Turning Leads Into Quality Sales by Aligning Sales & Marketing

Presented by NuSpark Marketing

Sales & Marketing Fight

Bicker, Bicker

Let’s Unite

Less Lead Loss!

Better Conversion

Rates!

Align Your Organization

Set the Stage to Improved Process

• Only 20% of leads are followed up on

• 70% of leads are disqualified due to budget, lack of timing, etc

• 80% of “bad leads” do go on to buy within 24 months

• 73% of companies have no process for requalifying leads

• 80% of sales after the 5th contact

Source: Sirius Decisions

More research

• An Aberdeen survey revealed results that have been ratified by other analysts:

" … on average 16% of the total leads that are deemed 'sales-ready' opportunities actually close. The difference between a successful company and a mediocre company lies in how the remaining 84% of already qualified opportunities are handled. "

"69% of all respondents not using lead nurturing indicated that the lack of human resources to develop nurturing campaigns was the number one reason for not leveraging lead nurturing.“

Other constraints included: lack of program and process expertise, inadequate content and no formal content creation process.

• We’re here to fix this!

Today’s Buyer Behavior

• Information is free

• Prospects access information online

• Sales is no longer the information conduit

• Marketing is responsible for early/frequent digital communication

The Buying Definition

The Selling Problem

• Too many people selling their solutions are unable to explain how their offerings can be used by their potential buyers to:

– Achieve a Goal

– Solve a Problem

– Satisfy a Need

So, Our Goal Is To

• Help targeted buyers progress through buying cycles and communicate how they can visualize their organization use your offerings to:

– Achieve goals

– Solve problems

– Satisfy Needs

and understand the value of doing so.

Let’s Figure Out A Quality Lead Together

That Qualified Lead, aka MQL, or a “Marketing Qualified Lead”

• Industries?

• Revenue Size?

• Title/ Key Influencers?

• Budget?

• Decision-Making Timetable?

• Model Existing Customers

• Lead Scores (more later)

Then Personas

• Attitudes

• Fears

• Perceptions

• Pain Points

• Media Habits

• Social Media and Blog Usage

• BANT- Budget, Authority, Need, Time

• Preferred Content Vehicles

Agreeing to Lead Definitions Leads To…

• Media Plan

• Lead Generation Plan

• Social Media Plan

• Website Design/Copy Plan

• Content Marketing Plan

• Lead Nurturing Plan

Which Leads To……….

Lead Management

Lead Generation; Attracting Prospects Into the Funnel

Put Together a Lead Gen Plan

Search Engine Optimization

• Utilizing website copy, structure, and external tasks to increase your company’s position on search engines with the goal to be above the fold on the first page of results.

– Marketing Cares: High positioning means more leads; organic listings mean better qualified leads.

– Sales Cares: More emails captured, more sales-ready prospects, less leads to competition, achieve quotas easier, Nurturing more effective

Pay-Per-Click Advertising

• Generate immediate traffic to website by targeting those with immediate product/service needs with compelling message– Marketing Cares: If offer and keywords are

relevant to buyer, “ready-to-buy” leads are generated

– Sales Cares: More emails captured, more sales-ready prospects, less leads to competition, achieve quotas easier

Online Display Advertising (Banners)

• Generate immediate traffic to website by targeting websites or industry portals with compelling message

– Marketing Cares: Reach and frequency is extended towards those audiences most likely to be interested in your message. Frequency builds message recall.

– Sales Cares: When audiences are more familiar with a product/service, they will more likely pay attention to a sales call, which means increased engagement and increased sales potential.

Social Media

• Listen to, engage with, and create conversations with prospects who are researching these channels for their potential solution– Marketing Cares: Communicating with prospects is part of

customer nurturing and by promoting content prospects engage further. Social media sacrifices media cost for time, but from cost standpoint- quality leads enter your cycle more efficiently than paid media

– Sales Cares: By creating/enhancing relationships, increased trust is built. Sales can learn about their prospects before speaking with them. Engaged prospects are more likely to buy from vendors who provide quality content. Again- more quality leads; more sales

Marketing Automation Starts

Starring Marketing & Sales!

Quick Definition

• “It’s a technology platform (SaaS) that allows you to capture, score, qualify, and nurture prospects by automated processes and drive revenue using trigger-based, multi-touch communication.”

Companies with Marketing Automation

• 107% better lead conversion rate

• 40% greater average deal size

• 20% higher team attainment of quota

• 17% better forecast accuracy

Aberdeen Group, “Marketing Automation 101: Ensuring Early Success with the Basics;

Maturing Your Deployment for long‐term ROI” June 2010

Acquire Leads

Offer Content…….Fill Out a Form

Landing Pages

• Marketing Cares: The first step to generating quality leads and gathering pertinent, segmented data by offering engaging content

• Sales Cares: Websites and Landing Pages become lead generators; the nurturing process begins. Having the ability to progressively profile prospects allow marketing to have more valid data points to pass over to sales by asking for prospect data in manageable chunks.

Nurture Leads

Lead Nurturing

• Deliver relevant content to prospects

• Designed to move the recipient forward in the sales process

The Statistics Speak to the Value of Lead Nurturing

• According to Forrester Research, companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales-ready leads at 33% lower cost per lead.

• According to CSO Insights, companies that excel at lead nurturing have 9% more sales reps make quota and enjoy a 10% shorter ramp up time for new reps.

• According to DemandGen Report, nurtured leads produce, on average, a 20 percent increase in sales opportunities versus non-nurtured leads.

Lead Nurturing Benefits

• Increase in Qualified Leads

• Decrease in Sales Cycle (from months to weeks)

• Decrease in Cost of Sales (10% decrease)

• Improved Conversion Rates of those leads (1.5 - 3.0x)

• Increase in Quality of Leads Going to Sales

• Increase in Transaction Size

• Increase in Marketing ROI

Content Strategy: Know Your Audience

General Content Guidelines

Content Marketing is the Art of

• Understanding exactly what your customer needs to know, at each stage of the buying process

• Delivering it to them in a relevant and compelling way to grow your business.

Content Is:

• Economical• Long Lasting• Builds Credibility• Attracts Targeted Traffic• Great SEO Tactic

Nurturing Examples

Lead Nurturing

• Marketing Cares: By continually guiding a lead toward a sale with content, we are achieving our mission of generating quality, sales-ready leads for the sales people.

• Sales Cares: When you spend time with quality leads, your win rates increase, and your revenue per deal increases. Lead nurturing allows for Sales to focus on the promising prospects

The Need for Lead Scoring

Lead Scoring You Say?

• Lead Scoring is a method of assigning points to each prospect. Points are assigned based on specific criteria you set. Attributes rated are:– Form submit info (title, purchase

decision),

– Website behavior (pages visited, content downloads),

– Email behavior (click to website or additional content)

– Events (tradeshow/webinar attendees)

Two Scoring Factors

Lead Scoring

• Marketing Cares: By agreeing to an optimal scoring grade, only engaged, sales-ready leads who reach that defined threshold are sent to sales. Marketing’s job: Produce sales-ready leads!

• Sales Cares: When you spend time with quality leads that are high-scored, your win rates increase, and your revenue per deal increases. Plus, your time is spent more efficiently

Lead Scoring Impact

Now Sell Those Leads

CRM Integration

See the lead’s score

See the lead’s activity

CRM Integration

• Marketing Cares: The process “closes the loop” and we’re doing our job by providing sales quality leads by following the marketing automation process. Plus, we’ll be able to measure sales by campaign and perform ROI analysis.

• Sales Cares: Leads can be acted on immediately once a score threshold is reached and lead is synced to CRM. Sales can interact with lead with better information (implicit activities). By building relationships with leads, closes increase.

Metrics

• Assign costs to campaigns

• Tie leads to campaigns

• Then..

– Cost per quality lead

– Cost per opportunity

– Cost per sale

– Cost per campaign

– Marketing ROI

How much does this cost

• Varies!

– Platform cost, management cost, content cost, CRM/database needs

• But we’ll assess..

– Current marketing plan, consider reallocation of wasted spending

– Costs of current email platform

– Roles and Resources, plus current content assets

Reallocation Options

• Reduce PR budget; transfer to lead generation

• Reduce Ad budget; frequency, size, # of pubs

• Reduce Trade show budget

• Reduce other vendor spend

• Reduce direct mail campaigns

Consider….

• How much time and money saved by consolidating tools and automating email campaigns

• How efficient marketing and sales teams would be by sharing a unified interface

• How many more opportunities created if sales can follow-up with every promising lead

• How much easier it would be to demonstrate the marketing team’s influence on revenue and ROI

• How smoothly your business will run if sales and marketing worked together to achieve your company’s goals

Summary

• When sales and marketing align, positive outcomes occur.

• Better lead management occurs when Marketing Automation replaces email platforms and integrates with CRMs.

• An optimal eMarketing plan generates increased quality website visitors, quality leads, and quality sales.

• Improving each element of lead management results in more efficient spending and better ROI.

Questions

Ready to Begin?

• Contact Paul Mosenson of NuSpark Marketing

• pmosenson@nusparkmarketing.com

• 610-812-2725

• www.nusparkmarketing.com

About NuSpark Marketing

• eMarketing Firm focusing on lead generation, lead management, content marketing, sales coaching

• Founded in 2010; Team members average 20 years of experience

• Philadelphia based, but works virtually

• Provides the process, content, and consultation for firms that implement marketing automation

References

• Mike Bosworth, CustomerCentric Selling

• Pardot Marketing Automation

• Jep Castelein, Leadsloth

• SLMA, Sales Lead Management Association

• Paul Mosenson, NuSpark Marketing

• Oliver Picher, NuSpark Marketing

• Demand Gen

• David Cummings, Adam Blitzer “Think Outside the Inbox”