Smart Sales Strategies for Niche Markets
Selling to Graduate and Professional Schools
The territory of graduate and professional schools is fertile soil for B2B sales. For companies that sell to graduate and professional schools, the upside is that a strong selling approach can lead to fast conversions in this market.
Most graduate and professional schools have experienced slow, but steady growth.
Don't be intimidated by the speed of the marketplace. Although speed is important, sales fundamentals and logical strategies will make the biggest difference in the success or failure of your selling efforts.
Marketing Channels for Graduate & Professional Schools
Although the ways in which sellers market their products are extremely diverse, there is one truth that applies to all graduate and professional school marketing strategies -- no single marketing channel is capable of delivering the sales volume that you would expect to see in a leading B2B seller.
Across the industry, multichannel marketing strategies are the norm, and may include direct mail, telemarketing, print ads, email campaigns and other online strategies.
Top sellers routinely purchase lead lists as a way to drive the sales process. High quality lead lists provide a high volume of leads that are up-to-date and targeted to the kinds of prospects that are most likely to respond to your products. In our experience, Experian Business Services has the largest and most accurate database of graduate and professional schools on the market.
Sales Incentives
In a perfect world, you want your sales force to be self-motivated to perform at a high level. But to encourage constant improvement, consider offering sales incentives to sales reps that exceed graduate and professional school sales targets.
Incentives don't have to be cost-prohibitive -- sometimes merely acknowledging a team member's exceptional effort is more valuable than an expensive incentive that lacks recognition or prestige.
Developing a Marketing Plan
A solid marketing plan is the foundation of a successful sales strategy. Your team might be stocked with highly capable sales professionals, but if they aren't supported by strong messaging and effective marketing channels, your products will never see the light of day.
Keep in mind that graduate and professional schools are fast-paced operations with little patience for long sales cycles.
A thoroughly developed marketing plan helps to focus your selling proposition and deliver messaging in channels that are successful with your customer base. When combined with a sales plan, a marketing plan serves up an intentional selling strategy that converts prospects to customers.
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