Salesforce.com has an interesting article on the impact of data and customization for the personalized marketing experience. As buyers, we experience this from world-class online merchants and companies that work relentlessly to provide a personalized experience. This happens when we peruse, get educated and buy. Our online profiles are tracked and used for presenting relevant offers that are tailored to us personally.
For b2b sales which tracks engagement with your buyers in Salesforce.com, customizing your system to create a personalized experience helps your sales team be on message. Your marketing team can use information to continually position the message and segment your database to drive in new leads or increase buyer readiness.
The data which sales collects and marketing harnesses as well as vice-versa can serve as a powerful feedback loop to drive lead conversion. Customizing Salesforce.com should be implemented with this feedback loop in mind. Here are some best practices for your customization which can help drive this lead generation and lead conversion process:
- Categorize By Product Interest. Within your sales qualification processes, your team can capture information on product or service interest. These picklists along with related granular information can be used in reporting with marketing to create campaigns that are automated and triggered in real-time or on a periodic basis for events and buying cycles.
- Segment By Authority. Each lead and contact in Salesforce.com has a relationship in the decision making process. Those with decision making authority versus business influence or technical influence can be segmented and delivered different marketing materials based on their agendas and interest. A stream of technical data might be more relevant for one audience whereas ROI information and change management practices might be appropriate for senior managers.
- Assign lead scoring. Whether you use a marketing automation system or assess lead readiness with salespeople, create a customized way of scoring leads for their readiness to buy. Their activities and engagement with your content would be a key metric. Furthermore, their timing and urgency may be another. As marketing drives in more data to Salesforce.com allow your sales team to act respectively with the most ready leads.
