78% of Marketers are planning to increase their content budgets for 2021.
But does their automation platform support your buyers’ entire journey, or just the needs of Marketing?
There are Automation platforms that meet the needs of Marketing and there are platforms that work well for Sales. But what if there was a single, affordable, integrated solution that truly met everyone’s needs?
Arguably, at its core, the job of Marketing is to raise brand awareness of your product or service and to generate ‘leads’ for your company. In most cases, by whatever process, these leads are then added to your CRM system and handed off to ‘Sales’.
It’s this CRM system that your Sales team uses for who to contact. But who are they contacting and what do they know about each contact? More importantly, are these contacts actually leads?
Which brings us to a really big question: Do you know how your Sales team spend their time?
Companies of all sizes have contacts in their CRM system that shouldn’t be there. Many just aren’t qualified.
- They could have just been curious and downloaded a gated file that required their contact information.
- They may have been in the market at the time, but no one followed up with them and they bought from someone else.
- They may be in the process of being nurtured, or are still gathering information and aren’t yet ready for a call.
Your CRM is full of noise. And noise doesn’t do anyone any good.
Every industry and business is different, but most contact records won’t turn into a sale and they don’t contribute to growth. Unless you’re in an industry with an extremely long sales cycle, contact records that are 2 years old, probably should be removed. (See the additional reading links below.)
Adding hundreds of new contacts to your CRM system, does nothing for driving revenue. But adding qualified leads, does a lot.
Is your CRM system helping or hindering? When you look at the time wasted by your Sales team on ‘leads’ that didn’t go anywhere – what’s that costing you? What is their time worth?
There is technology out there that can help both Marketing and Sales. Instead of working apart, it can bring them together. On the same team, with the same ultimate goal – that of delivering revenue for your company.
CRM systems are great… for what they do. But they really only provide Sales with a list of known contacts – often with a handful of questionable notes attached. They’re not very actionable. And at this point in the process, Sales is typically the end of your sales pipeline.
That may not be true for the contacts they call. It may not be the end of their buying journey. They may still be gathering information and shortlisting vendors. Or their timing may have changed. Knowing when to call is as important as knowing who to call.
Wouldn’t it be better if you had a solution that supports all of your process – from the initial inquiry, to the close, and every step in between. Better yet, what if you could see each individual’s history? Each engagement they had with your company — which PDFs they downloaded, videos they viewed, emails they opened and which web pages they checked out.
Your Sales and Business Development team shouldn’t be spending time trying to contact just anyone. Instead, why not focus their time and efforts on those leads who have demonstrated a clear interest and in your services and products and are Lead-Score Qualified?
And with each individual contact having their own needs, Sales can see what they’re interested in in the ‘life of the lead’— so they know what to talk about before ever picking up the phone.
Yes, there’s a cost to these kinds of platforms – but they’re not all as expensive as you think. And they’re much less costly than hiring another Sales or Business Development Rep. Your alternative? More wasted time and a frustrated Sales team. And that doesn’t sound like much of an option!
Learn how we can help you improve your pipeline process — and how we can help your Sales team, close more sales — Schedule a short 15-minute call today.
To learn more about Automation Platforms and the value they can bring to your company, check out our post on how half of all B2B brands are getting more.
Additional reading:
What Happens When Sales Teams Can’t Rely on CRM Data?
How Bad CRM Data Is Hurting Your Sales Team Performance and B2B lead Generation
CRM Maintenance 101: How Dirty Is Your Data?