Sales absolutely is a numbers game, but what if you could identify trends and commonalities between those deals you win and those that you lose? What if you could tell a hot lead from a cold one? It would most definitely make your sales and your marketing life easier. The ability to better predict which of your leads is most likely to convert is like having a crystal ball…
How do I identify trends?
First: You must have someway to track your engagements with your leads. A CRM is a great place to start. Every interaction should be tracked within the CRM, so that you can go back and reference the development of the relationship. By simply tracking just one relationship, you can see where the deal either closed, or where it started to slip away. Doing this for all of your leads will certainly provide some valuable feedback on your process.
Second: You need a way to track basic marketing efforts, such as email clicks, website visits, ebooks downloaded, etc. Having access to this data informs you of how those efforts are affecting the sales process. For example, if a person visits your pricing page, are they more likely to buy? If they download an ebook are they more likely to convert? Again, an integrated CRM and marketing tool will help capture all of this critical information.
So, now what?
Put some lead scoring to action.
Lead scoring is one of the easiest ways to tell a hot lead from a cold lead. It lets you know where the low hanging fruit lies, so that you don’t go around trying to pick a blood orange that isn’t in season.
Lead scoring is the act of scoring based on demographic and behavioral factors.
Need an example?
Example 1: Linda is interested in some website design services. She peruses the website, visits the services page, the About us page, and a few others. She then signs up for a free consultation. So far, so good. She is getting a point for every website page she visits and a whopping 5 points for signing up for a free consultation.
She is contacted by the company and they give her a free consultation. She gets another 10 points for going through with the consultation. The more points she has, the hotter a lead she is.
Next, she is sent an ebook from one of the sales people in the company. She downloads it. Another 5 points for Linda! She it hot to trot! The salesperson follows up with her a few days later, as he sees all the engagement she has had with the brand. She closes.
Now, let’s look at what could have happened.
Alternate ending: The same Linda was also looking at another web design company. She perused their website and wanted to get some more information. They did not offer a free consultation, but an ebook instead. She downloads the ebook and is immediately contacted by a sales rep. She answers his questions and lets him know that she will get back to them.
Linda never opens the ebook. Negative points for Linda. The sales rep then follows up with her a week later. She never picks up or responds. Why? Because the other company has already beat company two to the line. Why? Because they had a CRM and lead scoring in place to help them properly nurture and move Linda from a website visitor to a hot lead to a customer.
See how that worked out for company one?
Moral of the story?
The ability to track your engagements with your leads and view their activity and how it relates to their interest is beyond important if you want to win the deal.
Lead scoring lets you gauge a lead’s interest in your company, while a CRM lets you see what those activities are and keeps track of when you need to follow up. Systemized processes like these separate the winners from the losers.
