Using Marketing Automation Sites For Your Sales Process

May 15, 2012 by · 1 Comment

Think through the steps your salesperson executes and automate.

Each company’s sales process is different. There are a sequence of steps and actions a salesperson typically takes to prospect, qualify and convert a lead to an opportunity. The early parts of a sales process traditionally were left to salespeople. However, if you look at how to use the time of a salesperson effectively, qualifying a lead is both rigorous and tedious.

Assuming you have an effective inbound marketing system, much of your lead qualification can be managed by your online website and systems. The job of the salesperson can be focused on the key selling events such as conducting demos, persuading the customer and helping them sign up for your service or product.

A great way to increase productivity and drive higher qualified leads is to automate. Here are some guidelines to making this happen:

  • Document the steps. Interview your salespeople and ask them about what they do early in the sales process. Thereafter, seek to capture the steps which can be automated by a system. Work in partnership testing and asking clarifying questions to see what would make sense for your salesperson. They are likely going to welcome tools that help them work with the customer.
  • Create buying steps. Present the steps in a personal and easy sequence that buyers would actually use. Your site logic needs to ask questions, gather information and distribute it within a database or via email. Get the questions answered which help to build a profile of your potential buyer.
  • Program logic to present the right information. Based on answers to questions you receive, your site needs to present the logical next question, form, document, page or email. This is automation in action. Program each step based on preceding conditions and logic.
  • Nurture your leads. If some people are not qualified because of criteria such as budget or timeframe, then ensure there is a process to nurture them over the coming weeks and months. This can be a set of predetermined emails, an e-course, a newsletter subscription or sales follow-up dates. The goal is to continue bringing value and help your brand be positioned for the right timing.
  • Enter the salesperson. Automation should lead to a personal touch. Manage the entrance and next steps for the prospective buyer with personal communications and a meeting with a salesperson. Set the stage so that the meeting has the right expectations of what the person can expect.

It is hard to make a one-size-fits-all model of automation for the sales process. We have customized many different shapes and sizes depending on a market, customer profile and how a sales team is structured. The key is to look for how the sales process can be optimized and bring the right strategies into play to make the experience personal.

It is work. It will provide a more predictable result and keep you from having to hire expensive salespeople that may be doing a lot of clerical work. Furthermore, you are making it convenient for prospects to engage and providing an easy way for them to think through your value proposition.

How does your sales process work and how could it be better?

Filed Under: Blog, Marketing Automation, Sales Process ·

The Art Of The Sales Follow-Up

February 20, 2012 by · 4 Comments

Sales people are notorious for a lack of follow up and service to sales leads. This is especially true with manual environments without process, systems and structure.

In the old days, urgency and personality went a long way to attract any low hanging fruit. That was before the internet. The buyer has access to your competitor with a mouse click now. The convenience to get information on-demand means that we can educate ourselves and figure out what we need to be looking for. We can compare quickly and drive to a decision on who we want to do business and what we want to buy without a lot of help from a salesperson.

This is a frequent scenario. Car buyers walk in and tell the salesperson what they want at what price. Home buyers tell the Realtor what houses they want to see from Trulia. Information is not an asset that the salesperson holds exclusively.

However, the buyer is looking for service in the midst of the buying process. The sales follow-up in today’s economy needs to help the buyer. Consider the following to increase this important part of the sales funnel:

  • Be the concierge. Any personal touch points should be focused helping not selling. Noone likes to be sold. Offer assistance and help the buyer ask the right questions and get access to the right information.
  • Curate information. We live in a world where we depend on Google to help us find laser-focused results from the noise. Museums don’t carry every type of exhibit. The curators pick what is important, thematic and impactful. They have limited space. Likewise, present what is important and essential to service your prospective buyers.
  • Integrate marketing automation. Use marketing automation to nurture a lead with timely and relevant information. Watch their behaviors and digital body language within your CRM system and take action when their lead scores warrant or based on automated triggers.
  • Manage to the week. There are natural rhythms we follow. Use specific days to do your calls, emails, nurturing emails, etc. Be sensitive to people’s attention. Generally, there is a higher level of attention Tuesday through Thursday.

Following up is process. It constitutes the majority of the activities in a sales process. It requires strategies that make sense and help the buyer through their natural process. Incorporating systems, process and strategies that positions you as a valuable resource is critical for your opportunity to do business.

What are some ways you follow up that you find effective?

Filed Under: Blog, Marketing Automation, Sales Process ·

A Results Driven Online Content Strategy

February 11, 2012 by · 4 Comments

There were 87 commercials during this past Super Bowl, but very few of them failed to meaningfully connect their message to their social media platforms. Coca-Cola, for example, aggressively encouraged people to watch the game using it’s fame polar bears on Facebook and Twitter in the days leading up to the big game. But come game time, none of the three commercial spots Coca-Cola used for the Super Bowl included a URL or mention of the social media end of the campaign. They were not the only ones, only 57% of the commercials aired during the Super Bowl included a website or microsite URL. Super Bowl Marketing Strategy Results

There were some winners though like Chevy who kept their brand relevant and at the fingertips of the consumers throughout the game. And there was Best Buy who had an “Act Now” promotion, offering people who visited its Web site $50 off a mobile phone purchased in 2012. Customers visiting the site were immediately presented with the opportunity to sign up for the offer. Best Buy created a sense of urgency by limiting the offer only to those who signed up by February 12. This was a smart move by Best Buy realizing not everyone was in the market to purchase a phone at this very moment. To keep in front of the customer they offered an opt-in notification for a new phone eligibility as a reminder to the customer that they could now use their $50 coupon.

The strategy for connecting and getting found has changed but the Super Bowl is evidence that not everyone is ready for prime time. Let’s take a look at six core elements for developing an effective online content strategy that helps you win new customers:

  1. It has to be strategic. Online content has to connect to business goals and brand messaging. This requires talented writers that understand marketing strategy, and how to deliver copy that integrates across web, social, and search.
  2. It has to be brand centric.A brand is the sum of experiences and perceptions. When a person hears your company name, or sees your logo, what comes to mind? When they visit your website are they immediately sold something or is it inviting and informative and create an memorable experience? How about the last interaction with a salesperson or a customer-service representative, was it a freestyle experience or one carefully crafted.Whether we like it or not more than ever words, images, and actions define your brand every day and, with selective attention, websites and online content often serve as the first – and possibly only – opportunity to make a memorable first impression. Therefore copywriting, design, layout, and call-to-actions must convey core brand messages, tell your company’s story, and create positive perceptions that motivate a customer to act.
  3.  It must be customer focused. You, the seller, are not in control anymore. The buyer is in control. They will decide often without your knowledge whether you will get their business or not. Your online content therefore must connect with readers. Your copy needs to speak directly to buyer personas, address their pain points and bring immense value. The hard part is this is a continual process. It’s not a website design that allows you in the game like it did five years ago. It’s about continually creating content that is SEO optimized, recognized by Google to where it ranks well, and has authority in that it is easily found. Therefore, whether internal or outsourced, copywriters must have clear direction and understanding of your target audiences, know how to engage them, and strategic around SEO and digital body language.
  4. It must be high-value content optimized for search engines. Online content must tell a story but it must be optimized for search engines. Google, which controls about 70% of the search market, is telling companies in very plain terms that duplicate, low-value content is bad, and original, high-value content is good. This means there are no shortcuts. If you want to know how you are doing, step into Google’s mindset and answer the 23 questions they are asking in regards to the issue. In short, SEO is an evolving art and science an requires talented SEO specialists and world-class copywriters who are continually measuring and refining content that can be found and produce a measurable result.
  5. It must be creative. This involves a creative team that is talented and provides specialties around leadership, strategy, content creation and editing, project management, sales process, information technology, web design, video, mobile, graphic, SEO, process management, thought leadership, automation, and marketing.
  6. It must be results driven. Content needs to be tied to the organizations objectives. It should play a key role in the organizations sales process and deliver measurable results that include generating leads, educating customers, and determining customer intentions. This is achieved by tracking the content’s success through metrics and reporting of pageviews, call-to-actions, content downloads, social media reach, and leads for the sales team. This involves constant strategy based on past performance and encourages the incorporation of new ideas and topics that drive traffic and capture audiences.

 

Filed Under: Blog, Inbound Marketing, Marketing Automation, Productivity, Project Management · Tagged: , , , , , ,

Automation Shaming The Conventional

February 7, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

Boiler And On Demand Water Heater

 

Here’s a picture of how the world has changed. On the left you have a tankless water heater system. It provides on-demand hot water and is completely automated in load balancing the output of hot water between four different units.

On the right is the old school. The duct tape says it all. It’s a 300 gallon traditional water heater. This facility pays about $8,000 a month for hot water usage using the conventional. When it broke, the owner looked at his system and thought there must be a better way. He decided to automate. He pays less than $5K per month with four on-demand heaters and there is unlimited hot water. He never runs out. With all of the new equipment, labor and install, it took a little less than 8 months to recoup the investment.

No more duct taping the old system. It’s an eye sore. It worked, but there came a point where he had to make a decision. Does he keep patching the old or invest in the future with much less headaches and much greater efficiency and savings.

We all have this kind of decision in various parts of our business. I can recall spending over $50K for a PBX phone system for a large office space we owned less than a decade ago. That was what was available and conventional.

Today, $30/month does the same job with a cloud-based PBX system. Automation with convenience changed the game entirely.

You may not be dealing with hot water. It may be how you do marketing, sales or servicing your customer. Take a look around. Are you patching with duct tape? What would the savings and lack of hassle mean for you?

Don’t get used to the old. Eventually, everything becomes outdated and costly. Anyone want an old boiler?

 

Filed Under: Blog, Marketing Automation, Miscellany ·

Marketing Automation Strategy Is The Linchpin

January 18, 2012 by · 2 Comments

linchpin

Trying to make marketing automation work in  your sales process starts with the IT work. However, it is only the start of what really matters. Configuring a system and ensuring data flows in and out out of your CRM is a basic element of starting the work to help you see what is happening with your leads.

If this is where your interest lies, then you can simply connect a real-time analytics program. Marketing automation may be overkill.

The real work starts with strategy. The strategy for connecting with a buyer and wooing them gently through a sequence of

steps that provide high value and build trust is what makes marketing automation valuable. The strategy is the linchpin for success. Here are some of the strategic parts of a successful marketing automation system to perfect:

  • Landing page content. Your content has to serve people with inattention. They land on a specific page seeking information. They are not going to buy now. They are browsing. Ensure your content provokes thought and educates them. Invite them to go deeper. Your tone has to connect with your audience.
  • Call to action content. Again, there needs to be a compelling call to action that invites a next step. At the core, your strategy should be to provide a high level of value for helping your buyer understand how your market works, the questions to be asking and stories of past problems and successes. Package this in white papers, ebooks, webinars and multimedia.
  • Lead nurturing. The sequencing and timing of email communications, direct mail and sales calls needs to be coordinatedand triggered in a logical and personal sequence. Your touch points should seek to build a relationship and provide a high level of value and stay away from selling.
  • Sales engagement. The timing and the conversation your sales team will be in needs to be coordinated with your content. Avoid awkward connections and ensure your personal sales engagements continue to bring value. There should be a direct call to action such as a sales meeting. Sales should be a continuum to the marketing automation process.

The strategy is critical for success. How you set up various campaigns based on buyer profiles needs to be thoroughly designed and implemented.

Your metrics will provide the feedback for continually iterating on the content and programming of your system to deliver relevant leads.

Where are you finding challenges in marketing automation?

Filed Under: Blog, Marketing Automation · Tagged: , , ,

Validation In The Buying Process

November 28, 2011 by · 1 Comment

validatedThe internet changes the game between the buyer and the seller. Second opinions are easy to access for a buyer. Assuming your lead generation systems and marketing automation are set up well, a new lead will be nurtured, scored and engaged when they are ready. There are analytics and systems which work effectively. However, trust is not built solely on marketing automation.

When a buyer is wanting something, they search and look specifically for their desired product or service. The choices may be numerous. Your competitors are just a click away. If they click off of your website, then you can easily be forgotten in their continual navigation.

Imagine what you do when you do start to hone in on some choices after searching. You gravitate to places of value. You are seeking validation. Here is how validation works within an inbound marketing process:

  • Content Which Educates. Sellers think about what they sell all the time. They forget that buyers think about many diverse things and have limited attention. They are new to a domain you are fluent and obsessive about. They don’t even know the right questions to ask. If you have content which educates then their searching and navigation continually draws them into your rich resources to help them understand value and orient themselves to your industry.
  • What Others Say. When the buyer decides that you are worth engaging because of what they see and feel from your inbound marketing systems, then they find validation in what others say. Testimonials, social media and other forums and sites which lend opinion about you are important. They build a picture of your credibility. It’s all out there. Be sure your goodwill and success stories are captured and searchable.
  • Congruence. We have all experienced businesses which have remarkable marketing but they disappoint when the first touch point with the customer happens. Unresponsiveness, uncaring, rudeness or complexity create incongruence with the message. Validation requires that what the buyer experiences aligns with what they expect from what they read and research.

There are anonymous visitors that are checking you out right now and trying to decide if you provide value and are a good choice. If you can think through each step of your process with these points in mind, then trust grows and you win new business. Fix the broken links and work it continually. The battle for our customers’ minds and business is relentless.

How can your own process work better?

Filed Under: Blog, Feature Articles, Inbound Marketing, Marketing Automation · Tagged: , , , , , , , ,

Lead Scoring For Sales Prioritization

November 22, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

When the Major Home Oil Dealer Ran Out of Fuel a Special Board Was Activated for Emergency Deliveries. More Than 250 Homes Were without Oil. Cards on the Wall List Priorities 10/1973

In our marketing consulting, we are typically faced with one of two problems:

  1. There are not enough inbound leads
  2. There are too many inbound leads

Each of these requires a different marketing system.  For organizations which are inundated with many leads, there is a problem focused around the sales process.  Salespeople are not like marketing automation systems.  They have these constraints:

  • They can only work sequentially one call/email at a time.
  • They can only connect with a finite amount of people a day.
  • They are limited in how they can organize their call lists.
  • Their talent is finely tuned for closing the sale.

A marketing automation system can do the opposite:

  • It can deliver custom communications simultaneously to thousands of people.
  • It is limitless in the number of people that can be contacted.
  • It can be programmed to filter lists.
  • Its talent is tuned for nurturing the lead to a sale.

The differences are much like a factory worker and a factory robot; speed and predictability are greatly increased with the latter. However, in sales, human touch is highly relevant and important. Thus, working with automation does not mean exclusiveness.  It is complementary. One of the areas that can greatly augment a salesperson’s tasks is lead scoring. Lead scoring is the underlying automation rules which applies quantitative scores for the behaviors of a buyer online.

If your salesperson is limited in their time and finite in their personal engagements, why not prioritize their list for them using lead scoring.  Here are some areas where marketing automation can surface the highest priority leads for your sales force:

  • Strategic Landing Pages.  A landing page which is visited and reviewed can appoint a high lead score to signify interest and targeted prospecting for who to talk with.
  • Decision Maker roles.  If a lead form with a role or title field is filled out for an executive position, you are likely dealing with a decision maker.  This should be a prioritized score to raise the priority of this lead.
  • Content Downloads.  If you have people that read your content and consume value offering pieces, they are engaged.  Create different layers of content and for those visitors that seek higher levels of content in your buying process, score them high.  They are sales ready.

There are several other ways to use lead scoring to help your sales team in addition to these ideas.  As they are working through their call lists, the lists can prioritize based on such key criteria that surface the hottest leads.

In your world, how could lead scoring help your sales process be more effective?

Filed Under: Blog, Feature Articles, Marketing Automation, Miscellany, Sales Process · Tagged: , , , , , , ,

4 Lead Assignment Tips

November 3, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

Loopfuse Assignment RulesIf you have an abundance of leads from your inbound marketing system, then qualification becomes a challenge.  Your Loopfuse system should be set up for positioning your sales team to qualify and convert leads based on various criteria which are part of your Lead records.

Part of the challenge is to ensure that the flow of your Leads drives responsiveness from your sales team.  Your Lead Flows and Lead Scoring will be working in tandem to prepare a prospect for the sales engagement.

Within Loopfuse, your data  is synced and exported on a schedule.  Setting your assignment rules up in Salesforce.com with queues, rules and filtering ensures the right assignment of sales prospects to the right people or team.  Here are some things to ensure your strategy for Lead Assignment from your marketing automation system provide a strong process for revenue generation:

  1. Multiple call to action items. Ensure these are layered with increasing value.  Your first piece should get an email.  Nurturing should entice a sign-up for further information.  In exchange, you can get more profile information in your sign-up forms.  A buyer profile based on the information you want will grow based on an exchange in value.  Get it over time a bit at a time.
  2. Buyer profile fields. Ensure your forms help get the information you want and sync this with your Salesforce.com Lead fields.  The Lead fields become segmentation criteria.  Identify 3-5 criteria which help to funnel your prospects based on the sales dialogue they should be in.  Enterprise customers will have a different conversation than small business.  Executives will be different than end users.  Use your form fields to assign prospects to the right person.
  3. Lead scoring for readiness. Based on buyer activities on your landing pages and with your content over time, create the right thresholds for assigning a prospect.  This is an indicator of your prospect’s readiness.  Certain people on your team may be apt for a ready buyer while others can be more informational and casual in their conversation for unready buyers.
  4. Monitor Distribution. Create reports to see how your automation is producing a distribution with your team and how the follow-up activities are working.  This will allow for load balancing and optimizing how your sales team is managing with their first contact activities.

Marketing automation is powerful for nurturing and readying Leads at the right time.  Use your Loopfuse system to bring in the personal touch with the right person by integrating the right strategies for how your sales team engages.

How are you setting up your sales team with Loopfuse?  Feel free to comment.

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Filed Under: Blog, Marketing Automation · Tagged: , , , ,

Running An Inbound Marketing System

October 24, 2011 by · 5 Comments

A recent article from Marketing Automation Software Guide hit on the main reason why many of our clients hire us for marketing:  running a complete system is difficult and requires perseverance.  Pieces have to be put together, tested, changed, refined and created again.  Getting into the mind of a specific buyer with their preferences and peculiarities needs to translate into a well-laid strategy.

Inbound marketing typically involves getting a visitor to find you and then helping that visitor convert into a lead by providing value.  Once they opt-in, then you can nurture them and ready them for the sales proces via marketing automation.

Here are the activities typically involved with running an inbound marketing system:

  • Strategy.  There has to be a vision for how the logic will work for visitor behaviors on the site.  This results in a decision tree that needs to be architected with the right content at the right time.
  • Scoring.  This is part of the strategy.  How leads are scored will arise from a definition of what a ready lead is to a sales person.  Their readiness should be quantified and the lead scoring should follow suit for the desirable behaviors to warrant sales interaction or more targeted marketing engagement.
  • SEO.  Tuning your content to get found online via search or social media is a relentless activity.  Your systems should have feedback to help refine your content so that it all matters and counts for driving traffic.  Both authority and relevance from a search engine standpoint are key metrics to monitor.
  • Analysis.  Watching visitor and lead behaviors needs to be continually monitored for trends.  As the data comes in such as what content is valuable and where people are clicking to on your landing sites, your analysis should provide action on refining the links, logic and layout of your inbound marketing system.
  • Segmentation.  New offers, richer content and specific events need to be developed based on timing, seasonality and the critical mass of your inbound leads.  Develop specific segmentations with personalized offers and lead processes.
  • Sales engagement.  Working with your sales team to understand if the lead scoring and nurturing is calibrated needs to be a continuous process.  Furthermore, gathering information from your CRM system to drive content and lead flow logic back into your marketing system needs to be part of the ongoing strategy.

Traditional marketing where there is an event and a response is a different mindset altogether.  Today’s marketing game for inbound leads and marketing automation is ongoing and changing.  Attention to the details and how the system supports the buyer experience rewards organizations with easier customer acquisitions and lower internal costs.

How are you doing marketing today to continually make it better?

Filed Under: Blog, Feature Articles, Inbound Marketing, Marketing Automation, Miscellany · Tagged: , , , , , , , ,

Marketing Automation: The Awareness Stage

October 18, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

When you are just beginning your search for a car, software or consultant, you start with research.  Getting online is the most convenient way to research today.  You may look for what is a trend, what others think and how the industry works overall.  It is the awareness stage and it is largely self-service.  You are looking for education to do the following:

  • Get oriented.  You want to understand what is available and how to ask good questions and make intelligent decisions.  You have to understand the context of what you are seeking first.  As buyers, we are engaged with multiple markets.  In the awareness stage, we are seeking information to help us in our understanding.
  • Understand fit.  You have a problem to solve.  You want to know if what is available can be used off the shelf or molded to provide a specific resolution to your problem.  It has to fit into your world.
  • Find the leaders.  If you are looking at headphones, insurance or fitness memberships, you are assessing who the leader is in the market.  The leader promotes confidence and emulates what the market opts for.  Leadership defines the category you are investigating.

As a seller, it is premature to engage with heavy-handed selling in the awareness stage.  Your buyer is not ready.  A well-developed marketing automation strategy and system helps your buyer to get comfortable with your brand and receive the information to help them prepare for their next mindset jump in the buying process.

Your buyer thinks like you do. They start with disorientation and seek to get oriented.  The awareness stage is a ripe opportunity to create and build trust that can grow.  Serve the people who are in the initial awareness stage with the right information at the right time and it will allow for a movement through the marketing automation funnel.

How are you serving your prospects that are in the awareness stage?

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