Losing leads? Time to fix your leaky sales funnel using Sales Enablement

The sales- marketing funnel encompasses the entire lead cycle from attraction through conversion to retention. Before you start thinking of leads, prospects, or customers, you need to attract people to your website and content first.  As you develop a website that is high on relevant content, customer oriented and search engine optimized, you will see a growth in the number of visitors to your website.

However, not everyone who visits your website is a prospect. You need to have the right software to tap the digital body language of those anonymous visitors who land on your website or blogs. Let’s take a look at possible “leaky spots” in this funnel where you could be losing your leads:

Leaky spot 1: Your visitors aren't taking the bait.

You seem to have a reasonable amount of traffic to your website but not many visitors seem to be interested in your whitepapers, promotional offers or any service that your website offers.

Introspect: Does my website appeal to my buyer's tastes?

Fix it: Review your website content and design according to your buyer persona.

A good website is one where the content is the answer to visitors’ latest question (isn't that what they were looking for in the search engine, anyway?). Know what issues are affecting your target audience today and help resolve those. Perhaps your blog or white paper doesn't solve all of them; you can always invite your visitors to interact with you via Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook.

Leaky spot 2: You can’t tell what they need.

Introspect: Do I know what intrigues my prospects?

Fix it: You can solve this by investing in marketing automation software that offers you deeper insight into your visitors’ activities. Make sure there is are relevant calls-to-action throughout your website. Once their details are fed into your system, you can specifically track which services or blogs interest them most.

Leaky spot 3: Your prospects display some interest however, they fade overtime.

Let’s say Brandon visited your website in July of 2013 for the first time. He showed an active interest in your blogs and also downloaded a couple of white papers.  By the first week of September his interest started waning  which led to less frequent visits and eventually Brandon went off the radar.

Introspect: What went wrong? My visitor did his part but did I reciprocate well enough?

Fix it: If a visitor shows interest in your offerings, you have to show an interest in him too, and fast. Apparently, 50% of sales go to the first person to contact the prospect. Marketing automation tools alert your team whenever a prospect shows interest and also notifies you when a lead becomes hot so you know whom to contact first.

It lets you schedule or manually set up a drip campaign where you are automatically kept in constant touch with your prospects, thus nurturing your relationship, even as you are busy with other things.

Leaky spot 4: Sales isn't always prepared to meet potential customers as they have to coordinate with marketing first

Introspect: Is there any way I can help sales to function better and faster?

Fix it: Yes you can. ‘Power to sales’ is the new marketing rule. As sales can not lose out on precious time when it comes to contacting prospects, you need to adopt a workflow that doesn't interrupt your sales cycle. Implement a smart system that is like a central repository for all your collateral. Give your sales guys the power to see what their prospects are up to and to create their own sales materials, without distorting your brand.

Reflecting on these key points and fixing them can boost your conversion rates in your favor. To know more about engaging leads and closing sales click here.