Sales and marketing relationship
The sales and marketing relationship is certainly a deep topic. Those 2 different sciences complement each other, they are related, but at the same time so far away from each other.
If someone comes into my business and advertises his marketing skills for a sales role, that is certainly a “NO-GO” for me.
The reason why is because most of the time a different mindset is behind.
The marketing guy is not in the trenches of sales, he is not in the front line, instead (although undisputable his work is of great essence) he sits in the back seat.
Vparagon as a sales outsourcing agency and one of the best sales outsourcing companies UK is not involved in marketing activities. Mainly because we want to keep the message clear and simple.
With us, you get sales, direct sales. If we start adding google ads, SEO, Social Media Marketing, etc. then, the perception of our business fades away and is being replaced from something where other companies can provide more value.
We provide, however, “Lead Generation” which is surely also a Marketing related topic.
From my perspective, there are 3 different kinds of leads out there.
Hot leads, warm leads, and cold leads.
HOT LEADS
Hot leads are those prospects that show a direct interest in your product or service. Someone, calls or emails your business because he is interested in your services.
The conversion rate of hot leads is very high, it can reach out 50% or more, depending on the service, the solution or product you are offering, depending on the location of your business, or the timing.
WARM LEADS
Warm leads are those prospects that show interest in the industry where you are active but not necessarily in your business specifically. If you have a specific solution that solves a specific problem in the industry, for example, a project management tool, specialized for retail stores and you prepare a whitepaper that describes the problems retailers have and presents the potential solution a project management tool for that specific industry provides, then if someone downloads this PDF, you know he has interest on the topic not however specifically in your product.
The convertibility of this kind of leads is way lower than the convertibility of hot leads but from the other side way higher than the conversion rate of cold leads. So, if you are talking about the convertibility of 50% on hot leads, then you should expect a convertibility of 10% for warm leads.
COLD LEADS
In our industry as a sales agency, we generate cold leads. That means after we understand your business correctly, we search online (or offline) and find your potential clients, those prospects that fulfill certain criteria that place them within your range of interest. Once we detect those potential companies of interest, and after we define which players within those organizations are the proper Decision Makers to speak to, we search and find their contact details, emails, telephone numbers, and LinkedIn details, so that we can approach them and engage them directly.
Cold lead generation is a far way more complex procedure than initially thought, especially when bigger organizations and corporations are targeted. The “understanding of things”, who is who within an organization and the proper way to approach them increases in complexity depending on the industry and the size of it.
The conversion rate of a cold lead generation campaign is ~ 1%, way lower than that of the hot or warm leads.
The low conversion rate of cold lead generation however should not surprise you negatively. You need to consider the amount spent on online marketing to generate hot or warm leads. Depending on the industry and the keywords related to it, it can be a very expensive way to go.
In this article, I would like to speak about another factor that needs to be considered in lead generation and helps to better understand the sales and marketing relationship. A factor that is well hidden from advertising companies, as it does not serve their purposes.
The maturity of the lead.
Let me explain. With “maturity” I refer to the process that led someone to show interest in your service or to your company specifically.
The process is crucial for the outcome because it is welcome to have someone asking for our services as a result of his interest that was sparked from a Google ad, it is however of much bigger importance to receive the interest of someone that concluded to communicate with us, in the interest of personal investigation.
Above all when complicated services or solutions are offered.
The understanding of the necessity of a solution and the value it can bring requires a longer path of research and investigation. That said, be aware of how open and direct you advertise your solutions, as an ad that triggers someone indirectly on the solutions you are offering, might initially generate fewer clicks, in the long run however is going to bring the mature leads knocking at your door. Those are the ones that are going to have the highest conversion rate and find the most value in your solution.
SEO works better in regards to the “maturity” of the leads. An ad is most of the time a “banner” that attracts, triggers, and sparks a compulsive reaction. Unless you are selling something very simplistic, that is not what you want. You want to attract prospects that have a genuine and more profound need of your service or product.
My belief is that your marketing and direct sales approach should include all of the above in the quantity that is required with the intention to find the perfect mix. Each channel brings different potentials prospects. As long as there is no conflict and as long you have a crystal-clear definition of your product and your goals, mixing up different approaches does not hurt.
If you have questions related to this article, please do contact me here, and I will be very happy to discuss further.