The pandemic forced many businesses out of their comfort zones, sales teams especially. Instead of meeting with prospects, sales teams had to make do via online platforms such as videoconferencing, for example. Despite initial skepticism, many adopters warmed up to the new system of remote interaction. This allowed personal interactions to continue, but from a safer distance.
Even brick-and-mortar businesses eventually accepted the need for a strong online presence. Aside from an e-store, businesses also realized the need for digital tools to help them gather customer information and complete transactions online. And it all starts with building a strong sales pipeline so you can better track the buyer journey.
Know your target market’s buyer persona
Just loading your products onto a website is not enough to boost sales. Understanding your target customer is at the core of building your sales pipeline.
Developing buyer personas is a great way to start the sales pipeline. It’s creating a semi-biographical representation of the ideal customer, based on data from actual clients and market research. A buyer persona represents a specific demographic that exhibits specific behavioral patterns.
Detailing the buyer persona means diving deep into a trove of information. This means moving beyond the sale and knowing the value your product brings, who your ideal customers are, what makes them tick, the challenges they face, and how they make decisions. You can also focus on industry verticals, number of employees, and so on. These nuggets of information can help shape your final marketing message. Once you develop content that promotes values that align with theirs, you’ll have a better chance to seal the deal.
Explore data in your existing customer relationship management (CRM) system. If you don’t have one yet, now is the time to invest in sales CRM solutions. Not only will this help you to understand your existing customers and what will keep them happy, but will give you valuable insight on how to attract similar customers going forward.
Develop a targeted digital marketing strategy
The next step of the sales pipeline involves creating your online marketing strategy by outlining a plan based on what appeals to your buyer personas. Which social media platforms do your buyers usually check out, for instance? In addition to creating content aligned to your personas – such as blogs, email marketing, and case studies – you can also scan social media for relevant hashtags and trending topics that can add immediate relevance.
Then, make sure you establish key performance indicators and benchmarks. These can measure your progress and check if you’re generating valuable ROI instead of just throwing money away. Finally, always be on the lookout for changing market conditions.
Analytics can play a big part in creating insights from the data gathered. At the same time, analytics can also show which areas in the market your company managed to capture, as well as those segments your competitors mopped up.
Generate and qualify valuable leads
Getting leads into your sales pipeline is only half the battle. Everybody can visit your website or like your post, but that doesn’t mean they’re ready to buy. So how does one qualify these leads that have already signaled interest? Well, when people engage with your online content, they often leave contact information… this is gold!
Qualifying means sifting through the information in order to select which leads represent the greatest potential of conversion. It’s now a matter of checking whether each lead corresponds to any of your buyer personas. Then, you can rank each qualified lead based on the parameters you set earlier. Now, turn over these leads to your sales team so that they can nudge and nurture them into buying clients.
Throughout the process, the sales pipeline will track each lead as they go through various stages of the buyer’s journey. Here, partnering with Skynamo will prove a sound investment.
Why? For starters, from deskbound to field bound, Skynamo provides functionality and features for sales managers (desktop), inside sales and sales admin teams (desktop), and field sales reps (mobile) to collaborate and make smarter sales decisions together. Skynamo helps field sales reps reduce admin and sell more. Skynamo helps business owners and sales managers gain clarity and control. Unlike other cloud-based applications, all Skynamo functionality is accessible even when offline.
How? Skynamo integrates with a number of ERP and accounting packages to provide sales reps with access to the latest pricing and customer and stock information while on the road. Skynamo helps track, document, and evaluate your sales team’s activities in real-time. By automating your sales team’s administrative tasks, they have more time to do what matters most: nail the sale.
Get in touch today and learn more about how Skynamo can help raise your sales team’s efficiency to enable smarter sales decisions.
