Simple Tactics for Shortening your Sales Cycle and Improving ROI

Simple Tactics forShortening Your Sales Cycle and Improving ROI

Presented by: Derek Grant

The State of B2B TodayBudgets are back… BUT…

…marketers are being held more accountable for spending.

Sales and Marketing at Odds

When Sales and Marketing play the blame game, no one wins.

You never follow up on leads I

produce!

That’s because your leads are no

good!

The Funnel Before the Funnel

Sales + Marketing =

• Increased ROI• Shorter Sales Cycle• Happier boss

The Sales Paradigm Is Shifting

Would you buy from this person?

The Sales Paradigm Is Shifting

The Buying Paradigm has shifted

• Buyers perform research prior to engagement

• Forrester Research – 80% of all leads passed to sales are mis-handled

• 70% of mis-handled leads buy from a competitor

The Sales Paradigm Is Shifting

Don’t just throw prospects over the fence

Marketing must change too.

Mending the Relationship

• Define a quality lead

• Use lead nurturing

• Make educated sales calls

• Measure results

Service Level Agreement

• Marketing Commits to send over only objectively “Qualified” leads

• Sales commits to contacting all of them

• Meetings or reports show a disposition

• Everyone is singing off the same sheet of music

Qualified Leads

• Define lead criteria• Use scoring to assess

interest vs. intent• Use grading to find the right

fit• Only the leads that fit your

criteria go to sales• Leads with a good grade but

a low score go on a nurturing track

Nurture Early Stage Prospects

• Delivering relevant content to prospects

• Nurturing moves the recipient forward

• Push vs. Pull• Aberdeen Group – 80% of

best in class companies nurture

Do’s and Don’tsDO

Do• Use Segmentation &

Personas

• Start with the End in Mind

• Be Mindful of Timing

• General to Specific

• Send the Same Content Multiple Times

Don’t• “Nurture” your entire

database

• Send “one size fits all” content

• Assume that Newsletters nurture

• Do it Manually

How Nurturing Increases ROI

• Recycling leads you’ve already paid for

• Reducing Sales Rep engagement

Nurturing plugs the hole in your funnel.

More Effective Sales Calls

• Use prospect’s past activity to shape the pitch

• Strike when the time is right

Look for clues that reveal a prospect’s needs.

More Effective Sales Calls

• Which marketing materials were viewed (pain points)

• Which pages were visited – features, products, benefits

• Search Terms (internal and external)

• Number of Visits• Which emails were

opened

More Effective Sales Calls

Automated Sales alerts for perfect timing.

Measure Results

With the sales and marketing pipelines connected, marketing has more visibility into

which tactics work.

Sample Marketing Metrics

Marketing contribution to the sales pipeline (dollar value)

Number of qualified leads (leads assigned to sales)

Marketing Automation ROI

Responses

Leads

Qualified

Opps

Won

No Marketing Automation

Marketing Automation

1,000

40

5

1

2,000

850 78

45

22

5

85%

5%

18%

11%

3.9%

49%

58%

23%

Source: Sirius Decisions

What have we learned?

•Qualify leads•Use lead nurturing•More targeted sales calls•Unify metrics for success

Tactics for Success

Questions?

No Hassle Marketing AutomationPardot is a user-friendly, month-to-month solution designed to simplify online marketing for B2B companies with a complex sales cycle. Pardot integrates seamlessly with your NetSuite CRM solution.Please feel free to contact us with any additional questions you may have.

www.pardot.com

Pardot950 East Paces Ferry RdSuite 3300Atlanta, Georgia 30326

404.492.6848877.3B2B.ROIwww.pardot.com

Derek GrantVP of Sales

derek.grant@pardot.com