In our marketing consulting, we are typically faced with one of two problems:
- There are not enough inbound leads
- There are too many inbound leads
Each of these requires a different marketing system. For organizations which are inundated with many leads, there is a problem focused around the sales process. Salespeople are not like marketing automation systems. They have these constraints:
- They can only work sequentially one call/email at a time.
- They can only connect with a finite amount of people a day.
- They are limited in how they can organize their call lists.
- Their talent is finely tuned for closing the sale.
A marketing automation system can do the opposite:
- It can deliver custom communications simultaneously to thousands of people.
- It is limitless in the number of people that can be contacted.
- It can be programmed to filter lists.
- Its talent is tuned for nurturing the lead to a sale.
The differences are much like a factory worker and a factory robot; speed and predictability are greatly increased with the latter. However, in sales, human touch is highly relevant and important. Thus, working with automation does not mean exclusiveness. It is complementary. One of the areas that can greatly augment a salesperson’s tasks is lead scoring. Lead scoring is the underlying automation rules which applies quantitative scores for the behaviors of a buyer online.
If your salesperson is limited in their time and finite in their personal engagements, why not prioritize their list for them using lead scoring. Here are some areas where marketing automation can surface the highest priority leads for your sales force:
- Strategic Landing Pages. A landing page which is visited and reviewed can appoint a high lead score to signify interest and targeted prospecting for who to talk with.
- Decision Maker roles. If a lead form with a role or title field is filled out for an executive position, you are likely dealing with a decision maker. This should be a prioritized score to raise the priority of this lead.
- Content Downloads. If you have people that read your content and consume value offering pieces, they are engaged. Create different layers of content and for those visitors that seek higher levels of content in your buying process, score them high. They are sales ready.
There are several other ways to use lead scoring to help your sales team in addition to these ideas. As they are working through their call lists, the lists can prioritize based on such key criteria that surface the hottest leads.
In your world, how could lead scoring help your sales process be more effective?
