B2B Aviation Marketing – More Deals in the Pipeline, But Taking Longer to Close

Business to Business (B to B) marketing is looking up, according to one article. But companies are still very cautious about every purchase.

“Is the B2B market improving in 2010? A recently released survey by OneSource indicates there’s good news and cautious news. The good news is that nearly half (47%) of B2B sales professionals say there are more deals in the pipeline. The cautious part of this report indicates that almost 2/3’s (59%) of these professionals find that it’s taking longer to close deals.” Source

What that means to those of us in b2b aviation marketing is that we need to find cost-effective ways of staying in touch with potential customers over the long-haul. Generally speaking, the more your product or service costs the longer this cycle takes.

So, you need to stay a the front of a prospective client’s mind for weeks, months or even years. How do you do that cost-effectively? You don’t want to call them every week. (At least I don’t!) You can’t afford to enroll them all in the fruit-of-the month club. (And that might not be exactly relevant to your product or service anyway.)

ABCI has long advocated (and used!) a long-view approach that captures information about people who are interested in our clients’ products and services using a “lead capture mechanism,” usually a free report or other valuable information and then following up using some formula of mixed media – email, postcards, phone calls, social media, and direct mail on an automated schedule.

If you’d rather not buy expensive software or devote extra staff to creating a follow up program, ABCI can work with you to devise a program that suits your business model and your budget and will do most of the work for you – ensuring that you’re copied on lead captures and provided with clear, simple reports of actions taken and status of each potential customer in your pipeline.

Set up a time that’s convenient for you, and let’s talk about your sales pipeline! Call 702-987-1679 or find some time on our calendar for a free consultation.