Sales target leads to planning, planning leads to marketing decisions, marketing decisions lead to marketing, marketing leads to leads, leads lead to conversion, and conversion fulfills the sales target. It’s a perfect cycle. What happens when one spoke goes haywire? The aspect that introduces your customers to your business is not under your control. What happens if the leads don’t convert? What happens to the entire process that led you to those leads? Will all that go to the bin or just get added to your weekly mailing list.
What if there was a way to make use of these lost leads and make them useful to your business? What if there was a way where your marketing team can work along with the sales team to make sure all the spokes in your sales cycle are functioning properly? Still thinking how? Read on and we will tell you….
Open Communication Channels
What went wrong and where? Find out from your sales representatives what exactly went wrong in your cycle and why your leads did not convert. Have them work with your marketing team to see if there is some content alteration that can be made in order to avoid these situations. You may want to use a customer management system and get the cycle automated, so it becomes as easy as generating a report and pointing out the glitch.
Discovering the Why
It is inevitable that your sales team closes the lead, marking it as a lost lead. However, let that not end the work to be done there. It would be helpful to find out why it did not convert. Having a full understanding of the leads’ decision making process can help you figure out why they didn’t go through with the buy, what made them change their decision. This understanding of the prospect’s mindset will have a twofold benefit. Firstly, it will help your marketing team craft a target specific and compelling content and secondly, they will be in a better position to highlight your company’s value in the targets mind the way they would see it.
Turn a New Leaf
Where the previous step ends, this step starts. Once your team has an understanding of your prospect’s mindset, what and why of the situation, they have to begin crafting content based on those disqualifications. The company management has to keep in mind that a lost lead can be a sore topic to discuss with your sales rep, mainly because it highlights their lost work. But it has to be done in an open environment with your Sales & Marketing team. When an open discussion takes place, not only you, but the sales & marketing team can benefit from this discussion and a brainstorming session can result in solutions.
Once the discussion has taken place, try to address the gaps in your sales and marketing exercise. Was it incorrect product/service information or price which affected the decision of your customer?
What works in marketing for one organization may not work for another. Hence, each strategy needs to be altered and tweaked to cater to a targeted market, the target market of your choice. Each prospect and lead needs to be handled individually and with specifically tailored information. These can be learned and the skills can be developed by looking back, working and re-working on lost leads and developing strategies that are targeted and tailored to your prospect.
