Notesale: Turn your study into money

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The Four Pillars of
End-to-End Sales
Think sales are simply transaction-based?
You’re missing the opportunity to exponentially
expand revenues

INTRODUCTION:

Building Sales Begins with Building
Relationships
Does the word “sales” bring to mind the proverbial used-car salesman
cajoling hapless customers into buying something they’d later regret?
Or the cold-sweating cold-callers of Glengarry Glen Ross, viciously competing to earn a
fresh batch of hot leads? If so, it’s time to readjust, because in today’s world, sales is first and
foremost about relationships
...

This guide will take you through each of these pillars so you can see how they work together
to support a repeatable, scalable process—one that creates not just happy customers, but
loyal brand evangelists
...

• Engage with prospects to understand their needs, inform them of the
solutions, and position you and your organization as a trusted resource
...

• Retain customers with best-in-class customer service that keeps people
coming back, and build brand enthusiasts
...
CONNECT:

Gathering Leads
Here’s the understatement of the year: Before you even start talking to
your customers, it helps to have a good idea of who they are
...


Create Customer Profiles with Questions,
Not Answers
To understand potential customers, you should be asking questions
...
, and individual customers
...

• How do you reach them? There are many ways to reach customers:
advertising, social media engagement, websites, and more
...
This is best accomplished by creating campaigns
...
Campaigns can include marketing programs such as direct
mail, email blasts, webinars, conferences, and trade shows
...

This is also known as “ka-ching!”

IfByPhone: Meet Marketing Mark
IfByPhone, a provider of voice-based marketing automation based in Chicago,
created five ideal customer personas, explains Cindy Pogrund, executive vice president,
customer experience
...
Mark runs numerous types of marketing but is frustrated by his inability
to include phone lead data in his reports because he can’t track inbound calls back to
specific ads and marketing assets—a problem IfByPhone’s product can solve
...
The
paper included a call to action to request more information with a unique, trackable
IfByPhone number that ties any calls back to the asset
...
Meanwhile,
IfByPhone marketers posted information about the paper on the company’s blog and
social media accounts
...
“Of course, we can track all of this in
Salesforce,” Pogrund says
...
”

THE FOUR PILLARS OF END-TO-END SALES | SALESFORCE © 2013

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2
...
But of course customers (and hence leads) are individuals
...

Simply put, a qualified lead is one that matches the most important criteria you established
with your ideal customers—and that means learning everything you can about them
...
You start out with a bunch of
promising-looking rocks, and as you swirl that pan in the river, the less valuable
stuff floats away bit by bit until you’re left with pure, 24-karat goodness:
customers who need and want what you’re selling
...
If a customer comes to your site as the result of a
campaign, you can ask them to provide some information in exchange
for whatever you’re offering them, (e
...
, a white paper, email newsletter,
trial software)
...

• Research
...
If you have an individual’s
name, you may find them on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter
...
Let’s say someone downloads a trial version of your
software or white paper
...
The more contact you have, the greater the
opportunity to qualify them
...
Set up virtual or real-world appointments to learn more
about a customer’s needs and how you can meet them
...


THE FOUR PILLARS OF END-TO-END SALES | SALESFORCE © 2013

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Nurture the Relationship
As we mentioned at the outset, sales is the process of building a relationship with your
customers
...
Nurturing is the process of
building relationships with qualified leads and prospects before they’re ready to buy
...
If instead you wait until they’re ready to buy to interact, you
may already have lost them to a more nurturing competitor
...
“Instead of simply
responding to an inquiry, you have to add value and help them make a better decision; you
shape the opportunity
...
“The period of time from that first
marketing touch to creating an opportunity and closing revenue can be anywhere from a
few months to several quarters
...

“It has become increasingly difficult to identify all of the marketing efforts that ultimately
influence revenue,” he notes
...
We might meet a potential customer for the first time at a trade
show, and they will subsequently download a white paper or attend one of our seminars
...
That end-to-end
visibility is critical to analyzing our marketing spend
...
CONVERT:

From Prospect to Customer
Presenting your case
When you’re ready to offer your solution, it should be tailored to your
audience, and you should do it as a trusted adviser
...

And keep in mind that sales is a team sport
...
“You can collect testimonials and case studies
from across the sales team to create proving kits, or on a more basic level, you can poll the
team to uncover the most effective questions to ask prospects
...
You’ve closed the sale, made the deal
...

In fact, you are only at the beginning
...
Here are important things to consider:
• Introductions
...

• Timeline
...

• Knowledge transfer
...

Consider training programs, written manuals, implementation experts,
and ongoing best-practice information
...
Avoid buyer’s remorse by continuously underscoring your
value proposition, and troubleshooting any issues that arise
...
Your customers can benefit from mingling with one another
...

• Process standardization
...

• Appreciation
...


IfByPhone: Maybe on Board
At IfByPhone, revenue depends on usage, so successful onboarding means that
customers are taking advantage of every benefit the product has to offer
...
“It turns out that many times,
the person buying the product was not the one tasked with using it
...
”
Rather than rely on that internal transition, IfByPhone implemented an automated
onboarding process within Salesforce
...
The team also created an “At-Risk Customer”
dashboard that flagged clients whose contact information had changed or who showed
lower-than-expected usage rates
...

“No matter who a customer speaks to here, everybody knows exactly what’s going on
...
RETAIN:

Turning Customers into Fans
A sale doesn’t end with a transaction
...

There’s a name for businesses that do this well: Customer-centric
...
It just requires wowing your customers
with best-in-class service
...
Here are a few things to keep in mind:
• Immediacy
...
Establishing comprehensive and
effective self-service processes, such as online tools, empowers customers
to help themselves
...
Customers want access to you through a variety of channels
...

• Transparency
...

• Teamwork
...


THE FOUR PILLARS OF END-TO-END SALES | SALESFORCE © 2013

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• Process improvement
...
Don’t just fix individual customers’ issues,
but uncover the sources of the problems for long-term solutions
...
Those who respond to service requests should be aware of a
customer’s history, to give them a true, 360-degree view beyond the issue
at hand, to the customer as a whole
...
Finally, don’t forget to be human
...


Recommind: Closing the Loop
Maintaining a great relationship with current customers has numerous rewards for
Recommind, says Craig Carpenter
...
We have an active and ongoing relationship that gives us
good insights into what they see coming down the pike
...
“We can ask them, how would you use
it? What priority would you give something like this? How much would you be willing to
pay for it? Would you prefer to purchase software or pay by subscription?” What’s more,
Recommind makes a point of connecting current customers with prospects in their area
during the many local events it holds
...

“Happy customers are much more effective salespeople than we could ever be
...

And like any relationship, it thrives on communication and understanding
...

(It also doesn’t hurt to be a good listener, and keep things interesting
...
And doesn’t everyone want a happily ever after?

This guide was sponsored by salesforce
...
To learn more or see how salesforce
...


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