How many times have you lost a piece of business because the buyer didn’t know who you were?
Probably more often than you’d like. Few companies have the sales and marketing resources to adequately cover their markets. It’s logical that if only a fraction of your target market is contacted, only a fraction of the deals are going to you. The rest will likely decide on a competitive solution simply because they didn’t know about yours. (Surprising fact, research shows that 70% of B2B buyers find their vendors, their vendors don’t find them.)
Making sure every targeted contact in your universe knows you exist and understands your value proposition is a tall order. But it’s imperative, because if you’re not top of mind when it’s time to decide, an opportunity is lost.
While at any given time only 3% to 5% of your target market is in a buying mode for your products and services, those targets change (how fast depends on your buying cycle). It’s important to keep your market primed so that when it comes time to buy, these prospects reach out to you.
Market coverage, yes it’s part of our business. But we advise companies we talk to that it’s an important consideration in setting up their inside sales organizations, assessing current operations, or evaluating an outsourced solution. Cultivating loyalty among the current customer base is extremely important. But making sure those who don’t already work with you know who you are is key to growth.
If you’re interested in more information on market coverage and its impact on new account penetration, I invite you to read a recently published case study that demonstrates how one company was able to achieve 70% to 90% new account penetration through effective market coverage. The end result: 350 sales opportunities generated within the first 6 months of the program’s start.
