5 Ways to Solve The Lead Generation vs Conversion Conundrum.

Are you facing the lead generation versus conversion conundrum?

Is your sales team doing enough to convert and close generated leads?

One of the key aspects have our clients focus on is selecting goals. Is it the goal to generate a higher number of leads or gaining better quality leads.

Naturally, everybody wants more leads and more sales.

Recently we analysed the metrics and patterns of a client who felt HubSpot just wasn’t working in their business.

Throughout the research process, it became apparent that HubSpot was, in fact, generating leads from contacts that could become potential prospects. Using HubSpot allows for accurate closed-loop reporting on your company’s marketing activities. We were able to use HubSpot to drill down and discover the real problems.

In this case, it was the sales team who were allowing marketing created opportunities pass by through inefficient sales processes.

Ever hear these murmurs from your sales team?

"Thing’s are a bit slow."
"Market is quiet right now."
"Not much is happening."
"We’re not getting the right people in."
"Customers aren’t ready to hear from me now."

If you’ve heard these phrases before, alarm bells should be sounding. These common excuses are warning signs that your sales force is just not working hard enough.

You might have a gut feel, but how can you prove it? 

This has been a huge problem for marketing teams worldwide since, like-totally-OMG-forever!

Converting generated marketing qualified leads into successful sales is a lot like fishing. To reel in a prize catch, you need specialised equipment, tempting bait, patience and hard work.

Is your sales department operating on the assumption that the perfect fish will just leap into your boat?

How often do you hear of big, fresh fish willingly jumping out of the ocean and straight onto dinner plates? - never!

Unbeknownst to our client, their ideal fish continued to lurk beneath the surface, swimming further out of reach.

Sound familiar?

Here are five initiatives to get your sales team off their backsides and converting leads today.

1. Go completely nuts on LinkedIn

When was the last time you or your sales team thought to use LinkedIn as a prospective lead-converting tool?

By harvesting your LinkedIn contacts, you can gather leads from past customers, as well as securing future clients.

Luck is when preparation meets opportunity.

Are you prepared? Prepare for that big chance by asking your previous clients for testimonials.
Why not use LinkedIn to nurture referral business? Ask your existing customers to refer your business to their network.

While you are at it, why not get blogging. Help your prospects solve some problems by publishing on Pulse. Then followed up with some promoted posts to your principal occupation groups.

Have you tried advertising to particular occupations on LinkedIn? You can advertise to specific roles and industries through LinkedIn. This has the added advantage of providing you with access to individuals by area and occupation.

Action: Fire up LinkedIn, Setup a dedicated 2-hour "go-get-sales" training block to allow the team to work their magic. If you need help, The Kingdom runs training sessions to help your sales team use the tool better.

2. Utilise your old business card contacts.

Everybody has loads of business cards. Usually stacked in the top drawer collecting dust. But are those contacts in your CRM? Why not?

Go through them, import them into your CRM, then email the clients a touch base email to reconnect. Chances are you may have met face-to-face with people that you have not followed up within days, months or even years.

Activity creates activity.

Action: Investigate card scanning software to make if faster. We love CamCard on the iOS, great for conferences too. 

3. Nurture your Email Inbox.

Your email inbox has loads of people that you have the contact details for and a history of info. Scan through your past inbox activity and you can be assured that some fish will leap out and bite you on the nose.

There are cloud software tools that link your email to your CRM.

Why not consider the free HubSpot CRM, which when partnered with Sidekick will harvest all emails sent to clients automagically?

For the more intense email setups, we often have great success in working with Zapier. Neat software.

Action: Get automated cloud software working for you to link you email inbox. Try evaluating cloud software such as HubSpot CRM, Nimble or Sidekick. All have free offers to get you started.

4. Get your marketing department to follow up leads.

This does not mean telemarketing. Telemarketing does not work. (Here is why)

This is all about using automated marketing software and publishing content that is created by marketing. Automation provides information to your prospects, triggered by individual interactions on your website.

According to MarketingProfs, 

37% of B2B marketers are using marketing automation to generate lead.

Automated marketing software can establish a range of programmed emails and workflows that will connect you directly to potential customers.

This delivers valued content to prospects which will build trust with your organisation.

Use the quality content from marketing, and leave your sales team to be out closing the deals.

Action: Have a team catch up between sales and marketing and find out how each can help the other with content at critical times. Then do a free evaluation of HubSpot for 30 days or speak to The Kingdom for a demo to see how Automated Marketing works.

5. Hold a big CRM training session 

Chance are high your non-performing sales people are not using the CRM correctly. Training is the only way to fix it.

All popular CRM programmes provide you with timely information to help you understand the different stages of a sale. It's hard to forget the small stuff when a CRM is used correctly.

Using a CRM in your business will help convert your generated leads into sales, but only if you have the discipline to use it. Knowledge is king. Training gives knowledge.

Action: Lock in an hour every morning, four days a week for two weeks and drill your team. Not just train, we are talking, drill, like Roger Federer would relentlessly hit tennis balls.

The case for Automated marketing and CRM software

Implementing an automated marketing will enable you to manage better your customers and your sales and marketing teams. Plus you can analyse what’s working, and also what’s not in converting sales. Using technology to harvest this data you are mining will enable you to drill down into your software and discover what is going on with your leads.

Companies with mature lead generation and management practices have a 9.3% higher sales quote achievement rate. (CSO Insights)

Better still, with HubSpot, you can focus on current data from who has been on your website. You can see the pages your contacts have been on, the emails they have been reading and the landing pages they have been discovering. 

With HubSpot you can see their buyer journey unfold right before your eyes. With this data, you can identify who is coming to your website, and market to them accordingly.

Many businesses that are struggling in sales also strive to maintain a simple email marketing schedule with any consistency. As a result, they rely on star sales people; the guns of their business. But if the stars go missing, so do the sales.

The world moves that a much faster now than it used to with the internet thundering along at the speed of light. But instead of letting it overwhelm you, use the tech revolution to your advantage by having automated marketing software continue to nurture your prospects while you are away.

Wouldn’t it be great to come back to work with a full pipeline?

With automated marketing software you have the science to prove the performance of sales and marketing. With HubSpot, you’re able to hone in on the digital activities of your prospects, and see exactly what they are doing and how they are progressing through your marketing funnel.

According to Focus Research,

"Marketing automation has seen the fastest growth of any CRM-related segment in the last 5 years."

The automated sales and marketing software industry is booming in the USA — this is your chance to get ahead of the opposition in Australia and give your sales team a powerful tool that is as much stick as it is a carrot.

So where do you start? Why not start with a free demonstration of HubSpot and its powerful automation features or watch the introduction movie below. Or check out the case study on how HubSpot changed our business over a the last year.

The Kingdom helps businesses build powerful digital marketing tools to get value and growth from their HubSpot investment. Login to the HubSpot CRM then speak to The Kingdom team today.