Marketing Automation Fosters Stronger Sales Opportunities

Technology is moving at the speed of light, coupled with innovation, this is dramatically changing the way companies are tackling their sales processes. As you know, sales are a measurement of how well a company is moving their product or providing their service. In an effort to sell more, companies are turning to marketing automation to improve the process, their response time and their customer engagement. 

According to a recent article from Promotion World, “Marketing automation helps marketers efficiently segment, automate to, and track engagement for prospects through the customer lifecycle.”  Isn’t that what every company strives to do? As automation gives us more ability to manage and cultivate potential customers from a cold to warm opportunity, then here are some steps to consider as ways to move beyond the virtual relationship in the sales cycle:

• Connecting – Taking a virtual relationship and building upon it means connecting personally. Consider what is best for your business… connecting via telephone or in a face-to-face setting. If a face-to-face meeting is necessary, then consider linking to them via LinkedIn or looking through your network to see who could vouch for you in setting a time with the prospective customer. Being creative and standing out from the crowd will work, but you need to understand what the customer would accept and respect.  

• Conveying – All messages should be conveyed in a way that is educational and non-threatening to the customer. The days of the “used car salesmen” are gone. Today’s salesperson must be engaging, educated and enlightening on offering the options that will make the customer’s business stronger.

• Converting – After connecting and conveying your message, it is time to begin converting the opportunity into a sale. Sometimes conversion is easy, sometimes it is more difficult. Remember this is simply part of the process, whether it takes 12 days or 12 years, never burn bridges or promise things you cannot deliver. Potential customers want to learn as much as possible about you, so give them time to do so.

Automation of the marketing and sales processes make it easy to track progress and what information has been provided to the prospective customer. Once virtual relationships have been developed, it’s time to focus your attention on engaging to make the sale. It’s obvious that marketing automation has had an impact on the sales process; however without effective, relevant communication, many times companies are running opportunities away versus pulling them in. How can you better pull in your audiences?