Another off-label use of marketing automation was related to me by a salesguy at software company who had just gone through a rigorous RFP process like the kind described in the previous post (Part 1). The prospect had not yet announced the winning vendor, and although the salesguy knew his company was a finalist, he was becoming restless trying to figure out whether they’d won the contract or not. He turned to his marketing automation solution to do a little detective work and was ecstatic to find a particularly revealing tidbit: A wave of visitors to his company’s website had found it by clicking a link on the prospect’s website that announced it had chosen the software company as its vendor. Of course, the salesguy had to feign delighted surprise when the new client called with the great news, but armed with this valuable piece of information, he was able to resist requests for discounted pricing since he knew the client had already publicly committed to his solution.
This is a brilliantly out-of-the-box way to use marketing automation to your advantage. Stay tuned for Part 3.
