.
The more your job will include writing, be it technical or commercial, the more you should seek to improve your writing's quality and efficiency. The Intranet, Writing Guidelines and office library have ample resources to help you reach the next level.
Sales: empathy and perseverance
Selling is an activity that requires understanding and patience. In B2B, it is not uncommon to wait for months, even years, before converting a prospect into a paying customer. But when the deal closes, the impact can be tremendous.
So, it is crucial to prepare for the journey ahead.
Have a genuine desire to help
Listen
To be genuine means that you must be authentic in your desire to find a solution for the prospect, not to sell Agilytic.
Start a conversation with a sale in mind is a sure way never to have a second chance. People are not stupid, and you are not that subtle.
First, seek to think about a solution with the prospect, not for him. People are much more open to working with you if they feel they are part of the solution.
An ideal commercial meeting is one where the prospects share. The more your prospect is talkative, the better. Don't interrupt the flow with your prepared pitch. Instead, assist them in framing the business challenges to better scope areas where we could be of assistance.
You will find plenty of sales resources on the Intranet, but at this stage, it is useful to keep in mind the buyer's journey has three main steps:
- Awareness: The buyer realizes they have a problem.
- Consideration: The buyer defines their problem and researches options to solve it.
- Decision: The buyer chooses a solution.
Understanding "at what stage your contact is" is already a significant piece of information.
Don't push for a bad sale
It turns out there is such a thing as a bad sale. Don't waste time trying to push something for the sake of it because the worst thing that could happen might be a customer saying yes:
- The project will not add value
- If we must force a project, it probably is because it is not our specialty. There are real chances we could botch it → It could hurt our reputation and long-term prospects with this prospect and their network
Grit brings the wins
We can define "grit" as the perseverance of effort combined with the passion for a long-term goal. Repetition isn't enough; you must have the drive to sell, too — hence our previous point about the genuine desire to help.
Turning perseverance into a painless process
It is not about you. Your contacts have a lot of things on their mind. Your email might get lost in a sea of newsletters, reports, etc. You don't have to be afraid of following up with a prospect. Keep in mind that you are there to help their organization, not sell!
It is less complicated than you think. Our powerful tools should allow you to make it as easy as possible to send many personalized messages in as little time as possible.
It is not uncommon to contact someone more than five times before getting a reply. In sales, relentless people win.
Pick up the phone!
We get it. It is easier to send an email, but never consider your job as done once you click send. Your objective is to engage, to interact. A "no" is fine; not getting an answer is not.
It is partly due to our experience with undesired phone calls that we don't want to be "that guy." But emails get lost, especially with executives who have assistants. Think about it: would you rather have your name among 150 other emails or on a post-it on your prospect's screen?
A successful phone call will unblock a situation that would have seemed desperate had we only relied on emails. Don't be afraid; they won't bite.
The importance of timing
We will get into more details in the dedicated sales material, but timing is SO important. If you don't contact a prospect, they will never think about working with you, so what are you waiting for?
Holidays, day of the week, and time of day also matter significantly.
Before starting a major commercial push, check the Intranet for valuable tips and tricks.
In the CRM or it didn't happen
Being organized is important for you but also for the people who work with you.
It is essential that you log all your interactions in the CRM: yes, that includes leaving a voicemail or even not having a call answered. Small bits of information help you and your colleagues know when to (re)engage with prospects.
