Picture this: your company has done a lot of work to generate qualified inbound leads. You have gotten to know your customers, have spent time crafting quality content and have worked to develop brand assets that appeal to your target audience. This is great, but although your marketing may be very successful at generating leads, it is only effective if you can close. Developing an effective sales process is essential to converting your qualified leads into paying customers.

The Importance of an Effective Sales Process

In order for you to make the most of your lead generation strategy, you need to develop an effective sales process to close these leads. A defined sales process is important because it helps ensure that your marketing team is all on the same page when it comes to closing. It also helps ensure that qualified leads do not slip through the cracks and feel neglected.

Developing a sales process is also important because your leads need different things at different stages of the buyer’s cycle. Not all of your leads are ready for a sales contact. Connecting with a lead too early can be a waste of your time and resources and may even impact the person’s decision to buy from your company. Defining a process for nurturing and converting these leads is the most essential key to success.

Tips for Developing a Sales Process That Converts

Here are just a few tips for creating a process that helps you turn qualified leads into customers:

• Determine what your customer’s buying process looks like. Understanding buying patterns is important to creating a sales process that works. Review recent transactions to determine what types of questions your customers are asking before purchase and where they are getting the answers. Note how long it takes them to move through the buying process. With this information, think about changes you can make to facilitate more sales.
• Look at the current follow-up process. What are you doing now to follow up with these leads at the different stages of the cycle? Think about what actions your customers take during the buying process, and what actions your team takes in response to these customers. Also, consider your team’s process for when a lead does not perform the expected action.
• Identify issues in your current process. The key to developing a sales process that works is identifying what is wrong with your current process. Take the information you have gathered from analyzing the buying process and your current follow-up process, and look for areas of improvement. Find out what is holding you back from closing more clients.

After you have identified what is involved in the buyer’s journey, how you are currently following up with leads, and what issues you need to address, you can now refine your sales process.

Measuring Marketing ROI

Measuring the effectiveness of your inbound marketing efforts is important for tracking your return on investment (ROI) and making adjustments to your overall strategy to improve success. By developing a sales process that is linked to your lead generation strategy, your company can get a better idea of how successful your inbound efforts are overall. This, in turn, helps you to better determine and demonstrate your marketing ROI.

Don’t Waste Your Leads

Inbound leads are the best type because these leads have chosen to give you their information based on their interest in your brand and what you have to say. Chances are, they will be happy to hear back from you. Do not waste all of the time, talent and hard work you have put into generating these inbound leads. Make sure that you have a sales process in place that is effective in converting them into customers so you make the most of your marketing budget and grow your company.