Thank you for attending our presentation at AlphaLab!
Please be sure to attend our next session at AlphaLab.
"Sales Models: Structures that fit your business" on March 14th at 12pm.
"Sales Models: Structures that fit your business" on March 14th at 12pm.
Guided Questions
How do we build a contact list? - sales intelligence
When we launch a sales outreach program, the first thing entrepreneurs and sales leaders do is go to LinkedIn and find a list of people in our network to try and get meetings with. We attend networking events and try to build up a list of 'coffee dates' to identify as many opportunities as possible. These are good ways to build up an initial list of contacts for our business.
But, this doesn't scale. You can't only work with people you know or can meet in person. How else can we get a robust contact list to help drive new business into our pipeline?
Once you have a robust list, it's very important to make sure the data is accurate and your email reputation stays high.
But, this doesn't scale. You can't only work with people you know or can meet in person. How else can we get a robust contact list to help drive new business into our pipeline?
- Are people looking online for a solution you might offer? Google search might be the thing for you, but it can be expensive and competitive.
- Are your customers very active on social media? LinkedIn, Facebook, and other platforms might be the best way to engage them and build a list of inbound leads. Again, this can be costly and unless your marketing messaging is perfect, you might be wasting money.
- Do you have a variety of people you can sell too (a variety of job titles, multiple industries, prospects across the country)? There are contact databases like Lead411 and Hoovers that can give you a wide range of companies and contacts to target.
- Is your market (healthcare, education) or your target job title (facilities director, billing specialist) very specific? Or broad (small business, CFO)? If it's specific, you may need to identify list services that specialize in your industry.
Once you have a robust list, it's very important to make sure the data is accurate and your email reputation stays high.
- Have you properly warmed up your email domain? Sending small numbers of emails at first, and then gradually growing your outreach number is important. Don't just build a list, then send 1,000 emails on day one.
- How many emails in your list aren't valid? Email validation services will allow you to send outreach to only accurate email accounts.
- Are your prospects receiving your emails? Getting into the inbox is critical for email marketing. Avoid spam filters and promotions tabs by consistently monitoring your reputation and spam scores. GlockApps.com is a good starting point.
What sales intelligence software does EP use?
Have you tried these methods and still need more contacts to fuel your prospecting funnel?
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How do we keep track of our database? - CRM
Once we get a good list of target customers, it's important to have a solid way to keep track of them. Some sales teams will sort an entire list into groups like 'prospects', 'leads', 'opportunities', 'customers'. But, where do you store them? Microsoft Excel is one way, but it's certainly not the best way.
CRM systems are designed to keep track of your prospects, opportunities and customers. It tracks information on each person and company. There are several broad ways each department uses a CRM. Marketing will utilize a CRM software to build awareness and help drive qualified leads for the sales team. Sales reps record notes and outcome of call attempts and keep track of customer interactions. Customer service teams take notes on support tickets. And, management uses CRM systems to track conversion rates, forecast opportunities, and ensure the pipeline is growing.
There are hundreds of CRMs on the market. So, which one do you pick for your business? Here are some questions to think through this decision.
CRM systems are designed to keep track of your prospects, opportunities and customers. It tracks information on each person and company. There are several broad ways each department uses a CRM. Marketing will utilize a CRM software to build awareness and help drive qualified leads for the sales team. Sales reps record notes and outcome of call attempts and keep track of customer interactions. Customer service teams take notes on support tickets. And, management uses CRM systems to track conversion rates, forecast opportunities, and ensure the pipeline is growing.
There are hundreds of CRMs on the market. So, which one do you pick for your business? Here are some questions to think through this decision.
- Do you plan to use the system for sales, marketing and customer service? If so, an all-in-one CRM which has marketing automation and customer support features is likely important. You can always integrate multiple products into one, if you like a certain system that doesn't come with all three features together.
- How many contacts do you think you'll have in your system at one time? If you sell nationally and follow the above list building strategies, you'll likely have 10s of thousands. Therefore, you'll want to choose a CRM that allows you unlimited contacts. If you only need a few thousand contacts or less, it won't matter.
- How many users do you plan on having? If your marketing, sales and service teams will grow, it's important to understand that some CRM platforms charge by number of licenses. Some do not. Try to predict a good balance between number of contacts and number of users and make your decision based on that.
- What other technologies do you want to connect to your CRM? You can connect email, social media, telephone, calendar and webinar platforms (and much more) to your CRM. What's important to you? If it's just you, you may not need all of this. But, if you're going to have a sales team with multiple users, these integrations might be important.
- How much customization do you plan to do with your CRM? A sophisticated sales team or marketing department will want the flexibility to customize and automate heavily. A single entrepreneur with little sales experience and no plans on major growth in the sales department might be able to get away with an out of the box CRM solution.
What CRM does EP use?
Are you unsure what CRM is good for you today, or which might be the best as you grow?
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How do we reach out to them? - email marketing and marketing automation
OK, so you have a robust list of contacts to sell to. And you now have a way to organize these contacts and keep track of the customer journey. How do we now leverage technology to provide outreach to try and generate leads, secure meetings and convert customers?
Email marketing can help provide outreach to a large pool of customers. Email (and even text messages and tasks for sales reps) can be automated to drive the best results, with the least amount of manual time. Should you automate your email outreach or stick to the individual one-on-one email?
- How big is your potential customer list? If you have 10-20 accounts at any given time you're trying to penetrate, you should focus specifically on LinkedIn and handwritten email outreach. If you have a larger pool of prospects, you should leverage technology to email 50 prospects each day, every day.
- Should you set-up an email cadence to reach out to my cold prospects? If your target prospects don't respond to your first email, you should definitely not give up. The average B2B prospect takes 7 outreach attempts to respond (phone, email, physical visits). Most sales reps give up after two attempts. Consider marketing automation to drive the initial conversation.
- How do you respond to website visitors and inbound leads? Depending on your business and the number of inquiries you receive, it's possible that automated emails and marketing messaging might help drive conversations and increase conversions. Companies like MailChimp, Pardot, Marketo and many all-in-one CRMs will provide you with tools to create email cadences to help stay in front of potential customers.
Other content ideas to use with your marketing automation tools. Newsletters, sign-up responses, customer implementation (getting started guides), new product features, pricing and coupons, event registration and follow-up, curated content, seasonal email campaigns, AND cold outreach.
What marketing automation tools does EP use?
Are you ready to take your email marketing to the next level?
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What else can we do to be effective - sales 'acceleration' technologies
You now have the tools necessary to build lists, store and manage those lists, and reach out to your prospects and customers. What else can you do to increase outreach? What can you do to gain more insight into your customers? What else can you do to showcase your product more effectively and to more people?
- Would you benefit from making a lot of phone calls in a short amount of time? If so, there's technology that can provide robust outbound phone outreach. It's pricey, but very effective. Connect Leader and Connect and Sell are two leaders.
- As your sales team grows, will you need to provide consistent and ongoing training? Sales tracking capabilities like Call Camp, ExecVision and recording programs in your CRM will help you or your sales managers provide critical support to your sales reps.
- Does your sales process include conducting webinars? Will you be sending digital proposals? Do you have multiple people working in a document or on a project together? Various project management tools are out there to help you. Same with the productivity software programs like WebEx, Slack, Google Hangouts, etc.
- Is your calendar getting out of control? Trying to book a meeting, but tired of going back and forth on available times? Give your prospects access to your calendar with tools like Calendly, ConfirmedApp.com.
- Does your website generate traffic, but not enough inbound leads? Try a live chat feature on your website to start a conversation with your visitors. If managed, you can start a sales conversation. If unmanaged, visitors can still fill out a contact form to schedule a time to talk.
What sales acceleration tools does EP use?
Looking for more ways to increase your sales efforts?
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