1. Communication between Marketing and Sales
One of the most frequent symptoms that slows down the sales closing process is the lack of communication between the Marketing and Sales teams. As they are two teams that, in principle, have different functions and objectives, no connection is established between them. Sometimes it can even lead to conflicts due to a lack of communication.
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While it is true that each team has its own tasks, the efforts of both teams are essential for the proper functioning of your company. Imagine generating technology marketing campaigns, but not having anyone in charge of transforming those people interested in your business into customers
Or imagine having no one in charge of transforming those people interested in your business into customers.
Or imagine having to go back to the traditional sales system, bearing in mind that today’s technology customer has evolved as a consumer and is no longer interested in cold calling. This would mean a considerable loss of business opportunities.
Therefore, the technological customer has evolved as a consumer and is no longer interested in cold calls.
So you know that to speed up your technology sales, both parts of the machinery must work. But they must also learn to communicate with each other to achieve the goals they share in common.
So you know that to speed up your technology sales, both parts of the machine must work.
1.1. How to improve communication between teams
It is clear that, apart from the usual communications between all the teams in your company, it is essential to establish a common thread of communications between Marketing and Sales to keep abreast of progress in marketing, and to keep abreast of progress on the commercial side to close sales.
It is essential to establish a common thread of communications between Marketing and Sales to keep abreast of progress on the commercial side to close sales.
One of the points to improve in the communication between Marketing and Sales is the understanding of the evolution of the potential customer. In other words: today’s technology consumer does not jump from one stage of the buying process to another in a single step, but rather it is a progressive evolution.
This is especially true in the case of sales and sales.
This is especially true for companies that contract with technology companies to improve their own services, which is considered B2B. In this case, the potential client’s interest in hiring your technological service or product will not happen overnight, but depends on multiple factors: the needs of your company, the interests of your customers, the urgency to implement the technological product or service and, obviously, finding a technology provider that can provide the best solution.
This means, then, that they will be able to find a technology provider that can provide the best solution.
This means, then, that Marketing and Sales efforts will not always be the same, as they depend on the evolution of the potential customer.
2. How to detect the best sales opportunities
To get both teams to work together for the benefit of the whole company, it is essential to understand the target audience and their needs. So that each line of the company knows how to direct its efforts in the right direction and favour closing sales.
This requires that they are able to identify the best sales opportunities.
This requires investigating your company’s customer typology, and understanding their attitude when browsing the internet. Once the potential customer is better understood, the better the chances of closing a sale, of transforming a sales opportunity into a new customer
will be detected.
Having knowledge of the attitude of your potential customers, also called buyer personas, will allow you to identify the moments in which they will progressively gain interest in you as the technology provider they need.
This progress will be made in the form of a buyer personas.
This progress of a sales opportunity or qualified lead requires, then, identifying the moments in which the marketing actions to “nurture” this lead have already given them everything they need, and they are ready to receive information from the sales actions.
But how do you categorise leads to get the timing right?
But how do you categorise leads to get the timing right?
What is the best way to categorise leads in order to find the right moment?
3. The lead scoring
The lead scoring is, precisely, an ideal technique for categorising leads according to their progressive interest in your company. This process allows you to give points to a lead according to the type of action they take when interacting with your company, and give them a category that describes what stage of the buying process they are at.
The lead scoring process is the best way to categorise leads according to their interest in your company.
3.1. How can a scoring system help me?
lead scoring would allow you to more easily detect at what point in the buying process the lead is at. Therefore, knowing what incentives he/she needs to move forward and get to the closing of the purchase.
It would be easier for the lead to move forward and get to the closing of the purchase.
It would be easier for your teams to know who to target with marketing or sales actions so that their efforts are put to good use. If a reader has already obtained enough valuable content and wants to reach out to communicate with your sales team, it’s time to help them take that step.
You’ll save your marketing team’s efforts in attracting new leads to your company. While sales will be in charge of solving commercial issues in order to close the purchasing process. This is the importance of establishing better communication between both departments: knowing how to hand over responsibilities at the right time will improve the performance of your teams, as well as speed up the closing of sales.
3.2. What actions can lead scoring score?
For example, a reader who downloads an ebook on your website and frequently visits your blog is currently interested in receiving educational content about technology. He will receive a certain number of points after each marketing action he takes, which places him in a category. This category will be the one that your marketing team will identify as leads who continue to be interested in receiving more valuable content
The category change would occur, then, when you earn more points by performing other actions closer to the interests of your sales team. For example, if the reader starts to visit more frequently the pages of your technology products or services, or starts to find out more about your success stories.
It is essential to start working on the sales team’s success stories.
It’s essential to start working out the scoring system with both teams. Which lead actions belong to Marketing, and which belong to Sales? What is the middle ground where both teams should report to each other on the progress of the leads?
What is the middle ground where both teams should report to each other on the progress of the leads?
lead?
Maybe your sales team has already experienced contact with leads who were not yet ready to close the purchase, or the leads were raising commercial issues with the marketing team. That is why it is very important to define the point system in relation to the interests of each department, and for both groups to constantly work on informing each other about the progress of each sales opportunity.
3.3. What parameters should you use?
The parameters for your sales opportunity.
The parameters for your lead scoring also depend on the interests of each department, and your technology in general. The scoring system cannot only be from 0 to 100 points. It can be from 0 to 50, from 0 to 1000, as you and your teams consider to be the most appropriate score to categorise the leads.
Yes, it is imperative that your entire organisation understands lead scoring. The better prepared your employees are, the more efficient the sales close will be.
The better prepared your employees are, the more efficient the sales close will be.
4. How to apply it in my technology
You know better than anyone what means will allow you to optimise your company’s efforts: technology. And what kind of technology can allow lead scoring? Well, the use of a Customer Relationship Management (CRM).
Customer Relationship Management (CRM).
In recent years, great advances have been made in online contact management. Not only does it allow you to store the contact details of your recurring customers, it is also possible to add more properties to your contacts and connect your CRM with other technology programmes.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM).
This means that a CRM today can store all the information your Marketing and Sales departments need. Any employee will be able to access the profile of a lead and study its evolution, as well as find the records made by their colleagues.
Any employee will be able to access the profile of a lead and study its evolution.
4.1. Can I automate the lead scoring process?
One of the most interesting connections for a CRM is the creation of workflows. This system allows you to create automations according to the actions performed by your leads
For example, if a potential customer requests a free consultancy about your technology products or services, you can automate the sending of an email confirming receipt of the request.
Workflows can also be automated.
Workflows can be a great help to set up automations according to the lead scoring you define in your technology, since it is possible to define them depending on the activation criteria (i.e. depending on the points your leads get). You can adjust workflows according to your team’s methodology, as it can also serve to streamline communications between Marketing and Sales.
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Images: Nick Hillier | Annie Spratt
