The following is a guest post from Frank Belzer, a sales development expert and Senior Sales Strategist and VP of Corporate Training at Kurlan and Associates. Frank is a regular contributor to the sales and sales management training curriculum at Kurlan and Associates and is the host of the weekly Internet Radio Show, Sales Talk Live.
At least that is our hope isn’t it? We like to think that if we do a good job with the front end of the funnel that the final result would be more revenue, an increase in new customers and measurable growth of our business year over year. So with that goal in mind we start actively working the social media scene – blogging, tweeting and utilizing Facebook. We start using web analytic tools like those provided by Hubspot and if we are totally committed to this growth then we definitely start working with some outside trusted advisers – like the folks at Stream Creative – so that everything comes together.
All of that activity will definitely help with the front end of our funnel. However what can you do to ensure that more of your leads are converting? As much as we love to see more traffic and as exciting as you are by all those hits isn’t the question of conversion fundamental to your overall inbound marketing strategy?
First, I want you to know that I am a believer in Inbound Marketing. We are active Hubspot users – I blog 3 times a week (and that’s just on my own Blog) I work linked in, I use email marketing and we daily look at our stats related to organic search and key words. As a result traffic has doubled over the past 12 months and leads are up by about 300%! Once again I believe in inbound marketing!
At the same time I also believe in Sales. Inbound Marketing has replaced or is replacing traditional marketing everywhere, that is true, but it isn’t replacing sales. That said, it is certainly changing the face of sales; the old cheesy methods no longer work. Your sales strategy simply needs to be aligned with your marketing strategy if it is going to succeed.
If you would rather use traditional old Cheesy Marketing methods – Then feel free to use Old Worn out Cheesy Sales Methods.
But if you are converting to Inbound Marketing – then it’s time to upgrade to Sales 2.0
- Alignment - this is the first key to converting more of your leads. The approach to selling has to have more in common with our inbound philosophy. People come to us, they find us, they search our key words, they raise their hands and all of this tells us that our new prospects, our more educated prospects want to be heard.
- Active Listening – the client decides why they are visiting our site and where they want to go when they are there. The website guides, directs, suggests, prompts and invites but never pushes. Only poorly trained sales people need to push.
- Relationship – the one thing that your site cannot do is connect on a human level with the prospect. Unfortunately many sales people cannot do that either.
- Customized Solution – even the best website cannot customize your offering to their problems. Sales people need to be adept at making that connection happen. Unfortunately our stats tell us that about 74% of the sales population struggle with that.
- Value Add – Think about what happens when sales people deal consultatively with your prospects and clients, the handoff to production is smoother, they recommend you to others, they are willing to pay more and you have a happier client base overall.
It might be interesting and worthwhile to use one of our free tools that will give you a clear picture as to the current abilities of your sales team. Why not take a few minutes to Grade your Sales Force ?
