The primary if not only reason for investing in CRM is to improve the effectiveness of your sales and marketing efforts with one goal: growing your top-line sales. While it is important to manage contact and company information, the real power (in terms of growth) comes from tracking what your current customers and new prospects are looking for. You also need to know where they are in their buying process, so you will be able to provide them with the information they need when they want it. Finally, you want to be prepared to deliver a focused proposal or quote when buying teams have decided to purchase your products and services.
The Buying Process Has Changed
The B2B world is changing like the consumer world, and these changes have dramatically affected the role of your sales team when it comes to getting new business. It used to be (not that long ago) that a manufacturer or distributor sales rep was the first, and sometimes only, source of product information for a potential buyer, whether the person knew about your company or not. Now, according to industry gurus like HubSpot, buyers have completed 67% of their research BEFORE they even engage with a sales rep. The reality is that people don’t want to be “sold” – they want to “buy” – and on their terms.
Marketing is Really “Pre-Sales” – Research, Engagement, Consideration
This changing world of industrial buying means marketing and sales have to work together more than ever. One model of the buying process, as explained by Chris Peer, CEO of digital marketing firm SyncShow (syncshow.com), identifies the pre-sale stages of Research, Engagement and Consideration. Depending on where the prospect is in the buying process, the relevant content may be simple web pages and PDFs or video demonstrations or technical calculator tools. Marketing must deliver useful content (not fluff) WHEN the prospect is looking for it and WHERE the prospect is looking.
Leads are Not Contacts – Using Selltis for Tracking
Where your Selltis CRM system comes into play is keeping track of all of these interactions. New prospects and existing customers may see you at a trade show, download something from your website, or respond to a marketing email message. These “touches” are Leads – even if you already know the person. This is an important distinction that is different from how many industrial firms have thought about leads. Remember, your goal is to give your qualified prospects the best experience during these early stages. Each time the prospect engages with your company, an Activity Log needs to be created so the appropriate sales rep can see where the prospect is in the buying process. Selltis now offers a way to automate the logging of this information.
Start with Existing Customers
It’s important to start slow and grow, as Selltis founder Brian Gardner likes to say. The good news is the highest ROI from these efforts comes from the easiest place to start. It’s a well-known fact among sales teams that it is much easier to increase sales by selling existing products to existing customers than it is to sell to new customers.
But instead of waiting to be contacted by a customer, a simple idea is to develop a target account list among the accounts you already have a good relationship with. These accounts likely are not buying everything you offer – in fact, in many cases they don’t even know everything you offer. Starting with the existing accounts should also mean your success rate will be higher and you will convert faster. The good news is that you can easily adapt any sales and marketing material you develop to help these accounts for non-customers. (Remember, they don’t want to be “sold.”) You will also get feedback, good and bad, about the materials you create. This feedback will allow you to improve your messaging when you start to branch out to attract new customers.
The other key benefit of starting with existing customers is your Selltis users will immediately see the value of habitually reviewing Selltis for updates on how these leads are progressing through the buying process. The pipeline will continue to grow because you’ve taken the initiative to “fill the funnel” by giving customers what they want: namely, solutions to problems that you didn’t know they had and they didn’t know you could solve.
Selltis can help your company track customer interest within your CRM system, including downloads, responses to email marketing efforts and more. Give us a call at 985-727-3455 to learn more or email sales@selltis.com.
Reed Stith, Growth Evangelist for Selltis, has spent over 30 years in industrial sales and marketing.