One of the most common questions marketers hear is how to convert your leads into sales. Businesses can get so bogged down by this constant rigmarole of advertising to the wider audience, acquiring new leads and then having all their communication go dead. When really, they should be focusing on properly nourishing that lead through all stages of the decision process, rather than just the first few steps. The most common challenge that stops businesses from converting their leads actually happens internally.

We are referring to the grey area that exists between your marketing and sales team. The breakdown in communication stating what stage your lead is at, what concerns them and what final push they need to make a purchase.

The breakdown in communication between the sales and marketing team is not uncommon and is more than often overlooked. This potentially dysfunctional relationship could be costing you customers.

So what’s the solution? Well, unfortunately, there is no magic bullet but, a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to blend the two facets of your business together is a good way to start today! Closely aligning the two teams to have a better understanding of your audience is essential.

Now, this definitely doesn’t have to be fancy! A functioning CRM could be as simple as a spreadsheet which all your staff have access, to begin with. It is important to have a visual sales funnel which anyone who needs to know can see. Try to encourage your team to look over this CRM every day to understand how the relationship between your business and clients is evolving. This way your sales and marketing team can see where to channel their efforts for that day.

You can see all your deals whether they have been won or lost, proposals sent appointments with your clients scheduled and compare the performance against quotas that you have set in a simple view. When using a CRM make sure you go beyond using only names and job titles. The more information you put into your CRM means fewer guessworks for other members of your organisation. Every interaction with your lead needs to be stored for all to see so you don’t need to dig around to find where the relationship left off.

Segmenting your funnel and targeting your marketing efforts towards what stage of the lifecycle a contact is in, is powerful. Additionally, do not be afraid to bump your leads which you previously believed were suited for sales, back to marketing if they are not quite ready.

We recommend that you start off using a platform such as Hubspot to get started. The Hubspot CRM is free to use and is a clean, visual sales funnel. And did I mention it’s free? FREE! When was the last time you heard that word? Let me dust it off and put it back on the shelf for everyone to admire. You can harness the power of the CRM for you and your team at no cost. Coordinating your database on a CRM where both your marketing team and sales team have access to is crucial to taking your leading your lead into the next stage.

Stop making things harder for yourself, instead work smarter. A CRM takes all the information off your phone, email, pen and paper and puts it into one location where you can have a vision of the stage in the lifecycle a customer may be. Share this between sales and marketing to defog that grey area and convert your leads efficiently today!

If you need any help setting up or just want to chew our ear as to how we use it, feel free to reach out to the businessDEPOT Marketing team!