Lead Generation for Manufacturers — Chapter 4

The New Rules of Sales and Marketing for Manufacturers

In 2007, David Meerman Scott published The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly.

Ten years later and now in its 6th edition, the book has become an international bestseller in 29 languages, from Albanian to Vietnamese.

On page 390 of the 6th edition, the author sums up the old and the new rules:

"If I may be so bold as to boil down into one word thousands of conversations I've had over the past several decades, as well as my more than 10 years worth of blogging and the entire contents of this book, it would be this: attention.

Entrepreneurs, CEOs, and business owners want people to pay attention to their company. Marketers, PR pros, advertisers, and salespeople are on the payroll to generate attention. Hopefully, this book opened your eyes to a new approach to this classic problem

I've identified four main ways to generate attention in today's marketing landscape.

1. You can buy attention with advertising such as television commercials, magazine and newspaper ads, the yellow pages, billboards, trade show floor space, direct-mail list, and the like.

2. You can get attention from the editorial gatekeepers at radio and TV stations, magazines, newspapers, and trade journals.

3. You can have a team of salespeople generate attention one person at a time by knocking on doors, calling people on the telephone, sending personal emails, or waiting for individuals to walk into your showroom.

4. You can earn attention online by using the ideas in this book, creating something interesting, and publishing it online for free: a YouTube video, blog, research report, series of photos, Twitter stream, e-Book, Facebook fan page, or other piece of web content."

So What Can You Do?

Your customers can research their purchases largely without having to contact your sales people and it’s become much more difficult to get their attention.

When customers finally raise their hand and want to talk to you, it’s often to beat you up on price.

So, what can you do?

Thankfully, plenty.

First, let’s look at some research:

• 90% of customer buying decisions are starting online (Forrester).
• 75% of business-to-business (B2B) buyers use social media to research vendors (IDC).
• 74% of buyers are choosing the sales professional and company that is first to add value and insight to the buying journey (Forrester, Corporate Visions).

Now, let’s go back to that 57% number.

Remember, 57% represents the earliest point in a customer’s buying journey when they contact you, the seller. You aren’t hearing from them at all until they are more than halfway through their buying process.

The solution is clear: You want to get as far left as possible on that timeline.

You need to become part of the buyer’s research process as early as possible. You need to be present at every stage of that customer’s buying journey even though they may not have contacted you yet.

How do you do that? By helping to educate your buyers.

Why? Because 74% of buyers are choosing the sales professional and company that is first to add value and insight to the buying journey (Forrester, Corporate Visions).

Buyers don’t want to be sold to but they do want helpful, educational non-promotional information.

That has led to the resurgence of what’s popularly known as content marketing.

The Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing as:

"...a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action."

Content marketing can take many forms such as website articles, videos, printed material, webinars, podcasts and events.

But as the definition says, it has to be valuable and relevant. If it’s more promotional than valuable and relevant, buyers will ignore it.

Manufacturers have long used content marketing to sell their wares. They still do. According to the Content Marketing Institute, 85% of manufacturers use content marketing

Let’s take a closer look at two manufacturers who were and remain content marketing pioneers: John Deere and Michelin.

Deere & Company, arguably the most famous agricultural company in the world, launched, created, and distributed a printed magazine, The Furrow , in 1895. Deere leveraged The Furrow, not to sell John Deere equipment directly (like a catalog would do) but, instead, to educate farmers on new technology and how they use it to become more successful business owners and farmers.

The Furrow was not filled with promotional messages and self-serving content. It was developed by thoughtful journalists, storytellers, and designers, and covered topics that farmers cared about deeply. The goal of the content was to help farmers become more prosperous and, of course, profitable.

Now over 120 years later, The Furrow is still going strong. It is the most circulated farming magazine in the world, and is currently delivered each month to over 1.5 million farmers, in 12 languages, across 40 different countries.

In 1900, fewer than 3,000 cars graced the roads of France. To boost the demand for cars and, accordingly, car tires, brothers and car tire manufacturers Édouard and André Michelin published the first edition of a guide for French motorists, the Michelin Guide.

The brothers printed nearly 35,000 copies of this first, free edition of the Michelin Guide, which provided useful information to motorists, such as maps, tire repair and replacement instructions, car mechanics listings, hotels, and gas stations throughout France.

The Michelin Guides are still published to this day in countries around the world.

But you don’t need to publish a monthly magazine or create a series of extensive guidebooks to get started…

• Executive Summary — Are you a manufacturer looking for more qualified leads?
• Chapter 1 — The World Is Flat — Worldwide Manufacturing Trends
• Chapter 2 — How A Manufacturer Can Grow in A Flat Market
• Chapter 3 — Why Traditional Sales and Marketing Is Less Effective for Manufacturers
• Chapter 4 — The New Rules of Sales and Marketing for Manufacturers
• Chapter 5 — How A Manufacturer Can Be Known, Liked, Trusted and Preferred
• Chapter 6 — Manufacturers Have a Product Problem
• Chapter 7 — Manufacturing: Selling Through A Distributor
• Chapter 8 — How Much Should A Manufacturer Invest in Marketing?
• Chapter 9 — Manufacturers: Getting Started with Modern Lead Generation