A question for you all:  In a customer facing situation, how many have had a personal conversation on the FIRST face to face meeting? One in which personality, interests, or individual facts are already known and the chance to dig deeper is apparent…

The quest for hyper targeted messaging is nothing new. It is of utmost importance – and refining by the minute. The goal of course is to give the prospect the information they need, at the precise time that they need it – aka matching the buyer’s journey. When Marketers are successful, a prospect is marketing qualified, then sales qualified and the closing process ensues.

But, who do prospects really buy from? Do they buy from a brand? Or do they buy from a campaign topic? Or maybe, they buy from the irrefutable value that is presented by the Marketing team.

Actually, it is none of the above –

People Buy from People

More precisely, prospects buy from people whom they trust to complete the service or provide the product needed, period. Certainly technical and functional value-add is extremely important in a decision, but in a competitive environment personal relationships win the deal.

Trust Factor Marketing is a process by which personal relationship value is apparently as important as product/service value. It starts before Sales and Marketing qualification; it starts as soon as communication starts.

Here are suggestions to get started with Trust Factor Marketing and personalize at a level higher than any targeting metric can provide.

  1. Research to understand the business and personal drivers of a prospect. Is there a big societal improvement focus within their culture or maybe a winner-takes-all personality? Big difference in approach and messaging!
  2. How do your business and personal drivers correlate with their business and personal drivers? Point them out, bring them up, and connect at a deeper level asap.
  3. Define buyer personas that include soft traits and speak to them.
  4. Work with the Sales team to gain intel on decision makers, entity personality, and motivators to buy.
  5. Get personal with subject lines, greetings, closing signatures – very basic, but it is too easy to bypass this very important step.
  6. Watch how the prospect company Markets their product/service. Is their language casual or formal? Funny or serious? Brief or verbose? All are clues to show you how to relate to them on a deeper level sooner.
  7. Run campaigns directly from a specific person to a specific person. Then test the absorption of the personalization. Try various roles to find to whom the decision makers are listening.
  8. Allow Marketing to personally introduce a specific Sales lead to segue into a closing process. Stay aware of the relationships – and optimize to get the close. Marketing and Sales should never run exclusive to one another.

To be successful, Trust Factor Marketing needs detailed research and thought requiring a lot of perception as well as fact.

The result of a deeper “top of funnel” gets you to a closing position more quickly and with much higher quality. Faster close with higher quality = faster, higher revenue.

Sheri Tate is Director of Marketing at Amick Brown.

“ Every day is a chance to improve the Marketing process, but only if it is filled with common sense, analytics,  and provides positive goal attainment for all in my sphere. “

@IAmSheriTate – Twitter

Sheri Tate – LinkedIn