No one is “just-looking” at your website — not when their days are jammed with meetings and never-ending to-do lists. That’s the simple truth behind your nagging thought: “How do I reboot sales revenue in 2021?”
Far too many digital marketing strategies collect contact information only when website visitors fill out forms for webinars, white papers, or blog subscriptions. You should get more value, because “window shoppers” who only read a page or two on your website are clearly interested in something. Your website needs a virtual equivalent of the sales rep who offers to help those people find what they’re looking for. Without this level of marketing and sales automation, you lose potential customers — and sales revenue.
The hair-on-fire question about rebooting sales won’t go away. You confirm whether or not your current marketing strategy includes a sales and marketing automation technology that actually produces sustainable sales revenue. The idea behind this type of reboot is simple. The implementation, however, boils down to two questions about technology and commitment.
Can Marketing Automation Technology Reboot Sales Revenue?
Marketing automation technology, like SharpSpring, proactively notices when someone is on your site and uses their IP address to discover who they are. This information allows you to send a topical email to the people who are “just-looking” while they are still interested. Can you think of a better way to begin a customer relationship?
Your solution should create a customer nurturing process that connects your sales leads to your sales team. You must also understand whether or not your marketing budget is producing a sustainable return on investment.
One Cultivize client spent $80,000 a year on Google AdWords through their marketing agency. The campaign generated only 21 leads. The problem is that the sales from those leads did not produce enough revenue to justify the spend. When you invest in a marketing automation technology like SharpSpring, you must know:
- Who will create the marketing strategy?
- Who will customize your technology and implement the solution?
- Who will train your team on the technology and the process?
“Answers to these questions will result in quicker implementation, and improved accountability reporting for sales managers and their teams,” said Jason Kramer, CEO of Cultivize. “Our hands-on consulting helps you answer these questions. It’s how we help you improve productivity, and implement the marketing automation and CRM systems that will boost your sales revenue.”
How Much Commitment Will Marketing Automation Demand?
Yes, marketing automation tools automate numerous tasks, as the name implies. However, this is by no means a “set and forget it” solution. Your commitment to marketing automation is not limited to patience. You, your marketing team, and your sales organization must commit to:
- Dedicated salesperson or team. Who’s responsible? Someone must commit to regularly use this software a few times per week. You must commit to allow that person the time to use sales task lists, update opportunities, and take action on “hot leads.”
- A lead nurturing and sales enablement process. Your solution can reboot sales revenue if you have a strategy that produces quantifiable and quality leads. Without a systematic way to track sales, leads will fall out of the funnel and you’ll burn your marketing dollars.
- Be in it to win it. Your business is not a hobby; it is a do or die proposition. Same goes for your employees — they must be passionate about what they do, share your vision, and be dedicated to success. Expect the same level of commitment from the agency that implements your SharpSpring solution.
With this level of commitment, our clients see results from their marketing automation efforts in two to six months, depending on the specific situation. However, before you see sales results, you will see better teamwork. Everyone will be more focused, and they will work together in a new way. These are the results before the results.
Reboot Sales with Relevance
Bonus question: Do you have a formal, funded marketing plan and sales process? Hint: “Formal” and “funded” are the operative descriptors. If the answer is no, then your business is on a downward slide, because your marketing plan and your sales process are your most critical systems.
Cultivize implements SharpSpring solutions that identify prospective customers who visit your website. You must understand that they do not come simply because you built it. They come because they’re hungry for YOUR information.
When you contact prospects and tell them you offer something that customers like them use, you begin the one-to-one conversations that move people through the customer journey. Now, you’ve converted a crowd of “just-looking” prospects into paying customers. And now, you have their permission to invite them back for more of what you have — the thing that your customers need.
That is how marketing automation from SharpSpring and Cultivize can reboot your sales revenue in 2021, and turn that nagging thought into the success story that everybody wants to hear.
