Now that we’ve covered the basics, we’re finally ready to begin developing our Sales Strategy! I only use the word Sales Strategy here because this is a book about sales. However, at the strategic level, sales + marketing strategy are and should be one and the same.
A better way to put it = Acquisition Strategy.
If you’re a startup, you can also use what you build from this module as your go-to-market (GTM) strategy. Sales vs. Marketing are merely the different activities that influence acquisition. Whether you’re doing Sales vs. Marketing depends on the prospect’s readiness and entry point into your funnel.
What is a funnel you ask? The funnel represents the step-by-step process prospects go through, from the initial awareness of their problem to making a purchase decision. It’s a structured framework that guides the journey from lead generation to conversion. We will explore the intricacies of constructing a funnel when we discuss the Sales Process.
Let’s begin with the first step in creating your acquisition strategy:
Sales + Marketing Map
Now that we understand gradualization, we can begin to map out the different channels, messaging, call to action, and lead magnets that will help us guide our prospects from point A to B. By understanding that it isn’t linear, we open ourselves up to the different possibilities and combinations we can use.
Although every prospect goes through a different series of realizations, there are common checkpoints. A customer’s journey, like any journey, has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Specific realizations commonly occur at certain stages, some markers help you identify if someone is ready to move to the next stage, and there are activities you can use to guide someone from one stage to the next. We’ll begin the creation of our map with the inbound ACDC framework popularized by HubSpot. It will help us categorize our prospect’s realizations and our activities into 4 main buckets: AWARENESS, CONSIDERATION, DECISION, and CLOSE.
AWARENESS
Not in reference to awareness of your solution or even of your company, it refers to the prospect’s awareness of a problem or a need. The prospect has to first realize what they’re currently doing isn’t effective. They start to look for information to better understand their situation. Your aim here is to create brand awareness and thought leadership on the topic by providing educational content to attract prospects. Avoid addressing high-level problems and instead focus on addressing a specific need for your prospect. These needs typically manifest as “What is” questions.
Let’s consider FoodMesh, a Vancouver-based company with a B2B marketplace that connects surplus food to a verified network of businesses and charities. We’ll use a hypothetical example of the ACDC framework with them as a case study.
High level = Food is being wasted
Specific need = I have food that I’ve spent money on that’s going bad
AWARENESS question = What can I do to reduce my food waste?
CONSIDERATION
Not in consideration of your solution (yet). The prospect has now defined their problem or need and is actively looking for potential solutions. They’re considering various options and evaluating which is the best fit for them. Your aim here is to provide content that highlights the different ways to solve their problem. Naturally, you’ll want to expose them to your solution as one of the possible ways. These inquiries typically manifest as “How do I” questions.
To follow up on the previous example (FoodMesh)
CONSIDERATION question: How can I get rid of bulk food?
Throw it away? Compost it? Donate it? Run a flash sale to clear inventory? List it on Craigslist? Or try to sell it to another business that might need it (and this is where their solution comes in)?
DECISION
Here’s where the prospects start to actively consider you as the best solution. They’re narrowing down their choices and comparing you with competitors, trying to understand how you work, pricing, reading your reviews and testimonials, and comparing features. Your aim here is to provide information that helps prospects see you as the best vendor amongst others. This typically manifests as “Who is the best” questions.
With the previous example, a prospect might then start to search for excess food marketplaces, Bulk food suppliers, or Food buyers
CLOSE
This is the stage where the prospect becomes a customer by making a purchase. It involves the actual transaction and closing the sale. How do you get them to commit and go with your solution? What are clear next steps? How do you eliminate risks (guarantees/refund policies)? How do you onboard your customer? What drives urgency to do it now? Typically “Why should I” questions.
After this stage, the focus shifts to delivering on promises, ensuring customer satisfaction, and building a long-term relationship.
Here’s an example of the Buyer’s Journey Map against the ACDC Framework:
The ACDC framework emphasizes the importance of guiding prospects through their journey, providing them with the right information at the right time, and ultimately closing the sale. It’s a more prospect-centric approach that aligns with the idea that buyers are already actively researching and evaluating options before making a purchase.
Here’s a visualization of our previous example:
| Stage | AWARENESS | CONSIDERATION | DECISION | CLOSE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pain/ Need/ Motivations | • Reduce food waste. • Recoup expenses. | Meaningful & convenient way to get rid of food surplus. | Find the most efficient vendor to work with. | • Seamless integration with current inventory management systems. • Ease of use to ensure this initiative doesn’t create an additional burden on our business. |
| Questions | What • Can I do to reduce my food waste? • Should I do with food that is expiring soon? | How • Can I get rid of food in bulk? • Can I find suitable buyers and coordinate multiple different purchases? | Who • Are the trusted local bulk distribution platforms? | Why • Is it beneficial to use FoodMesh’s platform? • FoodMesh’s platform makes it easy and helps you liquidate faster. |
This Buyer’s Journey Map is only part of a bigger picture. To build a comprehensive Sales + Marketing Map, we need a few more things:
Channels
Different questions are best addressed through different channels. For instance, having a booth at a conference or scheduling a consultation call would be ideal for prospects interested in delving deeper into potential solutions. However, these channels might be unsuitable and premature for prospects who are still in the phase of seeking information to diagnose their problem. Different channels also vary in effectiveness for different businesses.
Continuing the previous example:
| Stage | AWARENESS | CONSIDERATION | DECISION | CLOSE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Channels | • Blogs • Ads • Guest speaking | Blogs, Videos, Workshops, and Paid promotions on software suggestion platforms like Capterra (or other similar, relevant aggregators). | • Infographics • Demo • Case Studies. | Trial, Pilot, Reviews, Testimonials. |
Call-to-Actions (CTAs)
Similar to above, “Buy Now” or “Create an account” may not be the ideal CTA if your prospect is still in the Awareness or Consideration stage and learning about how to be a greener organization. When choosing a CTA, consider the questions and concerns going through your prospect’s mind at each stage. Which CTA would best resonate with what they’re trying to accomplish?
| Stage | AWARENESS | CONSIDERATION | DECISION | CLOSE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CTAs | • Read more • Learn more • Take the quiz | • Sign up for the Newsletter • Download the guide • View the buyer database | • Book a demo • See what our customers have to say about us | Create an account |
Lead Magnets
These are giveaways you can offer to your prospects in exchange for their contact information. Quality and alignment are crucial. Prospects will gladly disclose their information if they believe what you have to offer will genuinely benefit them. Lead magnets also help you identify where the prospect is in their journey and make it easier for you to position your solution as a tool to better solve their problem.
For example, you might ask prospects to provide their email address in return for a media kit template. Their act of downloading suggests that they aren’t merely learning (Awareness) but may be ready to take action (Consideration). This enables you to reach out and inform them about your marketing agency’s relationships with media outlets and how you might assist them with their press release.
Back to our example:
| Stage | AWARENESS | CONSIDERATION | DECISION | CLOSE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lead Magnets | • Quiz whereby they could input type of food and volume to determine the best option for food disposal or redistribution. • Event registration | List of potential local buyers (if they wish to manage the transaction manually on their own). | • Free consultation session • Download our case studies • Waste reduction reports | • Request a quote • Sign up for a free trial |
Lastly, specify Requirements to advance and Targets for each stage.
“Requirements to advance” ensures that you collect the right information at each stage. This helps not only to progress leads but also to qualify or disqualify them and tailor follow-up messaging.
“Targets” you set are arbitrary. They serve as a benchmark for measuring and adjusting progress. The two important characteristics of the buyer’s journey for which you should define targets are:
MQL: Marketing Qualified Lead
An internal term we use to describe someone exhibiting behavior that indicates their interest in learning more and suggests that we can provide them with further details for education and advancement.
For example:
- Visiting your blog over 10 times in the last week.
- Staying on the same article for over 30 minutes.
- Clicking a CTA, downloading a guide, or signing up for a webinar.
SQL: Sales Qualified Lead
Behaviors that justify transitioning your lead from the marketing process to an active sales conversation, as they are likely ready to make a purchase
For example:
- Visiting your pricing page more than 5 times.
- Filling out an application.
- Emailing you with a product-centric inquiry.
- Resetting on their budget cycle, especially if you target companies that depend on a regular funding schedule.
MQL and SQL markers can be used to trigger workflows or assign scores within your Lead Scoring framework to aid with prospect prioritization. In the Sales and Marketing Map, defining monthly or quarterly targets are adequate.
| Stage | AWARENESS | CONSIDERATION | DECISION | CLOSE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Requirements to advance | Schedule date & time, Identify decision-makers, Phone # | Banking or credit card information | ||
| Targets per month | 1000 new contacts captured | 200 Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) | 50 SQLs | 5 Closed |
As every business is unique, here are 4 more examples of the Sales + Marketing Map for various business types (product, services, or software):
Your Sales + Marketing Map isn’t a static document. As Mike Tyson famously said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth”. This doesn’t mean that planning isn’t important; instead, it emphasizes that plans need to account for uncertainty. The market can react differently, and it’s continuously evolving, with buyer demographics and behaviors constantly changing as different generations mature into various market segments. Additionally, unforeseen variables, like COVID-19, can emerge. Let this map serve as your framework for experimentation and improvement.
Since there’s no such thing as a perfect plan, this should also relieve you from the pressure to get everything perfect before launching. Avoid overanalyzing and overbuilding; it’s more important to start with something basic and refine it from there.
It’s still worth doing this exercise even if you’ve already launched your business or have an effective sales and marketing strategy in place. This Sales + Marketing Map will help ensure that everything serves a valuable purpose, is intentional, and aligns with each other. Often, existing businesses have a wealth of disjointed content, resources, and tools. Don’t simply create content for the sake of it; ensure everything works cohesively to support the prospect in their purchasing journey.
Revisit it yearly to make the necessary adjustments to respond to the changing market or better capture predicted opportunities. More importantly, this Sales + Marketing Map is reusable and can be used for every new product, update you release, or target market you’re expanding into.
ASSIGNMENT
- Create your Sales + Marketing Map using this template. Pay attention to stages in the buyer’s journey that you’re not currently or poorly addressing. Start to fill in those gaps.
- Now that you have your Sales + Marketing Map, draft an actionable launch plan to create your missing pieces. Below is an example for a group coaching program:
| To-do (Channels & Lead Magnets) | CTA | Follow-up |
|---|---|---|
| 6 long-form blog posts | • Subscribe • Download this free tool • Read this other post | Email to welcome them as a subscriber. |
| 4 landing pages with downloadable tools or checklist | Download for Free | Drip email to check out more articles and learn more about our program. |
| 2 events and webinars in August | Book a free strategy session | Summary email with feedback from strategy session and invitation to be a member and receive more support. |
| • Program info session. • Mock group coaching session. | Book a qualification interview | Deposit to hold a spot. |
| Landing page with program details | Apply now | • If the lowest tier is chosen → to the payment page. • If group coaching is chosen → Book a qualification interview. |
| Payment page | • Collect payment depending on the membership chosen. • Register pre-authorize payment. | • Add to member portal. • Send a welcome email. • Invitation to create their member profiles. |