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Successfully engage prospects and recruit new
customers
With consumer purchasing behaviour changing and
heigtened competition, how can Sales and Marketing
Directors attract and recruit new business?
Introduction
How CRM is essential to successful new
business recruitment
The first principle of business is to sell a product or
service. From the very beginning, this has been the
case: from the farmer selling home-grown produce
on a market stall, to the first travelling salesman
knocking door to door. With the introduction of the
print press, sales turned to marketing to increase
their potential audience, with newspaper advertising,
leaflet drops and posters. With the introduction
of radio and TV, marketing became mainstream
and mass-market targeted. Gradually, with the
growth of computer data management, we saw
the introduction of direct mail and most recently,
web and email. But all these marketing tactics
revolved around one very simple principle: using a
strong sales message to promote a product, which
would result in a prospect talking to a salesperson
for advice, knowledge and ultimately, to make a
purchase.
However, consumer behaviour has shifted and with
the increase in competitors, the fragmentation of
marketing channels and the proliferation of the
internet, consumers are researching products
and benefits and looking online for the best deals
Contents
❑ Introduction
❑ What exactly is Inbound Marketing?
❑ How to shift to Inbound
 Identify your best customers and reach
more just like them
 Where to start your content journey?
 Encourage Sales and Marketing to work
together
❑ How a shift to Inbound can drive Sales
 Change sales engagement tactics
 Become Solution Consultants - not Sales
Reps!
 Use sales knowledge to power the
Inbound machine
❑ Conclusion.
themselves – instead of talking to Sales!
Most sales professionals are now aware of this
shift in behaviour and the resulting ‘inbound’ sales
enquiries, rather than outbound sales promotions,
and this ‘inbound shift’ has impacted the way in
which they approach and engage with customers
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and prospects.
to Sales.
For instance, in today’s digital world, consumers are
used to 24/7 interaction with their favourite B2C
brands, from anywhere through mobile devices
and social media, demonstrating that the ‘phoneus-during-office-hours’ approach simply doesn’t
work with the vast majority of consumers anymore.
B2C companies have been quick to react to these
seismic shifts in consumer behaviour and have
leveraged Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and other
social media to build bridges with their marketplaces
– particularly with the younger demographics.
In this whitepaper, we look at how companies can
adopt an inbound marketing strategy as a direct
reaction to the shift in consumer behaviour and how
sales professionals can make the transition to an
inbound strategy to increase sales wins.
B2B companies have been slower to ride this wave
and many remain stuck in the mindset that cold
contact with barely warmed leads, by sales reps and
during regular office hours is the way forward. Some
are engaging with consumers through LinkedIn and
other business social networks, but still lag behind in
utilising these. Most need genuinely useful content,
about their industries, the trends, products and
services, and how these impact businesses to really
make social media work, because B2B prospects are
not looking to be pitched to any longer.
Many salespeople can be misled into thinking this
shift is just about changing marketing strategies,
as the term ‘inbound marketing’ has been making
recent headlines. But ‘inbound marketing’, as all
marketing strategies, is simply about feeding sales
by taking a new approach to generating leads for the
sales team: employing data mining and analysing
buyer behaviour to understand customers better,
tracking their interactions and approaching them
with the right marketing collateral, and recognising
how marketing resources are digested, to better
identify when a prospective customer is ready to talk
What exactly is Inbound
Marketing?
As discussed, the old marketing play book is
broken. Promoting products and their benefits with
a direct sales message is not getting through to
today’s consumers. Research recently completed
by HubSpot All-In-One-Marketing Softwarei showed
that 86% of consumers skip TV adverts, 91% will
unsubscribe from unsolicited emails, 44% will
automatically bin direct mail and over 200 million
people are on ‘do not cold call’ lists. These figures
may vary from country to country, but the story they
are telling remains the same.
Here’s why: think of the last time you needed to
purchase something other than the normal weekly
i.
Hubspot All-In-One Marketing Software Research 2014 www.hubspot.com
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groceries, a TV for example. Did you respond to a TV
or radio advert or walk directly into an electronics
best sales leads is acceptable. Switching to inbound
methodologies can drastically lower the cost of lead
store? Doubtful! Like most of the population, you
probably went online and either looked directly at a
manufacturer’s site or typed keywords into Google
to start a search – and it is this shift that is key: you
are self-educating on what you want; after which,
you will look for the best price or convenient delivery
options, etc. Ultimately, it is this self-education
factor in today’s marketplace that is driving inbound
marketing methodologies.
acquisition and, therefore, increase ROI. Using the
traditional outbound approach, it costs an average
of US$346 to generate a single lead, whereas
inbound only costs US$135: a cost reduction of more
than 60%.
Inbound marketing is a style of marketing that
involves bringing people to you, through the
promotion of education and helpful content that
supports the consumers’ need to self-educate, as
opposed to you going to them with a direct sales
campaign. The term, first coined by marketing guru
Seth Godin, represents a more personal approach
to generating interest in products and services,
whereby marketers must earn or seek permission to
engage consumers in a sales conversation.
Inbound marketing is, in essence, capturing the
attention of consumers who really want your service
or product and are researching online to find out
what best meets their requirements. As a result,
the role of marketers has changed and you have to
spend money more wisely on creative content, which
addresses the specific needs of the researching
prospects.
In addition to consumer behaviour changing, there
is also increased pressure on marketers to deliver
a greater marketing Return on Investment (ROI),
which has seen marketers turn away from blind
advertising, aggressive sales pitches and a world
where blindly pushing a button and hoping for the
How to shift to Inbound
Step 1: Identify your best customers and
reach more just like them
How do you find the best prospects? By looking at
your existing customers and using the data available
in your customer database to understand exactly
who they are. Get on the Big Data bandwagon and
use the information you have!
The growth of Big Data has in itself driven the
inbound marketing shift, as businesses invest
in CRM technology to support customer service
communications and improve the company’s
operations. However, from a sales and marketing
perspective, Big Data provides real indicators to
the construction of the modern sales funnel: from
researching, pin-pointing needs to product features,
to reviewing and test driving products, until they are
finally ready to talk to Sales. The advantage Big Data
offers is the insight and understanding of who your
existing customers are, so you can target lookalikes,
understanding the behaviour patterns that took
them from prospect to customer – for example,
what content they digested, when and via what
channels. Plus, you will know at what point these
leads are ‘sales-ready’.
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In short, step 1 is about using your existing data to:
your company in the first place – by following your
content maps.
 Create fictional pen portraits of typical customers
in key segments and using these persona to target
new prospects
 Create content maps that identify what content to
offer and via what marketing channels to initially
attract the right prospect, and then nurture these
prospects until they are sales ready.
An example of a B2B persona might be ‘Sarah: 30 to
40 years old, a procurement manager, involved in
major purchasing decisions at her firm, lives outside
London, works late most nights and likes doing her
work reading on her tablet during the commute
home...’ This approach helps marketing and sales
teams focus on who they are targeting and how they
can better do that.
Armed with the knowledge of what Sarah is likely
to digest, you can further support Sarah’s need to
research a wealth of information, especially when,
according to HubSpot, consumers are 57% of the
way towards a buying decision before they are even
ready to talk to a salesperson. In short, it is the
marketer’s challenge to help the consumers become
smarter and more knowledgeable about what
they want and use this desire to ensure they find
Step 2: Where to start your content
journey?
A staggering 93% of business buyers use online
search to begin the purchasing processii. To reach
consumers in the initial research stages of buying,
a marketer needs to develop a powerful contentdriven presence in the marketplace, using initial
‘research’ tactics and ensuring the consumer finds
intelligent digital content such as blogs, whitepapers,
articles and social media posts.
The download of a piece of content should start the
content journey and using the content maps created
in Step 1, it should now be possible to automate
future communications to this consumer and offer
further suitable content, following the content map
identified, until they become sales ready.
When buyers look for information on products
or services in your sector, make sure they find
your company and appreciate its knowledge and
expertise. It is also vital to take an omnichannel
approach to this process, which means not just
having multiple channels, but staying focused on
the prospects and ensuring that interactions with
them are consistent, connected and seamless –
which requires tracking and coordination via CRM.
As a result, the
new definition of
qualified lead implies
creating content
that adds value very
early in the sales
sequence.
ii.
The b2b Marketer’s ‘New Normal’: How to Use Social Media to Generate Leads,
iMediaConnection, October 2010
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Step 3: Encourage Sales and Marketing
to work together
An increasingly significant strategic risk to all
companies has been the disconnect between Sales
and Marketing and the age-old argument ‘What is a
lead?’.
Historically, a response to a marketing campaign
was considered a lead, which the sales team would
be forced to follow-up, rejecting most of these
leads before engaging in the ‘wants and needs’
conversation. However, the change in consumer
behaviour and the more active role prospects take
in discovering and understanding your product
shift this pivotal conversation-point between buyer
and seller. Therefore, instead of trawling through
a bucket-full of leads to engage in only one or two
worthwhile conversations, these interactions are
being managed by Marketing and the lead nurture
campaign created is based on the content maps
developed for each initial research piece.
parties, from start to finish. The visual of a welldressed gentleman caller, rose in hand, as an
alternative to the Delboy barrowman with bulging
eyes and an urgent message comes to mind. This
softly softly approach, in which the brand builds
trust through ongoing dialogue, is at the heart of
inbound marketing.
When both Sales and Marketing shift to an inbound
system, the sales and marketing process becomes
straightforward and effective: through inbound
campaigns driven by automation, lead scoring and
prospect intelligence, Marketing nurtures leads and
only turns them over to Sales when they appear fully
ready; Sales uses Marketing’s business intelligence
to take an informed and welcomed approach to each
lead and refers back those that are not fully primed
to talk of a deal yet.
Both departments beat the traditional sales-versusmarketing blame game, by ensuring productivity and
efficiency – and research indicates they get results:
nurtured leads, on average, produce 20% more
sales opportunities than non-nurtured leadsiii, while
companies that excel at lead-nurturing generate
50% more sales-ready leads at 33% lower costs than
those who do notiv. Consequently, better quality
leads mean higher conversion rates.
How a shift to Inbound can drive
Sales
Step 1: Change Sales engagement tactics
As a result, for sales teams, inbound marketing
provides a shorter path to turning total strangers
into faithful brand advocates and the process
becomes a more pleasant experience for both
Despite its seeming reactive nature, inbound
marketing does not mean Sales can now sit back
and wait for ‘sales-ready’ leads to fill their pipeline,
iii.
iv.
2012 B2B Marketing Benchmark Report, MarketingSherpa, 2012
The Definitive Guide to Lead Nurturing, Marketo, 2009
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with little effort needed to ensure the conversion
progresses. Salespeople must now bring their “A”
game to engage consumers quickly and convert
them to customers in an orderly fashion. They must
continue to use inbound techniques to establish
rapport, credibility, trust and quality customer
service in equal measure, through meaningful
interactions, to then reap the benefits of an
increased sales conversion. Most importantly, a
solid connection must be established between the
salesperson and the consumer, that provides the
buyer with a sense of value and satisfaction.
Step 2: Become Solution Consultants not Sales Reps!
First and foremost, salespeople have to accept the
change in power. In sales transactions, the power
has shifted from the salesperson to the buyer.
With the consumer self-educating and choosing
when they wish to speak to Sales, Sales Reps can
no longer hide a shabby product or undeveloped
services with a fancy sales technique and ‘gift of
the gab’ repertoire. A knowledgeable customer will
see straight through the sales patter, and instantly
the sales person will lose the consumer’s trust and
respect.
To be truly successful, you have to adapt your
approach, from pushing prospects through a
scripted, one-size-fits-all sales process and instead,
concentrate on using the available marketing
prospect intelligence to address
the prospects’ needs. You
are no longer a salesperson:
you are a consultant, guiding
the consumers through their
knowledge and addressing their
pain-points.
Discovering the prospects’
challenges, rather than trying to
close the sale, is the first action
and requires active listening to
find out what the prospects want
and, most importantly, what they
truly need. As a salesperson, you
are the ultimate authority on your
own products and services (as
well as those of your competitors)
and it is your responsibility to
provide guidance and support
to each prospect when they need it. Without this
perspective, you will lose your ability to bridge
the gap between an opening line and a closing
argument.
What the modern consumers are really looking
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your symptoms, answer questions and
then make recommendations on how
you can achieve a speedy recovery. In
the same way, as a salesperson, you
should be listening to your customers’
problems, answering any questions or
concerns they may have and offering
recommendations on products
and services that will improve their
situation.
for is someone to help them solve problems and
address concerns in their daily lives. They are not
looking to be sold to. When consumers are ready
to talk to sales, they want a solution to a business
issue or challenge. Therefore, gone are the days
where you addressed each individual feature
and corresponding benefit of your product or
service. Now, you must focus on elevating your
salesmanship to address questions and concerns
about support, implementation and usage. These
are the areas that reap the greatest potential reward
and consumer trust.
Sales teams need to adopt the fundamentals of
solution selling, a process first presented by Frank
Watts to Xerox Corporation as early as 1982. The
methodology of this business model stresses that
salespeople guide prospects through diagnosing
specific needs and then design solutions that solve
the prospects’ unique problems, in a way that
benefits both parties. So, instead of concentrating on
your knowledge and the end sale, think of yourself
as a doctor. When you visit a doctor’s office, do
they spend hours demonstrating their knowledge
of how the human body works? No, they listen to
In summary, Sales Reps versus
Solutions Consultants breaks down as
follows:
 Sales Reps are only interested in an immediate
sale. Consultants become the trusted advisors
who offer expertise that cannot be found
anywhere else
 Sales Reps talk about selling points. Consultants
ask discovery questions to lead prospects into the
sales funnel
 Sales Reps concentrate exclusively on generating
leads. Consultants generate leads organically, by
asking relevant questions, sharing information,
and engaging followers on social channels, as
equals
 Sales Reps emphasise product features.
Consultants emphasise how their products and
services provide specific solutions to their clients’
unique problems.
Step 3: Use sales knowledge to power
the inbound machine
As highlighted, one positive aspect of an inbound
approach is the increase marketing lead quality and
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reduced sales-cycle, which not only increase sales
revenues, but also encourages cheaper operating
first call preparation and confirm whether both
Sales and Marketing are promoting the same key
costs. This is due to the setup of automated
marketing processes on several virtual channels
online, to ensure leads are nurtured. This all
requires content, which drives new prospects to your
business in the first place. And who knows better
than Sales the most common problems customers
are facing? It is therefore essential that Sales now
play a vital role in the creative process as well.
messages and whether these need to be amended.
Supporting content production cements this winning
inbound sales and marketing presentation to attract
and convert educated consumers.
As noted earlier, the customer purchase decision
timeline is already 57% completed by the time the
customer first speaks to Sales. Therefore, to support
the sales conversion, it is important Sales have input
on what the customer receives during this period.
Please, don’t panic! We are not suggesting Sales
start copywriting! Production of content is still the
responsibility of Marketing, but Sales can play a
pivotal role in directing the messaging of the content
produced, to ensure it speaks about prospects’
common concerns and problems, in the same way
as sales would during their initial conversations with
prospects.
At the very least, salespeople should be
knowledgeable about the content of the marketing
messages, digested by a prospect before they enter
into the conversation. With input into the content
message, Sales will have a springboard to the key
selling points and be in a position to anticipate
questions and concerns their customers and
prospects might have – making for a much more
productive initial sales call.
In fact, most often, Sales will receive pivotal prospect
intelligence from marketing regarding what content
has been digested and this will support sales in their
When more people in your company become
involved in generating content that satisfies your
inbound marketing goals, the organisation becomes
a stronger, more powerful entity in the eyes of its
fans. The competition among peers builds stronger
relationships, internally at first, and then with
customers themselves. Plus, pooling resources
between the two teams also contributes to cost
savings for the company that utilises their human
capital effectively. Think of both as gatekeepers for
content creation in a new, more customer-centric
business paradigm.
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Four ways salespeople can provide content:
 Host webinars and record product demo
videos - YouTube, Vimeo, Skype, gotowebinar
and similar sites are making it easier than ever
to create and share informational audio and
video presentations with prospects. The sooner
members of your sales force learn how to use
these tools effectively, the better equipped your
organisation will be to design content that leads to
more profitable conversations
 Create blog posts - Well-informed sales teams can
share step-by-step demonstrations, data sheets
and testimonials with clients, or relay insightful
product or service knowledge gained through
customer contact “in the field”
 Write FAQs - FAQs are golden opportunities
to address the most pressing concerns your
potential clients have about your business
philosophy and your sales offerings
 Develop case studies - Quality references, such
as customer stories from satisfied clients, offer
a bit of marketing insurance if things get tough
in the field, when your offerings are competing
against more established brands with well-known
reputations. Case studies can also generate
much needed enthusiasm for a sales team’s
performance, especially when combined with
incentives and performance data that rewards
them for the extra effort.
Conclusion
First, with your marketing: generate interesting
content, using the data available to build content
maps that encourage prospects to find you and
engage in a sales conversation, rather than you
chasing them down the street with a sales placard!
Follow three guiding principles:
 Crafting marketing messages that are tailor-made
for specific audiences
 Marketing (less expensively) on specific channels,
where such customers can be found online
 Consistently attracting only the most promising
leads from an ocean of willing listeners.
Second, drive a modern sales ethos, by encouraging
the use of prospect intelligence to bridge the gap
between prospects’ knowledge and what represents
their best options. That allows sales to push a
prospect to the bottom of the sales funnel and is
the primary “raison d’être” for contemporary sales
teams.
Third, ensure both Sales and Marketing are
focused on direct and indirect communications
with prospects, to make certain the message flows
from marketing to sales and promotes a smooth
transition between the two. This is where most firms
still fall short in understanding and appreciating
each other’s roles in attracting qualified leads that
stick around long enough to hear the co-ordinated
and mirrored sales pitch.
Consumer behaviour has shifted and marketing
has responded with a shift to Inbound Marketing
- it is now time for sales professionals to make the
INBOUND SHIFT.
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Next steps
We hope this handy guide on how a shift to an
Inbound Strategy has given you valuable insight in
the need to adopt Inbound practices and how using
Marketing Automation and CRM software can ensure
you successfully increase the number of marketing
leads your business generates, but also how your
Sales Team can adapt to convert these leads into
new customers, increasing your business revenues.
If you would like to know more about how CRM and
Marketing Automation can boost your business
revenues, why not try Maximizer CRM for FREE.
Or if you’d like to discuss your requirements, call our
friendly team of CRM experts on +44 (0)845 555 99
55 or email [email protected].
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