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How to
Increase Lead Conversion Through
Better Sales Effectiveness
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How to Increase Lead Conversion Through
Better Sales Effectiveness
From Marketing to Sales: The Lead Handoff
Challenge
When marketers are doing well, they have a large stack of leads to give the sales
team. However, large numbers of leads don’t necessarily produce increased
revenue, which can result in one of the most fundamental Marketing/Sales
conflicts: Sales bemoans the poor-quality leads, while Marketing assumes Sales
dropped the ball.
But oftentimes, low lead conversions are the result of the lack of contextual
information and support material that need to accompany the lead handoff. Left
to their own devices, sales reps might research the lead, or search the portal for a
case study or proof point to use as reference—or they might just wing it.
The lead handoff marks not the end of Marketing’s involvement, but the
beginning of a new phase—one that requires its own content strategy to ensure
sellers maximize lead conversion. Here are some concrete steps marketers can
take to improve sales effectiveness and ultimately help increase revenue:
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Right content, right time: support the lead to conversion process posthandoff
2
Create the right process for maximizing sales effectiveness
3
Measure Marketing’s influence on Sales
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Right Content, Right Time: Support the Lead-toCustomer Conversion Process Post Handoff
Beyond Marketing Collateral: Help Your Reps Hold Better Selling Conversations
Whitepapers, briefs, case studies and data
sheets are important sales assets as sellers
engage with prospects, but are poor teaching
aids for reps. To better enable the sales team,
add sales conversation guides, playbooks and
quick job aids that actually help them stay on
message and uncover the value they bring to a
prospect. Examples work best, such as showing
how other sellers have been successful with
like prospects, or selling similar value in the product/service.
Sellers tend to be opportunistic learners: they prefer to learn only
what they need to know of the topic at hand, in the moment they
need it. Packaging content in short, interactive modules (no more
than 5 minutes of material) not only encourages use, it also helps
reps quickly absorb and apply the information they need in a real
selling situation.
For maximum effect, pair these short, hard-hitting knowledge aids with marketing
collateral so sellers use the right content to engage the prospect and have a
better selling conversation.
Create Content that Engages Prospects More Effectively
Engaging prospects with the right marketing content can provide invaluable
assistance to sales reps. Integrate a guided selling tool with the marketing
automation platform to provide an additional layer of insight by tracking the
content sellers share with prospects, and from there the prospects’ engagement
with the material. This information can then be reported back to the marketing
automation platform for enhanced lead scoring. Use this data to deliver the most
engaging content for sellers to share with prospects and move them forward in
the buying process.
© 2015 Veelo, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Creating the Right Process for Maximizing Sales
Effectiveness
Get Interdepartmental
Improving sales effectiveness is one of the most important
opportunities to boost corporate revenue and growth.
Work with both Training and Sales departments to
identify areas of improvement for customer
conversion—then target those areas with the
right collateral and knowledge aids.
Match Support Content to Each Stage of the
Buying Cycle
Engaging a prospect at the earliest stages of the
buying cycle, such as during the awareness or
exploration stage, is very different from the later
stages, such as evaluation and negotiation. Sellers
need their support content customized accordingly.
Materials can include quick training bursts, sales messaging
and question examples, customer testimonials, and assorted reference aids that
help them with having a good selling conversation. Identify the gaps where sellers
need support at each stage of the cycle, then work to create the right assets to
close such gaps.
Make Content Access Easy
Uploading content to a content portal doesn’t guarantee that the sellers will be
able to find or use the materials. According to IDC, salespeople waste an average
of 7 hours a week hunting for the right content. More sophisticated sales
enablement tools, like guided selling, can save sellers some serious time by
automatically recommending relevant content in real time. When integrated with
a CRM system (e.g., Salesforce, MS Dynamics, etc.), guided selling tools
intelligently pair collateral with training bursts, reference materials, and job aids—
keyed to prospect data, sales stage, transaction type, buyer persona, and more.
Besides saving sellers administrative time, marketers can ensure sellers are using
the right content at the right time.
© 2015 Veelo, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Measure Marketing’s Influence on Sales
Measuring lead to customer conversion is an important indicator of success.
Marketing is instrumental in the build-up of this funnel, but their role in
supporting the sales organization after prospects have become qualified leads can
be equally powerful. In order to refine and improve this over time, marketers need
a way to determine which pieces of content give the biggest bang for their buck
and which pieces need to be retired.
A handful of enablement tools and
apps have emerged that now give
marketers visibility into usage and
value. Connecting such tools to the
CRM system can provide rich insight,
like which pieces of content are most
used in closed deals, or correlating the
usefulness of different content types
with buying stage.
Many also automate the process of
gathering sales feedback, and allow
the sales reps to rate the content they
found most helpful. This data, combined with other information, can help drive
more intelligent investment in sales support efforts. For example, if a particular
product positioning paper is strongly tied to high-dollar wins for the quarter, but
sales reps rate it only 3 out of 5 stars, that’s probably a sign it’s a high-value asset
that could benefit from an update. These analytics are invaluable for boosting
lead conversions because they enable Marketing to make intelligent decisions
based on evidence, vs. guesswork or excessive influence by the loudest team
members.
Summary
Converting leads to customers involves one of the most integrated, crossdepartmental acts of teamwork. Lead handoffs without support from Marketing
are less effective because sellers do not necessarily know the most effective next
steps in engaging those leads. Getting sellers the best content that’s relevant to
their needs throughout the buying cycle not only cuts down on wasteful non-
© 2015 Veelo, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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selling activities, it helps them engage those prospects more effectively—and
ultimately, boost lead conversions.
About Veelo
Veelo improves sales effectiveness and productivity with scalable products that
help companies develop and deliver the most effective sales enablement content.
Based on proven retention science, Veelo solutions are available as stand-alone
web applications and can also be integrated with partner portals and CRM
systems such as Salesforce, Oracle CRM and Microsoft Dynamics, as well as
Marketing Automation Systems such as Marketo and Eloqua. For more
information, contact Veelo at 1-855-414-8760 or visit www.veeloinc.com.
© 2015 Veelo, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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