This article was updated in January 2021 to reflect the most recent industry updates.
One of the main challenges new clients bring to Tigercomm is how to increase revenue through marketing communications (“marcom”). In the cleantech sector, high-ticket, B2B sales have long lead times and often include a great deal of due diligence devoted to each sale.
The challenge of converting prospects into buyers is not unique to cleantech. But there are five major challenges nearly every cleantech company must overcome to meet sales goals in today's marketing landscape. Addressing these issues will better your chances of a successful cleantech public relations strategy.
Time is precious for every customer, making it harder to get in front of prospects – and hold their attention. The process of buying digitally is constantly changing, and most customers make upwards of half of their purchase decision through online research before they decide to make contact with a sales representative.
The technological nature of cleantech sales steepens the client education curve, especially for customers who are new to buying clean energy. Providing high-quality, educational briefings or white papers – paired with accessible sales reps – can eliminate some of the stumbling blocks that come with cleantech purchasing.
Cleantech companies have historically under invested in marketing communications – collateral materials, messaging tools and digital distribution channels. According to a study by WyzOwl, 69% of customers would prefer to watch a video over more traditional formats, such as a text-based article or infographic. It’s important to curate a feed that appeals both to customers who prefer classic types of content as well as those seeking out more interactive, up-to-date materials.
This under investment in marketing communications leaves companies unable to differentiate their products and vulnerable to price pressure from similar but inferior products and services. A “spray and pray” marketing technique is not only a waste of money for your company, but it can miss important clients who are looking for content that appeals to their niche purchasing interests. Although tracking your performance metrics takes extra resources, it’s worth the detailed and actionable customer profile you gain from that data.
All of this places a tremendous burden on sales teams. Poor communication can limit capacity of each team and lead to both burnout and diminished quality of deliverables. It’s imperative for marketing and sales team members to have an official collaboration system and to share knowledge in order to increase efficiency.
We often talk with prospective clients about the legacy approach to sales – an approach that relies almost exclusively on the sales team turning strangers into buyers. We know that far too many cleantech companies rely on this method.
Research shows this is ineffective and leaves teams far short of reaching their potential.
At Tigercomm, we’ve adapted the legacy approach to account for today’s customer landscape. In Q1 of 2018, we’ll be releasing a white paper on how we’ve successfully adapted clients’ sales approach. But before you read our white paper – ask yourself – is your company relying on the legacy approach to sales?
UPDATE: We've released the white paper. You can download it here.