Resources

Marketing to the Self-Educating Prospect

Most leads are 80% educated by the time they get to your sales team.

“We are witnessing a decided end to the era where sales reps were the channel; now they are merely a channel to customers. Sales leaders reluctant to acknowledge customers’ digital-first proclivities will be outpaced by competitors delivering significant value through digital- and omnichannel sales models, engaging customers in digitally rich learning and discovery.”

Only 17% of the purchase journey is spent with sales reps
Customers percieve little value in interacting with sales reps

How prospects are educating themselves (The Dark Funnel)

17%

…from your salespeople

27%

…independent online research

22%

…from independent buying groups

18%

…independent offline research

16%

…other

Thought Leadership: The Self-Educating Prospect

The message is clear – winning companies are those that give their prospects all the information they need to make fast, complete purchase evaluations

McKinsey

Trust Radius

Gartner

SalesIntel

Homepage Structure – Clear Positioning & Messaging

Get the basic elements across immediately

(click to view each example)

Nail the basics:

Sector or Marketplace – same for all the examples above – smaller font
Bold statement/Superpower/Position within sector – large font
Messaging – communicate the positioning more completely with language that your target market uses
Call-to-Action buttons – direct them to your most compelling selling tools – whitepaper, calculator, pricing, learning academy, recorded demo

Mistakes to avoid:

Mysterious or no positioning – I don’t know what market you are in or what you do.
Using the bold statement to simply repeat your sector or marketplace
Call To Action buttons should be focused on learning tools that allow them to continue the journey on their own (recorded demos v. schedule a demo). Put the “book demo” button in the menu bar.
Using stock images or images that aren’t specific to the industry

Examples

Bold Statement

We Do It All

Aggressive Call To Action

Compelling Offer

We Are World #1

We Are #1 in Our Space

We Own the Market

Best In Class

We Are The First

Try The Best

Intriguing Question

Aspirational Call To Action

Niche Market

Maxim

Visionary

Target Audience Praise

Implications of Prospect Behavior – The Dark Funnel

Customers prefer to educate themselves (The Dark Funnel).

We all know this – In B2B, buyers are doing most (80%+) of their buying research independently, prior to talking to sales. This research is done on your website (if you are lucky), industry publications, social media, tradeshows, peers, etc.

Here is the good news: If your website is set up to allow potential customers to conduct their journey without leaving your site (or minimally), you win.

Fewer salespeople
Fewer, more productive demos (higher close rates)
Shorter buying cycles
Better Margins/Less customer churn

What do your prospects need to self-educate and move fast?

Clear Positioning

State your sector
State your superpower
Identify an obtainable audience
Identify competitors
Use shared language in messaging

Helpful Content

Demo videos
Educational content
Comparison content
Onboarding content
Case studies

Helpful Tools

Learning Academy
Pricing schema
ROI Calculators
Competitive comparison table
Feature comparison table

Implications of Prospect Behavior – The Dark Funnel

Customers prefer to educate themselves (The Dark Funnel).

Here is the good news: If your website is set up to allow potential customers to conduct their journey without leaving your site (or minimally), you win.

Fewer salespeople
Fewer, more productive demos (higher close rates)
Shorter buying cycles
Better Margins/Less customer churn

What do your prospects need to self-educate and move fast?

Clear Positioning

State your sector
State your superpower
Identify an obtainable audience
Identify competitors
Use shared language in messaging

Helpful Content

Demo videos
Educational content
Comparison content
Onboarding content
Case studies

Helpful Tools

Learning Academy
Pricing schema
ROI Calculators
Competitive comparison table
Feature comparison table

Implications of Prospect Behavior – The Dark Funnel

Customers prefer to educate themselves (The Dark Funnel).

Here is the good news: If your website is set up to allow potential customers to conduct their journey without leaving your site (or minimally), you win.

Fewer salespeople
Fewer, more productive demos (higher close rates)
Shorter buying cycles
Better Margins/Less customer churn

What do your prospects need to self-educate and move fast?

Clear Positioning

State your sector
State your superpower
Identify an obtainable audience
Identify competitors
Use shared language in messaging

Helpful Content

Demo videos
Educational content
Comparison content
Onboarding content
Case studies

Helpful Tools

Learning Academy
Pricing schema
ROI Calculators
Competitive comparison table
Feature comparison table

Implications of Prospect Behavior – The Dark Funnel

Customers prefer to educate themselves (The Dark Funnel).

Here is the good news: If your website is set up to allow potential customers to conduct their journey without leaving your site (or minimally), you win.

Fewer salespeople
Fewer, more productive demos (higher close rates)
Shorter buying cycles
Better Margins/Less customer churn

What do your prospects need to self-educate and move fast?

Clear Positioning

State your sector
State your superpower
Identify an obtainable audience
Identify competitors
Use shared language in messaging

Helpful Content

Demo videos
Educational content
Comparison content
Onboarding content
Case studies

Helpful Tools

Learning Academy
Pricing schema
ROI Calculators
Competitive comparison table
Feature comparison table