by Glen Springer | Dec 2, 2016
The combination of outsourcing sales and marketing automation is a key to success.
As a sales driven company, marketing automation software is one of the key technologies that we implement to help businesses modernize their sales and marketing operations.
As important as planning campaigns and the implementation of the software is to the success of your outsourcing sales and marketing automation lead generation success, it’s also important not to drop the ball after you get started. You cannot expect to simply turn the system on and have it drive itself. Optimizing your system after it goes live is one of the key areas where an outsourcing sales company can really accelerate your transition to building modern sales and marketing operations.
Here are several ways an outsourcing sales and marketing automation company can help ensure your success after the initial 60 to 90 days of your first marketing automation campaign.
Expertise on when to transition leads to your outsourcing sales team
The results of lead scoring campaigns are ultimately realized when the sales ready leads get into the hands of your business development reps and sales qualifiers at the right time and as quickly as possible. Establishing reports and notifications to the right person at the right time will ensure that the leads are acted upon quickly before they go cold. An outsourcing sales and marketing automation company will have the best practices to program the right workflow based on their depth and breadth of experience.
Analysis to help you decide what content to create next and how to refine lead scoring
After the initial 90 days you should have your first wave of Sales Ready Leads in the hands of your closers. Depending on sales cycles you should have enough information to make informed decisions about what content needs to be added to you content calendar. To do this your outsourcing sales and marketing partner can work with you to review the commonly consumed content by people who convert to buyers or are deeply engaged prospects. You can then assign higher value scores in your system to prospects when that content is consumed. You can then have your outsourcing sales and marketing automation partner create similar content to use in future campaigns.
Analysis of email campaign performance
Just like the content you need to analyze the drip campaign performance. Look for high performance click through rates (CTR) and unsubscribe rates and adjust your campaigns accordingly. If there is a piece of content that people commonly unsubscribe from, remove it from your campaign. If there is an email that has a high CTR, optimize the respective landing page and consider using it as part of an inbound campaign.
Keep creating content intelligently
Among the biggest bottlenecks many marketers face is trying to source good content while keeping it updated, fresh, and relevant. With data from your automation campaign you can now start to leverage your sales outsourcing and marketing partner to plan ahead. And because an outsourcing sales and marketing automation partner will understand both the front end and the back end of your sales funnel they will be able to help you with both the strategy and the actual content production required to help you keep the right level of content flowing at the right level of investment.
Conclusion
Gabriel Sales provides outsourcing sales and marketing automation services for companies after we transform their sales and marketing operations to meet the needs of today’s digital buyer. If you are new to lead scoring and marketing operations we invite you to check out our whitepaper “Drive More Sales Ready Leads in 60 Days” How to build a sales system to consistently generate more sales ready leads at a lower cost.
by Glen Springer | Nov 30, 2016
This article will address five indicators that may suggest that it could be a good time to consider sales outsourcing and marketing.
Outsourcing different functions to service providers is becoming more and more accepted. Companies can now outsource a variety of tasks like HR, staffing, product development and finance. But companies are often more cautious when outsourcing sales and marketing. But when executed correctly by an experienced provider, sales outsourcing can have a meaningful impact especially in helping you to build a modern sales and marketing organization.
Here are several reasons you may want to work with a modern sales outsourcing and marketing company:
Feature selling is not working – You need to start selling against pains with solutions. A sales outsourcing and marketing company will be able to help you quickly shift your early stage messages and process to focus on the buyer instead of your product.
Your Rolodex Reps have stopped producing – A fair amount of companies are able to grow their business through their founders or the early sales hires’ set of relationships. At some point this runs out of steam. A sales outsourcing company can provide a process that generates a more consistent flow of leads.
Sales model must change – Startups and small businesses grow markets in different ways. But most companies reach a stage where they need to go after a new market quickly. A sales outsourcing and marketing company can help you quickly shift:
- Selling to the enterprise to selling to SMB
- Generating leads for larger enterprise companies
- Transitioning your sales process from an outside sale to an inside sales
- Using content marketing to do your early stage sales education
You need to build a repeatable sales process – After a company has closed their initial 6 to 12 deals there you will have enough information and experience to build a repeatable sales process. A modern sales outsourcing and marketing company will have the frameworks to quickly help you build a repeatable and integrated process that can be scaled.
You have gaps in your internal team – A sales outsourcing and marketing company will be able to help by supplying:
- The right marketing talent and a sales talent to execute parts of your sales process
- The right automation and CRM systems experts
- Access to a database to market to and the talent to help you manage that database
- Content marketing and content production specialists
The right strategist and consulting experts for marketing, lead generation, lead qualifying and closing assistance are also typically part of any sales outsourcing and marketing engagement. These strategists will be able to provide a fresh perspective to help you remove barriers to your sales.
Conclusion
Sales outsourcing and marketing provides a number of benefits, like controlling costs, providing access to highly skilled sales talent, sales and marketing strategists, technologists and marketing professionals. You also avoid the costs and delays of building on your own. You get a team up and running faster that will be aligned around enabling growth.
Gabriel Sales specializes in helping Start Ups and Small and Mid- Sized Business build modern sales and marketing operations. To learn more about our approach we invite you to check out our About Us page or you can also check out our Sales Outsourcing and Marketing Case Studies to evaluate if we may be able to help
by Glen Springer | Nov 28, 2016
In 2015 Live Webinars were one of the top 3 content formats leveraged by buyers to help them learn more about a company’s solution. But according to DemandGen’s 2016 Content Survey webinars slipped slightly from this position in 2016 for the following reasons:
- Lack of time to view a full webinar: 88% of buyers surveyed said they prefer shorter content formats
- Too much content available in general: 83% of respondents said they are overwhelmed by the amount of available content
- The need to watch webinars live: 73% of respondents said they prefer to access audio/video content on-demand.
But on the positive side…if you create compelling webinars buyers that do invest the time are more likely to convert into Sales Qualified Opportunities. So as an outsourced sales and marketing we still love webinars because they are a killer piece of content to make it easier for your buyer to buy and a great predictive tool in your lead scoring strategy.
So as an outsourced sales and marketing company here are 5 tips we give our clients to ensure they get the most out of their Webinars to maximize their content marketing investment.
Turn one webinar into multiple pieces of content Outsourced Sales and Marketing Team can leverage
We can get a dozen pieces of content because that one webinar can typically be repurposed into:
- 4 to 5 Short Weblette Videos
- 4-7 Blog Posts
- A White Paper and/or an Ebook.
These also are shorter pieces of content which buyers now prefer.
You don’t need to always have live webinars.
Having live events are a great way to generate leads but you don’t need to always go into the extra work of making these live events. If you do have live events you should expect as many as 50% to 60% not to show. But this does not need to be a huge cause of concern. You can still follow up with these with additional content marketing. Remember to send them a notification when the live webinar is recorded. And we have also found that if senior buyers sign up its worth as many as seven follow up calls to these senior decision makers because they signed up for the event because they had a problem they needed to solve. It’s worth as many as 7 calls.
Simply Start with an On-Demand Webcast
Building on two of the points above, doing webcasts live puts more pressure on the presenter and the moderator. Now that buyers prefer on demand webcasts you can start there.. Simply simulate a live webcast. With video editing software it is now easy to clean up any mistakes if you don’t like how you presented a section. So in one session with some basic editing you can create an impactful piece of content that can be used for an extended period of time faster and with less pressure.
On-demand webinars are essentially DVRed TV shows, Demand Gen Report’s 2016 Content Preferences Survey showed that 73% of respondents prefer to access audio/video content on demand.
Send Email Promotions Strategically: Blasting multiple emails with the same message and content is not the right strategy. Send the first mail about two weeks prior to the event, the second two days before the event and the last mail the day of the event. And articulate what they will learn from the event with slightly different subject lines and content.
Conclusion
Webinars should be a staple of any marketing, education and lead scoring program. But they are just one important part of an integrated outsourced sales and marketing program. Marketers should stop thinking about them as events and start thinking and using them as part of an overall strategy to tell their sales story to the market in a substantive way.
To learn more about how Gabriel Sales can help you get more out of your webcasting and overall content marketing and sales efforts and how we can help you build more modern sales and marketing operations we invite you to check out our outsourced sales and marketing outsourced sales and marketing or the About Us section of our website.
by Glen Springer | Nov 25, 2016
Sales outsourcing give you access to the modern Business Development Rep (BDR)
In today’s business environment buyers have access to a wealth of information and educational material to help research and evaluate products and solutions. As a result the roles and responsibilities for Business Development Reps are constantly evolving.
The days have past when BDRs are given a list to make cold calls. Modern BDR’s are now supported by tools that give them insights into a buyer’s needs, content to educate those buyers and the ability to score leads with automation technologies so they know where to focus their time.
Let’s take a quick look at what you can expect from your modern sales outsourcing business development rep.
Your modern sales outsourcing rep will be targeting your Ideal Customer Profile
For a sales rep to succeed they need to focused on buyers most likely to buy. When working with a sales outsourcing company you will have a strategy in place to target your ideal customer. You can also expect your sales outsourcing rep to understand that customer, what makes them a great fit for your company and what group of buyers and influencers will be part of the decision making unit. Different buyer personas that you have defined in your ICP targeting will have different needs and the modern business development rep will have the ability to personalize their approach to meet the prospects’ needs.
Your modern sales outsourcing rep will know what problems your buyers are trying to solve
To close business you need to have a great product. But before pitching the product you need to know what problems your buyer is trying to solve. Modern BDRs will be aware of product features but more importantly they will also be aware of the problems and pains the buyers have. Today’s buyer is more concerned with solving problems and not features and benefits early in the buying cycle. Understanding the problems a buyer is trying to solve will help your closers and sales engineers present the product to potential customers in a way that highlights the solution to their major problems.
Your modern sales outsourcing rep will have content they can share with the buyer to prove they understand the buyers needs and pains
In 2017 top sales outsourcing companies will have the ability to create content like headshot videos, blog articles and webcasts to help educate the buyer. This content can be shared directly by the rep and will also be shared as part of ongoing drip nurturing campaigns for buyers that are not ready to buy.
Your sales outsourcing rep will have the automation tools to prioritize leads
One of the most valuable features of automation technologies is the ability to help you prioritize leads. These tools score your buyers likelihood to buy based on their Ideal Customer Profile fit and your buyers’ engagement with different types of content. The modern sales outsourcing rep will know how to access these scores in the CRM and will also be able to observe the specific pieces of content your buyers are engaged with to help them personalize the questions they ask the prospect.
Your sales outsourcing rep will follow a repeatable sales process
Modern BDR’s know that smart work flow is critical. Your sales outsourcing partner will help your sales reps leverage technology to enable your sales team to follow a persistent and measurable process with outreach that combines a mix of phone, email and social. This approach drives better conversion rates.
Your sales outsourcing reps mind set has shifted from always be closing to always be helping
With all the educational tools at your buyers disposal more and more products are first “bought’ and the buyer educates themselves digitally. Your modern BDR’s number one focus needs to be to help your buyer facilitate that part of your buyer’s process. As your BDR does this they will be building trust. As you are sharing content, scoring leads and asking the right questions as part of your repeatable sales process your buyer development rep will know the right time to ask for the appointment and ask for the business with one simple question “Are you ready to speak with a sales executive?”
Gabriel Sales provides sales outsourcing and marketing services to help Start Ups and SMBs modernize their sales and marketing operations. To learn more about our approach to helping companies address the new digitally driven buyer you can also check out our About Us page.
by Glen Springer | Nov 23, 2016
Solutions are first Bought and then Sold
All culminating in the ability to score leads so your callers are focused on buyers most likely to transact
Ten years ago the number one way to generate new leads was through the proven method of targeting the right market, picking up the phone, telling your prospect a great sales story and setting an appointment. The more calls you made, the more appointments you could set. But times have changed and you can no longer throw bodies at the problem.
According to Forrester Research over “70% of buyers now prefer to receive an email and be educated digitally before meaningfully engaging with a sales rep.” Couple this with the fact that buyers now pick up the phone 50% less than they did several years ago, you can see why you and your outsourced sales and marketing company now need to approach cold calling and their phone approach to sales and lead generation differently.
A Changing Market
So now when you outsource sales and marketing in 2017 you can expect your outsourced sales and marketing team to generate leads through a combination of the integrated process including Email Marketing Campaigns, Content Marketing, PPC Campaigns and Cold Calling
When cold calling your outsourced sales callers will start by introducing content
If buyers prefer to learn about new solutions through educational content this is where your calling efforts will start. You should use your callers to target customers that fit your ideal customer profile – buyers that are in the right vertical, buyers and influencers that should have a need for your solution that can help them hit their own personal annual bonus this year, and buyers that you have a proven ability to serve. Your goal of that initial call should be to get to pitch your solution in under 30 seconds, confirm that they have at least a little interest in your solution and that they are the right person at the company to share the information with. Once these goals are achieved you should share the information and get off the call and move on to putting more early stage deals in the funnel.
Your outsourced sales team should focus on helping and not selling
You callers initial focus needs to be more customer service and buyer education focused. Not trying to set appointments immediately with closers. Your callers need to shift their mind set to discover if there is a real possibility of a fit. Your initial aim needs to qualify, not force or convince. Forcing a fit is a waste of your buyer’s time and your time.
One of the primary innovations of automation technologies is that it gives you’re the ability to observe a buyers digital footprint so you can see what buyers are most curious and interested in your solution. Once the lead has been generated your outsourced callers should focus on these leads first.
Your callers should focus on understanding your buyer’s needs
If your callers are calling on buyers that are highly scored this means the buyer is educating themselves about you digitally. Your callers don’t need to pitch, they need to understand what the buyer’s specific needs and goals are. Your callers need to change their language from “sales speak” to natural language. You need to ask smart questions, then listen. Doing these two things will immediately set yourself apart as someone who is patient, open minded and willing to listen. Ask what more educational material the buyer would like to see.
Finally your callers need to close on the sales appointment
When you follow this process that allows the buyer to buy the way they want to buy you will know that:
- The buyer is a fit for your business
- What the buyer needs
- That the buyer is educated
At this point your outsourced sales team is ready to hard qualify the deal for your closer and ask for the appointment. At this point the buyer is either ready to buy or not ready to buy. The buyer will trust you so you will be able to ask hard qualifying questions and expect accurate and truthful answers because trust will have been established in both directions. And most importantly when you pass to your closer they will have all the information they need to service and close the buyer for a mutually beneficial long term relationship.
