When teams think about a “Sales Process”, it typically refers to having a system in place where ramp up time for new reps is reduced and talking points standardized so that reps can deliver the company’s core message effectively.  

What we are referring to here is an end-to-end planning process where we can constantly test the variable and make sure we hit our target. That’s the beauty of inbound marketing – we do things sort of backwards, let me explain.

Goals and Objectives

How many leads would you like to close per month? Don’t chalk it up to luck – have definitive metrics in place. For example, if the company would like to close 20 leads per month, then how many “qualified leads” should we be having meaningful conversations with? Based on the current closing rate, how many companies/leads should we approach, in order to gather the number of “qualified leads” for us to contact? Lastly, how many visitors do we need to our website/create engagement with in order to have a good number of leads generated?  If we back track this way, we can actually get an accurate measurement of current efforts that need to be applied to our marketing efforts.

Qualifying Potential Client

Qualifying a client is to make sure that your prospect is both able and willing to potentially buy your product or engage your services. Don’t waste your time pitching to people who truly don’t need or can’t buy what you have to sell. In the inbound marketing process, we attract leads who are interested in the topic you put out. As your content attracts a wide pool of audience, set up offers and engagements that would further tell you about who they are and what they are interested in. Just by obtaining the job title and company name will give you a lot of insight into whether you are talking to the decision maker or not. There are ways to learn about your web visitors to qualify them before applying valuable sales resource to the lead. 

Importance of tracking and analytics

Most companies have multiple marketing efforts taking place at once. Having a clear tracking process of where the leads come from, how they progress, and what are the factors that either expedite or slow down closing cycle allows for organization growth and progress. A lot of companies don’t have the proper mechanisms in place to track all of the endeavors and are not able to effectively eliminate the efforts that are not generating results and put more resources against those that are. 

The direct coloration between effective pipeline management and strong revenue growth begs that companies take these three very important factors to consideration. Clear metrics and a systematic approach found through Inbound Methodologies will help your company streamlining sales complexity into interactive repeatable process.