This biblical story describes the effort service businesses must make to sell to other businesses. They do so by staying fresh in the minds of hundreds or thousands of “suspects” — those who walk in between the parted seas. With persistence, a large number of these prospects come out as customers.

The following case study shows how a company takes thousands of suspects and moves them through the sales cycle until it identifies them as qualified leads. This process works so well that the sales team closes 15 percent of sales to an executive-level audience for a professional marketing subscription service that costs between $20,000 and $30,000 per year.

Show value, trust and stability

The secret sauce in this method is a high-quality newsletter, published once or twice a month, that speaks to the hearts and minds of readers. The newsletter editor ensures every issue adds value to the readers' daily lives by addressing typical problems readers face.

Smart readers sniff out a sales pitch disguised as an article. So, the newsletter's content can't be just a sales pitch, or readers will unsubscribe.

If the newsletter in readers’ email boxes covers information readers rely on, the newsletter and company behind it develop a loyal following. The low unsubscribe rate (under 1 percent) and high click-through rate (over 50 percent) tell the story of the readers' experience in the form of metrics.

The newsletter is not a one-time direct mail piece. Instead, the business is patient and keeps churning out issues. When it comes time for readers to invest in the service, the newsletter appears in the inbox, reminding readers that the people behind the newsletter might be the experts they need. They click the link in the newsletter to go to the business portion of the company's Web site. The reader converts from suspect to prospect, putting the company one step closer to a sale.

Filtering and funneling prospects

Through the newsletter process, leads self-qualify. An invisible thread runs through the Web site and points the prospects to a specific page — the free offer. This offer is a full-blown marketing piece done “on spec” and designed to show the high-quality service the marketing firm provides. The company invests about 40 professional service hours in each free offer. This activity in the sales cycle helps the qualified lead decide whether or not to do business with company.

To request this offer, prospects answer six questions about their company. These questions aren't the traditional ones about company size, location or number of employees. Instead, the marketing firm has designed the questions to make prospects think about their own business. Executives usually breeze through the questions while others may find them difficult to answer. The questions aim to grab as much client-specific information as possible. They're not for the faint of heart and force executives to think through their own marketing strategy. The firm created the questions with the following goals in mind:

1.  Eliminate tire kickers.

2.  Get quality information about how the executive thinks.

3.  Gather information about the prospect's target market.

4.  Show the “high quality” of the service offered.

5.  Help the prospect get the right mind-set for a follow-up call from the salesperson.

What are these mysterious and stimulating questions? One question asks, What business problem does your company solve? Think about how you would answer that one to get a feel for how these questions challenge the respondent. (Want to see the rest of the questions?) The company puts up barriers so only those with a serious interest proceed to answer all of the questions.

Reaching the promised land of sales

Those who request the free offer and answer all of the questions become qualified leads. The company notifies a salesperson who receives the following information:

●  Contact information (provided by the qualified lead)

●  Hot buttons (based on newsletter articles the qualified lead read)

●  Company background (provided by qualified lead)

●  Overview of company's customers (provided by qualified lead)

In other words, the information contains everything necessary for a good conversation between the qualified lead and the salesperson. This happens without anyone talking to the prospect or parting the seas. Since newsletters reach many people at the same time, they improve your chances of continuously filling your pipeline with serious prospects.

Some say Moses wasn't a dynamic speaker as he was "slow of speech." But his regular appearances in front of the pharaoh kept Moses in his mind, much like newsletters keep a company in prospects’ minds — without annoying the potential prospects, readers.

Meryl K. Evans is the content maven behind this newsletter. She has written for The Dallas Morning News, PC Today, InformIT and others. You can contact her at Meryl@InternetVIZ.com or stop by her blog.