By Scott Gillum
Estimated read time: 3 Minutes
One of the biggest concerns for marketers is watching their hard work doing buyer research, positioning and messaging fall apart in the last mile….when the rep speaks with the prospect or customer.
In fact, I experienced this first hand last week.
A BDR for a PR firm reached out to me a few weeks ago after listening to a recent podcast I did on a well known show. Their email immediately captured my attention by stating they believed we had a story that would get the attention of national publications.
Not having a great experience using PR firms in the past, I was ready to hit delete until I read the next line that said, “we know that 85% of buyers that have used PR firms report not having a good experience, it’s why we have a pay for performance model.”
Now they had my interest, and I agreed to a meeting. In the weeks in between, I received nurturing emails containing links to testimonials, recent stories placed, and assurance that they could do the same for us, including this from their email;
“Our team has done extensive research on your project and is excited to guide you towards more success.”
Up to this point, all good work by the marketing team.
Last Tuesday at 2 PM, I had a call with the “Client Director.” He explained their unique model, working on the “buy” side with publishers which gives them insight into the stories publishers want ( a nice piece of positioning) which sold me, and I was excited to know what they heard in the podcast that was newsworthy.
And that is where it ALL fell apart. The rep hadn’t even listened to the podcast and apparently didn’t talk with the BDR to find out the details. He literally had no clue.
After the rep stumbled to make something up, and then called us a “tech company” I ended the conversation at 2:09 PM. All the previous great marketing was wasted by a rep that didn’t do his homework. The final steps of the last mile left untraveled because the rep thought the journey was over.
