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As a sales manager, you hear it all the time. You’re debriefing a sales call with your seller, and according to them...it’s a hot lead! The call went great and the salesperson is absolutely SURE that the business will close. Everyone high fives and goes back to work. The next week, you follow-up with your salesperson and ask about the prospect. Has it closed yet? When do you think you’ll get the contract signed? The response…”soon.” However, “soon” turns out to be weeks...and then months...and then nothing.
Prospecting can be an agonizing game. It’s possible that some of these “dead” leads will turn around, that the prospect just wasn’t ready and will come back on-grid at some point. However, if we are all honest with ourselves, the majority of the time the prospect was a ‘no’ - and the only person who didn’t know it was the salesperson.
Why? Honestly, it’s often a natural response. Salespeople are fueled by optimism. In a sales world, they have to be. It’s a requirement of the job...that you pick yourself up and keep going day in and day out despite rejection. However, hope doesn’t pay the bills. As a sales manager, what can you do to give your salespeople an advantage...one that keeps them motivated and helps them close more business? We have an unconventional solution.
Sure, you can train and coach...and you should. But what if you address the issue BEFORE it becomes a problem? What if you feed your salespeople more qualified leads? When you improve the quality of the leads, you improve your closing ratio. Is this even possible? It is with Inbound Marketing.
Remember the last time you needed information and went to Google? You typed in your search query and pressed enter...and boom! There it was. A whole page of potential solutions. You spent the next few minutes clicking around looking for information until you found a website that answered your questions. Most likely, you clicked around a little more on that particular website looking for additional information or to see what else they had to offer. Then, depending on your question, you may or may not have picked up the phone to call that business or filled out a form requesting more information. And there you have it. You just became a qualified lead...the result of inbound marketing. If you didn’t then, you’ll most likely return later because you have found a trusted source of information. When you’re ready to buy...that business is on your radar screen.
Consumer habits are changing and Inbound Marketing leverages the new way people are searching for solutions. A word of caution though...it’s not quite as simple as it seems. You can’t post a few blogs and expect results. There’s a process and a strategy behind what topics are chosen, optimizing posts for SEO, keyword monitoring, launching gated content, etc, etc, etc. Inbound Marketing is a strategy that takes time to fully mature and develop. It’s not something you step delicately into or stop midstream. But...it works. And what’s more, the leads you get close more often and more quickly than traditional cold-calling and prospecting methods. Fill out our checklist “Is Inbound Marketing Right For Your Business?” for more information and when you’re ready, let us know. Your first consultation is free.
