by Glen Springer | Feb 13, 2017
A consistent sales funnel now requires using all tactics at your disposal including:
- Content marketing
- eMail Marketing
- Business development reps
- Sales reps
And for some small businesses this can be a challenge because of lack of capacity. When you work with an outsource sales and marketing lead gen company to help you fill your sales funnel you can expect them to use both content marketing tactics and outsource sales reps. The marketing team and the outsource sales reps will be aligned around the goal of putting the right information, the right educational content offer and the right sales offer in front of the buyer at the right time.
Here is how an aligned outsource sales and marketing company will be able to help you modernize your sales and marketing operations to put more leads in your closer’s sales funnel:
One – Create content for all stages of your buyer’s journey and your sales funnel
Your content needs to be designed to be used at each stage of your buyer’s journey. When a potential company visits your website you need to make it easy for your buyer to buy with the following framework.
As our customer centric outsource sales and marketing framework above details you need to be aware that there are multiple stages in your buyer’s journey. And there are also many type of content formats that can be used. A blend of formats will meet the needs of multiple buyers preferences. It will also enable you to redistribute the content across different tactics like PPC, social media and email marketing campaigns. The same content can also be used by your outsource sales buyer development reps.
Your outsource marketing team will be able to help you produce the content you need for lead generation and lead qualification success.
Two – Align outsource sales and marketing efforts to share that content
Sales and marketing need to have a shared goal of moving deals from initial interest to close and this means they need to collectively work together to share your content and qualify opportunities.
Your marketing team needs to generate leads as cost effectively as possible by sharing content in social media, PPC campaigns and email marketing campaigns. And then using a marketing automation software to continue to nurture the leads and map your buyer’s digital footprint to score the leads for your outsource sales and business development reps.
Your outsource sales reps should then be able to share the same content and later stage content like video demos and FAQs with the buyer. This will help make it easy for the buyer to buy and it will save time for your business development reps so they can increase their call volume and share your content with even more buyers.
Three – Give your outsource sales and marketing team a shared scorecard
As a big fan of Steven Covey we believe that you need to “Start with The End in Mind”. The goals for both your teams should always be to put more sales qualified leads that ultimately transact into your closer’s sales funnel. To that end we have developed this outsourced sales and marketing scorecard that will keep your team focused on this goal and all the steps required to get to that goal.
Gabriel Sales helps start-up companies and small businesses committed to growth build modern sales and marketing operations by supplying a blended team to augment both sales and marketing capacity and capability gaps.
To learn more about how we build these sales engines please visit our page that outlines our new approach to outsource sales and marketing.
by Glen Springer | Feb 3, 2017
Companies of any size can benefit from outsourcing sales. Outsourcing sales for small businesses can often have the most significant impact because these companies often need it the most, especially if success requires modern sales and marketing operations. Below are just a handful of the ways a small business can benefit from outsourcing sales.
Immediate sales and marketing infrastructure
Many small businesses don’t have the most critical infrastructure for modern sales and marketing operations in place. In today’s market success, especially if you are competing against larger companies, they require multiple pieces of infrastructure and technology to compete against larger competitors including:
- Access to databases
- Marketing automation platforms
- A CRM solution
An outsourcing sales company will have both the tools and the expertise in place to give you access to these tools immediately.
Professional sales recruiting and management
Most small businesses don’t typically have professional sales recruiting and management in house or a process to recruit sales talent. This may lead to hiring the “wrong” sales personnel. Even if a business does hire the “right” sales person, without effective and daily sales management, that individual has a higher propensity to fail.
Using a partner for outsourcing sales will allow you to access sales recruiting, management and culture/environment that most of your larger competitors have. .
Quickly focus on specific gaps to accelerate your sales funnel
Most small business owners are wearing multiple hats, and in many cases the owners are also qualifying leads, creating the marketing material, and closing business. They are doing this on top of delivering the solutions and running day to day business operations. They have the knowledge and skill to run sales and marketing but they simply lack the bandwidth. An outsourcing sales and marketing solution can help the small business owner cover specific gaps at specific stages of the sales process. This includes:
Lead Generation – An outsourcing sales and marketing company can quickly turn on a multiple tactics for lead generation including:
- Email marketing
- Outbound calls
- SEO and SEM
- Social Media Marketing
Lead Development – An outsourcing sales and marketing company will be able to implement a content marketing strategy and marketing automation platform to help you develop leads in your funnel digitally.
Lead Qualification – An outsourcing sales organization will be able to staff an outsourcing sales rep or outsourcing sales team to help you qualify and educate early stage buyers and set appointments for your senior team.
Depending on your sales cycle, an outsourcing sales and marketing company can help a small business accelerate sales in as little as 90 to 180 days. A small business can retain an outsourcing sales company and get access to a pool of talent and tools with less risk and more certainty.
To learn more about the problems we help small businesses solve with sales outsourcing and marketing services and how we approach building modern sales and marketing operations we invite you to visit our About Us page.
by Glen Springer | Feb 1, 2017
Time is money-the time to outsource sales is now!
Lead generation is the critical first step in sales. A great sales person highly skilled at closing business may not have the time, and in some cases the skills to generate leads. In most cases it is not worth their time or effort to focus on many of the daily tasks required to generate leads. That is especially true in this day and age when the majority of buyers prefer to learn about new products and services with a quick call and a follow up email that explains the problems your company helps the buyer to solve. Hiring a company proficient in outsource sales could prove extremely beneficial.
Below are the four ways you can outsource marketing and sales to help you generate more leads in 2017.
One – Craft a comprehensive approach
Far too many small businesses do not have a systematic approach for producing new leads. Most small businesses sporadically send out emails and have their sales reps make phone calls when they have the time. The result generally gives credence to the old adage – Fail to plan and plan to fail. Success now requires a systematic and comprehensive strategy for generating leads.
An outsource sales and marketing company will be able to help you craft a repeatable and systematic process that will help build a consistent flow of leads into your closers sales funnel. At Gabriel Sales, our lead generation solution typically entails a combination of email marketing, cold calling, follow up call, google campaigns and social media out reach.
The most effective lead generation approaches allow you to reach the buyer multiple times. This requires multiple tactics, and you need to build a plan and then stick to the plan.
Two – Lead generation require content
According to multiple studies, the majority of buyers that are not immediately looking for a solution now prefer to learn about a new product or solution through a quick phone call followed up by an email that shares educational content. You now need content for effective lead generation. This content doesn’t need to overproduced, but it should be professionally done and it should be educational. Early stage lead generation should not sell. It should educate. Then, you need to support the development of the lead with additional content. Here is a link to a blog post that explains the type of content you will need and how it should be used. This explains the graphic below in a little more detail. You can start a successful lead generation program with as little as two or three simple, well done and educational pieces of content like checklists, webcasts, blog posts and explainer videos. An outsource sales and marketing company can help you to quickly product them.
Three – Use multiple tactics
As we touched on the topic above, you need to use multiple tactics. The days of throwing bodies at the telephone to just smile and dial are over. You can no longer depend on just one tactic to generate leads.
Once you have your content created there are multiple ways to reach out and share that content. We recommend that you keep it simple, but that you also use multiple approaches simultaneously. The goal is to get that educational content in front of as many buyers as possible multiple ways. An outsource sales company will be able to help you do this with emails, phone calls, mailed packages, Google retargeting campaigns and social platforms. We typically recommend using 3 to 5 approaches. When you use multiple approaches, you will triple your chances of getting your message to buyers.
We also recommend that you use a marketing automation platform to score buyer engagement. You can learn more about how and sales and marketing outsourcing company can help you do that that in this quick blog post .
Four – Set realistic goals and stick to your plan
Unrealistic goals can quickly destroy your momentum. When you work with an outsource sales and marketing company they will be able to help you benchmark what you can expect. Then, you need to set a 90 degree strategy and stick to it. Lead generation is a grind, but it is worth it. It is also a discipline that is like training for a sport; you need to do the same things daily and weekly to produce results. An outsource sales and marketing company will ensure that these daily and weekly blocking and tackling takes place and they will measure and report on results with regularity
Gabriel Sales specializes in help SMBs and Start Ups launch modern sales and marketing operations and to build successful and custom best practice strategies for lead generation. To learn more about our outsourced sales and marketing services we invite you to visit our outsource sales and marketing services page.
by Glen Springer | Jan 30, 2017
Developing trust with your buyer early in the buying and selling process is one of the top reasons to consider outsourcing sales and marketing. Outsourcing sales and marketing to build this rapport and trust with potential buyers early in the sales cycle can save you both time and money because building this trust can create a significant time drain on your senior resources. In addition, this can quickly increase your cost of sales percentage if your most senior resources are dedicating too much time to this task.
Here are 5 Ways Outsourcing Sales and Marketing Can Help you Build Trust with your Buyers:
- Follow up with inbound lead immediately – Senior sales resources and executives are busy, in meetings, running operations, managing accounts and leading the company. Outsourcing sales will ensure you are focused on potential needs when the buyer expresses them with an inbound request. Outsourcing sales will help you get to the buyer faster. And as multiple studies continue to explain, the first person back to the buyer has a 50% advantage closing that deal over competitors.
- Producing thought leadership content – Most outsourcing sales and marketing companies will have frameworks to help you create thought leadership content in the form of webcasts, videos, blog posts and checklists. This digital content can act as a surrogate for your senior talent early in the sales process. Your “digital thought leader” can demonstrate and share their expertise early in the sales conversation and build trust without needing to engage in early stage sales conversations.
- Distribute that thought leadership content – Outsourcing sales and marketing companies will have the technology, the capability and capacity to share that thought leadership with potential buyers. An outsourcing sales and marketing company will be able to do warm, friendly, and helpful calls to buyers where they will share your thought leadership.
- Implement a marketing automation solution to score leads – A sales outsourcing and marketing company will have the necessary technologies in place to automate email marketing to a list of potential buyers. They will also have the ability to track those buyers, score their interests, will follow up to be even more helpful, and ask intelligent probing questions. And if it makes sense, they will introduce your senior sales team if the buyer is interested.
- They will recap and share what they have learned from the buyer with your senior rep – Your outsourcing sales rep and marketing team will be able to communicate what content your buyer has digested digitally and will also share what they have learned about the buyers needs so your senior sales resource can quickly recap and confirm the buyers needs and understanding. This saves both your buyer and the seller time and builds trust in your entire team’s professionalism
In conclusion, creating this initial positive impression early and building trust is a requirement for almost any sale, and this is one area where outsourcing sales and marketing can help you build this trust and generate more sales qualified leads at a lower cost.
Gabriel Sales helps businesses build modern sales and marketing operations and then supports those operations with a variety of sales outsourcing and marketing services. To learn more about our approach we invite you to check out our outsourcing sales and marketing services page.
by Glen Springer | Jan 27, 2017
Gabriel Sales provides outsourced sales and marketing services. Our outsourced sales and marketing solutions help small businesses and startups build repeatable sales and modern marketing organizations. When we work with our clients we also help them to implement the right technology stack to help them benchmark every stage of their sales process so data can be leveraged for continuous improvement at every stage of the buyer’s journey. Once the lead generation engine is built and productive we can then quickly and simply transition a client’s outsourced sales lead generation to the company for continued self-management or we can continue to scale the effort.
What follows are several tips for companies that are just starting to consider if an outsourced sales lead generation and marketing solution is right for their business when they are specifically considering an outsourced lead generation function.
Know who you want and need to target. The first step for success when you engage in outsourced sales and marketing lead generation is to define the market you need to target. The better your targeting the better the results. You should expect your outsourced sales partner to work with you to define both your ideal organization and the ideal roles within that organization for you to target.
Outsourced sales and marketing lead generation should be used to scale not invent. Before getting started with a fully outsourced sales and marketing lead generation program you should have your prospecting process written down and tested internally first. If you have not fully documented this process or have not yet run your own lead generation program you should expect your outsourced sales and marketing partner to work with you on a preliminary sales consulting project first to help you define and document a sales prospecting process.
You need educational content and collateral for a successful outsourced sales and marketing lead generation program. 70% of buyers prefer learning about a new product or solution with a quick conversation and/or an email that links them to educational content. And then depending on your industry 20% to 90% of prospects use digital content to short list the vendors that they want to engage with for deeper sales conversations. You will need to provide your outsourced sales lead generation team the content they need to engage and interest buyers. You will need email templates, FAQs, blog articles, educational assets and features and benefits sell sheets. If you do not have this material your outsourced sales and marketing company should be able to work with you to create this content.
Agree to success metrics. Prior to getting started you will need to define what success will be measured on. You should not expect your outsourced sales lead generation team to close deals for you. If this is your success criteria you will need to engage your partner for more than lead generation. However you can expect your outsourced lead generation team to qualify leads if that is agreed to in advance.
Have a plan in place to transition leads. If leads are not followed up with on a timely and consistent basis you will just be wasting your outsourced lead generation investment. Before pulling the trigger on an outsourced lead generation program have a plan and at least one sales rep to transition the leads to.
How Gabriel Sales Can Help
If you are an outsourced sales lead generation program Gabriel Sales has developed a turnkey Sales Ready Lead and Sales Automation Starter Package
As a B2B outsourced sales and marketing company, we understand that ROI is important so this package includes a free preliminary assessment to see if outsourced sales is the right solution for your business. To learn more about our approach you can also visit the About Us page.
by Glen Springer | Jan 24, 2017
Here’s how Gabriel Sales Outsourced Sales Team can help
When you have outsourced sales and marketing, one of the tactics your partner may manage will be creating content or organizing content. Creating a streamlined production of content so you should expect your sales partner to be able to manage landing pages or you should be prepared to offer this support.
Understanding the difference between your home page and a landing page or the difference between a landing page and a microsite is important. Using these different type of pages is important for outsourced sales and marketing success because they all you to address the buyers needs at different stages of the buyer journey. In this age of digital buying every page needs to have a goal to help generate business for your company. Here is the content framework we use.
How does a solid home page help you outsourced sales?
Your home page is the front door to your house. A buyer will use it to quickly get to know you. If they can understand what you do and start to understand how you can help them you will have accomplished your goal. You simply want to make a solid first impression. In face Google and Microsoft Research both report that most people will look around for between 10 to 15 seconds or less and make a decision to leave or to look deeper into your website.
So, the buyer needs to quickly understand that you understand their needs and problems and how you could potentially help them. This needs to happen quickly. If your home page engages potential buyers quickly this will help your lead scoring and your outsourced sales team. successful your lead scoring
How are landing pages leveraged by your outsourced sales and marketing team?
Landing pages are pages that continue the sales story. They will typically contain information about 1 topic or one issue that proves to the buyer that you understand their pain. Landing pages are also used for inbound lead generation and content offers. So you need to design landing pages to be used by both your sales reps to share individual pieces of information like white papers, checklists of infographics. But it is also important that you design them to easily embed forms. So the copy should be short and succinct. The major goal for all your landing pages is to turn site visitors into leads or to turn cold call leads into sales accepted leads as they engage with content.
How outsource sales and marketing use microsites?
Microsites are designed to organize your content to make it easy for your buyer to buy. They are used when buyers are moving from problem identification to evaluating your solution. You are simply trying to make it easy for this buyer to have this conversation with you digitally. Think about organizing content on your microsite to provide access to all three stages of content on this page. When you do this, they become very powerful for lead scoring and automation technologies. If you are not familiar with lead scoring you can learn more about that in this blog post What is Lead Scoring?
Gabriel Sales provides outsource sales and marketing services to start ups and Small and Medium Sized businesses. We specialize in helping companies build modern sales and marketing operations. To learn more about the areas Gabriel Sale can help you launch an outsource sales and marketing effort we invite you to learn more about us on our outsource sales and marketing services page
