Direct Sales Tactics aren't Dead, They Just Need Companionship

We recently received an email from a PR company proclaiming, "Direct Sales Does Not Sell!" While it has a ring of authority, we don't back the call. Direct sales isn't dead -- it's just a different animal today. While it certainly doesn't sound as provocative, the message should really read: "Traditional direct sales tactics are not enough to win over more sophisticated, plugged-in customers."

In today's hyper-competitive markets where customers are bombarded with multi-channel ".com" advertising; overwhelmed with email offers and newsletters; and have learned to research products, prices, companies, and reputations on the Web, the only way to give yourself a competitive edge is by having an integrated approach to marketing.

Examples of integrated approaches include ensuring that you have:

• A current and connected site. The site's content must be current, whether that's product specs, prices, or availability. The site -- specifically its forms -- has to be connected to your CRM/SFA system. And you should absolutely leverage an analytics tool (such as the free Google Analytics) to understand and model visitor behavior.
  
  
• Tailored landing pages. Landing pages are part of a Web site, but they deserve their own special mention. They afford you the opportunity to customize your message for different audiences and emphasize different product strengths. They also provide more accurate metrics about what people are most interested in.
  
  
• Quick response to inbound communication. Your sales team needs to respond quickly to inbound calls and Web inquires. Day-late replies won't resonate with prospects used to instant responses to information queries and with easy access to competitors. But in doing so, the sales team can't forget outbound communication. They must follow up quickly after any outgoing direct mail, whether digital or -- gasp! -- physical.
  
  
• A search engine-friendly site. Minimum investments need to be made to ensure your company is "above the fold" -- in the top ten search results -- for terms that are a core part of your business. These efforts will involve investments in both search engine optimization (SEO) for driving free, "organic" traffic and search engine marketing (SEM) for influencing surfers with paid results.
  
  
• An effective and proactive PR strategy. Your company needs to be included in any meaningful article that is written about your industry. If you are in a specialized industry, you need to identify the publications and editors that track you most closely and track them. Inclusion in mainstream media (Wall Street Journal, New York Times, etc.) articles is the ultimate traditional PR accomplishment, but it takes a lot of time and money to persuade these editors to write about you. In the process, don't forget blogger and community sites (multi-author blog sites, such as engadget). In many industries -- particularly the tech industry -- these non-traditional sites can deliver more PR return than mentions in mainstream press articles, industry media ("trade rag") stories, and analyst research notes.

Our advice is to avoid any strategy that is solely based on one element of marketing, including direct sales. The key to success is combining many of the aforementioned elements into an integrated approach that can be measured and analyzed to understand its impact and, when inevitably necessary, tweaked to be more effective.