 Automation is a powerful tool for increasing the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and driving sales. But for most companies, automation can't be based on numbers alone. Think for a moment about the work your sales reps do: most deals they close are ultimately attributable to their relationship with the customer. They are "on the front lines" with leads and prospects, answering questions they have and addressing concerns that arise. Probably more than anyone else in your business, your sales reps have a finger on the pulse of your customer base.
With that in mind, gathering not just numerical data but also anecdotal evidence when developing an automation strategy is vital. Effective data gathering will make a lead's transition from interacting with marketing content to speaking with a live salesperson much smoother and more effective. Interviewing Your Sales Team One of the best ways your marketing department can come up with great ideas for content is to periodically interview your sales team. These meetings should be very structured and should take place regularly (perhaps once a month). Marketing leaders can use targeted questions that will help them clearly understand and define what problems leads are facing, and which solutions they are especially interested in. On the other side of the table, sales reps can come prepared with stories of their experiences with leads over the past month, and pertinent details of their interactions. Here are some examples of targeted questions that sales and marketing team members can explore together:
The objective of these questions, from Marketing's perspective, is to develop content that would generate leads who are more primed, more prepared, and more interested in conversations about buying your company's solution. You can see how powerful such interview sessions could be! Just imagine: if marketing can use the input from your sales team to create an automated strategy that ensures the right content gets to the right leads, it can be a win-win for everyone involved. Add a well-designed lead-scoring system into the mix. It will make it that much easier to keep low-quality leads exposed to marketing materials while allowing your sales reps to focus more of their attention on high-quality leads —i.e., leads who are more likely to buy. It's true this type of alignment doesn't happen overnight; but once your sales and marketing teams are on the same page and experience wins together, it will build momentum and act as a force multiplier for your company's success. Shaping Automations is an Ongoing Process It's no secret that customer behavior can change for all sorts of external reasons — the time of year, the state of the economy, etc. In addition, most businesses don't have completely static offerings. Products and services may evolve. For these and other reasons, it's vital that shaping automations through data analysis become (or remain) an ongoing process. Over time, your company will likely develop a variety of sales funnels and campaigns around several central themes. They may revolve around a certain season, event, product launch, or discount. Whatever the case may be, tracking engagement and conversion metrics via your CRM and other automation tools will give you a glimpse into the effectiveness of your content. Then you can decide whether to double down on your current approach or make adjustments for future campaigns. Also, don't be afraid to test out new ideas! For example, one private jet chartering company wanted to get higher conversions on their marketing spend. By experimenting with highly specific Google search queries, the company was able to achieve up to a 10% conversion rate based on their targeted landing pages. Develop Nurture Strategies Every company wants to effectively nurture their leads until they are ready to make a purchase decision — and the type of content your leads interact with says a lot about the type of information they need to finally make that decision. One powerful, data-based automation strategy you can lean into is sending email content to your leads based on the pages of the websites they visit. For example, one company leveraged its ambassador program to drive conversion rates. But more than that, they developed an automation around that program which was triggered when a lead clicked through a certain number of testimonials and case studies on their website. The data showed that the interest was there; the automated email sequence struck while the iron was hot. Of course, it's also important to offer the right thing at the right time in the buyer's journey. Lead nurturing strategies can become counterproductive if they result in a lot of wasted time and effort on low-quality leads. For instance, be careful when and to whom you offer free consultations. If that offer is mainly focused on middle-of-funnel prospects, they may only want free information without any serious intent to purchase. The end result may be a lot of free consultations and zero purchases. The point is, that it's important to adequately qualify leads before transitioning them to direct interactions with your sales team. Automation strategies that take this important factor into account will be most effective for your business. At the end of the day, you need hard data to successfully automate your processes; but you also need to keep a finger on the pulse of your customer base. Conduct regular interviews with your salespeople. Experiment with different automations. Develop realistic nurture strategies. If you do all these things, you're that much closer to optimizing your sales performance and maximizing profitability. Learn More A healthy relationship between sales and marketing is vital to an organization’s success. Dive deep into this effective strategy in a new book called Sales & Marketing Alignment. If you'd like more insights on how you can improve your sales leadership, contact us. Or sign up for our newsletter for more valuable resources.  In years past, it was mostly up to salespeople to ask probing questions of their leads, uncover their true needs and wants, and then educate them on what the company offered. Of course, the advent of the Internet changed the status quo dramatically, especially when it comes to nurturing leads. Most of today's leads have already done their homework, and are coming to marketers and sales reps with highly educated and detailed questions. Many of them are ready to evaluate, compare, and buy.
What does it take to get prospects to that point? A well-designed, streamlined digital marketing strategy is the key. You want to create a series of touchpoints for your customers — that is, milestones that will guide them from one stage of the sales funnel to the next, and ultimately toward a purchase. The better your touchpoints reflect your ideal buyer's journey (as well as variable paths to arrive at the bottom of the funnel), the more likely you'll be to convert them into loyal customers. To optimize your digital marketing strategy, there are at least four key steps you'll need to implement: Step 1: Prioritize Digital Marketing Channels and Content Let's assume you already have a solid marketing strategy, excellent content, and professional branding elements in place. How can you utilize these assets for the best results? The first step is to clearly understand the content channel and content type preferences of your target audience. For instance: Where do your prospects go to get content? Which platforms do they frequently use? What type of content do they prefer? Are they more interested in long-form articles or short videos? It's important to "step into your customer's shoes" by considering how they use the Internet to research your products and services. A lot of marketing departments fall into the trap of thinking: "This content channel is amazing! Surely everyone will love it as much as we do!" Remember, it's not your goal to deliver what you like to customers; you need to deliver what they like. Spend some time asking customers where they like to spend time online. You may be surprised by the answers you receive. In addition, think about the purpose of each platform. Some platforms lend themselves to video content, while others are more suitable for the written word. Still others are best suited to still images and photographs. Here again, it's imperative that you understand the reason your prospects would use the platform in the first place. For instance, a manufacturing company may have consumers searching YouTube for product demonstrations and how-to videos, while prospects researching interior decorators may frequent Instagram and Pinterest. The point is, you want to align your content channel with your audience. That's how you'll get higher-quality leads — leads that will move through your funnel more quickly and efficiently. Just as a fisherman has to first go to where the fish are and then attract them with the right bait, you must first place your content where your prospects congregate, and then attract them with your exceptional content. Common Content Channels and Types What are some examples of content channels people use in their online research? While the following list is by no means exhaustive, it can give you a good idea of the many options out there:
Granted, it's highly unlikely you'll be able to cover every channel and content type in your marketing strategy. However, if you start with the top 3-5 channels and types your prospects use, you'll almost certainly get a jump start on building effective touchpoints within your overall sales funnel. Step 2: Detail Your Digital Lead Nurturing Process Once you've selected your channels and content types, the next step is to determine the paths prospects take within and through each of these areas. (Think of this as developing touchpoints within touchpoints.) The objective is to make prospect interactions with your brand as smooth and streamlined as possible — and as effective as possible in moving them to the next stage of the sales funnel. You should start by listing the touchpoints of your process in order of importance. The following list is an example of what this may look like, with the most valuable bottom-of-funnel touchpoints occurring lower on the list:
Each of the touchpoints above should trigger specific next steps — which means you'll need to include clear CTAs that will encourage prospects to take those next steps in the process. Of course, it's important to be flexible as well, since prospects will sometimes not move through the sales funnel in a predictable, linear fashion. Step 3: Set Conversion Points and Funnel Touchpoints Conversion points are when prospects go from being anonymous to actively connecting with your company (i.e., sharing their contact info with you). Some examples of conversion points include:
As you fine-tune your lead nurturing process, you want to make sure you provide plenty of CTAs around your conversion points. Simple phrases like "get a free trial" or "speak to an expert" typically work best. Remember, this is the main objective of your digital marketing efforts: to get prospects to directly reach out to and engage with your sales team. Step 4: Establish Data and Analytics Tracking Finally, you want to monitor key performance indicators like landing page visits, email sign-ups, and webinar attendance. These metrics will tell you how effective your strategy is at present; and they will help you make informed decisions about how to refine your conversion points, adjust your content channels, and enhance your content delivery. At the end of the day, your digital marketing strategy should guide prospects through the sales funnel and to a purchase, or a conversation with one of your sales reps. If you optimize your digital marketing strategy using the 4 steps discussed above, you'll see improved sales performance from your team in no time. Learn More A healthy relationship between sales and marketing is vital to an organization’s success. Dive deep into this effective strategy in a new book called Sales & Marketing Alignment. If you'd like more insights on how you can improve your sales leadership, contact us. Or sign up for our newsletter for more valuable resources.  If you want your sales strategy to succeed, you have to put serious forethought into it. The haphazard approach — in which reps are told to sit down in front of the phone and start selling to someone — rarely works in the sales industry. Instead, integration between your sales and marketing teams is key to repeated (and repeatable) wins.
Everyone needs to know how different customers may enter their sales funnel, what they may be looking for at each stage, and how marketing and sales can work together to guide them through the funnel and toward an eventual purchase. This overall knowledge is the basis of intentional sales strategy; in turn, the specific actions and tools your salespeople use to guide leads on their journey are your sales tactics. Factors of Effective Sales Strategy Design It's vital that you understand the key factors influencing whether your sales strategy is successful or not. Three of the biggest factors to keep in mind are: 1. Lead Sources Where are your leads coming from, and what's the nature and extent of their interest? A lead that downloads an e-book from your website may have a different level of interest compared to one who attends an hour-long webinar. Or maybe not! Either way, your sales and marketing teams need to understand that the origin of each lead will help them understand how to nurture that lead effectively. 2. Lead Categorization Leads can typically be separated into 3 common categories:
Lead categorization provides sales and marketing with additional valuable insights into how to best guide leads into and through the sales funnel. 3. Lead History Knowing how long most leads are generally in your sales funnel before they make a purchase, coupled with knowing each lead's history of interaction with your company, can help you develop highly impactful sales strategies and tactics. For instance, an automated email sequence with a CTA to book an appointment may work for one type of lead, whereas a personalized email from a sales rep may be more effective with another. The important thing is that your sales and marketing teams are in complete alignment on these 3 factors, and understand how leads will be sorted, categorized, and nurtured throughout their time in your funnel. Building a Sales and Marketing Toolbox, and Training Your Team Just like you need different equipment to go snow skiing vs. water skiing, you need different strategies and tactics (or at least tweaks to your current strategies and tactics) for each campaign your company decides to tackle. For instance, you may need different talking points for a special campaign compared to your normal marketing message. Of course, you'll also need to ensure that sales and marketing are working together with operations and IT, as needed, to develop the resources your campaign needs. You can think of all of these collected resources as your sales and marketing "toolbox" — an organizing principle that allows for easy maintenance, updating, and training for your team. Building this toolbox, and then training sales reps to use the tools within it effectively, will increase your team's confidence and improve ROI on lead capture efforts. Make sure as you build the toolbox that you document best practices. Keep monitoring your toolbox's effectiveness, and be willing to adapt as needed. And then... document those adaptations! As you grow in your understanding of every step of the campaign's sales process, you'll create a huge competitive advantage for your company. You'll also create shorter sales cycles, improved sales performance, and higher close rates. Using and Sharing Data To Increase Close Rates In general, sales and marketing teams have access to different types of data. However, both teams need quantitative and qualitative data to function effectively; and when they pool their knowledge, it can make everything that much better. Sharing and comparing data drives alignment and success. When you think of quantitative data, you may think about metrics like lead populations, click-through rates, conversion rates, email open rates, average sales cycle timing, and so forth. All of these are valuable pieces of information that, when used properly, can help your sales and marketing teams pinpoint opportunities for improvement and growth. In addition, qualitative data like lead quality, interest levels, observed trends, or even "gut feelings" also play a key role in shaping your overall process. When your teams review both types of data together on a regular basis, they are empowered to act in a collaborative, integrated way. Far from a siloed mentality, they are able to ideate and implement specific, tangible improvements to your company's current sales and marketing framework. This type of collaborative approach taps into what's really the most important part of sales: not a single strategy, tactic, or process, but the culture created among your sales and marketing teams. When your culture is focused, aligned, and dynamic, it can provide game-changing feedback to your organization. Designing Purposeful Sales Strategies and Tactics When you develop strategies and tactics that align with each type of lead, you can unlock tremendous untapped value. When your sales team shares its vision and insights with your marketing team, and vice versa, it creates the basis for a sustainable, ever-improving process of lead capture, nurture, and conversion. Integration of your sales and marketing teams is the heart and soul of a winning strategy. Granted, developing a collaborative culture and then using it as the leading edge of a sharp, focused sales and marketing initiative is easier said than done. However, once you've laid the groundwork, the maintenance is much easier. And as you continue growing in knowledge of your target leads, and your sales and marketing teams become more comfortable with one another, you're putting yourself in a prime position to win the day, every day for the foreseeable future. Learn More A healthy relationship between sales and marketing is vital to an organization’s success. Dive deep into this effective strategy in a new book called Sales & Marketing Alignment. If you'd like more insights on how you can improve your sales leadership, contact us. Or sign up for our newsletter for more valuable resources.  The sales and marketing world revolves around analyzing numbers and hitting targets. So it's no wonder that one of the most common complaints you'll hear is they need more leads to meet quota.
However, is it really that simple? The fact is, more leads may not always equal more conversions. It's vital that your sales and marketing teams work together to develop an intentional, comprehensive plan for developing quality content and delivering appropriate follow-up for leads. Let's talk about both sides of the "lead issues" coin — namely, too few leads and too many leads — and see how quality content can solve many of the problems your teams may be facing. Too Few Leads = Lack of Relevant Content It's easy to think of scenarios in which a lack of relevant content results in a need for more leads for the sales team. Take digital content as an example. Far too often, the marketing team creates websites and other digital content with zero input from the sales team. When you think about it, that's an incredible missed opportunity! Sales reps often have valuable insights into how customers interact with marketing materials. They know their specific goals and interests. And they understand common objections that may arise from the outset of their time in the funnel. Why wouldn't marketing want to tap into that kind of resource? When sales and marketing work together to create top-of-the-funnel content, it almost inevitably leads to more leads. Here are just a few of the ways sales and marketing teams can create synergy in terms of content creation:
Bring Sales and Marketing Together Granted, mileage may vary on these tactics, depending on the nature of your business and consumer base. But the point is, whatever content marketing strategies you implement will be improved (perhaps dramatically) by bringing your sales and marketing teams together. It's vital that there is a consistent process of collaboration in place. There must be a clear consensus about the nature of your buyers' journeys. And that content is intentionally mapped to meet the needs of your buyers each step of the way. The result of all this planning and collaboration will be a solid content strategy that brings, not only more leads, but better-qualified leads into your sales funnel. Too Many Leads = Lack of Targeted Content At first glance, it may seem obvious that the more leads a sales team has in its pipeline, the greater its chances of converting those leads into paying customers. The problem is, it may not be that simple, especially if the company's lead generation strategy has replaced quality with quantity. Actually, investing in quantity over quality can result in a lot of wasted time and effort. In many cases, brands face this issue because their content, though relevant to consumer needs and desires, is not targeted enough to weed out the non-qualified leads from the qualified ones. For example, imagine a company that offers chartered flights starting at $5,000. There is a market for this type of offering, whether in the corporate world, the sports world, or some other sector. But what if the price is never mentioned in TOFU or even MOFU content? The company may generate a lot of interest from small business owners, for instance — but how many of them would be willing to pay a minimum of $5,000 per flight? It's easy to see how more leads in this case may not translate to a better lead generation strategy. In fact, the company could end up wasting thousands of dollars on ads that only bring non-qualified leads into the funnel. Again, Bring Sales and Marketing Together Here again, cooperation between your sales and marketing teams can help prevent (or at least mitigate) this problem. Your two departments can work together to make sure the right leads are targeted. For example:
At the end of the day, creating quality content through consistent collaboration will help you generate enough leads to keep your sales pipeline full, but not so many that you end up wasting time on non-qualified ones. Your teams will become more productive and efficient, and your sales performance as a whole will improve. Learn More A healthy relationship between sales and marketing is vital to an organization’s success. Dive deep into this effective strategy in a new book called Sales & Marketing Alignment. If you'd like more insights on how you can improve your sales leadership, contact us. Or sign up for our newsletter for more valuable resources.  Lead generation is critical for small and medium enterprises to enable them to grow their businesses. Increasing leads indicate growth in brand awareness and interest in your products or services. However, choosing a reliable lead generation tool is a challenging task.
Where to Start Your Sales Tech Tool Search The market is awash with various CRM tools that promise the best results, but they are not created equal. Picking a lead generation tool should not be a matter of trial and error. Instead, develop a strategy for lead generation. This means before you start the process of searching for sales tech tools, you must:
It's crucial to work on these factors before embarking on a search for the best tech tools. The next step is to identify the tools you need for each lead generation stage. For example, are you trying to create awareness about your products or services? Do you want to gain valuable data about the visitors to your site? Is your aim to make your leads more engaged with your business? Depending on what you want to achieve, there are various tools you can use at each level. In this guide, we classify them as foundational, research, and outreach tools. Let's delve into each category. Foundational Lead Generation Tools Having a customer relationship management tool is not just an application of technology, but a strategy to understand your customers more deeply. It helps you identify their needs and behaviors, enabling you to create stronger relationships with them. An effective CRM provides the significant benefit of allowing you to develop better relations with new customers, leading to:
Pipedrive One highly rated and effective CRM tool is Pipedrive. It comes with advanced features to help small businesses achieve efficient reporting. In addition to being a customer relationship management tool, it also works as an account-management tool. It can assist your business with the entire process of marketing and sales. Its ability to visualize the sales process from start to finish is one attractive feature that every small business should leverage in lead generation. The tool has a straightforward user interface that is simple to pick up compared to the time and expense other software require for onboarding. Its pricing model comes in three tiers, each with different provisions. Other CRMs we think are comparable include:
Research Tools in Lead Generation Market research is vital as it helps you enact improvements in your lead generation activities. It provides you with the information you need before implementing any business decision. However, acquiring the figures and facts you need is a different story altogether. This is where marketing tools come in to do all the work of collecting raw market data. They help you determine who is visiting your website and how long they stay on certain pages. This data helps you identify the information that appeals to them the most. Some recommendable market research tools in lead generation include: Sales Navigator This tool from LinkedIn is effective for lead generation. It features Google-like search for leads relevant to your business. It makes your lead generation work easier through the Lead Builder feature. Here, you can enter the criteria for your leads, like job titles and location. The title will create a list of all potential prospects, which you can save for later use. By integrating the tool with Salesforce, all the data will easily flow into your CRM for seamless access. You may also use specific keywords to find leads that are not obvious but who might be interested in your products. This information is valuable for creating personalized pitches for your prospects. LeadFeeder LeadFeeder is a B2B website tracking software that shows you the companies that are visiting your site. You'll also learn how they found you, including the search terms they used to get to your website and the pages they liked. It is a lead generation tool that also provides account-based marketing and sales intelligence capabilities rolled into one. The best part is that you can easily integrate it with other tools like:
Outreach Tools Outreach is one tricky part of lead generation, but you can achieve your business goals with ease when using the right tool. Most tools are designed for email outreach campaigns, but others can help with social media outreach. Here are a couple of examples. SalesLoft SalesLoft is a platform that creates an engine for your sales team to navigate the sales process and communicate with customers for ongoing success. The tool guides and automates the sales process by providing the insights your business needs for exceptional outcomes. SalesLoft is not a CRM or marketing tool, but is specifically designed for sales engagement. Use it to orchestrate mail, schedule meetings and calls with potential clients, and interact with them from anywhere. With this tool, you can automatically track and log your tasks and engagement data to your CRM. This way, the sales team can focus on selling, operation teams can focus on strategy, and managers can focus on coaching. Sumo This tool comes with a whole range of useful social media and traffic tools to help you improve your marketing strategy. One of the outstanding features is the social share function that allows visitors to your site to share your content to social media. The tool also keeps track of the number of shares. Final Thoughts on Lead Generation Having the right tech stack for lead generation can help your small business grow in leaps and bounds. Foundational, research, and outreach tools help you reach your prospective customers depending on where they are in their buyer journey. However, don't expect tech tools to fix all the deficiencies on your sales team. While they can greatly increase your efficiency, real sales success starts much deeper within an organization. Read one of our recent sales tip posts entitled: "Don't Believe in a Miracle Cure" to learn more about how to bring real change to your sales organization. If you'd like more insights on how you can improve the lead generation process, contact us or sign up for our newsletter for more valuable resources. |
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