1. 1
B2B Marketing
Christopher Ryan
info@fusionmarketingpartners.com
Can You Really
Use Marketing to
Shrink the B2B
Sales Cycle?

2. 2
Sales Cycle Timing
It seems at least once a week that I talk to a B2B
company about how to shrink their sales cycle.
Sales executives and CEOs get especially
frustrated because their quarterly sales forecasts
become much harder to predict when the sales
cycle timing is all over the map.

3. 3
For Example
We have one technology client where it
seems half their deals close in days or
weeks, while the other half can take six
months or more. So what is going on and
what can us B2B marketing types do about
it?

4. 4
Accepting Reality
The first thing we need to do is accept certain
realities, regardless of the pain involved. And the
first reality is that buyers have more control over
the sales cycle than sellers.
They have come to understand that the offer you
claimed was for today only can easily be had
tomorrow or next month – especially if they wait
to buy until the end of the quarter

5. 5
Finding Information
And even more significantly, our prospects know
they can use Google to find out a great deal of
information about your company, your competitors,
the product or service category, and what past
buyers think about you and everyone else in your
space

6. 6
Generate Leads
So how do you create the environment to support
everyone from early-stage information gatherers to
hot prospects who are ready to engage or buy
today? Here are a few tips:

7. 7
Provide Content Relevant to the Needs of
the Audience
This will be very
different for
someone who is
doing some general
category research
(what’s out there)
as opposed to
someone who is in
the final buying
stage (pricing,
terms and delivery
options).

8. 8
Layer the Content
At Fusion Marketing Partners, we recommend the
layered content approach.
Of course this varies by type of product and
offer, but we typically recommend fairly short
and generalized text on the landing page (e.g.
300-500 words).
On pages that link from the landing
page, text can be much longer, running
into hundreds or even thousands of
words for some technical products and
services.

9. 9
Offer Options
Don’t treat all visitors to your website like they’re
the same. Some are at early stages: give them a
place to browse content and self-educate without a
sales person breathing down their necks.
Others are at later stages: give these people a way
to self-qualify and engage in different ways –
phone, chat, email, form submission.

10. 10
Boost Your Effectiveness
Sales resources are expensive and whatever parts
of the processes you can offload to the website will
cut your costs, and assuming you execute this
correctly, boost your effectiveness

11. 11
Studies Show…
As reported in a recent Forbes article titled Death
of a B2B Salesman, a Forrester Research study
showed that “Nearly 75% of B2B buyers now say
that buying from a website is more convenient than
buying from a sales representative.
Further, 93% say that they prefer buying
online rather than from a salesperson when
they’ve decided what to buy. B2B companies that
wait too long to create self-serve eCommerce
websites risk losing share to pure plays and
omnichannel competitors.”

12. 12
New Way of Thinking
As you can see,
marketing can help
shrink the effective
B2B sales cycle,
but it may require a
new way of thinking
– as well as some
concrete actions to
align your selling
model with your
prospects’ buying
behavior.

13. 13
Effective Sales Cycle
The important thing is not the actual sales cycle
(how long it takes the prospect from the time they
start their research to the time they buy). Rather,
the key metric is what we refer to as the “effective
sales cycle” – how long the prospect is actually in
touch with your company.

14. 14
New Selling Model
If you organize your business around the new type
of selling model shown in the next slide, the
“effective sales model” will shrink and your close
rate will go up. This is true because the potential
purchaser completes all or most of the first three
parts of the process without engaging with your
sales staff.

15. 15
Today’s Model
In this example, if you
start interacting with
prospects at the
fourth stage, close
rates can skyrocket –
from a typical 1-3
percent of raw
inquiries to as much
as 10 percent of
those who are
educated and self-
qualified.

16. 16
Learn More
Visit our website for
more insight about
B2B marketing and
sales and a download
my new eBook: The
Essential Guide to
Building Your Lead-to-
Revenue (L2R)
Machine

17. 17
About Fusion Marketing Partners
Christopher Ryan, CEO
We Do This:
Brand building/messaging
Website optimization
Content creation
Lead generation
You Get This:
Much greater levels of awareness
Higher quantities of qualified leads
Ability to generate faster revenue
Lots more information at:
http://FusionMarketingPartners.com/
http://Greatb2BMarketing.com (blog)info@fusionmarketingpartners.com
719-357-6280