Effective strategies for optimizing your acquisition of new customers
Online advertising and trade shows: Many companies invest in online advertising of trade shows to attract potential customers. But often the question arises, what happens after the initial contact? Are these valuable contacts adequately handled and followed up?
Sales teams are overworked and caught up in their daily routine. They have to manage existing customers, while marketing teams already think their job is done once they have generated the leads. This creates a gap where leads are forgotten or overlooked. Without a clear, defined sales process, these precious investments often go unused.
Sales process: Why it is so important
Successful B2B sales managers know it: a clear sales process is critical. It ensures that new employees understand their roles and that the sales process is understandable and measurable. As a result:
- Sales strategies can be improved,
- Tools can be used effectively,
- Sales forecasts can be made more accurately,
- accelerate time-to-market,
- and ultimately increase sales.
Joint development of an effective sales process
A sales process should not be defined top-down. Involvement of the entire team is essential. As a team, jointly define each step in detail from lead generation to sales. I like to use facilitation paper and index cards here:
Green Cards:
This is where a new lead is created, e.g. online form filled out.
Yellow cards:
Work step followed by other steps.
Red cards
This is where the process ends. E.g. “No interest” or “missing contact data”.
The reality of lead conversion: 2/3 of the potential untapped.
A surprising fact is that only about 3% of generated leads are immediately ready to buy. The remaining 97% often remain unused. Yet they in particular offer enormous potential.
Lack of reason to buy: (hot leads).
Approximately 7% of leads are definitely willing to buy. But they lack the incentive. A limited-time special promotion creates the incentive to make the purchase now.
Problem aware: (warm leads)
One-third know about the challenges, but don’t know (your) solution yet. Explain their product or service via a webinar or video.
Whether it’s through limited time offers, webinars, explainer videos or other means, there are numerous ways to convert prospects.
Clueless (cold leads).
Another third are unaware that they have a problem. The first thing to do here is to raise awareness. A freebie in the form of a checklist shakes things up. A subsequent content track with the consequences if the challenge is not solved creates incentives to go in search of a solution.
No budget:
Leave out leads with no investment budget. This third will never buy from you.
Content creation and sales automation
Creating a content path is critical. Tools, such as the free www.diagrammeditor.de, help with diagramming.
The majority of leads search online for solutions to problems. The trick is to appear on the first search results pages. You can do little with an anonymous website visitor. Only when a visitor signs up for your lead magnet do you get the contact information and advertising consent. A lead magnet can be the checklist (cold leads), a webinar (warm leads) or online store (hot leads).
This is followed by different email routes. These run in an automated, time-controlled manner using email marketing automation tools, such as Klick-Tipp. This makes your lead process scalable and doesn’t eat up human resources.
It gets really exciting when you couple email automation with your CRM software. You can see directly in the contact history which email the prospect received and how they reacted, e.g. opened, read or clicked. If the prospect calls, the CTI link immediately opens the contact in the CRM software based on the incoming call number. Based on the clicks and openings, the consultant knows which topics are relevant for the prospect.
From the behavior of the email recipient, you automatically trigger actions in the CRM system. Clicking on the link of an explainer video then leads to a resubmission for the consultant in the CRM software. This makes cold calls a thing of the past. The prospect informs himself at his own pace. Sales staff talk to informed prospects and step into the role of consultant.
Conclusion
Companies need to put their sales process to the test to make sure they are not ignoring a large portion of their potential customers. By developing content strategies for hot, warm, and cold leads and automating the sales process, a company grows systematically and efficiently. It’s time for businesses to maximize conversions with the right strategies and tools.
Autor:
Markus Grutzeck
Markus Grutzeck is head of marketing and head of the Hanau branch at Sellmore GmbH. He regularly organizes the online event www.VertriebsPowerTag.online and the conference www.Erfolgreicher-Kundendialog.de. Sellmore is a vendor-independent CRM consultancy and supports medium-sized businesses in the selection, introduction and customizing of CRM solutions.
The CRM consultants of Sellmore support here on request.
