It’s important to visualize what is different in the future where 15% incremental sales are happening predictably.
Think of how you generate sales today:
- Sales people are engaging new prospects and managing existing accounts. The problem is having enough time for the former when the latter takes so much of their time.
- Much of the selling is relationship based.
- Your team is probably doing tradeshows but follow-up might be spotty or only be on the hottest of leads.
- Some leads coming in off website but it’s infrequent.
- Someone said “do social media!” and you think it’s a waste of effort.
- You have at least five years of proposals sitting in a drawer somewhere with prospects you’ve talked to – most of that business didn’t close but you’ve not gone back to the drawer unless they call.
- You’ve experimented with emailers like Constant Contact® but are worried and a bit confused about anti-spam legislation.
What five things would I want to change in the future for you?
- Technology is managing content, tracking and automating interaction with prospects contextually, and reporting on engagement. Imagine the computer starting a discussion and you getting a note back saying, “That’s an interesting idea.”
- Sales people follow up on marketing qualified leads… not cold calls.
- You are certain you are compliant – we’re going to build up a base of people and companies you can continuously communicate with, but we need to do it right.
- You have leveraged what you have. You have a great database or CRM or website – fantastic – leverage this and add other pieces to make that asset more effective at generating leads.
- Build out successes that help you fund increasing levels of investment in lead generation. To get to 50% of pipeline from marketing, you start smaller, get some wins and expand on the back of knowing more about how this is going to work within the organization. However, you feel like you’re building to a goal.
Finally, you need to feel like there is a more continuous ‘engine’ driving activity. The momentum isn’t reliant on YOU – let the marketing engine drive the momentum. Engine is the right visualization: A small amount of money goes in, more money comes out in a predictable way; that’s ultimately what you’re looking to build. That’s what’s different: you know the engine makes money.
To learn more about getting more sales, download MoreSALES’ Frugal Tactics for Building Your Sales Engine white paper.
