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 Do you want to implement this approach to support the action of your sales representatives and generate a measurable ROI via your marketing actions? If so, you're probably wondering where to start... So, here are 5 steps on how to create your sales funnel, using the tools and resources already in place in your company.

 

1. Take stock of your current marketing tools

Start by taking stock of your current marketing tools and communication actions already in place.

Objective: Start from the existing situation to deploy your new lead generation actions as quickly as possible – and at the lowest cost.

 

To carry out this inventory, ask yourself these questions:

  • What communication materials and marketing tools do you already use? Website, blog, emailing solution, pages on social networks, YouTube channel...
  • What actions do you implement through these channels to interact with your prospects? Publishing 2 articles per month on your blog, sending a monthly newsletter, distributing 2 posts per week on social networks... Do not limit this inventory to your web tools alone, and take into account all communication actions that allow you to get in touch with new prospects. This also includes your events (trade shows or conferences), for example.

  • With what results? How are these results evaluated / tracked? How do you measure the impact of your marketing actions today? Based on what criteria? For example: do you track the evolution of traffic on your website? Of certain pages in particular? Do you know how many prospects have contacted you via the website in the last 6 months? How many people have subscribed to your newsletter?

You can then use this data to amplify certain actions in place or coordinate them more effectively, with the aim of generating leads.

 

2. Define Your Priority Objectives

Next, define a more precise objective than the very general one of "generating leads": which offer do you want to focus your efforts on primarily?

 

Again, avoid an objective that is too broad or vague: a good prospect is not someone to whom you will necessarily be able to sell all of your products or services, but rather someone to whom you have the best chance of selling at least one of them to start with. And to design your sales funnel, you must define which one.

 

If your offers are diversified, you will gradually implement multiple sales funnels to cover the entire "spectrum."

Because in web marketing logic, you attract your prospects based on an identified interest in a topic (which generally corresponds to a problem to solve or a goal to achieve).

 

You can define the priority offer to which your sales funnel and marketing campaigns will be dedicated based on various criteria, for example:

  • by identifying the one that is the most profitable for you (in order to maximize your margins),
  • or the one you consider best positioned in your market (to generate the most volume),
  • or even a new offer that you have just launched (to combine: acquisition of new customers and cross-selling to your current customers)

This choice will then guide the definition of your targets and the content to use (or produce) to attract them to you, and then maintain the relationship with them.

 

3. Refocus on the expectations of your 'buyer persona'.

A lead is an identified contact (with a name and contact information), but it's more than that: always ask yourself what profile a contact must meet to be a valid prospect.

 

 To define it, answer these questions:

  • What are the target audiences for your offer? What company size, what type of position within the company (if you are in BtoB). What age category, gender, or socio-professional category (if you are in BtoC).

  • What is the typical profile of your ideal client (Buyer Persona)? What are their objectives, desires, or problems related to the offer you are providing? What obstacles are likely to complicate their purchase, and how can you help them overcome these obstacles? What are their purchasing habits and preferred communication channels?

  • What are their "interest drivers"? What are their aspirations, key issues, difficulties to resolve? What queries are they likely to type into search engines to find answers?

All these elements of in-depth knowledge of your prospects will then allow you to design the most appropriate marketing actions to attract and convince them.


Discover KESTIO webinars, where we discuss

All topics related to sales performance with our experts: 

Fabien Comtet, CEO

Dominique Seguin, CEO

Nicolas Boissard, Marketing Director


Access our webinars

4. Define the marketing actions to implement

You now have all the elements in hand to design your 'sales funnel' properly!

 

In line with the defined priority offer and the "drivers of interest" of your Buyer Persona, you can: define the theme of your lead magnet – content designed to attract your prospects (EBook, self-assessment, etc.) – and imagine your workflow, the sequence of emails that will maintain the relationship with your prospects and nurture their interest in your offer.

 

Based on the marketing tools and campaigns already in place, you will now be able to coordinate your actions to make them converge towards the same objective, for example:

  • Define the topics of your blog articles or conferences related to the theme of the lead magnet and the interests of your buyer personas.
  • insert at the bottom of these articles and at the end of your conference materials a call-to-action designed to send your prospects to this lead magnet
  • Share these articles via your newsletter with your customer contact base and subscribers.
  • Promote these articles and your lead magnet via posts on social networks...

Thus, all your actions will actively contribute to creating a flow of qualified visitors to your lead magnet, to identify your prospects' contacts and achieve your objective.

This is the key point of your lead generation scenario. Next, you will need to maintain and nurture the relationship with your prospects to support the work of the sales representatives.

 

5. Deploy an initial scenario using an agile approach.

The implementation of this approach is an iterative process.

 

Implement an initial scenario using a 'test and learn' approach, closely monitoring your indicators to quickly assess its effectiveness and the achievement of your set objectives.

 

Based on the observed results, constantly improve this scenario, or stop it if it proves ineffective, after identifying the points that need to be reworked: should a new lead magnet be produced? Contact identified prospects more quickly? Offer them content that better meets their expectations? Generate more inbound traffic to the lead magnet?

 

Once you master an effective initial sales funnel, you can adapt it for other offers and thus multiply the leads generated!

 

Adopt a tool tailored to your business and expectations: choose the right CRM. To better understand its usefulness and choose a suitable CRM, watch this webinar:

[I]: Rediscover our articles on this subject:

But do you know how to leverage these tools to generate leads? To actively contribute to your sales activity, these tools must be linked to a web marketing strategy, and their use must be planned in a coordinated manner.

Here are 3 examples of effective 'sales funnels' to generate leads using your web tools.

 

[Reminder] What is a “sales funnel”?

If you have read our article “What if your website (finally) generated leads?”, the concept of a “sales funnel” holds no secrets for you!

 

If not, here's a quick summary: 

In web marketing, a "sales funnel" is a "scenario" that you have planned in advance to guide your various contacts (physical or web) to key pages of your website, in order to turn them into identified prospects.

 

 It is based on 3 key elements:

  • Attractive content for your prospects, or LEAD MAGNET
  • An entry point to identify them, called LANDING PAGE
  • And an email sequence designed to turn them into QUALIFIED LEADS.

 

How does it help to "generate leads"?

A sales funnel is built to encourage interactions with your potential prospects, once you have captured them and directed them to your website: a click, a visit to a key page, the submission of a form, etc.

The goal is to move them from the status of “unidentified visitor” to that of “identified visitor” (with a name and contact), and then transform them into “qualified leads.”

 

A 'qualified lead' is a contact with whom you are able to initiate a commercial exchange, that is to say: someone at whom you have detected an interest in your offer, and whose direct contact details you possess (email + telephone).

The scenario implemented involves using your web tools strategically and in a coordinated manner to enable you to validate these 2 key points.

 

3 examples of effective web “sales funnels”

Let's take the case of a (fictional) consulting company in the field of Customer Experience.

 

Here are 3 example scenarios that can be implemented to generate leads:

SCENARIO 1 – Self-assessment questionnaire

This scenario is one of the fastest and least expensive to implement. Ideal for a first approach in a 'sales funnel' logic.

  • LEAD MAGNET: Self-assessment

A potential prospect visits the company's website and reads a blog article, for example: '3 Inspiring Companies in Customer Experience.' A Call-To-Action (CTA) at the bottom of the article invites them to complete an online self-assessment on the topic. For example: 'Evaluate the quality of the Customer Experience delivered by your company.'

  • LANDING PAGE: Questionnaire page

The interested visitor clicks on the CTA, which redirects them to an online questionnaire. (To start, you can create your web questionnaires with a free tool, such as Google Forms).

Participation in the questionnaire requires filling in mandatory fields to receive the results: Name + Email address, and possibly optional fields: Function + Company + Phone number. (Don't forget the mandatory GDPR notices)

 

  • EMAIL SEQUENCE: Summary of results

Two days after participating in the self-assessment, the company emails the participant a summary of the results, along with a proposal for a phone call to discuss these results and, for example, define a short-term improvement plan.

 

  • LEAD QUALIFICATION: Appointment Scheduling

 If the participant confirms the proposed phone appointment, their status changes to "qualified lead," and their contact information is forwarded to a sales representative!

 

SCENARIO 2 – Thematic Ebook

This scenario, which takes a little longer to implement, allows you to gradually establish a relationship with a newly identified contact and build the company's legitimacy in their eyes. 


Discover KESTIO webinars, where we discuss

All topics related to sales performance with our experts: 

Fabien Comtet, CEO

Dominique Seguin, CEO

Nicolas Boissard, Marketing Director


Access our webinars

 

  • LEAD MAGNET: EBook

A LinkedIn Ads campaign targeting 'Customer Experience Directors' on LinkedIn generates a qualified flow of visitors to an Ebook with attractive content for this audience.

For example, a 15-page report on "Customer Experience Champions".

 

  • LANDING PAGE: Download page

Interested visitors are directed to a dedicated page, which includes a download form with mandatory fields to receive the link to the Ebook: Name + Email address, and optional fields: Job Title + Company + Phone number. (Without forgetting the mandatory GDPR notices). 

  • EMAIL SEQUENCE: Self-assessment

 Email 1 – Sent to people who downloaded the Ebook

An initial email sent 2 days later invites them to complete an online self-assessment of their company's Customer Experience.

The participant chooses between 2 options:

Option 1 

Receive a summary of the results by email

Option 2 

Be contacted by phone for a personalized presentation of the results

 

Email 2 – Sent to people who answered the online questionnaire

A second email is sent 2 days later, containing:

Option 1 

a summary of the results in PDF format with a "Call-to-Action" (CTA) encouraging them to make an appointment for a free consultation.

Option 2

An offer of an appointment for the results restitution interview, after which the summary will be sent to them.

 

  • LEAD QUALIFICATION: Appointment Scheduling

If the participant confirms the proposed phone appointment, their status changes to "qualified lead," and their contact information is forwarded to a sales representative.

 

SCENARIO 3 – Conference material

As illustrated in this 3rd example, a web-based lead generation scenario can also integrate one (or more) physical touchpoint(s)!

 

  • LEAD MAGNET: Conference material

The company's director is hosting a conference on the theme of "The New Challenges of Customer Experience."

At the end of his presentation, he invites participants to download the presentation material.

 

  • LANDING PAGE: Download page

 The conference material download page includes a form to fill out to receive the material, with the required fields: Name + Email address, and optional fields: Function + Company + Phone number.

  • EMAIL SEQUENCE: Satisfaction questionnaire

 Email 1 – Sent on D+2 to people who downloaded the support material

An initial message invites them to complete an online satisfaction questionnaire about the conference.

After completing the questionnaire, respondents can request a call back from an expert to define their priorities in terms of Customer Experience.

 

Email 2 – Sent on D+2 to people who answered the questionnaire

 If the respondent has not requested a call back after completing the questionnaire, a new email is sent to them 2 days later to offer a personalized consultation again.

 

  • LEAD QUALIFICATION: Appointment Scheduling

If the participant confirms the proposed phone appointment (at step 1 or step 2 of the email sequence), their status changes to "qualified lead," and their contact information is forwarded to a sales representative.

Each of these 3 scenarios allowed the company to identify new contacts via its website and transform some of them into qualified leads that it transmitted to its sales representatives!

In addition, the chances of conversion with these prospects are greatly increased, because:

  • These individuals are already familiar with the company.
  • The company has gained a certain legitimacy in their eyes.
  • Sales representatives have precise information about their profile (obtained via the form, questionnaire, and interview)

Many variations of these scenarios are possible, depending on your business sector, your offers, the profile of your prospects, and the marketing tools you have. Start by deploying a 1st scenario in “test & learn” mode to generate your first leads. You can then adapt them for each of your offers and scale up!

 

To develop your company's communication tools, consider webinars!

The webinar allows you to highlight attractive content and thus promote the company's activity.

However, it requires a few rules: in this webinar, learn how to organize a webinar that generates more participants and leads for you.

But are you sure you've considered all the components of an effective sales strategy when establishing your annual strategy?

Does it include all the components of the "go to market" strategy for your product or service offering, meaning a coherent guideline that aligns: objectives, resources, allocated resources, and the resulting operational organization?

A reminder of the key points that ensure you have defined an efficient sales strategy and that give you every chance of achieving your objectives.

 

Results objectives and their monitoring indicators

Have you set performance goals (and you've done well!)? This implies monitoring and managing their achievement throughout the year to ensure you reach them. How?

By defining the associated measurement indicators, and therefore the corresponding KPIs to evaluate them: "Outputs" indicators on the expected results and "Inputs" indicators on the activities expected to achieve them.

 

The resources 

Closely linked to the targeted customer or prospect segments, the resources dedicated to acquisition and retention are also a key element to define precisely: preferred sales channels and revenue streams expected per channel, marketing and communication resources deployed, lead flow expected to reach the level of commercial activity defined with regard to the final objectives.

 

Priority targets, based on potential criteria

The scope of intervention of the sales teams is a key input for reflection. Segmenting customers and prospects is a necessity. Are your customers classified according to criteria such as turnover level or margin generated? Is there an assessment of their development potential over the year?


Discover KESTIO webinars, where we discuss

All topics related to sales performance with our experts: 

Fabien Comtet, CEO

Dominique Seguin, CEO

Nicolas Boissard, Marketing Director


Access our webinars

The level of commercial effort to be applied to each of these segments

Effort allocation then involves determining the coverage and sales pressure on these segments.

Therefore, the various types of actions to be carried out in the sales process (calls, discovery meetings, presentations, training, etc.) and the allocation of resources and sales time per action across different segments will be adjusted. Failure to define this at the strategy level means that each salesperson will decide how to allocate their efforts according to their own criteria. Are you willing to take that risk?

 

The optimal sales organization

Formalizing the strategy also involves making choices about sales organization: should teams be specialized in different segments, or should we rely on different types of employees depending on the stage of the sales process?

 

Client visits have a cost, and the time spent on pre-sales impacts commercial profitability.

This is why some companies might, for example, entrust lead detection and opportunity qualification to inside sales teams, while assigning the needs discovery phases through to contractualization to field sales representatives.

 

If all the points raised have been addressed when you defined YOUR sales strategy, you have laid a solid foundation and created the right conditions from the start to give yourself the best chance of success. The next step is to break down this sales strategy into operational action plans and effectively manage them to ensure that the objectives are achieved.

 

 

To stay competitive and maximize your chances of converting leads into future customers, it is important to optimize the performance of your commercial assets. Find out how by watching this webinar…

 

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So, how do you definitively put an end to meetings that no one wants to attend anymore?

 

Here are 6 'worst-case scenarios' to avoid, and our tips for replacing them with useful, effective, and motivating meetings.

 

 1. The mountain that gave birth to a mouse.

The meeting was convened to address a generic theme: for example, the new European regulation affecting our sector.

People talk a lot and for a long time, everyone gives their more or less informed opinion, but no decision is made, no action is taken. The key information could have been transmitted before the meeting, and that would have been more effective. After a while, many wonder why they are there. Moreover, no one really knows what the expected outcome was. That's the problem.

 

Our advice: 

Always set one or more concrete and precise objective(s) for your meeting, for example: prepare or validate a decision, define an action plan, take stock of a project, collectively inform about a decision, or share best practices internally, etc. The meeting will be successful if you and the participants have made tangible progress on your topic by the time it ends.

 

2. The all-out brawl (like a showdown at the OK Corral).

Sometimes, a topic discussed during a meeting can provoke conflicting reactions. While expressing different points of view is generally desirable, and often leads to the best solutions, it can become quite burdensome when it turns into a heated debate or even a head-on confrontation. Poorly facilitated and unstructured, the debate can drag on or become confrontational, with the risk that everyone ultimately sticks to their positions and tension solidifies, making the meeting completely unproductive.

 

Our advice: 

Take note of objections without necessarily addressing them all immediately or reacting impulsively. If a point of agreement cannot be quickly found, do not let a debate develop between opposing positions, and continue with the agenda. Simply define when and how the issue will be resolved. 

 

3. The 'one-man show'. 

Does this sound familiar? It's the kind of meeting where attendees are treated as mere spectators, conducted in a top-down fashion in front of passive, if not captive, listeners. 

While the facilitator is certainly very happy to have an audience to admire their talents or applaud their ideas, they are nevertheless depriving themselves of the richness of the team's contributions on their subject, or the relevance of the feedback on the project they are presenting... And that is rarely a good idea! 

 

Our advice: 

A meeting is neither a lecture nor a presentation! It's a collective working session to which all participants have been invited to be active contributors. Invite all relevant and/or competent individuals, and encourage active and balanced participation from everyone towards a goal known and understood by all. Even when it's a "presentation", plan for interactions with your audience to encourage participants to project themselves into action and implement the shared elements.

 

4. The never-ending loop (like the movie "Groundhog Day")

This is the (far too) routine meeting. It always takes place at the same frequency (every month, every week, etc.), at the same time, with the same people, and its format never changes. A typical example: first, the month's figures are presented, then the next month's objectives, and finally, a round-table discussion on the 'status of current actions.' The risk with this type of meeting is that after a while, you don't really know what it's for anymore, and above all, it's incredibly boring! As a result, everyone tries to find the best excuse to avoid it, and for those who remain, it's a chore...

 

Our advice: 

It is sometimes useful to schedule "regular" meetings, a weekly check-in for example. In this case, favor a short format with dynamic content and highly interactive.

For all other scenarios, always ask yourself what format and facilitation method will be most effective for the meeting to produce what you expect, and “vary the pleasures” (metaplan workshop, brainstorming, world café, etc.)!

 

5.     The parenthesis that goes on forever

Sometimes, during a meeting, one of the participants addresses the group about a situation specific to them, or the facilitator focuses on a point that concerns only a minority of them. If this digression goes on for too long, it can generate several negative effects: either the other participants intervene without being asked, positioning themselves as 'judges' or 'arbitrators' of their colleagues on a subject that is not their responsibility; or, not being concerned, they lose their attention for a long time, and good luck getting them back on track with the rest of the agenda! Not only is the particular case not dealt with in good conditions, but it is a real waste of time for the whole group.

 

Our advice: 

In meetings, if there are multiple topics to cover, use the following guideline: "to be invited, each participant must be interested in at least 70% of the topics discussed during the meeting, and to be put on the agenda, each topic to be discussed must concern at least 70% of the participants invited." Specific cases and subsidiary topics raised during the meeting should be noted for later discussion in an appropriate setting.

 

6.     Absence makes the heart grow fonder

A subject is being addressed that concerns several departments with a direct impact on the activity of each. However, not all were invited to the meeting, or the meeting was held despite the impossibility for some invitees to be present on that date. As a result, no decision can be firmly validated, or the decisions will go against the wishes of those absent, and/or it will be necessary to spend more time providing a detailed report to those absent after the meeting, in compensation. It's a double whammy for everyone!

 

Our advice: 

Only organize a meeting if it is useful and necessary, and when it is, ensure it's effective: choose the right format, the right timing, and ensure the presence of all individuals whose contribution is necessary. When it's difficult to gather everyone, prioritize document sharing and online collaborative solutions to move topics forward, rather than multiplying meetings and email exchanges within a small group.

 

 

By avoiding these 6 most frequent "disaster scenarios" (we could add others, such as "The clandestine", who improvise in groups of three in a corner of the office and disturb all members of the open space in the process! 😉 ), you will restore your meetings to their true purpose: to be a space for sharing ideas and an effective and useful collaborative work time, in which "the productivity of the whole represents more than that of the sum of the parts." And your employees will rediscover the pleasure of participating!

 

 

Did you know that 95% of your success is linked to your state of mind? To learn how to manage your emotional load more effectively, discover the Triad method in this webinar:

To prevent your sales representatives from interpreting it in their own way, gradually deviating from it, or even completely disregarding it, it is necessary to translate this commercial strategy into operational directives and effectively manage its implementation.

To achieve this, be vigilant on these 4 essential points.

 

Develop an individual commercial action plan with each salesperson  

Defining a clear commercial strategy and presenting it to your team is necessary, but not enough to ensure its effective implementation during the year. This is the purpose of the commercial action plans defined at the individual level.

 

They are generally co-constructed by the salesperson and their manager, and re-evaluated or updated on a regular basis: annually, semi-annually, quarterly, or monthly (this is then referred to as a MAP, for monthly action plan).

This co-creation is the key to engagement for each salesperson. The frequency can be chosen based on the sales cycle of your products and services, or according to the management style adopted.

 

Some companies, for example, define annual action plans and then weight the objectives monthly or quarterly according to the seasonality of their business.

For example, a digital services company can generate 50% of its annual revenue in a single four-month period, during which the majority of its subscriptions are renewed.

 

Each salesperson must have an operational action plan that includes the key data necessary for their daily activity, on points such as: targeting, intensity and the nature of sales actions, in order to have the means to achieve the defined objectives.

 

Ensure that this individual action plan accurately reflects the business strategy. 

This sales action plan is the operational implementation of the sales strategy defined beforehand. It must therefore reflect it and translate it on an individual scale, taking into account the allocation of sales efforts on your targets, whether in coverage or sales pressure, and the sales organization you have opted for.

 

If the commercial strategy determines, for example, that 35% of the overall turnover must be achieved on segment A of the customer base and 25% on segment B, two different translations are possible in the individual action plan of one of the sales representatives:

 

  • either they must generate 35% of their revenue from segment A and 25% from segment B themselves (within an organization that distributes the client portfolio by geographic area, for example);
  • or they must generate 100% of their revenue from segment A, with other sales representatives responsible for segment B (in the case of an organization with sales representatives specialized by client segments).

 

Hence the importance of defining the action plan at the individual level, to ensure that the concrete application of the commercial strategy does not lead to multiple, or even divergent, interpretations!

 

Clearly define the activities to be carried out with your sales representatives

To avoid any risky improvisation on the part of your sales representatives, define precisely with them and for each:

  • the targets on which they will work (type of accounts, meeting precise targeting criteria, or even a list of named accounts, and types of contacts targeted within the accounts)
  • the type of commercial actions to be carried out, at each stage of the sales process (leads to be processed, calls, physical appointments, quotes or commercial proposals, follow-up, etc.), in front or back office
  • the frequency and intensity of these actions, per customer segment (for example, 8 calls and 3 annual appointments for prospects attached to customer segment A)

 

From a more qualitative point of view, also specify the sales methods to be implemented at each stage of the sales process (for example: company pitch, type of questions to ask in a discovery meeting) and the expected results for each of them (data to be collected during a discovery meeting, elements to be validated to qualify an opportunity during a sales meeting, etc.).

 

Regular check-ins between salespeople and their manager are essential to communicate these guidelines and monitor their implementation. They allow to identify discrepancies with what is expected, to address difficulties encountered in the field, and to refine the sales tools used (call script, interview guide, standard report to be saved in the CRM, etc.).

The frequency (monthly, quarterly, etc.) and the degree of 'formality' of these follow-up meetings are to be defined according to the level of support you deem necessary; the latter may vary depending on the company's managerial culture and the level of seniority of the sales representatives, in particular.

 

Regularly analyze the indicators and adjust the system if necessary

As a leader, you are responsible for adhering to the sales strategy and achieving objectives. To do this, it is important to have a global vision of your company's sales situation in real-time so you can manage actions without waiting to know the final result of the fiscal year. 

 

Equip yourself with the appropriate management tools, including dashboards, to analyze KPIs (key performance indicators) and monitor the actions taken by your sales representatives. This will allow you to detect necessary adjustments and implement them, if necessary. 

 

Managing your team's sales pipeline, in particular, is a key element in ensuring reliable future revenue. The number, value and quality of the opportunities identified, their creation date and their level of progress in the sales process are all parameters to be analyzed. 

Similarly, if the conversion rates of your salespeople show significant differences for the same product range, this should alert you and prompt you to investigate the cause.

 

Finally, sales achieved and revenue (in volume, value, by type of products/services, by customer targets, etc.) are, of course, essential performance indicators to measure.

Your sales strategy indicates how you want to structure your development. Analyzing key performance indicators allows you to validate its deployment and adjust operational action plans, without waiting to know the result in terms of orders taken or customer billing! 

 

Adhering to these 4 key considerations will allow you to effectively manage the deployment of your sales strategy at the operational level, thereby optimizing your chances of achieving your set objectives.

 

To stay competitive and maximize your chances of converting leads into future customers, it is important to optimize the performance of your commercial assets. Find out how by watching this webinar:

Pour cela, elle doit être expliquée clairement, et traduite non seulement en objectifs chiffrés, mais également en activités et moyens concrets permettant de réaliser ces objectifs.

 

Voici 5 conseils pour vous assurer que votre stratégie commerciale sera pleinement appliquée sur le terrain.

 

Distinguez la stratégie commerciale de la stratégie globale de l’entreprise

 

Petit test : demandez à un dirigeant si la stratégie commerciale de son entreprise est claire pour ses équipes. Sa réponse sera sûrement un « oui » sans détours. Puis, demandez à l’un de ses commerciaux s’il sait pour quelle raison il doit réaliser 5 rendez-vous par semaine. La plupart du temps, il ne saura pas vous expliquer son objectif !

 

Cet écart de perception entre dirigeant et commerciaux tient souvent à un simple manque d’explication et de partage de la stratégie commerciale et du plan d’action qui en découle.

 

Bien sûr, il est important de présenter la stratégie globale pour donner de la perspective et relier l’action des commerciaux à la vie de l’entreprise dans son ensemble : lancement de nouveaux produits, projet de développement à l’international, objectifs de croissance… sont autant de sujets qui concernent votre équipe commerciale.

 

Pour autant, assurez-vous de bien la distinguer de la stratégie commerciale à proprement parler et de faire un vrai focus sur la seconde, tout en la rattachant à la première. Et surtout, faites en sorte de traiter l’ensemble des questions qui animent les commerciaux en leur donnant les éléments concrets qui leur permettront d’agir efficacement par la suite.

 

Faites le lien entre l’objectif de CA et les activités commerciales terrain

Pour cela, prenez le temps de faire le lien entre l’objectif de résultat commercial défini et sa traduction concrète pour les commerciaux : en objectif de résultat individuel d’abord, puis en niveau d’intensité commerciale à fournir, c’est-à-dire en nature et fréquence des activités commerciales à mettre en œuvre.

Par exemple, 1 journée par semaine consacrée à la prospection, 5 rendez-vous obtenus par journée de prospection, ou 3 rendez-vous clients réalisés par semaine…

 

Partagez le raisonnement qui vous a amené à fixer les objectifs commerciaux 

Détaillez les étapes du processus de vente et expliquez les hypothèses qui ont été prises (nombre de leads, taux de transformation, ventes réalisés…) pour amener aux objectifs présentés. Ainsi, vous leur donnerez du sens et les points de référence.

 

Autre point essentiel :  au-delà des chiffres et hypothèses de calcul, prenez le temps de définir les actions commerciales attendues d’un point de vue qualitatif.

Selon le contexte, par exemple, le terme générique de « rendez-vous » peut recouvrir des réalités très différentes : 30 minutes d’échange téléphonique de découverte, 1h30 d’atelier de travail en approche « vente-conseil », ou encore 45 minutes de démonstration en ligne d’une solution… Fixez les objectifs de ces actions en conséquence et définissez les compétences à mettre en œuvre pour les mener à bien.

 

Traduisez les « objectifs de vente produit » en « actions commerciales client »

De la même manière, n’oubliez pas de traduire les objectifs de vente par produit (généralement fixés par la Direction Marketing) en actions commerciales « orientées clients ».

 

C’est une chose de dire à vos commerciaux qu’ils doivent avoir vendu 10 000 exemplaires de l’un de vos produits phares dans les 6 premiers mois de l’année, ou de fixer comme objectif que l’une de vos gammes représente 40 % du CA généré… c’en est une autre d’y parvenir pour les équipes concernées.

 

Pour mettre toutes les chances de leur côté – et du vôtre -, assurez-vous de leur donner les moyens de réussir, en définissant le plan d’action commercial correspondant et surtout en le rattachant à ce qui fait le cœur de l’activité quotidienne de vos commerciaux : vos clients ! 

 

Définissez les cibles de clients à prospecter en priorité, décrivez leurs attentes et les points forts de votre offre au regard de ces attentes et dressez l’argumentaire commercial à développer… Bref, traduisez la « stratégie produit » en outils commerciaux opérationnels, rattachés à la réalité des clients auxquels votre équipe commerciale est confrontée.

 

Valorisez les moyens à la disposition de vos commerciaux pour réussir

Dans la même perspective, valorisez les ressources que vous mettez à la disposition des commerciaux pour leur permettre d’atteindre leurs objectifs : budget, temps, ressources humaines, outils…

 

Ces ressources peuvent être de diverses natures : achat de fichiers de prospection segmentés et qualifiés, campagnes marketing de génération de leads, nouveau site web attractif, fonctionnalités CRM performantes, session de formation de coaching commercial…

 

Dressez la liste de ces ressources avec deux objectifs : d’une part, les faire connaitre à vos commerciaux pour qu’ils s’en emparent activement, et d’autre part, booster leur motivation en leur montrant que l’entreprise investit pour leur donner les moyens d’atteindre les résultats visés.

 

Inspirez-vous des victoires de l’année précédente et capitalisez sur les réussites

Enfin, rattachez la stratégie commerciale et les objectifs des prochains mois aux victoires remportées sur l’année écoulée.

 

  • What lessons have you learned from it?
  • How are these leveraged in the current strategy?
  • How can you duplicate them or draw inspiration from them to build a scalable model from the variables observed on a certain scale?

 

Repartir de vos précédentes réussites commerciales est une bonne façon de faire apparaître la cohérence de votre stratégie et d’établir une continuité positive. C’est aussi un moyen de valoriser la contribution de vos commerciaux et de diffuser les bonnes pratiques en interne.

Tous ces éléments favorisent une bonne appropriation de votre stratégie commerciale par vos équipes, vous garantissant ainsi une mise en œuvre effective qui lui permettra de porter ses fruits.

To go further and learn more about targeting and building a customer file, you can also watch our webinar:

Si oui, cet article devrait vous faire changer de perspective.

Le meilleur moyen de devenir le principal instigateur de votre réussite commerciale, c’est de structurer un système commercial dont l’équilibre repose principalement sur votre stratégie et sur votre organisation, pour minimiser l’impact des aléas conjoncturels sur votre activité.

 

Quinze années d’accompagnement des entreprises dans le développement de leur performance commerciale nous ont permis d’identifier 6 principaux leviers pour y parvenir.

Voici lesquels, et surtout, comment les activer.

 

1. Définissez une stratégie commerciale porteuse et structurante

Bien souvent, les entreprises structurent progressivement leur activité commerciale au cours du temps et au gré des opportunités. Si cela peut dans certains cas porter de bons résultats, ce n’est pas gage de durabilité pour votre réussite commerciale. 

 

Le risque à procéder ainsi, c’est de se rendre trop dépendant de la conjoncture, ou du talent individuel de vos commerciaux : quid de vos résultats, si la demande baisse brusquement sur votre marché, si un nouveau concurrent se montre ultra offensif sur les prix, ou encore, si votre meilleur commercial quitte le navire ? 

En tant que dirigeant et/ou responsable commercial, votre meilleur moyen de vous préserver de ces aléas est d’ agir stratégiquement sur les variables sur lesquelles vous avez la main.  En particulier, sur 2 axes :

  • Le type d’activités commerciales menées (génération de leads, prise de rendez-vous, découverte…)
  • Les ressources allouées à ces actions (temps, personnes, budget)

 

Une stratégie commerciale d’entreprise n’est pas le fruit de plans d’actions individuels auto-définis par ses commerciaux, c’est le contraire !

 

Donnez une ligne directrice claire, traduisez-la en objectifs chiffrés (nombre de leads générés, nombre de rendez-vous réalisés, nombre de ventes, proportions de nouveaux clients…) et enfin, déclinez-la en plans d’action individuelsavec vos commerciaux.

 

2. Développez les compétences et le niveau d’engagement de vos commerciaux 

Pour atteindre vos objectifs commerciaux, recruter des vendeurs compétents est un bon point de départ, mais votre rôle ne s’arrête pas là ! Les entreprises qui réussissent le mieux sont celles qui considèrent le développement des compétences et l’amélioration continue de leurs équipes commerciales comme faisant partie intégrante de leurs responsabilités managériales. 

 

Lorsque vous recrutez un commercial, il maîtrise généralement les techniques et méthodes de vente, mais cela n’empêche qu’il a besoin d’accompagnement sur au moins deux aspects :

 

  • La connaissance de votre offre (produits/services, gammes…) et de son positionnement spécifique (prix, cibles, identité de marque…)
  • L’évolution constante des modes de vente (social selling, inbound marketing, vente conseil…) et des outils utilisés (CRM, applis…)

 

Plus vos équipes seront formées et compétentes sur ces différents plans, plus elles seront efficaces et autonomes dans la réalisation de leurs objectifs. 

 

Un autre élément déterminant pour votre activité dépend directement de votre mode de management : le développement de l’engagement de vos collaborateurs. 

Dans ce domaine, 2 points sont particulièrement importants :  

 

  • Partagez régulièrement avec votre équipe la stratégie commerciale définie
  • Pilotez activement et effectivement sa mise en œuvre : co-définition des plans d’action individuels, suivi des indicateurs d’atteinte des objectifs, identification des points d’amélioration…

 

Sur ce dernier point, évitez de vous enfermer dans une posture de « contrôle » : privilégiez une approche de type « coaching », basée sur un dialogue régulier et constructifavec vos commerciaux pour les soutenir dans la réalisation de leurs objectifs. Plus efficace qu’une évaluation périodique fondée sur la seule analyse de leurs chiffres, elle est aussi beaucoup plus favorable à leur engagement vis-à-vis de votre entreprise et à leur motivation !

 

3. Identifiez et déployez le processus de vente optimal

Menez une réflexion permanente sur les (meilleurs) moyens d’obtenir des contacts de clients potentiels pour votre entreprise et de convertir ces leads en ventes effectives. Identifiez et analysez les étapes successives menant à une vente, afin de définir le meilleur traitement à leur appliquer pour en améliorer l’efficacité et en faire baisser le coût.

 

  •  Quelles interactions avez-vous avec vos prospects ?
  • A quel moment interviennent-elles ?
  • Quel est le meilleur moyen de rendre ces interactions commercialement contributives ?

 

Ces questions vous permettront de définir les moyens, outils et méthodes à mettre en œuvre et le système offrant le meilleur rendement. Notamment, quel « mix » vous adopterez entre actions marketing et commerciales, ou encore entre ressources internes et prestataires externes.

 

Un point qui est loin d’être anodin : sur le terrain, on observe un rapport pouvant aller de 1 à 20 entre les différentes méthodes d’acquisition de leads ! En fonction des entreprises et du mix adopté, le coût de revient du « rendez-vous 1 » (entretien commercial de découverte) varie de 20 € à 400 €, par exemple. 


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4. Créez une dynamique commerciale à l’échelle de toute l’entreprise

Assurez-vous que tous vos collaborateurs se sentent investis d’une responsabilité et d’un rôle précis dans le développement commercial de votre entreprise.

 

Concrètement, cela consiste d’abord à les sensibiliser au sujet en leur faisant prendre conscience de l’impact de leur travail sur le succès global de l’entreprise : par exemple, l’efficacité du service logistique a une incidence directe sur le nombre de livraisons facturées dans le mois, celle du Marketing sur le nombre de leads transmis aux commerciaux… 

Puis, définissez avec les différentes composantes de l’équipe (service commercial, logistique, administratif, relation client…) les actions et moyens à mettre en œuvre pour participer efficacement à la réussite commerciale de l’entreprise.

Cela peut consister à : garantir la qualité des services délivrés, optimiser des process, diffuser une image valorisante de l’entreprise auprès de ses clients… 

 

L’essentiel est de développer et transmettre en interne une culture de type « Everybody sells ! » (tout le monde vend). N’oubliez pas de formaliser et documenter ces engagements d’équipe (charte qualité, process interne, pitch d’entreprise, bonnes pratiques de relation client…) : cela vous permettra de les diffuser efficacement, de les « ancrer » et de les faire évoluer dans le temps .

 

5. Utilisez les outils digitaux qui simplifieront (réellement) la vie de vos équipes

Plus que jamais, la connaissance client est au cœur de l’effort commercial et représente un précieux capital. C’est pourquoi l’apport des outils digitaux dans ce domaine peut s’avérer déterminant pour l’efficacité globale de votre système commercial. 

On pense en premier lieu aux outils CRM,  qui permettent l’historisation des données relatives à vos clients et prospects, et le suivi des actions des commerciaux.

 

Mais il peut s’agir également d’applications dédiées à l’efficacité commerciale, telles que :

  • les trackeurs d’email comme Tilkee ou CloseMoreDeals qui vous informent en temps réel des ouvertures et pages lues sur vos propales envoyées par email,
  • les outils de génération de leads, tel que Swabbl, qui exploite les contacts des membres de votre équipe sur les réseaux sociaux,
  • ou encore les outils de scoring d’intérêt, comme GetQuanty, qui analyse le comportement de vos visiteurs web pour les transformer en leads qualifiés. 
  •  

Il faut y ajouter les réseaux sociaux et leurs extensions dédiées à la prospection, comme LinkedIn Sales Navigator et enfin, les solutions digitales de Business Intelligence, parmi lesquelles Sparklane.

L’attention des éditeurs de ces solutions se focalise depuis quelques années sur le Marketing automation, et le suivi des interactions en ligne avec vos prospects. 

 

La tendance actuelle est donc de migrer d’une logique originelle fondée sur la « gestion des contacts » vers une orientation « génération et qualification des leads », qui représente un enjeu majeur pour vous aujourd’hui.

 

6. Placez vos clients au cœur de votre réussite commerciale

Enfin, dernier levier essentiel à la solidité et à la résilience de votre système commercial : faire en sorte que vos clients deviennent vos premiers ambassadeurs ! 

 

Dans ce domaine, une question doit constamment guider vos choix stratégiques et animer vos collaborateurs : « Est-ce que l’expérience que le client est en train de vivre avec notre entreprise va l’amener à nous recommander ? ».

 

Inspirez-vous d’entreprises passées maîtres dans l’art de rendre leur solutions « virales », comme Trello, Uber ou Sellsy.  Elles travaillent systématiquement sur la question des usages de leur solution en partant des attentes de leurs cibles et mettent tout en œuvre pour satisfaire leurs clients, et inciter ces derniers à les recommander à leur propre réseau. 

Grâce à « l’effet recommandation » ainsi généré, elles facilitent considérablement le travail de leurs commerciaux : la barrière de la « confiance » et de la « légitimité » étant déjà franchie auprès de leurs prospects, ils peuvent se concentrer sur l’étape de la transformation et du closing, s’économisant au passage les parties « génération et qualification des leads » et « démonstration de l’intérêt de la solution » !Un gain de temps et d’effort commercial considérable, qui représente aussi une économie financière (on en revient à notre 3 ème levier… ! 🙂 ).

 

L’activation pleine et entière des 6 leviers que nous venons d’évoquer vous permet de rester à l’initiative et de limiter l’impact des facteurs externes sur vos résultats. Elle appelle une animation continue de la part d’un dirigeant doté d’une vision globale et prenant la pleine responsabilité de ses succès comme de ses échecs. Autrement dit, vous aurez recours à un 7èmelevier qui sera votre « baguette magique » : le leadership commercial !

Pour aller plus loin, découvrez dans notre webinar, animé par Dominique Seguin pour apprendre à Négocier zen, les clés d’une démarche raisonnée.

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Beyond the "recommendation" effect, developing and nurturing a customer community has many advantages, including being a real lever for innovation and effectively supplementing customer service. Some sectors, such as fashion and mass retail, have not been mistaken.

What if software vendors decided to take inspiration from it to boost their business?

Here is everything your customer community could do for you.

 

1. Make people want to choose your solution

From TripAdvisor to Trust Pilot, it is difficult today to choose a product or make a purchase without first putting the brand through the wringer of comparison sites and customer reviews! The software world is obviously no exception, with platforms like appvizer, to name just one.

The difficulty is that you have no control over what happens on these platforms...

 

 Creating and nurturing your own customer community means offering your biggest fans a space to express how much they appreciate you.

 

 And that's already pretty good. At least, judging by the results of a clothing brand like ASOS, which, for example, observed a 45% increase in spontaneous mentions of its brand among the "ASOS Insiders"...

 

2. Ensure the success of your upcoming modules.

Another good aspect of customer communities is that they are a true goldmine of inspiration and good ideas to fuel internal innovation and guide R&D investments.

 

The toy brand LEGO, for example, has developed a strategy via social networks and its LEGO Ideas platform to identify its future bestsellers. The selection of new models to be marketed is carried out through a consultative and collaborative process, which notably led to the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine" model!

Others, like Decathlon, go even further in co-designing their products with their community of customers, establishing direct collaboration between development teams and users, who sometimes offer very specific ideas on how to solve a technical problem or an unsatisfactory use case.

 

 Software vendors are generally comfortable in this area, as developers are often highly involved with users to resolve bugs or limitations and take note of change requests.

 

3. Test and improve your new applications.

Similarly, Société Générale has chosen to rely on its customers to create "le LAB" a community of beta testers that allows it to optimize the operation of its mobile application.

As soon as the bank wants to integrate a new feature into the app, the developers first put it online in the LAB. Users can then try it out in preview and give their feedback.

They can also give their opinion on the design, color, etc. The goal is to develop the solution that most closely matches the needs and expectations of its customers.

 

4. Nurture interest in your solution

As we've already mentioned, customer communities are also excellent channels for visibility, awareness, credibility, and influence!

 

By involving their customers in the design of their products, LEGO and Decathlon not only ensure that they "meet their audience" upon release, but they also create a real teasing of the future product and thus generate a strong anticipation effect around it!

 

Without going that far, sometimes it's enough to reward your best customers for their loyalty or their frequent use of your solution to create a buzz around your brand: this is what the start-up Tilkee perfectly achieved by sending its "Black Card" to its 100 best customers, which was well relayed on social networks.

5. Effectively support your users

Finally, customer communities are a real asset in terms of Customer Care. User forums sometimes prove to be more responsive than support teams, and your dedicated users are the best Happiness Managers!

 

The most active mutual aid communities can come from unexpected sectors: every day, for example, more than a hundred questions receive an average of four answers from enthusiasts on the online fishing equipment sales site pecheurs.com!

 

The community support chats of SNCF (French National Railway Company) and BlaBlaCar are run by experienced users, with a proven positive impact on the conversion rates observed on their sites!

 One of our clients, a manufacturer of photovoltaic panels, found that their customer community on WhatsApp became their best support system and achieved immediate success with their products' installer craftsmen: the speed and relevance of the answers provided were unmatched in resolving their clients' technical difficulties. This allowed them to quickly identify areas for product improvement.

 

These approaches can be widely applied in the software publishing sector and contribute to your growth.

In all cases, the success of a customer community should not be left to chance and relies on compliance with a few good practices and key steps:

 

  1. Define a goal for your community: what should it contribute (to my company and its members)?
  2. Define a target (What type of customers? How to identify them? How to "recruit" them? How to "retain" them?)
  3. Choosing the channel: social networks, specialized platform...? (Which channel will be the most relevant to engage this community? Ensuring that its members autonomously keep it active?)
  4. Define transparent rules (for facilitation, participation/contribution).
  5. Reward and recognize the most active customers (points/benefits systems, gift vouchers, highlighting, rewards...)
  6. Establish an effective internal organization to animate the community and use the feedback generated (improvement of products / services, customer relations)

 

The examples cited in this article are largely inspired by these sources:

https://www.pellerin-formation.com/7-marques-qui-ont-su-creer-de-nouveaux-services-produits-en-impliquant-leur-communaute/

https://potion.social/fr/blog/communaute-de-clients-4-exemples-concrets/

Examples (and a comparison) of platforms dedicated to managing online communities:

https://www.feverbee.com/communityplatforms/

To go further and learn more about targeting and building a customer file, you can also watch our webinar:

1 But these are not the only commercial merits of customer loyalty for software publishers: because not only does the length of the subscription determine the level of profitability of the service, but its effect can be literally multiplied, by relying on two commercial weapons that have proven themselves: Up Selling and Cross Selling.

 

Sales representatives, the new champions of customer loyalty

Let's first quickly revisit the evolution of the sales role since the advent of the SaaS model. As we've seen in our previous articles, the function of salespeople has considerably evolved in recent years:

 

  • Marketing and customer service (via sponsorship operations) now provide them with the majority of leads, and even nurture them to bring them to maturity.
  • Above all, their role no longer stops at the point of sale of the solution, and now extends far beyond!

 

Extending the traditional 'sales funnel', we could now add a second, inverted funnel: that of amplifying, at the customer's end, the revenue generated by the sale of the subscription, by activating a key lever: development within the account itself.

 

In other words, salespeople have become the new champions of customer loyalty!

Or more precisely, the effective commercial use of the work done to ensure the solution's long-term success with the client, largely carried out by Customer Success Managers with the support of the Support team. To achieve this, they have two main tools at their disposal: Cross-Selling and Up-Selling.

 

Cross Selling and Up Selling : The 2 sides of the gold medal

Regardless of the sector, the business model of software vendors is now very often based on the following pricing method:

Monthly subscription cost (per user) x Number of users of the solution

For a publisher, there are therefore two levers to improve the revenue generated with a client:

1. An "Add-Ons" type of logic: adding new functionalities outside the initial scope

Then we will talk about CROSS SELLING.

 

 For example, a ticketing software publisher can offer, beyond the "standard" ticketing administration functionalities (reservations, multi-rate management, ticket issuing, etc.), optional modules covering ancillary functionalities, such as Marketing (sending SMS or emails to customers, for example) or CRM (management and tracking of customer data).

This allows them to expand the number of potential users of their solution at their client's site, here from the reception/ticketing team to the teams: sales, marketing, and even administrative.

2. An "Upgrade" type of logic : adding options or superior functionalities within the same scope.

Then we will talk about UP SELLING.

 

 To stay within the context of a ticketing management solution, the publisher will offer, for example, the management of pre-sales via a network of external distributors, multi-channel sales management, or the issuing of dematerialized tickets on mobile devices. In the context of a marketing emailing platform, this could involve specific functionalities (automated scenario) or simply managing a larger sending base (higher number of contacts).

 

This allows the publisher to increase the subscription price, and thus generate higher revenue with a constant number of users.

 

In the first case, it is therefore about extending the scope covered by the solution.

In the second case, it involves offering more advanced services (increasing the depth of the offer, in a way) within the current scope. In both cases, this requires the ability to offer modules or functionalities that complement those already in place.

 

With a strong focus on identifying strategic functionalities that will resonate with customers and open doors to new markets. 

 A point of vigilance, strategically: it's up to you to properly assess your ability to 'step outside' your core business and correctly meet customer requirements for less familiar functionalities! This requires defining and implementing an appropriate strategy: internalizing skills or partnering with an expert player/publisher, for example.

If this aspect is well managed, the impact of this customer capitalization on your MRR2 and the resulting competitive advantage can prove decisive. More than ever, customer loyalty has therefore become a commercial function in its own right!

 

1: Read our article on this topic:

Define the right business model : the great challenge for software vendors !

 

2 : For "Monthly Recurring Revenue"

Adopt a tool tailored to your business and expectations: choose the right CRM. To better understand its usefulness and choose a suitable CRM, watch this webinar:

Lead generation and digital selling tools (websites, social networks, sales automation, etc.) have matured and proven their effectiveness. However, they have also begun to show their limitations, as evidenced by the debate around "Content Shock" in the Web Marketing sphere.

Now that these sales methods have become the norm, only those who have mastered the art of using them have a chance of succeeding.

And if this thought gives you – like many others – a few cold sweats, here is some advice to survive the internet lead generation arena.

 

1. Review the weapons at your disposal

As previously mentioned, Marketing now plays a role in most stages of the sales funnel (revisit our article on sales organization for software companies).

In other words, you'd better make sure you have a 'killer' marketing strategy if you want your prospects to choose YOUR SaaS software solution over your neighbor's (and on the web, ALL your competitors are your neighbors!).

 

The first step in your preparation as a « gladiator of lead generation » is therefore to review the weapons already in your possession, to get an idea of your chances of survival and to « upgrade » them:

 

  • What tools and channels do you already use: website, social networks, emailing campaigns...?
  • How are they used: how often? with what content?
  • What volume of visitors or subscribers do they generate?
  • What are the sales-related outcomes?

 

Conduct this assessment without complacency or sentimentality: the better you know your weaknesses, the more likely you will be to correct them.

 

2. Refine Your Positioning and Know Your Target Audience

Once this initial assessment of your Web Marketing tools has been carried out, it is essential, in order to use them as effectively as possible, to start with your competitors and your targets: to use your weapons wisely, there's nothing better than knowing who you're dealing with...

 

  • What are the characteristics of your market on the web, its opportunities and risks?
  • Who are your main competitors, and what is their web marketing and sales strategy?
  • Which clients do you want to attract and convince first, using your Lead Generation tools?

 

This last point should be related to your "Gold, Silver, and Bronze" targets, defined during the construction of your commercial model. And because you are here in a Marketing logic and approach, you will convert these targets with generic outlines (type of company, turnover volume, etc.) into "Buyer Personas", endowed with human and personalized traits.1

 

3. Develop a "warrior" strategy.

Once you know which Buyer Personas you're targeting, everything becomes clearer: how you're going to talk to them, through which channels, and most importantly: what to say to them!

 

Address their concerns, show them what problems you will solve for them and what benefits they will gain; in short, let them know what they will gain thanks to YOUR solution. This will first create trust, and then the desire to work with you.

 

Does that seem a little too simple? You're right.

There's no point in knowing how to speak well if your prospects never give you their number to call them back!

 

An effective Web Marketing strategy relies on a well-defined scenario, which first ATTRACTS visitors related to your target audience, but also then CONVERTS them into identified and qualified prospects – meaning you have their contact information and nurture their interest in your services – and finally, SELL your solution!

 

For your scenarios to produce results, you must first have a clear vision on these different points:

  • Towards which objective will you direct the flow of your visitors (the « contact » page of your site, the « demo request » landing page, etc.)?
  • How does the transition from one channel (web or otherwise) to another happen for your visitors?
  • How do you identify their level of interest in your solution?

 

This will allow you to define a content strategy that meets your objectives: that is, to plan the production and distribution of your "lead magnets" (attractive content that encourages a visitor to leave their contact information) and the "calls to action" that accompany them: downloading a technical sheet or a white paper, completing an online assessment, requesting a demo, etc.

 

4. Don't let chance decide the outcome of the battle

Implementing an Inbound Marketing strategy requires working in an agile manner (we will come back to this shortly), but it is not managed "by instinct" – quite the opposite!

 

To be effective, lead generation via Web Marketing tools must be guided by specific objectives and rely on the careful monitoring of pre-defined indicators.

 

In connection with your sales funnel, define quantifiable objectives and corresponding KPIs.

For example (in simplified mode):

QUANTIFIED OBJECTIVE OF:

Traffic generated

Volume of identified visitors

 Number of leads passed on to sales representatives

Revenue generated

KPI:

Number of unique visitors to the site

Number of contacts generated via the contact field

Number of qualified prospects obtained 

Cumulative revenue from sales made on transmitted leads

 

It is essential to track these figures via dedicated monitoring tools (SEO tools, dashboards, etc.).

And to do this, score your leads: each time a step is completed in qualifying a contact (identification, obtaining a phone number, etc.), a new "score" is assigned to them, bringing them closer to the lead being passed on to the sales team.

 

Scoring also relies on 'rich information' relating to the profile and behavior of your visitors (job title, areas of interest, level of autonomy in the purchasing decision, etc.) that you have obtained via online interactions and recorded in a CRM tool, for example.  

 

5. Learn from your failures and celebrate your successes.

Let's be honest: deploying a Lead Generation web strategy from start to finish, from its definition to its implementation, is a long process and sometimes fraught with pitfalls. This is especially true when it comes to automating processes and interfacing the various tools used (CRM, marketing automation solution, SEO tools, etc.).

 

That's why you should start modestly, allow yourself to implement actions gradually, and deploy your scenarios iteratively.

 

It is possible to start by testing "short" loops with a limited number of contents: 1 lead magnet, 2 articles and 1 infographic (or video) to feed your first email series, for example. This allows you to "get the hang of" content production and its distribution tools, to test processes in agile mode and to generate your first identified leads.

 

Early wins fuel motivation and always bring their share of instructive mistakes.

 

Depending on your resources – and provided you have not skipped the evaluation of your tools, the definition of your personas, and the formalization of your objectives – it may be more effective to start simply and gradually increase power, than to want to build a complex system or immediately start with expensive tools that will need to be amortized.

The Gladiator who wins the fight is not always the one who had the best weapons at the start: more often, it's the one who knows his opponent well and uses his own to the best of his ability once in the arena!

 

 

1. In marketing, a persona is a fictional character representing a target group or segment. They are generally given a first name and social and psychological characteristics. For example: Sabrina, 40 years old, 2 children, urban, senior executive, closely follows fashion, travels by metro, enjoys trail running, etc. Personas are used, among other things, for developing website content and optimizing customer journeys, but also, originally, for designing the product and service offering itself.

Adopt a tool tailored to your business and expectations: choose the right CRM. To better understand its usefulness and choose a suitable CRM, watch this webinar: