How To Generate More Sales Conversations From Inbound Leads [Episode #28]

Is your sales team is struggling to get leads on the phone?

This might be one of those situations where technology and easy access to digital data are getting in the way of good old fashioned common sense.

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When a new lead gets assigned to one of your sales reps, there are things that sales reps do before trying to connect with the lead?

• They decide when they are going to reach out (hopefully asap)
• They prepare their “connect call” script or outline.
• They open up a new note in their CRM.
• Most importantly, they do research on the lead.

It is important that sales reps try to understand the lead’s situation or the context of their initial conversion so they can make their first touch a relevant interaction.

How Small Marketing Teams Leapfrog Larger Competitors

Since this cursory research only takes a few minutes, it is a major leverage point for small marketing and sales team.

By doing things smarter,  your sales reps can close a lot more sales using the same amount of time and effort.

In this episode of the Small Marketing Teams podcast, I discuss how using your lead intelligence differently can result in an increase in revenue.

The first thing you need to know is that not all sales reps use lead intelligence (the data you have about a lead and their interests) the same way.

An AVERAGE sales rep looks at which offer or landing page the lead converted on before calling or emailing them.

A GOOD sales rep analyzes additional digital behavior, including:

• How many web pages they viewed
• When they were last on your website.
• The most recently opened emails
• Data submitted in the landing page form
• Social profiles

Both of these approaches represent the use of quantitative data in building your assumptions about a lead’s problems, priorities, and motivations.

The BEST sales reps take it a step further. They build on quantitative data by adding qualitative elements.

These top performers build a narrative around the journey that the lead look - from the first ad or search engine query to their landing page conversions.

Where do they get this information?

They put themselves in the prospective buyer’s shoes by immersing themselves in the experience that the buyer takes.

They take into account the ad that got the lead’s attention and the language that led them to click on the call to action.

They analyze the copy on the landing page to identify the hook that caused the lead to first opt-in.

If the lead converted on a second or third offer further down the funnel after their first conversion, what was the communication and copy that drove them to take the next step?

Together this information in your CRM enables savvy sales reps to create a fairly accurate narrative that will inform how they connect with, qualify, and build relationships with leads.

Next, let’s explore why this is important.

Continuity Is The Key To Productive Sales Calls

It used to be that prospective buyers did very little digging online before contacting a company. Today, leads do 50-70% of the research on their problem online before reaching out to a sales rep.

That means that they have an understanding of their problem and potential solutions before they ever get connected with your sales team.

Think about the way that you make a purchase. You research online first. By the time that you speak with a salesperson, you are an educated buyer.

Have you ever had an initial conversation with a sales rep where they brought up points and addressed issues that were not relevant to your situation?

Now, think about sales calls you have had where the discussion felt like a continuation of the research and direction you were already heading?

The rapport and momentum of these two calls are completely different. The conversation that is built on a continuation of the experience you have already had closes a lot faster.

Instead of going into sales conversations cold, empower your sales team to look beyond basic sales analytics and be the next step in the messaging and call to action that they lead has already shown appeal to them.

Small Marketing Teams Takeaway

Analytics is great, but knowing each buyer’s journey will give you a competitive advantage.

Just because you have the data in your marketing and sales platforms, does not mean that your sales reps know it is there, know how you use it, and are using it in their sales process.

This takes a clear process, simple actions, and ongoing monitoring of sales tool usage.