Perhaps ‘easier’ is the wrong choice of word. Is anything easy when it comes to new business development in 2023.

Why ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) is so important?

Back in 2010 I was lucky enough to work for a company who had a very clear idea of what their ideal customer was. We had built a qualification process that enabled us to quickly understand if the company was a good fit and whether the individual we were talking to, had the motivation and influence to mobilise a purchase decision. This is something I carried with me into future roles, and as I grew into a sales leader, ensuring my team had clarity about our ICP and how to qualify was vital as this would be the difference between winning or losing to our competition. And when the opportunity arose for me to take on a new region and build a new team from scratch, and have autonomy over our go-to-market strategy, guess what, our ideal customers were ones we knew we could position, quantify and deliver differentiated commercial value to. These were companies we included in our territory, these were the companies we focused all of our effort on, as sales, marketing and partnerships - if any person, team or partner was not aligned to our ICP then it was a distraction.  It was this focus that in part got us to be a $22M ARR business within a 4 year period and 40+ people across sales, marketing, partnerships, customer success and support. 

It gave us predictable growth. Year 1 revenue from 0-$2.2M ARR was a significant achievement but we knew we could win and we were confident in our average order value given our focus. New business revenue grew each year, until the fourth year we delivered $6.9M and total ARR of $22M due to a solid 91% customer retention rate, due to knowing our ICP and our ability to deliver value. 

The problem isn’t ICP, the problem is pipeline!

It’s becoming harder than ever to generate pipeline to a level that supports sustainable growth, for many reasons, including increased competition, a lack of skills and outdated practices are causing teams to shrink and companies to make drastic cuts across sales and marketing. The events of recent years are quite rightly causing concern and making business leaders nervous, however the pipeline problem was here way before COVID, before the war in Ukraine and the rising cost of living. The problem started some time between 2000 and 2010, when I first learnt about how deep into the purchase decision buyers were going, before contacting a supplier and speaking with sellers. This was largely fuelled by the internet and publicly available content providing buyers with the insight they need to both assess their own capability gap and learn about solutions to those gaps and pain points preventing them from achieving their objectives. 

The problem has gotten much worse. Buyers are now almost 90% into a purchase decision before they’re willing to speak with a seller and most don’t want to speak with a seller at all. They want to speak with an expert or a guide, someone they can ask questions to knowing they will receive a credible and valuable answer. Now, this is true for the 1% of your territory in-market or 5% open to a conversation as they’re a) considering their options and b) open to chatting with you whilst considering their options. For the other 95%, these buyers hide from sales and customer success folks. They don’t want to engage in conversation about what you’re selling as they don’t want to be sold to or influenced in any way. They want to be left alone. And if you don’t have an existing relationship with these people you have to work at building one, and this takes time. 

Most people I talk with tell me they need more conversations with the right people. Sounds easy, but it’s the hardest thing businesses must do today, prospecting, the idea of generating a consistent flow of conversations with people at companies that match our ICP. Isn’t that what marketing is for, well yes, but marketing are struggling and anyway, no-one buys from a brochure or piece of content. People buy from people they know, like and trust. People need to stop selling and start building relationships at scale, leveraging digital in a safe and effective way. 

Learning how to walk digital corridors is easier said than done

I want to be clear about two things.

1. Social selling is not selling on social
2. Social selling is not having marketing share content and the sales team post and share it.

Surprised? 

Social selling and building influence digitally is about learning how to walk digital corridors safely and effectively. It’s not just about LinkedIn or Twitter, it’s about engaging with your audience on any digital platform they may be spending time. The problem is, most people, young and old don’t know how to or are afraid of developing their personal brand for business or struggle how to create content that is human, and this next bit might sound crazy, but struggle to help their audience (target market) get to know them, even though they’ve been selling for years. 

The world has changed. I might be showing my age here, but Blockbuster, HMV and Woolworths didn’t adapt fast enough and paid the price.

And if you think age might be a factor, I’m 49. Now meet my Son, Jordan Abbott, he’s scheduling between 4-8 new conversations per week, every single week. In fact we were discussing this morning how he’s in the process of scheduling 21 new calls in the New Year given how busy folks are on the run up to Christmas. He’s 26 years old and has been in the game for two and a half years, so 4-8 new calls a week, in this climate, is pretty damn good if you ask me. Not to mention the visibility he is getting from his 4k relevant followers, hundreds’s of thousands of impressions and thousands of pieces of engagement on his content - and that’s where the conversation starts!

It's about conversations!

You have content, you are an established business, and your teams know how to sell. A consistent flow of conversations is what you need, the ability to get in front of people and develop relationships, after all that’s what you’re good at - all you need is a strategy, training and mentoring to up-skill your existing teams. 

If this topic is peaking your interest drop me a DM and let’s chat about the impact learning how to walk digital corridors might mean to your business, including the effort required to transform the way your teams build relationships at scale. I can be found on LinkedIn, Twitter @Alex_Supero or Guild, or a WhatsApp if you prefer +44 7951 220113 or if you prefer chatting with someone younger, also an expert at enabling others to walk digital corridors effectively, reach out to Jordan Abbott https://www.linkedin.com/in/-jordan-abbott-/ or Twitter: @_Jordan_Abbott_

#B2BSales#DigitalSelling #ValueSelling #WalkingDigitalCorridors #Enablement 

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