January 28, 2010
Wasted Sales Opportunities Costing Business
Over the last few months, we have been seeing a number of clients with extremely good traditional and digital marketing activities wasting their sales conversion opportunities by not having a proactive sales team at the helm to close the deal.
Not that the salespeople are doing a bad job, it is more about communication and information flow within the different areas of the business.
Could it be that the sales team haven’t been informed of the marketing strategies or campaigns at hand? Are they trained in strategic ways of handling multiple leads? Do they have all the resources needed to close a sale? Do they know who your target markets are?
All these questions should be asked by the CEO/MD and Marketing team prior to kicking off any marketing campaign. Without a strong sales process, CRM (customer relationship management) system, call tracking, closing strategies and so forth, a firm runs the risk of wasting serious money on lead generation, time and growth opportunities through poor sales execution.
Prior to any campaign, make sure all your sales staff understand and know exactly what to do with “hot”, “warm” and “cold” leads that might come through. Ensure they understand what the key messages are of the campaign and who the target markets are so that they can adjust their pitches and presentations accordingly.
Finally, provide ongoing feedback during the campaign and sales cycles to ensure they are constantly improving. If the first 50 leads don’t come off, don’t sit on your hands hoping it will get better by itself with the next 50.
Contact Reload for any advice on sales and marketing strategies or process re-engineering of the sales team.
Tags: CRM, Integrated Marketing Communications, Sales Strategy
