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Gladly.
First, remember my perspective is from the B2B space not B2C.
As some background, let's compare demand creation with demand reaction. Many salespeople rely on demand reaction. They get a lead from marketing, a hit on a web site or, through cold call prospecting, find a potential customer actively looking for capabilities they sell. These salespeople are reacting to existing demand.
Demand creation is the process of finding potential prospects that match your targeting criteria and then approaching them before they have actively begun to look for solutions to a problem. One of the goals of a demand creation program is to craft messages that let you explore areas with in the target company where your solution could have an impact. Once you get the opportunity to explore those areas of need, you can then qualify and quantify the pain and, hopefully, open a new sales opportunity before the prospect begins to look for solutions.
Demand creation allows you to set the initial rules for evaluation and positions your company as a thought leader in a particular area of need.
Many say the difference between cold call prospecting and demand creation is more semantic than actual. I disagree. I have seen our firm uncover opportunities for major sales by getting in front of targeted prospects with a solid value message that got them to think about a problem they either felt they had already solved or one they didn't know existed.
One of the key advantages of demand creation is that when you do uncover a real opportunity, your chances of being the winner are better than 80-percent because you are the first vendor in the door.
Jim Cundiff
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