If 4-4-2 doesn't work, try 5-3-1...
We are big fans of David Oliver (www.insight-marketing.com) and the mathematics of selling. Basically, if you want a certain number of new customers and have a particular closure rate at each stage of the sales process, you can work backwards to how many cold calls to prospects you need to make.
This holds true in any B2B market you care to mention but how can you be sure the conversion rates you have in your home market will be a good guide for your performance in the UK (or other new market)?
Not surprisingly, there is only one way to find out - try selling and see what happens. What is most important about the proposition testing phase of market entry is not the conversions you achieve but analysing your losses effectively. If your conversion rates are different, what is causing it? Are you addressing the correct decision makers? is the problem you can solve high enough up the buyers agenda? have you correctly mapped the buyers view of what he needs with your usps? And so on.
It’s at this point that really need an input from a native in-market specialist. As well as having to filter out the salesman’s instinctive beliefs as to why they lost the sale (some version of ‘the price wasn’t right’) you need to understand the nuances of what was said in the meeting. English is a very rich language and the British, who can be somewhat understated and indirect, will make full use of the richness of the language to keep the unwary in ignorance. Phrases like ‘that’s interesting’ and ‘I need to think about it, then I’ll get back to you’ should not be assumed to mean what the literal translation would imply!
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