Converting Leads to Sales
Developing a New Approach
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Use marketing automation software to help you convert leads to sales.
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One of the key issues I hear over and over again from my clients is how to convert leads into sales. The marketing team expects the sales force to handle that portion of the task, since, after all, they've done all of the hard work and spent the money to generate the leads. The sales force complains that the marketing folks don't provide good, high-quality leads. So, who is at fault and what can you do about it? Well, there are some solutions.
1) You must have an excellent CRM system. Most companies are now using software platforms such as salesforce.com or marketo.com or some other database to gather their leads and to segment them. But, the databases only work if they are updated daily based on the activities of your customers. You must also integrate all of the lead gathering databases that you have throughout your company. For example, you may use Google Analytics to gather information about your website, or an email client to gather statistics about your email marketing, or some other software regarding actual sales. It is imperative that all of these databases work together and become integrated so that you have a good understanding of your prospects and how they are being converted into customers.
2) Once you have an integrated database, then the next step is to segment that information according to demographic profiles and customer/prospect activities. Try to be as specific as possible. Don't lump everyone into one catch-all category. But, make sure the categories are meaningful.
3) Customize your communications to those prospects/customers based on the preferences per the database. If a customer says they prefer receiving snail mail, then don't send them electronic communications, for example. Or if a customer says he wants only monthly communications, don't contact him daily.
4) Nurture your prospects/customers based on their activity. If they sign up for a Webinar, for example, then follow-up with them and send other related information. Send them links to your website to direct them to other content that may be of interest to them.
5) Customize landing pages and registration forms to gather data about the prospect/customer. You may want to start out by gathering only the prospect's email address but then if they sign up for something specific, you might want to get more specific information about them, such as the company name or their business role.
6) And don't forget to route the leads to the appropriate sales person and make sure that sales person has followed up with the lead and completed the database with information about that activity. This will help you determine the prospect's quality over time. Make sure your sales force is using the database tools that you have available to nurture leads in their territory.
Marketing automation is becoming increasingly popular and most companies are now saying it's a necessity to help them convert prospects into customers.
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