I suppose the first point to make is that we can all improve our sales and marketing performance but clearly some businesses are winning at the moment and many others are struggling. What you were doing a few years ago to win new business and new clients is no longer enough and probably isn’t working anyhow. You noticed that I said “new” and this is important as clients will come and go, enlarge, divest, merge, be acquired so you will always experience some natural shrinkage but new business is the lifeblood of any business. The 80/20 rule applies here, you need 20% of new clients.
So clients used to come to you or you employed someone to “generate leads” but now these clients have procurement departments, tenders, and on-line auctions. Things have changed and these new buyers seem to be armed with all sorts of knowledge and questions and scoring ratios. The internet seems to have changed your world forever and there are competitors offering your services cheaper and cheaper and they’re not even based in the UK. What can you do to change the tide and understand better what you should/must do next.
The fact is that inbound marketing alongside targeted marketing of decision-makers can help your business receive more qualified sales leads and more cost effectively than hiring a cold caller. Your business can use CRM effectively to drive these qualified leads through the sales funnel and measure your sales performance objectively. How many times have I heard “we don’t really use our CRM system to do that, it’s more a contact database”.
By properly integrating sales and marketing you can improve your sales and marketing performance?
- Has your compelling sales proposition become less compelling?
- Have you ever had an independent sales and marketing review of your business?
- Do you want theory or do you want someone to implement?
- Is cold calling and all those emails getting you results?
Jefferson Sales has been advising Sales Directors, General Managers and Managing Directors for over 10 years on sales issues. We have assisted with sales strategy, customer and market segmentation, developing buyer personas and compelling sales propositions, implementing effective sales processes and systems including CRM, commission and incentive structures, selecting sales people, and performance managing sales teams. This sort of external expertise is available and has been widely used by our clients.
Contact us to learn more about our services. We can tailor what we do for your exact needs.
