Quick Questions that will help Qualify Leads

Questions that will help Qualify LeadsThe ability to qualify leads and prioritize them based on their potential for conversion is priceless. However, before a company can put a lead scoring plan into place, they will first need to understand what constitutes a quality lead. By asking the right questions, a company can build an effective profile that will capture leads that have the highest potential for conversion.

Here are some quick questions that will help qualify leads

What does your average customer really need?

The first thing a company will need to figure out is what perceived value their product or service has to offer to the lead. What exactly do their customers want? Are they looking for a reputable company that cares about the environment? Do they want a provider who can offer 24 hour customer support? There is something specific every lead is looking for in a company and being able to determine what a lead needs is invaluable for qualification.

When will the lead be ready to purchase your service?

The next aspect a company needs to determine is what stage each lead is at in the buying process. Have they just started their online search? Do they seem anxious to make a decision? Has their frequency of visits increased? Figuring out where a lead is at in their buying process is essential when qualify a lead.

Why should they choose your product or service?

A business will also need to demonstrate to their leads what makes their product or service better than a competitor. This will not only involved understand what a lead wants in a product or service, but also understanding all of the options available to the potential buyer. Why is your product better? Is your price a selling feature? Why is your service superior? A company has to know the reason their offer is superior, so it can be promoted effectively.

Who is your ideal customer?

The most important aspect of lead scoring is using everything a company knows about their existing customers to create an ideal customer profile. What are their characteristics? What are their likes and dislikes? What type of online behavior do they display? By pinpointing attributes of an ideal customer, a business can create a profile for comparison that will generate high-quality leads.

By asking the right questions, a company can determine what their leads really need to know before they are ready to make a decision. They can also figure out what stage the lead is at in their buying process, what will make them want a particular product or service, and who fits their ideal customer profile. Just imagine what can be done with such valuable information.

Scoring Leads from Marketing Qualified Lead to Sales Qualified Lead

Scoring Leads from Marketing Qualified Lead to Sales Qualified LeadEffective B2B lead management involves more than simply preventing viable leads from falling off the radar. The effectiveness of a lead management program is really measured by how well it moves suspects from marketing qualified leads (MQL) to sales qualified leads (SQL). The difference between the two statuses can represent tens of thousands of dollars in closed business.

A lead scoring system helps to differentiate between leads that are likely to buy now and those that require more nurturing. However, it is most effective if it is constructed properly.

There is often disagreement between sales and marketing departments about what constitutes a “qualified” lead. This makes some sense because the parameters are different among the two departments. A lead scoring system, used as part of a lead management program, provides an opportunity to put values on parameters used by each department.

The lead scoring model should have a threshold – a minimum score – that indicates that a suspect has met enough criteria, the right criteria, to be worthy of a sales engagement. Lead scoring provides a systematic way to transition leads from marketing to sales in a way that gives the sales team confidence that the lead is viable and prepared for a sales engagement.

The question is: at what point is a marketing-qualified lead ready to be transitioned to a sales qualified lead?

For example, take two suspects that have entered your marketing funnel. One is a VP of operations, the other a line supervisor. The VP has visited your website a few times and spent about 15 minutes on your product pages. The supervisor has visited your site fifteen times, downloaded two white papers and several fact sheets, and attended a recent webinar.

Which lead is considered a better sales qualified lead?

In many industries, a VP is a more sales-ready lead because of the likelihood that he has buying authority. However, there are companies that allow purchases by supervisory staff. The greater level of activity by the line supervisor might indicate better timing, but does she have buying authority? Which parameter means more?

This is where applying weight to scoring parameters is important for lead scoring to be effective. Some activities and/or attributes provide greater impact on sales-readiness than others, but which ones matter more could be night and day from one company to another. Examining which behaviors have led to sales in the past is a good way determine weights for certain qualities and behaviors. For example, if the evidence shows that your product sells well after being noticed by subordinates who influence the C-suite after conducting research through white papers, then recent white paper download activity, when combined with the subordinate’s title, should be weighted more heavily than a C-level executive who visited the website a couple of times.

According to marketing experts, a 10% increase in lead quality translates to a 40% increase in sales productivity. This should motivate executives to align sales and marketing departments through a lead scoring system, like the one in Lead Liaison’s Briefcase™ lead qualification dashboard.

Lead scoring can help most businesses improve sales conversions and shorten sales cycles. But it’s important to remember that the scoring model you use to move leads from marketing qualified lead to sales qualified lead status is dynamic (newly uncovered evidence affects existing scoring metrics) and comprehensive (incorporates parameters from both departments).

How does your company score its leads? Post a comment here or drop us a line.

The Final Steps toward Effective Lead Qualification

The Final Steps toward Effective Lead QualificationFor some companies there may be no shortage of leads. But how does the marketing team pass off the most qualified leads to your sales department? The answer is to take action that ensures your leads are ready to buy. This post is the second of a two-part series addressing effective lead qualification strategies.

Create an optimal lead profile

In our earlier post, The First Steps Toward Effective Lead Qualification, we recommended using a lead scoring system. In order to filter leads effectively, you should create a profile that embodies the characteristics and attributes that make up the type of lead that is most likely to buy from your company.

This profile should include firmographic information, such as revenues, number of employees, and locations that indicate a high likelihood of becoming a customer. Once these attributes have been selected, the next step is to determine what type of behaviors – online and offline – most likely lead to a sale. Behaviors such as website visits, webinar engagements, or phone inquiries should be included and be a part of your overall marketing strategy.

Using this information, your lead management system should prioritize and distribute leads according to how well they fit the optimal lead profile.

Monitor data

Lead qualification is based upon having the best data available. Is the information that is being collected accurate and complete? Today’s CRM tools provide incredible granularity and allow users to enter a plethora of information, but empty fields and inaccurate data can reduce the effectiveness of your sales team.

Both sales and marketing management should work together on a regular basis to ensure that lead qualification agents are providing sales agents with the most complete and accurate lead profiles.

Include personal contact

In most cases, effective lead qualification cannot take place without occasional personal contact. Automated lead management systems are tools of efficiency but are best used in conjunction with phone calls, personal emails, or other agent-driven communications.

Part of your lead nurturing process should include engagements that clarify pain points and cultivate demand. Without personal engagement prior to a sales call, the sales cycle is often longer.

Insert a sales development team

One way to improve the effectiveness of your lead qualification process is to introduce a sales development representative (SDR) prior to a sales agent engagement. An SDR can act as a liaison between marketing and sales by contacting marketing-qualified leads in an effort to determine how sales-ready they may be.

According to one industry expert, his lead conversion rate went from 5% to over 40% with the use of SDRs in his lead qualification program.

Using SDRs can lead to better economics as expensive sales agents are not engaging with prospects until that lead has been converted from a marketing-qualified lead to a sales-qualified lead. Many industry experts quote the following numbers:

  1. A 5% increase in selling time yields a 20% increase in revenue
  2. A 1% increase in pipeline value yields a 24% increase in revenue
  3. A 15% decrease in sales cycle length yields a 30% increase in revenue

These figures support the use of SDRs to further qualify leads that have advanced to the marketing-qualified lead stage in your marketing funnel. It may be an extra step, but this extra step has improved sales conversions for many companies.

Effective sales qualification can improve conversions, reduce irrelevant objections, and boost your revenue cycle. Some steps may even help develop talent to add to your sales team. The key to having the most productive, efficient sales funnel is to take the steps necessary to put the hottest, sales-ready leads in the hands of your experienced sales team quickly but effectively.

The First Steps Toward Effective Lead Qualification

The First Steps toward Effective Lead QualificationLead qualification is a multi-step process that moves suspects through your marketing pipeline and determines if they become a quality lead. It all starts with a lead inquiry. In this post we’ll discuss the first steps toward effective lead qualification.

Lead Inquiry

The first step in lead qualification is generating a lead inquiry, which is an interest signal from a suspect. The suspect may be genuinely interested in your solution or his reaction to a marketing message could be just curiosity. It may be tough to differentiate the two based upon one contact; however, there are techniques, such as opt-in forms, that can indicate a higher level of interest.

Outbound or inbound marketing can be used to generate a lead inquiry. Whether the inquiry comes from digital assets or through offline engagements, if you don’t take every lead inquiry seriously you may be leaving money on the table.

In order to make lead qualification effective, you should review your online and offline marketing messages regularly. Are viewers taking action or moving on to the next solution? You rarely get a second chance to make a first impression, so if your response rate is minuscule, take the time to adjust the messages for maximum effectiveness.

Once a lead inquiry is received, it’s time to take the lead qualification process to the next step: lead capture.

Lead Capture

It is important to not let a lead slip away without making a second attempt. Lead generation programs, such as Lead Liaison’s Streamer™, allow companies to capture preliminary information without having to request it from the suspect. This allows you to capture enough information to be able to make a second contact.

Lead capturing can be automated. One of the more effective techniques is the lead capture page or landing page. The key is to provide enough compelling information or a strong marketing message on that page to compel a suspect to opt-in for future engagements.

An auto-responder should be used to connect immediately following a lead inquiry. Time is of the essence in this competitive world, so we recommend automation for every inquiry that is received. An auto-responder service can mean the difference between a lost opportunity and a sale. Basic auto-responder services are available for free, while more robust services can be purchased.

Like your lead inquiry assets, it’s important to review and refine lead capture assets so they accomplish their task on the first contact. Once there is enough information captured from a suspect, the lead should be entered into a lead scoring system.

Lead Scoring

A lead scoring matrix is crucial to qualifying  suspects and prioritizing leads. There is no standard model that will apply to all industries but there are two commonly used criteria sets. The first set includes the physical, demographic, and firmographic data that is often easily captured through opt-in forms or webinar registrations. This information qualifies a lead according to relevance. Does the suspect work at a company that fits your lead profile? Does the company have the capacity to purchase your solution?

The second criteria set includes behavioral traits. This information can be captured through online activities, such as website visits or white paper downloads. By including online and offline marketing engagements, your lead scoring system can help determine which activities may lead to purchase decisions.

These are the preliminary stages of an effective lead qualification process. In our next post, we’ll discuss the advanced steps that move a lead from suspect to sales opportunity. To find out the most effective lead qualification process, contact us today!

B2B Marketers need Marketing Automation and Lead Scoring

B2B Marketers need Marketing Automation and Lead ScoringAs the global marketplace expands due to the power of the internet, B2B Marketers need to rise to the challenge and start thinking in terms of large-scale strategies. B2B marketers need marketing automation and lead scoring. They need to market to businesses that are searching for resources online. This is important since every company with an online presence who is selling the same product or service is now their competitor, regardless of their physical location.

Expanding the reach of their B2B marketing campaigns will most likely produce a wide variety of new leads. Each of these leads has their own unique potential and likelihood for conversion. They come from different locations, different industries and different purchasing background. They all approach researching new products and services in their own way and it quickly becomes too overwhelming to manually qualify and prioritize each lead based on their individual potential.

Lead scoring is an automated process designed to assist marketers in qualifying leads by assigning a quantitative value to website visitors based on the person’s demographic and behavioral profile. The value assigned to each lead is determined based on how closely the lead resembles a typical or ideal customer. For example, if a marketer is specifically interested in attracting automotive manufacturers that would need to buy industrial-grade steel for their production line, these parameters would be designed to place a greater value on whether the prospect matches with the criteria describing a typical manufacturing facility that uses industrial-grade steel.

Lead scoring with marketing automation allows marketers to quickly sort through leads and identify changes in behavioral patterns. This helps B2B marketers identify which are sales-ready leads and which will require more nurturing. By using database segmentation features of most marketing automation software, B2B marketers can touch base with leads they are interested in, by assessing their interests and creating content specific to their needs.

Marketing automation also allows B2B marketers to:

  1. Analyze lead scores in an effort to personalize email campaigns.
  2. Assess the effectiveness of past campaigns.
  3. Create automated responses to a lead’s online activity such as registrations, downloads, and/or newsletters.
  4. Create mailing lists catered to leads with specific scores.
  5. Identify buying stage of prospects and their likelihood of conversion.

By implementing lead scoring criteria with marketing automation software, companies can:

  1. Identify the improvement in the number of quality leads that were generated over a period of time. When lead profile criteria is regularly analyzed and evolved, marketers will be able to better define a sales-ready lead and then plan effectively towards closing the business deal.
  2. Reduce labor expenses associated with manual marketing processes and focus more on the campaign execution process.
  3. Offer marketers more insight into their leads, so they will spend less time guiding and nurturing leads through the marketing funnel.
  4. Unite the sales and marketing departments, so they can work together to generate higher quality leads and identify more sales-ready leads.

Lead scoring using marketing automation is a necessity for B2B marketers who want to expand globally while still being able to gain visibility into their lead’s intent. This priceless intelligence can be leveraged to move leads faster through the marketing funnel and improve their chance of becoming a customer. That is why today’s B2B marketers need marketing automation and lead scoring.

When Does Your Marketing Qualified Lead Become a Sales Qualified Lead?

When Does Your Marketing Qualified Lead Become a Sales Qualified LeadHow does your company define a lead as “qualified”? Are the leads that fit a demographic/firmographic profile and respond to marketing touchpoints considered qualified?  Your marketing and sales departments may disagree on which leads are truly qualified to become a sales opportunity. In this post we look at when your marketing qualified lead (MQL) becomes a sales qualified lead (SQL).

A marketing qualified lead is a suspect that has advanced through multiple marketing touch points and fits an optimal lead profile. A sales qualified lead requires more to be considered a viable sales opportunity:  it must be ready, willing, and able to pay for your solution.

In order to qualify as a sales opportunity a lead must have the following:

  1. An established need. This can be indicated through online forms or by contact from a sales agent. The need must be solvable with your solution. There are plenty of B2B needs to be met, but if your solution does not directly address the need completely or partially, the lead is not sales-ready. Even the most cash-rich prospects are of little value if there is no need – perceived or real – for your solution.
  2. Money to purchase. a marketing-qualified lead may show substantial interest and be completely engaged, but without capital to make a purchase, your sales agent is wasting time. Even the most inexpensive solution will be unavailable to companies with no budget.
  3. A plan to buy. Many companies understand they have needs that must be met through buying from B2B vendors, but don’t always plan for purchases. A marketing-qualified lead cannot evolve into a sales-qualified lead without understanding where the prospect is in the buying cycle. A lead may be fully marketing-qualified because of fit and interest, but it does not reach a sales-qualified status until there is a firm plan to commit money towards a solution. Your sales agent will be “spinning wheels” until the prospect gets buy-in from decision-makers to move forward with a purchase.
  4. Possesses purchase authority or decision-making capacity. There may be a few layers of authority involved in a purchase. This is where a marketing-qualified lead is clearly different from a sales-qualified leads. Sales agents know that, in order to close a deal, they must be engaged with a buying authority or a decision maker. An influencer may be marketing-qualified but, without purchase authority, he may not be the appropriate contact for a sales agent.

Some – but not all – of these characteristics of a sales-qualified lead can be captured through marketing touchpoints. By implementing a lead scoring system that includes both marketing qualification criteria and sales qualification criteria, your company can more easily differentiate between a marketing qualified lead and a sales qualified lead.

It is important to include sales agents when determining scores that indicate a marketing qualified lead. A few examples of sales qualification criteria include:

  • Funding available immediately                          10 points
  • Funding available within 6 months                   5 points
  • Budget in process                                                2 points
  • No funding available                                            0 points
  • Expressed a direct need                                     10 points
  • Expressed a potential need                               8 points
  • Unaware of a need                                              3 points
  • Expressed lack of a need                                    0 points
  • Lead contact is decision-maker                         10 points
  • Lead contact is purchasing agent      5 points
  • Lead contact is influencer                  3 points
  • Plans to buy immediately                   10 points
  • Plans to buy within 6 months             5 points
  • Plans to buy within 1 year                  2 points
  • No plans to buy                                    0 points
  • Would spend over $1,000                 10 points
  • Would spend under $500                  5 points
  • Would spend less than $100             1 point

Sales and marketing should be aligned in establishing the difference between a marketing-qualified lead and a sales-qualified lead. Implementing a lead scoring system to rank marketing suspects and sales opportunities will improve conversions and enhance the transition from marketing funnel to CRM priority.

Common Lead Scoring Mistakes – Part 2

Common Lead Scoring Mistakes As we mentioned in an earlier post, Common Lead Scoring Mistakes – Part 1, there is sometimes a lack of sales effectiveness when using a lead scoring system. Often this is a result of poor lead management. In this post, we discuss two issues: the first one concerns what sales agents do with leads that are distributed out of a lead scoring matrix, the other involves assigning scores and distribution thresholds to leads that pass from marketing to sales.

Ignoring Low Scores

Most sales agents only want leads that have a high lead score because those are likely to be the most sales-ready prospects. But not all quality leads are ready to buy, and not all cold leads represent long sales cycles. By ignoring a lead with a score of 50 (out of 100), the sales department may lose a great opportunity without knowing it.

Avoid these lead scoring mistakes by applying logic. For example, the lead with a 50 score might be a line supervisor who is the brother-in-law of the company president. He may be researching products (on his own) like the ones your company offers in order to improve line performance, but has no idea of the company’s purchasing capacity at the moment. The total lead score may be low because of his lack of buying authority and unknown budget.

However, his relationship with the president makes him a potential purchase influencer and a good connection to the buying authority. This lead should not be ignored because of a low composite score. Sales agents should be encouraged to focus on both total lead score and the scores in each parameter that contribute to the overall score in order to avoid missing possible sales opportunities that may be “disguised” as low quality leads.

Scoring Activities and Distributing Leads Improperly

Lead scoring is more of an art than a science. There are nuances in most scoring systems that don’t apply universally across industries or even across product lines. But in order to create the most effective scoring model, the grades or scores that leads receive because of marketing engagements should be appropriate for your company’s sales process. That means scoring marketing responses properly.

For instance, a lead that has recently downloaded a white paper may receive a high score for that activity due to recency, but what if the same lead has downloaded several documents over a six-month period? In this case, the frequency of the specific activity must also be considered in the lead score.

Also, if the scoring threshold for distribution is not properly aligned with the sales department’s experience with customers, it could skew results and lower sales production. For example, if the scoring threshold is too high, the sales department may perceive a stranglehold on the flow of leads. On the other hand, if scoring thresholds are too low, your lead management system may distribute leads to sales agents that are not adequately sales-qualified.

An effective lead scoring system can improve sales effectiveness by more than 50%, but the system must be built correctly and implemented properly. To learn more about lead scoring mistakes and tips to improve lead scoring, follow the Lead Liaison blog every week!

Common Lead Scoring Mistakes – Part 1

Common Lead Scoring Mistakes Lead scoring can be a valuable asset to your sales department. Prioritizing leads so sales agents are focused on opportunities with the highest conversion potential increases sales effectiveness. However, there are some common lead scoring mistakes that companies make when they use their lead scoring system improperly. We want to share several common mistakes that have come to our attention over the years. The first two are 1) relying solely on composite scores to determine quality leads, and 2) using a rigid scoring system.

Relying on the Composite Score Only

Using the only composite scores is a common lead scoring mistake. Sure, the sales department should be focusing on A-list leads but there may be more to a lead’s story than what is reflected in the total score. Sales agents should be asking: what attributes scored high and which ones received a lower score? If your lead scoring model uses a scale of 0-100, for example, and a lead scoring 90 is considered hot, does this mean that all 90-score leads have equal conversion potential? No.

There may be some hot leads that rank high because of their position in the company and there are others that receive a high score because of significant marketing engagement. The key for sales agents is to examine the factors that led to the high score.

For example, consider two leads, each with scores of 80 (out of 100) that establish both as marketing-qualified leads. However, the first lead is an IT Director who has downloaded every white paper you’ve published but has no plans to buy in the next six months and has not indicated a need for your solution, and the second lead is a Purchaser who has indicated an immediate need but has limited marketing engagements. Which lead is a more sales-qualified lead?

Sales agents should look “beneath” the overall score to understand whether a lead should be contacted immediately or can be placed in a bucket to be contacted in one month.

Using a Rigid System

Everything changes. The weather, the economy, hairstyles. While there are certainly some lead scoring parameters that will remain constant in your lead scoring system, such as website visits, many factors that contribute to a lead score will likely change over time. Perhaps it is a change in the buying process for companies in the industry you serve. Or maybe a change occurs as a result of a new major competitor entering the market.

Avoid this common lead scoring mistake and create a lead scoring matrix that is flexible. There may be a need to adjust scoring weights for certain attributes or to add a new parameter. Companies that are successful at lead management use lead scoring systems that allow for adaptation. That is why Lead Liaison provides lead management products that have flexibility, and works closely with clients to ensure their lead scoring models remain effective.

However, flexibility does not simply come from an adaptable lead scoring product. Maintaining a dynamic scoring model requires sales and marketing to meet regularly in order to provide input towards updates that will align the system to current market conditions.

We will discuss more lead scoring myths in our next post. Has your company experienced a lead scoring mistake? Share your experience below!

Lead Liaison Improves Lead Management Process

Allen, TX (PRWEB) February 1, 2013 – Lead Liaison, a leader in B2B revenue generation, has released a free service level agreement (SLA) in an effort to improve lead management effectiveness for small to large companies. The agreement is available as a free download on the company website, www.LeadLiaision.com, to customers and other interested businesses who are seeking to improve their lead management process.

The purpose of the service level agreement is to establish a common understanding between the sales and marketing departments. The document lays the groundwork for how leads are classified and what the optimal lead profile should look like. More importantly, it defines how companies will manage their lead flow.

Lead Liaison has been instrumental in helping small to medium-sized businesses align their sales and marketing teams to enhance lead management effectiveness through its flagship product, the Lead Management Automation™ platform, and other lead management software programs.

The service level agreement is a Microsoft Word document that can be easily updated or modified to fit specific company requirements. It provides the framework for differentiating between a marketing-qualified lead (MQL) and a sales-qualified lead (SQL). The SLA requires signatures from department heads in both sales and marketing in order to cement a common understanding and set of expectations.

The concept of a service level agreement, to use a sports analogy, is to be a playbook that the two teams can use when they “huddle” before executing their responsibilities. Lead Liaison recommends reviewing the SLA every 3-6 months in order to maintain a current understanding between the two teams.

The primary issue, according to company executives, is that many small and large businesses do not have a well-structured and documented way to manage leads, and there is a lack of communication between marketing and sales departments. Marketing typically makes the rules about what activities generate sales-ready leads, and the sales department focuses only on sales conversions without providing input on ways to improve lead transition from marketing to sales.

The agreement can improve the lead management process through official documentation that encourages team members to work together to achieve greater sales effectiveness. A better lead management process can have a direct impact on the strength of a company’s pipeline and yield higher revenue results.

The agreement contains a purpose, definitions (such as a Universal Lead Definition), and thresholds that determine when a lead is considered sales-qualified. Industry statistics show 80% of all leads passed to sales departments are unqualified; with the SLA, a company can document and build a lead scoring model with input from both marketing and sales personnel.

There are sections that define and explain how inbound marketing will be executed, along with key sales and marketing metrics that must be followed. Users are also able to set defined goals and objectives that both departments must achieve. For more information visit www.LeadLiaison.com or call 888 895 3237.

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Lead Liaison is an application development company that designs, develops, and sells cloud-based marketing and sales automation software. The company markets to small and medium-sized businesses worldwide, and focuses on creating the broadest and most user-friendly revenue generation software platform. Applications cover all phases of lead management automation including sales prospecting, lead generation, and marketing automation functions that directly influence revenue generation. It’s innovative and robust lead management platform combines unparalleled sales prospecting, lead capture, real-time lead tracking, lead qualification, lead distribution, database segmentation, lead nurturing and ROI reporting. The Software as a Service (SaaS) model delivers an effective user experience and integrated cloud computing capabilities.

Alex Brown
VP Corporate Communications
Phone: +1-888-895-3237
abrown[at]leadliaison[dot]com
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5 Ways Marketing Automation Simplifies Sales Tasks

Marketing Automation Simplifies Sales TasksAny automated task provides exceptional time-saving opportunities for businesses to both increase sales funnels and effectively raise ROI.  Marketing automation, simply defined as any software platform which streamlines automated tasks for marketing departments, provides an avenue for employees to specifically require certain contingencies which software executes.  When viewing the grand scheme of marketing processes altogether, we’ve developed 5 unique ways marketing automation simplifies sales tasks simply by having powerful ‘computerization’ in place.

Tracks Behavioral Patterns

B2B customers have specific predefined criteria when seeking products and services online.  Traditional methods of marketing have little opportunity for success as drip campaigns, social media and many other manually intensive tasks consume time.  Marketing automation provides sales departments with fresh leads easier than conventional methods that require screening, manual lead distribution and a repetitive lead funneling process.  In other words, B2B marketing automation simply makes the filtration process much quicker than before, especially when specifically interested in behavioral patterns.

Clarifies Buying Process

Sales executives often aren’t informed properly regarding who’s interested in what; they’re more concerned about warm leads hit their desks than arguing marketing semantics.  Sales managers typically set expectations to interview potential B2B buyers before selling products.  Marketing automation provides salespeople more authentic measures of knowing who arrived, from where, and what specific product or service is being viewed.  The dubious task of closing the sale becomes more exacting.  Clarification of the buyer cycle becomes more specific to each buyer instead of the collective lead pool being collected.

Helps Customer Understand Needs

Occasionally, B2B customers have little idea what they’re wanting to purchase since a complete definition of their problem isn’t known.  Customers head to various service websites, fill out several contact information forms and make numerous phone calls.  Have you ever noticed not many contact forms feature “I don’t really know my problem” buttons or drop-down menu entries?  Marketing automation could still effectively channel B2B buyers towards proper sales team members who’ll address the problem, fit that with services within the company’s menu and discuss what matches were made and why.  From there, businesses not only close the deal, they manage to assist another business’ growth strategy, even if they didn’t know much going into a meeting with the company’s sales person.

Quickens Lead Scoring Process

Automation processes greatly benefit marketing teams; case in point, it helps score leads before being sent to sales making it much easier than doing so with traditional spreadsheets and eye strain.  Lead scoring must have accurate outcomes; the process becomes rather painstaking without software.  Sales departments will appreciate scored leads before pitching B2B customers too; which begins with having quicker lead scoring processes.

Frees Up Time For Improvements Elsewhere

When businesses have more time for improving departmental processes, the entire business model becomes less volatile than when tasks pile up or employees are out of sync. Marketing automation has one primary: create human perceptions of B2B buying processes inside an algorithm to spit out easily predictable buying signs which sales departments can use during phone calls.  Once the automation process has been perfected, marketing professionals can focus on improving other areas, such as lead scoring models, marketing pitches, landing pages and so forth. All told, B2B customers have every right to unknowingly stumble onto your website, discover services which may benefit their own core objectives and contact you.  It’s up to an accurate marketing automation process to properly channel those interactions towards departments which can fulfill expectations – whether known or not – by customers seeking business assistance from your firm.