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Dealing with Prospects in the 'Untroubled/Unaware' Stage

Guest post by: Jeff Ogden

Article Overview: The most difficult challenge in sales is talking to prospect who need your product or service - but don't know it. They do not see the trouble or the need to change, so we call this the Untroubled/Unaware stage. This article explains how to deal with people in this stage.

Dealing with Prospects in the 'Untroubled/Unaware' Stage

by Jeff Ogden, President of the B2B lead generation consultancy, Find New Customers

We wand to introduce the concept of the Buying Cycle and share why it is so important to match your content marketing strategy to each stage. Please be aware that these are the stages outlined in our highly acclaimed white paper, How to Find New Customers.

I also suggest you check out this graphic by Ardath Albee of Marketing Interactions which illustrates how much of the traditional sales cycle has moved back into marketing. Dave Stein of ES Research said "B2B sales has changed more in the last 3 years than it did in the last 100 years." It's clear businesses need to re-think how they organize sales and marketing.

If you have read the highly acclaimed white paper, How to Find New Customers, you're familiar with this stage of the buying process.

Untroubled/Unaware Stage Have you ever experienced this?

The prospect won't talk to you. She won't take your calls or answer your emails. You may know full well how much she could benefit from your products and/or services, but she does not respond.

It's not that she doesn't like you. She's in the first stage of the buying process. She's Untroubled/Unaware that there is a better way.

We just encountered this problem. A man we'll call Frank heads the large accounts team at a big software company in the middle of the country. They have no content, no nurturing, no scoring... This company is an existing client too. (in one of their divisions). By all rights, Frank is a poster child for B2B lead generation programs. It would deliver massive revenue growth.

One small problem: he refuses to take a meeting or even to talk to us.

How does one deal with a prospect in this stage?

Before we tell you what to do, let's explore what not to do. "We are the leading provider of blah, blah, blah" That falls on deaf ears. She (and Frank) could not care less.

Instead focus on teaching the prospect about her business problem. What is the nature of the problem? What is the impact of the problem? What is the value in solving the problem?

In our case, we had great content that matched this stage - our popular blog article on Inside the Mind of the B2B Buyer - New Paths to Purchase. It explains how buyers of products and services from companies like Frank's company has changed. Sending Franklin an article like this might very well pique his interest.

Why would this resonate with Franklin? The B2B buyers are his prospective customers. Learning how they really buy is something that might hold great interest.

Undoubtedly you have studies, examples and other content designed for the Untroubled/Unaware stage. If not, get to work.

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Article Tags: b2b lead generation, b2b lead generation strategies, btob lead generation, find new customers, lead generation companies, lead nurturing, marketing lead generation, sales lead generation



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