The most successful B2B consulting firms understand the importance of external communication as part of their organization’s growth strategy. This too often overlooked component is important for the following reasons:
- It prevents top spending key accounts from feeling neglected—remember, one firms top spending customers are another firms best new business prospects
- It enables the organization to up sell current customers—both top spending key and smaller secondary accounts can benefit from the announcement of a new product, service or workshop, or a reminder about an existing service
- It provides a link to new business prospects
Developing a communication strategy for external customers is an easy process and generally inexpensive, it just takes a little time. Here is a list of external communications tools used by successful B2B sales consulting firms:
- Blogs—they also serve a dual benefit as a lead generation magnet when tied to inbound marketing and inbound marketing software
- Quarterly conference calls or webinars conducted via invitation—be sure to add elements to the agenda that benefit the customer and avoid turning these events into a sales pitch
- Video updates or podcasts—remember to keep them brief and focus on one topic at a time
- Onsite or virtual conferences—it is always best to pay some bucks to have a keynote speaker as a magnet as well as feature the expertise of customers at these events
There are a couple of rules to keep in mind when it comes to external communication:
- Keep the customer in mind and provide information that benefits the customer
- Minimize blatant product pitching
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