Sales and marketing seem like they would lend themselves to performance analysis; if you’re getting leads and closing deals you’re doing something correctly. But, in reality, understanding what’s going right or wrong and why takes a more complex evaluation.
Done well, this process can highlight the strengths and weaknesses of how you generate revenue and suggest effective ways to do things better. However, poor performance analysis can lead you to reach conclusions that are inaccurate (or entirely off base) that only work against your objectives. Here’s some strategies to help you get it right:
Understand Your Sales Funnel
Your sales and marketing funnel refers to the stage in the buyer’s journey that people are at. New customers are unfamiliar with your product/service, company, and maybe even industry. They need basic information delivered at a high level. At the middle of the funnel are people who understand the basics but need more information about ROI, use cases, or features. At the bottom of the funnel are people who are ready to buy but need to be convinced that your company is the best choice. They need to see what makes your product unique compared to the competition. Understanding where a lead is at in the sales funnel and what kinds of information and messaging they need/want could not be more important for turning leads into sales.
Qualify Your Leads
The sales and marketing team will never live up to their full potential if they are wasting time and resources chasing after every lead that expresses the slightest interest. You bring in more revenue when you focus on the best leads: those most likely to buy. There are lots of ways to qualify leads (it’s both an art and a science), but the best approach is to collect information from leads to understand their intent and to help determine whether they will be a good customer.
Standardize Your Sales Process
Sales and marketing is all about doing what works, so find out what that is, then standardize it into a process that guides what sales staff do from beginning to end. Clearly define who does what so that important steps are not overlooked or messages and outreach efforts delivered redundantly. It’s important to train and support staff to follow the proven process. Just as important, however, is constantly monitoring sales performance and changing tactics as necessary.
Always Be Closing
It’s the number one rule of sales for a reason. It’s possible (even common) for sales and marketing to put ambitious plans and innovative efforts in place, carefully synchronize what they do, make an amazing impression on prospects, and still see a lot of people politely decline. The reason why can be complicated, as can the solutions, but the first step is acknowledging the problem exists. If you are not closing adequate amounts of sales qualified leads, something needs to change.
Perfecting sales and marketing is really a three-pronged effort: knowing what to track, knowing how to track it, and knowing how to act upon it. Proseer can help with one, some, or all of those efforts. Contact us for a consultation.
