Sales Lead Optimization
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For most firms, the B2B sales process is by no means a smooth one. The buyer’s needs may change over time, or they may succumb to a competitive offer. The prospect lead can get “stuck” at a point where additional information is needed or an objection arises. There may be a change in personnel at the prospect company. These and many other factors can cause an apparently “hot” sales lead to evaporate. And yet many companies leave the delicate sales nurturing process to commissioned salespeople with little accountability beyond the bottom line. The solution can usually be found in DMP’s multi-touch marketing strategy which assumes there will be regular contacts during the sales cycle and that results will be continually tracked and captured for action and analysis. As an example, a custom direct mail piece or email might be followed up by a timely telephone call to confirm the prospect received the mailing and to further explain the offer and assess their level of interest. A seminar invitation and registration will be followed up by reminder calls and e-mails, delivering a thank-you and appropriate follow-up offer. Because DMP offers many media alternatives under one roof, executing these multiple touches is both efficient and affordable. And that’s not all. Because our multi-touch lead nurturing program is so effective, DMP can achieve these results even if there are fewer prospect records to begin with. Let’s take a scenario in which 2% of the recipients of a mailing respond, and 5% of these are qualified as sales opportunities. That means only 0.1% (one-tenth of one percent) of the prospects solicited are worthy of the sales force’s attention and the other 99.9% is wasted! Some firms create a “quick fix” by routing unqualified leads into the sales process—a scenario that can demoralize salespeople and further dilute results. At DMP, our multi-touch strategy has proven so effective that a “suspect” in the prospect database often turns into a sale even if they did not respond to begin with. This means that the effective response rate to our initial campaigns may be 6-8% with a subsequent qualification approaching 25-35%–results which have been attained time and time again and are available for inspection by prospective clients. Depending on your objectives and budget, that means you can get more sales dollars from the same initial audience investment—or reach your sales goals with fewer leads. Learn more. |
DMP’s “reverse sales funnel” analysis starts with the desired dollar value or quantity of closed deals, then works backward to see what activity levels should exist at each step of the sales qualification process. This is then compared to historical results for our client. Where there are significant discrepancies, we look closer to see what could be causing the disconnect. |
