Not All Leads Are Created Equal: Why Sales Differentiation Matters

Too often, businesses treat the majority of their leads with equal priority. But that’s not the best way to go about it: As 93% of companies see an increase in conversion rates with personalized efforts, there’s an urgent need for a more individually-tailored and systemized approach.

Only by understanding the different stages of the Sales process can Salespeople select the right nurturing strategies and strengthen the connections with their prospects. And what’s more: By doing so, they can embark on an automation journey full of new opportunities. Why exactly is Lead Differentiation such a crucial concept in Sales and how to make the best of it?

Different Journeys; Different Approaches

In the era of digital disruption, consumer attention is scattered all over the place. For Sales processes, this is a piece of bad news. As traditional strategies fall short, it’s about time to revisit the established approach to Sales and recognize that understanding prospects is now more important than ever. With different journeys and diverse consumer needs, no two leads are the same.

That’s why Salespeople need to become extremely perceptive to different variables and recognize that leads are always in different stages: Someone may only require more information, while someone else is ready to buy. And as Implisit found out, while referred leads take on average 97 days to close, website leads tend to close in 75 days, and leads from social media networking usually close in about 40 days. Isn’t this a strong enough argument for Leads Differentiation?

It’s precisely this realization that should encourage companies to design specific nurturing journeys. While there are various criteria to focus on, one of the useful categorization techniques is assigning a percentage of probability to buy. Are you handling a cold, warm, or hot lead? The sense of temperature allows companies to create segments with priority buckets and implement strategies that help them stay on top of their prospects’ minds, making sure they are doing whatever they can to fulfill their specific needs.

A More Comprehensive Outreach

What does it mean for overall Sales strategies? Well, foremost, it represents a shift towards inbound practices. Such an approach is centered around the need for education and addressing the pain points of your target audiences. The charm lies in having a conversation with prospects more aware of you, rather than just shooting into darkness. For example, if a person receives an email from your company at some point, they are already aware of who you are, making the chances of conversion much higher.

But to truly score the home run, companies need a multichannel presence. An average customer uses various channels to interact with brands: Whether it’s emails, texts, calls, social media, or personal meetings, companies should have a robust communication and follow-up architecture in place. Having a multichannel presence and prioritizing comprehensive – rather than violent – messaging, is exactly what can help you find the gentle balance that allows you to trip on leads to maintain a connection.

Multichannel communication needs to be smartly set up to incorporate various touchpoints: After all, not all people listen to voicemails, and some may have strong spam filters in their inboxes. Being strategic pays off. Different channels are more effective in different circumstances. For example, it is useless – or even harmful – to try calling on a late Friday afternoon. Realizing how you can add value to your prospects while polishing your efforts is the key to success.

Scaling Through Automation

Statistically speaking, it’s mainly consistent behavior that moves your Sales processes from good ones to great ones. But there’s a problem with that: Us humans are not always consistent. We are busy, not available 24/7, and sometimes not even inclined to make the necessary number of follow-ups to close a lead. Imagine that the average Salesperson stops following-up after only two attempts to reach a prospect, but most Sales are made between the 5-15th follow-up. Added to that, 44% of Salespeople give up after one negative answer.

While this doesn’t mean you should be pushing your prospects against the wall, a sales process often takes a lot of persistence plus the indispensable time you need to give to the customer to think about your brand. However, companies often fail to understand it and give up on their leads. The potential remedy to this lies in enabling Sales through automation.

Automation gives Salespeople the resources to nurture 100% of the leads, and not just those that they can commit to, which brings various optimization opportunities

Automation means that one person can cover more without the need to alter the company infrastructure, allowing individuals to achieve more while not having to spend their talent on manual, mundane tasks. More importantly, it empowers companies to truly understand their sales process by systematically tracking lead engagement and other variables. Companies should then use these insights to reassess their efforts in real-time and develop more flexible strategies through split tests and interactive messaging.

When talking about a successful Sales process, which keywords come to your mind? You would probably think of persistence, timeliness, patience, and providing value to prospects. And you are right, but none of it can be carried out effectively without sales differentiation. By being sensitive to customer needs, this strategy can not only boost your Sales, but it can also guide you towards the effective navigation of a multichannel presence.

Read more: Headless Commerce: A ‘Best of Both Worlds’ Approach for Manufacturers