I woke up this morning to an epiphany – How do we convert this amazing database of prospective clients that we have gathered over the last year to actual sales for the company?
The answer can be broken down into three simple steps.
The ultimate goal of any business is to generate sales. The crucial question, therefore, is how to take a huge potential client base and convert it to generate revenue for the company?
In this post, we are going to discuss strategies for tackling each level of prospects/leads (cold, warm, hot). We’ll also discuss how to create an effective synchronization between our marketing (creates cold leads and nurtures them into warm leads) and sales (closes hot leads) processes.
Step 1: Marketing – Cold Leads
I categorize potential clients or prospects out there as noise. The noise, once interested in your message, becomes isolated and can be heard – they are now moving on to become leads. They generally have no idea what your business is about and might not even know that you exist. This is where your digital and marketing process (See picture below) will step in and let the prospective client know that you’re here and let them know what you can do for them. The best way to tackle a cold lead is to send them your monthly newsletter, direct mailing, produce an ad campaign either in print, television, radio, or social media. This will build the foundation and enable you to take them on the journey to becoming a hot lead.
Step 2: Marketing handing over to Sales – Warm Leads
These are the leads that your company has acquired using the first step of marketing and have been moved into the warm stage either via marketing or sales. At this step in the journey you can use either a sales or marketing strategy to woo them into the third category or Hot leads as I like to call them. The best ways to manage a warm lead include: a follow up call or an email to entice them to engage. We have generally used email campaigns to do so. In addition, a simple way to manage warm leads simultaneously is to use a scheduled seminar (or even better: a webinar like the ones we have done on digital marketing, IoT and several other technology and marketing topics) to draw them all together and move them along the buyer’s journey.
Step 3: Sales all the way – Hot Leads
To convert a warm lead into a hot lead, personalization is the key word. Since this is the last stage of the buyer’s journey, to acquire a customer is all based on relations. This is when the sales strategy comes into full force. In some cases, a warm lead may become a hot lead of their own accord – generally if they need your services or love the business and highly support the idea. If this isn’t the case, the best ways to convert a prospect into a hot lead is using a one-on-one call or meeting, a proposal, presentation, or contract.
As you can see, the steps are really cohesive, as a cold lead is acquired with marketing, a warm lead is attained with further marketing and/or some sales, and a hot lead is closed with sales. The key to these two functions being successful for your business is balance. Too much of one will create an imbalance and the end result will often be fewer clients than if the two are balanced.
Now is the time for action
People ask me this question all the time – what if one has some discomfort with sales or marketing?This could be a function of inexperience and/or a lack of confidence. If you find that you are a better marketer than salesperson – then the easiest way to overcome this is to partner with an awesome salesperson. This is true if you are great at closing a deal but not so comfortable with obtaining leads (perfect example is me where I focus a lot on nurturing and developing relations and not closing deals). If you are the only person in your company then you can hire talent either on a permanent, temporary, or contract basis. The key is really knowing your own business, and determining how you want to portray your product or service to others. If you have confidence in the business then you will be able to speak smoothly and comfortably about it and easily move leads from the cold stage through to the hot stage.
At MarkiTech, we help a client or a company through the entire process from marketing to sales. We are in the business of developing and commercializing technology products and generally our target clients are highly sophisticated technology leaders who need help to sell their solutions to the market. You can contact me directly at nauman.jaffar@markitech.ca or write to us at info@markitech.ca;
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