Tag Archive for: Sales Follow Up

Lead Liaison

Lead Liaison Makes Huge Leap in Sales Enablement with Rhythms™

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Dallas, Texas – Sales and marketing software provider, Lead Liaison, expands their Sales Enablement solution this week with the addition of Rhythms™. This announcement comes at the heels of their Sales Enablement release late last year, which provides businesses with a platform to streamline top-of-the-funnel outreach.

“Sales Enablement has been huge for our clients,” says Jen Worsham, Director of Client Relations. “It was the missing piece of the puzzle. Our clients loved our other solutions, but craved the same sort of support for sales. So, we introduced Sales Enablement and now Rhythms™. With those two powerhouse solutions combined, sales teams have full control and visibility over their engagement with Prospects.”

Sales Enablement works by linking a business email account with Lead Liaison’s platform. At that point, all 1:1 communication with a Prospect is tracked alongside marketing communication and engagement activity. Businesses now have more insight into how Prospects are interacting with their business. With the addition of Rhythms™, sales teams can organize and execute their prospecting plans much more efficiently.

Rhythms™ allow for automated prioritization of tasks using Lead Liaison’s Task Manager. Users can place Rhythms™ into folders to keep organized, and build a plan for each Rhythm™ which acts as a playbook for all outreach.

Other features include multi-variant testing, out-of-office detection, automated bounce handling, remove on reply, manual or automatic email options, and comprehensive personalization with templates to further humanize communication. Direct mail and handwritten letters are also part of Rhythms, making this the first sales automation solution to include offline marketing – ideal for sales representatives doing Account Based Marketing (ABM). Users can easily see activity and engagement across all steps of a Rhythm™, and can set goals to measure performance and hit personal milestones. When using Rhythms™, sales representatives will find they book more meetings, close more deals, and increase efficiency with prioritized activities.

Rhythms™ are fully-integrated with other Lead Liaison services, such as marketing automation, event lead management, a CRM, and more.

About Lead Liaison
Lead Liaison provides cloud-based sales and marketing automation solutions that helps businesses accelerate revenue by attracting, converting, closing and retaining more prospects. Filling a void in the small pool of marketing automation providers that focus on marketing-centric functionality, Lead Liaison gives equal focus to sales providing sophisticated visitor tracking and additional website engagement tools to boost sales effectiveness. Lead Liaison blends ease-of-use, a flexible business model, deep external integration, marketing across social, web, mobile, email and offline channels and powerful functionality, all specifically tailored for mid-sized businesses, into a single platform, called Revenue Generation Software®. Lead Liaison is headquartered in Allen, Texas, near Dallas. For more information, visit http://www.leadliaison.com or call 1-800-89-LEADS (895-3237).

Lead Liaison

After the Pitch: How Visitor Tracking Helps Sales Teams Follow-Up

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inside informationIn the old days, companies pitched prospects and then had to wait and wonder if the prospects were going to bite. Now, you can follow your prospect’s every move once the pitch is over. With the help of visitor tracking, you can see how your prospects interact with your site. This provides invaluable information once a pitch is over.

Get Inside of Their Heads

Visitor tracking allows you to act as a mind reader after you’ve made your sales pitch. You know what you presented to the prospect, and now you can see if it sunk in. You can see if the prospect is reading up on information that you talked about during the presentation. For instance, if you find the prospect reading up on a product that you pitched, you know he or she is interested but wants to learn more. The prospect is still in the research phase and deciding if he or she should pull the trigger.

If you see the prospect fixated on your pricing page, you know that the price is the main concern. He or she might need a special offer to take action. Maybe you see that they are looking at another one of your products a little more closely. Dropping an email asking if they need more information on your other products might be of interest to them now.

Determine What the Pitch Lacked

No matter how prepared you are, even the best pitch often lacks something. You might see what yours lacked through tracking them on your website. For instance, as mentioned above, you might find your prospect checking out different types of services. He or she might be interested in something else entirely so you will need to shift your focus. By understanding what your pitch lacked, you can make adjustments when you follow up with the prospect.

Decide When to Follow Up

When you track your prospects, you also know when to follow up. You can use various lead scoring techniques to determine when the prospect is ready to take action. Then, you just need a well-timed follow-up call to reel them in.

If you’re interested in converting your prospects to customers, visitor tracking is an important asset to have in your marketing arsenal. The more you know about your prospects, the easier it is to convert them. With marketing automation, you can speak their language and give them what they want.

Interested in a demo of Lead Liaison’s Visitor Tracking product, ProspectVision™? Click here!

 

Lead Liaison

What to Include in Handwritten Sales Follow-up Letters

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What to Include in Handwritten Sales Follow-up Letters

Effective Sales Follow-Up

You have a prospect on the line, and now you just have to reel him or her in. Once you get him or her to shore, you’ll have money in your pocket and the admiration of your co-workers. While you could pick up the phone and beg the prospect to take the bait, handwritten sales follow-up letters are much more effective. Include the following components in your follow-up sales letter to increase your conversions, regardless of your industry.

Write About Benefits Instead of Features

Your handwritten sales follow-up letter should focus on the benefits you can offer instead of the features you provide. This is often referred to as selling the sizzle instead of the steak. Don’t tell people that the car you’re selling has an amazing engine. Tell them it will go fast. Don’t tell readers that your keyboard has low-profile keys. Instead, tell them it will speed up typing. Focusing on the benefits over the features will make your products stand out to the reader, which is a huge step in converting prospects.

Keep the Ball in Your Court

Control is an important part of sales. The person who has the control gets to take the lead. If you relinquish control, you will have to wait for the prospect to contact you, which might not happen. Maintain control by letting the prospect know what your next step will be, whether it will be a phone call, email, or another letter. Prospects can reach out to you before you take that next step, but if they don’t, you can follow up without feeling intrusive since they are expecting it. 

Reference Past Communications 

Personalization is key with sales. You will be more successful if you personalize your communications. With that in mind, reference past communications or interactions you’ve had with your prospects. If you make your prospects feel special, they will be more likely to take the next step and become customers. 

Your sales letter is possibly the most important tool you have in your sales arsenal. If you use the tool wisely, you will turn a high number of prospects into paying customers. Consider using a service for your handwritten sales follow-up letters so you will have ample time to handle your other sales duties. 

Start Sending Handwritten Letters Now

Lead Liaison

Handwritten Thank-You Notes Give Businesses a Boost

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Handwritten Thank-You Notes Give Businesses a BoostMiss Manners could probably write an entire column about the death of thank-you notes. Instead of thank-you notes, businesses fire off impersonal emails or send out bulk mailings to their customers. Emails end up in spam folders, and bulk mail-outs make their way into trashcans, so customers don’t realize they have been properly thanked. If you want to make Miss Manners proud, it’s time to consider handwritten thank-you notes. You can hire a service to create and send the notes for you, so you can enjoy the benefits without spending any time on the process. 

Handwritten Thank-You Notes Show Appreciation 

According to the Harvard Business Review, companies send out more than 100 emails each day, while young adults send or receive around 100 texts each day. At the same time, people receive approximately one personal letter every seven weeks. These numbers mean your thank-you emails and bulk mailings get lost in the shuffle, but your handwritten thank-you notes stick out to the recipients. They show appreciation in ways that other forms of communication don’t, making handwritten notes well worth sending.

Customer Loyalty Is Based on Beginnings and Endings

Most businesses put a lot of emphasis on the first impression with a customer. They go out of their way to ensure that customers like them from the get-go. Then, they make the sale and forget about the customer.

Endings are just as important as beginnings. If you end the transaction the right way, you will build customer loyalty. Customer loyalty translates into additional sales, plus referrals. The easiest way to build that loyalty is with a handwritten thank-you note.

These notes put a heartwarming end to the transaction. They make people think of your business in a favorable way, and those thoughts will stand out the next time they look for goods or services. They will also make people more likely to become advocates for your business. 

Writing your own notes is time-consuming, but you can simplify the process by using a service. Services that provide handwritten thank-you notes handle all of the details so you’ll get the accolades without the hard work. It’s nice to get the credit without putting in the time, so don’t pass this opportunity up. Need help with what to put in your thank you note? Click here for more help. 

Start Sending Handwritten Letters Now

Lead Liaison

Post Sales Follow Up

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Post Sales Follow Up ProcessAre you searching for a post sales follow up process to implement at your company? This article provides suggestions. Don’t forget to use marketing automation technology to pre-configure a post sales process like this that automatically schedules tasks for your sales people in your CRM such as Salesforce.com. You’ll be well on your way to a systematic approach for post sales follow up.

This document covers a proposed process companies could follow with a new customer after making the sale. Being proactive about your customer relationships is not only beneficial for cultivating referrals, it’s preventative medicine when it comes to client defection. Most clients defect to a competitor due to perceived indifference on the part of their current solution provider or vendor. Experts estimate defection rates are over 70 percent. Defection due to price or finding superior product generally occurs at a much lower rate.

Create a Referral Kit

To support your post sales follow up process we suggest creating a Referral Kit. Shall a customer agree to your Referral Program send them a Referral Kit. The Referral Kit includes essential documents and links they can pass on to other companies.

Benefits of a Post Sales Follow Up Process

Following this process provides your company with the following benefits:

1) Up-sell and cross-sell opportunity
– New products
– Edition upgrades
2) Stronger relationships
3) Referral opportunities
– Customer’s partner network
– Customer’s competitors
– Individual’s personal network
4) Public Relations (PR) opportunities
– Press releases
– Testimonials/quotes for our website
– Displaying logo on our website
– Video testimonials
– Reference letter (which we can include in our standard Proposal)

Incentives for Client Referrals

If a customer is interested in a Referral Agreement you should provide some incentive to them. Every use case will be different and may require a different offer. An offer should only be valid for an opportunity that closes as a result of a referral. Here’s a list of possible offers to consider extending (primarily for subscription-based businesses):

1) Reduction in annual subscription for the next Contract Year (5% or 10%) for every referral that closes.
2) 5% to 10% commission on a sales resulting from a referral.
3) Free upgrade for every two (2) referrals that close.
4) AMEX gift card for $500 for every deal that closes.
5) Discount on first year subscription license for referred customer (5% up to 20%).

Example Post Sales Follow Up Process

An example post sales follow up process that spans a period of 12 months is below.

Day 1

Thank them for being a customer.

Send standard Thank You email that is already created using Lead Liaison’s platform.

1 Month

Assess the overall experience.

1) How was the On-Boarding experience?
2) By the way, when is your birthday? Note, get birthdays for the key folks
3) Send Thank You note
4) How are things going?
5) What are you unhappy with?
6) How can we do a better job?
7) Does anyone need personal training?

3 Months

Elicit product feedback. Ask them to be a reference.

Feedback Questions
1) What improvements in our product/service would you like to see?
2) What feature(s) are you using the most?
3) What feature(s) are you not using at all?
4) What new feature(s) would you like to see and how would you prioritize those?
5) What’s different now compared to your expectations going in?
6) Is there anything that you don’t understand or anything that doesn’t make sense to you and/or your team?

Reference Questions
1) Would you be willing to act as a reference for us?
2) If yes, could we also add you to our Referral List which we hand out to prospects who request it?
3) What’s the best way to work with your company on PR opportunities (see #4 above under “Benefits”)?

6 Months

Secure referrals. Invite them to share experiences on blog.

1) Who do you know that might appreciate knowing about our company’s products/services?
2) After you get the first name, say, “Who else do you know?” Repeat the process until your client runs out of names.
3) Would you be interested in establishing a formal Referral Partnership with us?
4) Would you be interested in ghost blogging on our blogging platform (asked to head marketer)?

9 Months

Express gratitude. Warm them up for renewal.

Send key employees a company a T-Shirt.

11 Months

Secure critical feedback to prepare for renewal.

Send customer survey (using Lead Liaison’s software). Update of any contact info – new people, phones, email, office location.

Repeat Cycle Every 3 Months

Keep the relationship warm.

Schedule phone calls every 3 months after the first year. Look for referral, reference and up-sell/cross-sell opportunity

Need a copy of a Referral Agreement? Want to take a look at our Referral Kit? Ping us.

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