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If there’s one thing on your sales team’s mind this year, it’s this: sales intelligence. Having the ability to know what your prospects are doing and when they’re doing it gives your sales reps a huge advantage over the competition (at Pardot, we jokingly refer to this superpower as “x-ray vision” for sales). But unfortunately, sales intelligence isn’t possible without the right tools.
Marketing automation can give you this long-desired sales intelligence, and more — all through detailed prospect tracking and a powerful system to back it. Prevent leads from falling into a black hole, make follow-up easier, improve lead quality, and most importantly for your sales team: sell more, faster.
Let’s take a look at a few ways that marketing automation can make your sales reps’ jobs easier, and don’t forget to check out one of our latest eBooks, 7 Big Breakthroughs in 2014 for Sales.
One of the biggest draws of marketing automation for sales teams is the real-time data collection, which provides detailed records of prospect activities. With such a rich store of behavioral data, sales reps are always in-the-know when it comes to what their prospects are doing on their website, what content they’re interested in, and where they are in the sales funnel. This arms sales with the information they need to reach out to prospects at the right time, with the right message.
A common source of tension between marketing and sales (perhaps the most common source of tension) is lead quality. When marketing is more focused on quantity, and sales prefers only leads of the highest quality, friction between the two teams can easily result. Fortunately, there’s an easy solution, known as lead scoring and grading. Establishing a common definition of a qualified lead, then putting scoring and grading rules into place (note: a lead score measures how interested prospects are in your product or service, while a grade measures how well they fit your ideal prospect profile), can ensure that only high-quality leads are getting passed from marketing to sales — meaning that sales doesn’t have to waste any more time following up on cold leads.
With the ability to pull targeted lists whenever the mood strikes (and even segment from there), sales reps can make sure that the right message is getting delivered to the right people, at the right time. Sales can even have marketing handle the deployment so that reps can focus their time on the prospects who need more immediate follow-up. These more relevant messages make more of an impact than traditional batch-and-blast communications, helping to increase click-throughs and conversions.
Learn more about how marketing automation can give sales reps visibility into marketing efforts, prospect activity, and campaign performance by taking a look at our eBook, 7 Big Breakthroughs in 2014 for Sales, by clicking on the banner below.
