Tag Archive for: Sales Efficiency

Lead Liaison Makes Huge Leap in Sales Enablement with Rhythms™

Dallas, Texas – Sales and marketing software provider, Lead Liaison, expands their Sales Enablement solution this week with the addition of Rhythms™. This announcement comes at the heels of their Sales Enablement release late last year, which provides businesses with a platform to streamline top-of-the-funnel outreach.

“Sales Enablement has been huge for our clients,” says Jen Worsham, Director of Client Relations. “It was the missing piece of the puzzle. Our clients loved our other solutions, but craved the same sort of support for sales. So, we introduced Sales Enablement and now Rhythms™. With those two powerhouse solutions combined, sales teams have full control and visibility over their engagement with Prospects.”

Sales Enablement works by linking a business email account with Lead Liaison’s platform. At that point, all 1:1 communication with a Prospect is tracked alongside marketing communication and engagement activity. Businesses now have more insight into how Prospects are interacting with their business. With the addition of Rhythms™, sales teams can organize and execute their prospecting plans much more efficiently.

Rhythms™ allow for automated prioritization of tasks using Lead Liaison’s Task Manager. Users can place Rhythms™ into folders to keep organized, and build a plan for each Rhythm™ which acts as a playbook for all outreach.

Other features include multi-variant testing, out-of-office detection, automated bounce handling, remove on reply, manual or automatic email options, and comprehensive personalization with templates to further humanize communication. Direct mail and handwritten letters are also part of Rhythms, making this the first sales automation solution to include offline marketing – ideal for sales representatives doing Account Based Marketing (ABM). Users can easily see activity and engagement across all steps of a Rhythm™, and can set goals to measure performance and hit personal milestones. When using Rhythms™, sales representatives will find they book more meetings, close more deals, and increase efficiency with prioritized activities.

Rhythms™ are fully-integrated with other Lead Liaison services, such as marketing automation, event lead management, a CRM, and more.

About Lead Liaison
Lead Liaison provides cloud-based sales and marketing automation solutions that helps businesses accelerate revenue by attracting, converting, closing and retaining more prospects. Filling a void in the small pool of marketing automation providers that focus on marketing-centric functionality, Lead Liaison gives equal focus to sales providing sophisticated visitor tracking and additional website engagement tools to boost sales effectiveness. Lead Liaison blends ease-of-use, a flexible business model, deep external integration, marketing across social, web, mobile, email and offline channels and powerful functionality, all specifically tailored for mid-sized businesses, into a single platform, called Revenue Generation Software®. Lead Liaison is headquartered in Allen, Texas, near Dallas. For more information, visit http://www.leadliaison.com or call 1-800-89-LEADS (895-3237).

Converting More Online Leads: Sales Team & Marketing Team Coordination

Marketing teams utilize online marketing activities to directly impact lead generation. It is no secret that leveraging data from various marketing channels provides companies with the ability to determine ROI and increase sales. Because of the nature of this relationship, a company’s marketing team and sales team should be closely aligned in order to close deals faster and collaborate on the best plan of action to effectively reel in potential customers. Too often, companies maintain a disconnect between these departments and lose out on profits. Consider the following problems and potential solutions to strengthen your business today. 

Problem: Lack of Interdepartmental Communication

Many companies find communication between departments to be difficult, so identifying the communication “pain points” is the first step in the process. You marketing team and your sales team should work with each other, not against each other. 

Solutions:

Funnel Location: The sales team needs to be assured that the marketing team is only passing along qualified, sales-ready leads. When a lead is established by marketing, it is important that the sales team knows what stage of the funnel the user is in. This allows a sales rep to tailor their approach when reaching out and presenting their sales pitch to the end consumer.

Tracking progress: The sales team can also find out the needs of their end consumers using online platforms if they are trained in the analyzation of prospect activity. All data, including emails and chat archives, should be sent over to sales once a new lead is acquired. If your marketing automation platform tracks this automatically, that’s a real bonus. 

Follow-ups: To be certain that no lead falls through the cracks, both departments should create a plan of action to follow-up with any lost leads identified throughout the online lead generation process. This should be completed on a monthly basis and can often be done by using a CRM tool.

Problem: Lack of Engagement on Social Platforms

Sales teams do not usually engage with leads through social platforms. It is imperative to teach the sales team to pay close attention to social media outlets and engage with possible leads when appropriate.

Solution:

Utilize LinkedIn and Other Online Social Tools: Both the sales and marketing teams should network with potential leads and current clients online. In addition, these platforms can be an effective way to gather information about a lead and add more ammunition to the sales pitch. Solutions like our social append allow for social data to enhance prospect profiles. Salespeople should also track one-on-one social engagement as notes in their CRM

By effectively synchronizing marketing and sales teams’ efforts, companies are bound to see an increase in ROI from online campaigns.

Author Bio: Tracy Julien is the VP of Marketing for GuidedChoice, a leader in retirement investment planning. Tracy received her Bachelor’s degree from Ohio University in 2000 and her MBA in Marketing Management from DePaul University in 2006. She has over 15 years of experience working for multi-national companies. Tracy specializes in consumer marketing, focusing heavily on marketing strategy, global brand management, customer experience, and product innovation.

The Qualities of a Good Salesperson

salesmanIf you work in sales, you want to be the best salesperson possible. In order for that to happen, you have to know the qualities of a good salesperson. Then, you’ll need to work on those qualities so you can boost your sales.

Helpful Instead of Pushy

Some salespeople believe that if they push products and services, their customers will bite. Pushiness doesn’t sell, though. Helpfulness does.

You need to believe that your products have features that will help the customer. Then, you can provide insight that will help the customer make a decision.

Charismatic

Anyone can learn about a product’s features, but only charismatic salespeople can connect with customers. When salespeople are charismatic and likable, the products almost sell themselves. Sure, the salespeople still have to do some work, but customers actually want to buy from them because they like them.

Resilient

It doesn’t matter how skilled a salesperson is. He or she is going to suffer quite a bit of rejection over the years. Some people can’t handle the rejection. They lose faith in themselves and become less effective. A good salesperson is resilient and bounces back after a rejection. That is necessary in the sales world.

Ability to Take Initiative

Good salespeople take action when action is needed. They don’t sit back, waiting for something to happen. Instead, they make things happen with their ability to take initiative. If you find yourself sitting on the sidelines, it’s time to get involved. You can’t be successful unless you learn how to take initiative.

Coachable

Coachable people are willing to learn and adapt. They take a suggestion and incorporate it without any fuss. This allows salespeople to adapt to various systems and requirements. If you’re a lone wolf, you will have a hard time excelling in different environments.

All salespeople want to meet and exceed quotas and earn a nice commission. The best way to do that is to continually refine your process, be aware of your strengths, and work on the things that you aren’t so good at.

Interested in getting even more support as a salesperson? Click here!

After the Pitch: How Visitor Tracking Helps Sales Teams Follow-Up

inside informationIn the old days, companies pitched prospects and then had to wait and wonder if the prospects were going to bite. Now, you can follow your prospect’s every move once the pitch is over. With the help of visitor tracking, you can see how your prospects interact with your site. This provides invaluable information once a pitch is over.

Get Inside of Their Heads

Visitor tracking allows you to act as a mind reader after you’ve made your sales pitch. You know what you presented to the prospect, and now you can see if it sunk in. You can see if the prospect is reading up on information that you talked about during the presentation. For instance, if you find the prospect reading up on a product that you pitched, you know he or she is interested but wants to learn more. The prospect is still in the research phase and deciding if he or she should pull the trigger.

If you see the prospect fixated on your pricing page, you know that the price is the main concern. He or she might need a special offer to take action. Maybe you see that they are looking at another one of your products a little more closely. Dropping an email asking if they need more information on your other products might be of interest to them now.

Determine What the Pitch Lacked

No matter how prepared you are, even the best pitch often lacks something. You might see what yours lacked through tracking them on your website. For instance, as mentioned above, you might find your prospect checking out different types of services. He or she might be interested in something else entirely so you will need to shift your focus. By understanding what your pitch lacked, you can make adjustments when you follow up with the prospect.

Decide When to Follow Up

When you track your prospects, you also know when to follow up. You can use various lead scoring techniques to determine when the prospect is ready to take action. Then, you just need a well-timed follow-up call to reel them in.

If you’re interested in converting your prospects to customers, visitor tracking is an important asset to have in your marketing arsenal. The more you know about your prospects, the easier it is to convert them. With marketing automation, you can speak their language and give them what they want.

Interested in a demo of Lead Liaison’s Visitor Tracking product, ProspectVision™? Click here!

 

Improve the Efficiency of Your Sales Team

Improve the Efficiency of your Sales TeamIf the primary function of your business is to provide a product or service to customers, you must ensure that you improve the efficiency of your sales team.  No matter how top notch your products or services may be, if your sales process is incompetent, eventually your business will suffer or fail.  We’ve collected and compiled some top ways to improve your sales processes.

Sales Pipeline Management: A Key to Success

Measuring your sales pipeline and its ROI are a challenging for any business.  But it’s the first step in the process of making sure your sales team is working smarter and not harder.  First, make sure you’re delivering attractive content to generate online traffic.  Keep track of metrics and data to track any stagnation and to calculate how long you expect each of your prospects to spend in your sales pipeline.  Identify each type of customer in your sales pipeline – this way you can tailor up-sell offers based on a prospect’s individual behavior.

Lead Sourcing

Make sure you’re spending time tracking which leads are likely to close.  Training your sales team on the three primary ways of calculating lead sourcing can lead to a more successful sales process:

  • A conversion rate will tell your team which sales sources are converting leads to opportunities.  Using a simple formula will assist you in comparing current sources with ones you hope to use in the future.  If you find that sources aren’t working for your leads – strategize with your marketing and sales team as to why this is the case.  Are you approaching the leads from this source in the wrong way or is this simply a case of the source being unattractive to the right customer?
  • Figuring out your lead to close length will give you information on how long a lead source takes to close.  Each source that you’re using will bring your company leads at different steps in the purchasing process.
  • Average value per lead calculations will tell you which sources provide you with the best customer fit, for the best value.  Do you want several smaller sales per month or one or two big sales?  Average value per lead will help you start devoting your time and effort into sources where the best leads are active, providing you with the type and frequency of sale that you want.

Sales and Marketing:  Working Together for the Best Leads

Collaboration between sales and marketing teams takes more than just a few monthly meetings.  Encourage your sales team to give marketing feedback on the leads received on a regular basis.  This will give your marketing team the chance to make adjustments to their marketing automation program.  Products marketers should share new product features with the sales team – this will make your sales team more knowledgeable on the products.

Pinpointing deficits in your leads funnels, using metrics to measure your lead sourcing, and ensuring that your sales and marketing team are working well together are all vital ways to ensure your success.