your marketing programmes around influencers, then align those influencers
with your sales objections, you can create a set of marketing
messages that directly influence sales. The disclaimer that it’s all in the
execution still applies, but your salespeople will have fewer excuses and
less cause to blame marketing! In fact, a predictor for RoI we offen use it to
measure the perception uplift of marketing’s usefulness by the sales force.
Influencers increase the velocity of sales because sales objections can
now be predicted and counter-arguments prepared. And because influencers
are more likely to be believed you are more likely to get past these
objections faster – certainly faster than your competitors! Sales cycles will
reduce, close rates will increase and you can tangibly measure the impact
on sales from your marketing programmes.
Lead generation
Our views on lead generation are very closely tied to those on marketing in
general. Leads are difficult to generate when marketing doesn’t work very
well. Particularly if no one is listening to your message, all messages sound
the same and prospects don’t believe what you tell them.
It makes all the difference if you can get influencers to break down some
of these barriers. For example, plenty of firms set up seminars or webinars
in which their senior management just give a pitch. Why would a prospect
turn up to listen to this? Instead, why not get an influencer to speak?
You could invite a customer or analyst or regulator or academic: someone
to draw in a crowd, get people thinking and engage them in discussion.
Many firms use hospitality as a means of breaking the ice. So salespeople
can call a prospect on Monday and ask whether they enjoyed the match on
Saturday. Why not invite them to dinner with an influencer instead? The
prospect might actually learn something, and the conversation is businessrelated
so the prospect stays focused.
It might not be so much fun, but let’s stay in touch with the core purpose of marketing. The example we provide
in Case Study A is illustrative. It constructed an innovative format for its
seminar (a debate), hired an influential chairperson and two engaging and
outspoken protagonists. In fact, the event was fun, as the debate wasn’t
too serious, and lots of interesting points were covered. Importantly, the
issues raised by the audience reflected their reservations – objections, if
you like – to homeworking, which proved useful in building successful
sales campaigns to prospects.
You can use influencer-led collateral in your direct mail pieces, webcasts
and podcasts, PR, research and (if you must) advertising. If you are
using influencers appropriately you should get better returns from your
lead generation activities.
We have noticed that, for some firms, the number of leads goes down
over the course of an influencer marketing programme. This is because
more time and effort is being taken on the type and quality of leads, rather
than quantity. So returning from an event with the glass bowl filled with
business cards (delegates only wanted to enter the prize draw) is replaced
by a smaller number of engaged and informed prospects. It’s not the
number of leads you generate that’s important, but the number you
eventually close.
Price increases
It’s easier to increase profits by raising prices than by cutting costs. In fact,
according to McKinsey, a 1 per cent rise in price can lead to an 8 per cent
profit increase. Nobody buys solely on price. If you need proof of this, take
a look at the cars being driven on the road. They are all functionally the
same, yet some people (or companies) pay five or ten times more than
others, based on their perceptions of value.
Influencers increase the perception of value. Why? Because they are
influencers! They are the most important, most respected, most listened to
individuals in your market. Weaving them into your marketing strategy
appropriately means that they implicitly are aligned with your firm. They
confirm the value of what you are selling, and convey confidence in your
solution. So you should be able to sell for more.
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