Over the past couple of months, I have been on a journey. Well, that is a little misleading… I haven’t been on vacation or anything; I have been learning how to sell for our company. This experience has been extremely interesting and eye-opening. Up until now, I have been on the creative side of the business. I worked with new clients to determine what it was they needed, and then I created it for them. Blogging, social, emails, etc. You name it, and I did it. But after a while it started to lose its luster.
Upon first joining the company, I thought the creative team was the place for me because I would always be doing something new. All of my clients would have different needs, and I’d be able to “speak in different voices” for my clients depending on what persona I was targeting, and at first, I was right. But eventually all the personas were defined, and all the clients were in a good rhythm, and I was left wanting a new challenge.
It didn’t take long for me to realize that part of maintain a relationship with any client meant regularly reminding them what we do and why we do it. At first I thought needing to do this was a bad sign, but then it kept happening so regularly that I realized it is just part of the deal. People in any type of relationship like to be reminded why. They like to be reassured and consoled and encourage that they are making the right decisions and that everything is good. It was at that point that I realized I was already used to selling the idea of inbound marketing to current clients, so I might as well try my hand at selling to potential clients.
That began my journey into sales, and it has been a wonderful ride since. And even though I am selling inbound marketing, I get to do so to inbound leads. In my limited experience, I have already picked up a few tips that have made the process a whole lot easier. Here are my top three tips for selling your services to inbound leads:
Respond Quickly To Leads
Inbound leads come in hot, very hot. It is extremely important that you have a solid system in place to deliver your inbound leads because time is of the essence. Make sure that whoever is getting your lead notifications is also the person who will be contacting the lead. There is no reason to have a middleman to add on time to the process. Send the notifications directly to the person charged with making contact, so you can take advantage of the opportunity to communicate with the lead while they are still familiar with your company and before they have moved on to a competitor.
Rule Your Technology
One of the best features of an inbound lead is having access to all this information about the lead before you even connect for the first time. The sources tool in HubSpot tracks all kinds of relevant information that will help you better understand your lead. So be sure to utilize this tool and research a lead before contact. You will be able to answer these questions without even asking:
- How did you wind up on our site?
- What information were you interested in?
- What pages did you visit?
- What emails have you opened or clicked?
Sharpen Your Saw
My other favorite aspect of inbound marketing is that it is constantly evolving. As I mentioned earlier, monotony bores me. I like new challenges and even newer solutions. Inbound marketing provides that for me because the technology industry is built on innovation. We are constantly trying to figure out more effective ways to naturally optimize content for search engines. We always want to find the best times to reach our audience through social posts or emails. All of this requires us in the industry to stay focused and keep improving. Your sales process should be no different.
Sure, there are a few tenants of sales that have been around for a thousand years and will be around for a thousand more. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t still stuff to learn. Our world is always changing. This industry is no different. If you want to remain competitive in your market, you should stop always trying to “sell” a lead and start figuring out the best way to solve their problems, and you won’t always be able to do that if you stop making it a priority to learn where the industry is headed. Also, chances are you will end up selling more this way.
When it comes to sales, there is no better tool than access to information. Inbound leads provide us with everything we need to know and more in order to confidently contact a lead. After that, it is up to you. So if you are interested in finding a way to start having quality and researched leads delivered to your inbox, please feel free to contact us at any time, and we can show you if inbound marketing is a good fit for your business.
