9 Key Steps to Optimizing Your Sales Process

Howdy, y’all!

(Me after listening to Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter on repeat all week.)

It’s a new month and a new quarter, and we’re kicking it off with some of our latest tactical content.?

Let’s get right to it ??

9 Key Steps to Optimizing Your Sales Process

Many companies are understandably reluctant to adjust their sales process, especially if it’s reliably generating revenue. But a fear of taking risks may prevent sales leaders from recognizing real chances to refine their approach and achieve even better results with less effort or fewer resources.

Here are our recommendations to make sure that happens:?

1. Define the Customer Journey

Ask your sales team the following questions to learn how target customers progress through your sales funnel so that reps know what to expect with each sale:?

• Which decision-makers are typically involved in purchasing decisions??
• How do you build trust and credibility with them??
• How many touch points do you need??

2. Build Out ICPs

Effective Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs) are developed for categorizing leads into personas, understanding buyer demographics, roles, pain points, business size, and budget. Firmographic, technographic, and intent data help create accurate ICPs to empower sales reps in negotiations and foster strategic, long-lasting relationships with ideal prospects.

3. Identify Pipeline Bottlenecks and Leaks

A high conversion rate from prospects to qualified leads is the mark of a healthy sales funnel. Consistent drop-offs at a particular stage indicate a bottleneck or “leak,” which can often be resolved with effective lead nurturing campaigns.?

4. Prioritize Sales and Marketing Alignment

Sales and marketing teams should collaborate on setting quarterly goals, defining leads, and developing shared KPIs to work together more effectively.

On a more operational level, the two departments can:

• Pass knowledge of pain points down the funnel?
• Work on creating consistent messaging
• Improve customer data sharing between CRM and MAP systems
• Collaborate on content offers

Read the remaining five steps in this article.

Tactics for ABM Success at Every Funnel Stage

As B2B prospects demand increasingly personalized experiences, integrating account-based marketing (ABM) throughout the customer acquisition funnel becomes increasingly important. But what does full-funnel ABM integration look like in practice?

Here are some practical steps that marketers can take to improve outcomes at each stage of the ABM integration process.?

Awareness (Top of the funnel)

Start by identifying and understanding high-value accounts that meet your business goals. Develop clear, compelling messaging that underscores your brand's unique features and benefits. Deploy targeted advertising in channels that resonate best with your audience.?

Don’t hesitate to apply common ABM tactics to personalize your approach and deepen customer engagement. Like using tailored display banners to guide potential customers through the awareness journey.

Engagement (Middle of the funnel)

To effectively engage buyers, focus on building relationships.?

Develop content that addresses specific customer needs, use retargeting to deepen connections, optimize website interactions with custom audiences, and enhance engagement with videos tailored to each account's needs. This approach positions your brand as a leader and strengthens your ABM strategy.

Conversion (Bottom of the funnel)

To land conversions you need to focus on driving tangible results and proving ROI.?

Refine targeting using third-party data and insights, such as ZoomInfo Intent, to identify and target potential high-conversion accounts with tailored ads and social media campaigns. Create conversion-focused ads with personalized offers, like discounts and free trials, and implement custom landing pages with account-specific offers and CTAs.

For a more in-depth look at the best tactics for ABM success, read the full article here.

How to Build a B2B Sales Funnel That Pulls in Customers

Right now, your company’s ideal prospects are researching the products and services that could solve their problems. B2B buyers spend 83% of their time conducting research and discussing decisions internally, and only 17% talking to suppliers.

Hopefully, they’re on your website, viewing your blog posts, videos, and case studies. What’s the key to attracting and qualifying these ideal B2B prospects? It starts with a well-designed sales funnel.

To build an effective sales funnel, you need to understand the stages of your customer’s buying decision. Start selling too early, you risk irritating the customer and losing the sale. Conversely, if you don’t guide the sales process to show prospects how your product solves their problem, they won’t understand its value, and become more likely to bail.

Here are some steps you can take to optimize your B2B sales funnel:?

1. Define your goals: Before making structural changes to your funnel, identify and define why you’re altering your marketing strategy.
2. Map out your Ideal Customer Profiles: These potential customers should be at the core of your optimization efforts.
3. Cleanse your CRM: Your CRM is only as good as its data. A database with too many incomplete and inaccurate records holds your sales representatives back and wastes time.
4. Align Marketing and Sales teams: Sales professionals need to clearly understand who they’re talking to, and marketing campaigns must be structured to collect key information.?
5. Identify your best channels: Focusing on specific channels helps you deliver an excellent customer experience throughout the buyer’s journey.?
6. Create content for each stage of the funnel: Understanding what your prospects want to hear at each stage is mandatory for optimizing your funnel.

For more tips on sales funnel optimization, read the full article.

Have something you’d like us to cover in an upcoming issue? Comment and let us know. (We promise, we read all of them.)

Subscribe to this newsletter here to make sure you always get notified when we post.