I must have had the following conversation at least 50 times last year:
“Mark, we love inbound marketing. We’ve completely overhauled our marketing so it aligns with the way prospects buy today, and we’re generating 10 times the leads we did in the past. It's awesome. But my sales team does nothing but complain about these leads. They say the leads suck. What are we doing wrong?”
Here’s what’s happening: Your typical salesperson has been honing his/her skills for years -- sometimes decades -- in the art and science of closing outbound leads. But inbound leads don’t act like outbound leads. So it’s not uncommon for inbound leads to look like they “suck” to your salespeople, when in fact, they’re just different. The “problems” your sales team has identified with your inbound leads are just signs pointing to the ways inbound leads act, think, and close differently than outbound leads do. Diagnose the “problem,” and your sales team can learn to work effectively with your new inbound leads. Here are my top five tips for transforming how your sales team approaches selling to inbound leads, and how Marketing can help.
Tip #1: Don’t buy a list of companies in your target market.
Do generate lots of inbound leads and pass only the good fit companies to your sales team.
Inbound marketing has turned the fit/pain funnel on its head. In an outbound model, companies start with a list of executives at a “perfect fit” company and bombard them with hundreds of calls and emails until 1% or 2% call back and admit they have pain. In an inbound model, all your leads have the pain your company solves. Otherwise, they would have never conducted that Google search, downloaded that whitepaper, or read that blog article that led them to you. The problem is that your company doesn't sell to the entire world. Some percentage of these leads are just not a fit for your business. However, the inbound leads who are a fit are exceptional -- and they close much faster and at a higher rate than your outbound opportunities.
The problem here is that marketers get so excited to be generating hundreds -- and sometimes thousands -- of inbound leads each month, that they end up passing all these leads to sales. If Marketing passes the sales team 1,000 leads, only 100 of which are good, and Sales has to sift through 900 bad leads, they're going to hate it, and they're going to say things like, “These leads suck.” However, if Marketing can filter out the 900 less fit companies and pass along just the 100 good ones, their sales team will think they have the best marketing department in the world. As a result, Marketing and Sales must align to develop and implement a lead scoring system that makes sense and results in only good fit leads getting passed from Marketing to Sales.
Tip #2: Don’t call high.
Do call the inbound lead influencers, ask them what is going on, and then call high.
Look ... not every inbound lead is going to be a C-level executive. In fact, very few of them will be. You’re much more likely to get a mid-level manager, associate, or even an intern on the other end of the phone. So what does your typical salesperson think? “This isn’t a qualified buyer. This is an intern. These leads suck."
However, who do you think told the intern to do the Google search that led to your company? The C-suite. The inbound lead indicates that pain exists at that company -- the pain you solve. So call the mid-level manager. Call the associate. Call the intern. But don't try to sell them. You're right -- they're not buyers. Instead, use that call to prepare yourself for the call with the executive. Ask them, "Why did you download that ebook? Why did you read that blog article? Who told you to conduct this research? Why? What is your boss’ key initiatives for 2013? What did your CEO talk about at the annual kick-off?" If you're doing inbound marketing well, you'll be surprised how much these leads trust you and how honest their answers will be.
Now you're in a position to call high. You don’t have to leave the typical voicemail ...
“Hi John, we help companies like you get more leads and customers from your website. Give me a call back so I can tell you more about ways we do this.”
Instead, you can leave one that says ...
“Hi John, a number of people from your company have contacted me about effective lead generation strategies. I understand you're hiring 10 new sales reps next quarter and need to increase lead generation by 35%. I've been working on a strategy with your team that I would like to run by you.”
Now, which voicemail would make you more willing to call back?
Tip #3: Don’t lead with your company’s elevator pitch.
Do lead with your buyer’s interests.
By the time they get passed on to your sales team, a typical inbound lead might have visited your website 15 times, read 11 blog articles, opened 3 emails from you, and downloaded 5 ebooks. They’re already several stages into the sales process before they’ve even spoken to someone from your company. So what do you think happens if a sales rep calls them up and leads with a stone-cold elevator pitch? It comes across as completely tone deaf to the prospect, right? It might even erode most of the trust your marketing team has worked so hard to build up. The lead hangs up on your salesperson, and again, your salesperson thinks, “These leads suck.”
Instead, salespeople need to leverage all the data you've collected about your inbound leads in your contacts database. How they found your website, what pages they viewed most, what emails they opened and read, how often they shared your content on Twitter and Facebook: All of this tells you loads of information about what the prospect’s problems are and how you can help. Your salespeople should be using that information to open the conversation on the phone ...
Sales Rep: “Hi, Mary, this is Mark from HubSpot [pause because at this point Mary may start telling you how much they love your content and your company]. I noticed you downloaded our ebook on lead generation from LinkedIn. What specific questions did you have?”
Mary: “Oh, I was just doing research. I didn’t know I’d actually get a call from a salesperson."
Sales Rep: “That’s okay. I’m actually looking at your company's LinkedIn page right now and had two quick tips for you. Do you have a minute to go over them?”
Mary wants to hear those tips. Mary will ask more questions. Mary will be impressed with how helpful and smart you are. Mary will wonder what she can buy from you. Congratulations! You no longer have a salesperson-prospect relationship, you have a doctor-patient relationship. Now you can diagnose whether you can help their company -- and how.
Tip #4: Don’t beg for an appointment.
Do qualify out non-buyers.
If you’ve never cold called before, you’re not missing out on much. Imagine a day where you dial the phone 100 times, leave 95 voicemail messages, and not one person calls you back. Of the five people who did pick up the phone, three hung up within the first five seconds. And when you do get somebody on the phone who’s willing to talk, it’s clear that he’s not really qualified to buy from you. But because you’re having such a lousy day of cold calling and feeling unloved -- and because you don’t have enough leads to begin with, and beggars can’t be choosers -- you book an appointment with them anyway. It happens more often than most salespeople are willing to admit.
But with a steady stream of inbound leads flowing in, your salespeople can approach these initial conversations from a position of strength. Every minute you spend on the phone with an unqualified buyer is time you could be spending with a warm lead. Do build trust. Do understand the prospect’s needs. Do attempt to provoke pain if it doesn’t exist. But most importantly, do move on if they're not a good fit. Thank your prospect for their time. Introduce them to someone else who can help if you know somebody. Encourage them to continue to enjoy your content. And quick ... call that next inbound lead.
Tip #5: Don’t “Always Be Closing.”
Do “Always Be Helping.”
Most salespeople, following the directive of the infamous movie Glengarry Glen Ross, adopt the rallying cry, “Always Be Closing.” But this is a disastrous approach to take with an inbound lead. The internet has shifted control from the salesperson to the buyer. People can research your company, research your competitors, understand your price, and sometimes even try your product -- all without speaking to a salesperson. And by the time an inbound lead reaches your sales team, that’s exactly what that person has done.
Sales should not start out by looking to close. They shouldn’t even be thinking about pitching your product. Instead, they should look to help the buyer. Strive to uncover the thing your buyer is worried about -- the thing she's stuck on -- and if you find it, help her with it. Don’t try to tie it to your product. Just help them. Buyers don’t need to talk to Sales anymore. Make them want to talk to you because they trust you and you've been helpful in the past in solving their problems. If done correctly, your product and how it can help them will naturally come up at the right time.
Just as the internet has changed life for the modern buyer (and the modern marketer), life has also changed for the modern salesperson. In all cases, it’s for the better. If your salespeople still complain that your inbound leads suck, try running an experiment. Choose a sales rep with an open mind, and tell them they need to make their goal this month from inbound leads alone, using the guidelines above. Then tell the rest of the team to watch as their colleague starts closing business faster and at a higher rate. Nothing succeeds like success. The rest of your team will soon follow suit.
Don’t run a sales and marketing team that annoys people. Do run a sales and marketing team that people love.
Inbound Marketing Blog Feed
Pam Gandee 3:17 PM on February 12, 2013
Excellent blog. Your point about always be helpful rather than pushing to close the sale is so true for business development in the professional services sector.
Darrell Ellens 3:20 PM on February 12, 2013
Hi Mark
Great Examples of inbound challenges.
Thanks to your hundred's of blog posts and many webinars I am a true believer and user of inbound marketing.
I too have been struggling with Tip #5 more so by habit. Closing is second nature. I now look more for the perfect fit, than I do on volume as I am limited to the amount of clients I can handle at this time.
Tip # 2's example is very good. Working the team, to get to the top is also easy to do, you just have to realize that each step is different with each company.
Matthew Maka 3:27 PM on February 12, 2013
Hey Mark,
I've noticed that a lot of companies are trying to merge inbound marketing traditional cold calling techniques. For me the point of inbound marketing is to to infuse your lead gen with referral marketing, building trust and getting conversions because people just want to open up their wallets vs. driving traffic through a squeeze page and then having your sales staff annoying potential prospects because they think those are hot leads?! They are most likely not! Often when I get annoyed by a sales person calling me after I fill out a form I never end up doing business with that company and I put up a wall making and have an instant stigma associated with that brand making it unlikely to even convert in the future.
Now I'm rambling.. Thanks for the post
Jennifer 3:39 PM on February 12, 2013
Excellent blog post. We have been facing the "leads suck" attitude, and you have provided a valid reason for the change. Our inbound marketing is working very well - just bringing in a different crowd. Thanks!
Alan Tomkins 3:59 PM on February 12, 2013
Hi Mark,
I've been on both sides of the fence and sat though many a cold calling training session. Since 1990 it just hasn't worked. The only time success occurs is when the sales guy was a) lucky enough to get through to someone that was already thinking about their product/service, b) the prospect listened to them long enough to understand the proposition and was in the market anyway, c) the sales guy was sharp enough get the pitch over eloquently and quickly therefore getting a begrudged respect from an already interested party. The common denominator is they were already interested, so we should be on their radar if we are doing inbound marketing well.
As you say inbound marketing requires a different approach, consultative rather than closing. Done properly the results are incredible and like you I talk to business owners, managers and directors that sometimes don’t understand that.
I have had some success looking at this as a process and the main issue is the lead is handed over to a sales person before it’s ready. Using an internal product specialist to nurture the lead initially helps move it along the funnel without threatening to lose it by pushing too soon. This takes confidence and belief in your product/service, and your specialist, but it does mean the suspect becomes a prospect and as soon as the pricing question is asked the specialist can engage the sales team.
It was an excellent post and I’ll be sharing it with a few of my clients.
Thanks,
Alan
Mark Roberge 4:45 PM on February 12, 2013
@Pam Agreed. Very important in professional services. The buyer now has control and does not really need the sales person. We need to be helpful, not pushy.
@Darrell Glad you have seen great success with inbound and we were able to help. The adjustment to tip #5 is tough. You still need to close, just after lots of trust building and helping. It feels much more natural at that point. The alternative to #2 is to just call high but reference the activity that members of the person's team has had on your website.
@Matthew Correct. If the follow up is not aligned with the original content download, it feels like a cold call from the prospect.
@Jennifer Glad the article helped keep you on track. We are happy to chat with your sales team to share how we transformed our tactics to align with inbound.
@Alan Agreed. Not all inbound leads are ready to be pushed to sales. There is quite a lot of science involved in deciding when to push a lead to sales, a process that needs to be studied and iterated on to get right.
yoni levy 4:57 PM on February 12, 2013
Funny my company contact Hubspot two times from their website and never got any called or email back.
Mark Roberge 5:59 PM on February 12, 2013
@Yoni Sorry to hear that. I see in our records we called and left you a voice mail in November. I assume you are referencing requests made since then. I will have someone reach out immediately.
jami! 8:18 PM on February 12, 2013
funny, know an understand what you are saying!
Ayudos 10:50 PM on February 12, 2013
So inbound marketing is about getting leads and sales by being helpful and being a good source of info? sounds good to me.
Jay Wolfe 5:08 AM on February 13, 2013
I get so many calls to my phone from people trying to sell me what I don't want! Usually they lie to me, tell me they're from the phone company or from Google, etc, when I know they may be marketing affiliates of the phone company reselling their products but are not the people I have the contract with. As for those claiming to be 'from Google' I instinctively assume they are liars and scammers who could not possibly offer me anything. Often these people call late in the evening, or on a Sunday, as if they have no personal respect for you at all!
Frank Belzer 8:25 AM on February 13, 2013
Mark - You sound like me :)
I had a conversation with a sales VP last week that was a Hubspot client. The marketing team has done a great job creating leads but he felt "they sucked" and were a waste of time.
I think it is vital that VP's of Sales get on board as well. As long as leadership has this attitude what else could we expect from the sales people.
Michael Ward 10:51 AM on February 13, 2013
This is a great post with some very good information. I completely agree that most salespeople don't know how to properly work an inbound lead program. There is such a difference in how to handle potential prospects that have contacted you and are inquiring about your service as opposed to being contacted by you first.
Robert Bergman 11:36 AM on February 13, 2013
There are definitely different techniques for handling inbound sales leads compared to calling out or emailing a potential customer that has never heard of your company. It is unfortunate that most salespeople are so hung up on the sale, they approach these two types of leads the same way and many times lose the sale because of it.
David Hilditch 12:03 PM on February 13, 2013
I think tip #2 works well for my product. Whilst the decision maker is the only one who is going to buy it for their company, it sells really well to the DM if a few of the recruitment agents (our target market) at their company have tried it and loved it.
re: tip #4, cold calling sucks but I still think every sales person should do it every now and again just to keep in shape.
For tip #5, my favourite question is 'How can I help?'. Better than that is if you've done research, like in your example, and already know how you can help and are halfway towards a strategy for the inbound lead.
Mark Roberge 8:11 PM on February 13, 2013
@JayWolfe Yes Jay. You need to be careful about scammers. Don't quote me on this but I do not think Google calls anyone that is spending less than $10K per month on AdWords. Unless you are spending that much, it is probably not them. Also, beware of SEO consultants that try to sell you links or guarantee you the first position on a keyword. That is like a money manager guaranteeing you a return on your investment. Shady.
@FrankBelzer Thanks for the comment Frank. You are a true thought leader on this topic. I am glad you are educating the executives on this important topic.
@DavidHilditch Sure David. It is still possible to turn a profit off a cold call. Agreed on the prep on #5. Even if I know how I can help the prospect, I still start with the open ended question "how can I help?"
Jon Davies 4:29 AM on February 14, 2013
Great article. I totally agree with tip #1. In particular it's essential for sales and marketing to agree a lead scoring system and to have a sensible discussion about how to handle the different types of inbound leads, especially those that have needs that are not covered by your company's offer.
In previous roles I have found it difficult to get the sales team to follow through on email leads immediately the same day. My feeling is that by responding quickly you can actually limit your "competition" as a potential buyer may well reduce their search for additional suppliers if they have had a positive response from you. The sales team mentality is often to treat an email like snail mail (which can wait a little) rather than like a telephone call (which needs an immediate response).
Maybe it's a generational thing but younger people seem more likely to email or fill in enquiry forms than to telephone. They still want an immediate response though!
Rick Roberge 8:13 AM on February 14, 2013
#3. #3. #3. The first thing and sometimes the hardest thing that I teach to future sales rock stars is that it's not about you; it's about them.
Mark Roberge 9:50 PM on February 14, 2013
@JonDavies You bet Jon. If you follow up in seconds versus hours, you are thousands of times more likely to be successful. My friend, Ken Krogue, from InsideSales.com is the expert in this area. Let me see if I can get him to join the conversation with his two cents. Try using lead alerts and emailed sales dashboards to instigate immediate follow up.
@RickRoberge Yes. I think you taught me that one... when I was in diapers.
Ken Krogue 4:00 PM on February 15, 2013
Ken Krogue here,
Thanks for the opportunity to weigh in.
I'm coming from having been in both sales and marketing and I see both sides.
Sales thinks the leads are poor, and marketing wonders why the salespeople don't follow up well...
The age old conflict continues.
There has been lots of great advice given throughout this blog and the comments.
Here at InsideSales.com, like HubSpot, we run our business by the numbers, what I call the "ratios". And the truth is that sales needs to be accountable for the effort and skill ratios, and marketing needs to be accountable for the qualification ratios.
Many times sales is right about the leads, but many times the salespeople respond poorly, slow, and with little persistence.
Here are my thoughts:
1- Go back through all your clients and see what lead source they came from. Which offers sent by marketing did they respond to? See what works.
2- Track your lead sources and offer types religiously. Use this data to weight the leads are really turn to results. Then you know what is good and what isn't.
3- Learn and teach the 7 methods of improving contact ratios. :
a- Immediate Response - Average is 46 hours 37 minutes, take it below 5 minutes.
b- Persistent Response - Average is 1.4 response attempts, take it 6 for outbound, 9 attempts for inbound.
c- Call at best times of day - Focus strong calling times from 8-10am and 3-6pm
d- Call on best days - Focus strong on Wed, Thurs. New contacts on Friday.
e- Optimal call times - study your list times for industry specific optimal call times, ask for optimal call times on web forms.
f- Direct Dial phone numbers - invest in training and data to enrich your data with direct dial phone numbers. Change web forms to say 'direct phone' instead of 'phone' numbers.
g- Caller ID - you may want to test out using our Local Presence product which calls from local caller ids in each major market and boosts contacct ratios by 57.8%.
We have a bunch of great webinars on these tactics at www.InsideSales.com/webinar
And the ebook Mark Roberge and I did might help also...
www.InsideSales.com/ebooks
Ken
Mark Roberge 9:44 PM on February 15, 2013
@KenKrogue Exactly the advice we needed Ken. Thanks for chiming in!
John Waller 4:33 PM on February 16, 2013
Bummer,
I would take them away and hand them a yellow pages and have them start dialing the phone OLD SCHOOL or have them hit the streets and collect 41 business cards a day and take pictures of them and store them in Scanbizcards daily like i do.
Steve Chipman 9:41 AM on February 17, 2013
If you're collecting enough demographic information in your forms (and I realize there's a fine line between asking for too much and getting enough conversions), then you can weed out the truly sucky leads before a call is even made.
We use a Salesforce formula to score and color code each lead based on a variety of criteria such as number of employees, timeframe and country of origin (based on the built-in reverse IP lookup data). We have fine tuned this explicit scoring system to the point that it's a reliable indicator as to what amount of effort - if any - should be put on a given lead.