Automation in sales: Inbound Disqualification

We all know automation is the future…?

it makes life so much easier…?

In fact it’s simply unavoidable…

That’s all well and good – But are your sales processes fully automated already? Easier said than done.

Sometimes, these very human-centric processes can seem difficult or tricky to automate. But I can assure you there are some really concrete, time- and money-saving ways to get started along this journey of automating in the right places to save your team from frivolous, unnecessary work.

And it’s something I myself have introduced in several different forms within multiple customer-facing teams throughout my years as a manager and director.??

One of the most straightforward parts of the sales process that can be automated is disqualification (as the title of this article hinted;). After all, if we already know a given lead isn’t a good fit, then why waste time filtering them out manually and individually rejecting them.

But where to start? How to know you’re not accidentally rejecting valuable leads??

Well, I’ll let you in on a secret: all the information you need is there in your data. As long as you and your team have been relatively organized, thorough and precise – you already have all the answers to automation solutions hiding there in your data.

Review your current customers…

That treasure-trove of data that’s sitting right in front of you? Your current customers.?

Analyze your existing customers so that you can reveal what you need from incoming leads to eventually make a profitable sale. To get more information from your customers, send out surveys and try to contact them through other means.

You should also try to gather feedback on current clients from any customer-facing teams: support, account managers, and of course, sales. Also, gather as much information as you can from your CRM. This will lend you the insights you need going forward.

Ideal Customer Profile?

First things first: create an ICP. An ideal customer profile.

This refers to the perfect company or individual that your business would like to see as a customer. Your ICP should be a “made up” company that serves as the gold standard for leads. Thereby, as a first-round filter, all incoming leads can be compared to this ICP, see how they measure up and determine along which sales funnel they should proceed.

The following factors are a handful that should be used to define your ICP:

• Company size
• Geography / location
• Industry / niche
• Budget & revenue
• Any legal restrictions to consider

If a given lead doesn’t meet enough of the characteristics you’ve outlined in your ICP, your sales team shouldn’t waste time dealing with them – because you already know it won’t be worth their time nor a profitable match.

Buyer Persona

Next up, but no less important, is the task of designating buyer personas. These will be a bit more detailed and realistic than your ICPs. Buyer Personas illustrate different customer profiles that are ideal for your business.?

You should outline a few of these personas because ideally, your product or service doesn’t only cater to one narrow slice of the audience. Try for around 2 to 5. After all, buyer personas really should be more like in-depth character studies of the people and the companies behind them that you’re trying to sell to – feel free to name them, envision the size and location of their business, and even picture their personal lives and interests.?

Lead Scoring

So, what exactly are the ICPs and Buyer Persona’s used for? I hope you guessed it – lead scoring.

Lead scoring means creating a system where you rank leads according to different characteristics on how valuable that lead is to your company. These characteristics that you’ll score leads according to will be the same ones you outlined in your ICPs and personas: revenue, geo, number of employees, industry, etc.

Purely based on this score, you can decide which leads to prioritize. The most effective way to do this is to rank leads from 0 to 100% on how much value potential they hold for your business.?

What do I mean by prioritize? Well, depending on the quality, they get sent through different funnels. There are two main directions…

Nurturing Leads

Leads with a pretty poor score don’t get sent to a sales rep. Let’s say, anywhere from 0 to 20%.

But they don’t get thrown out either! They get nurtured. You keep them engaged and interested with your product.?

The best way to do that with the least amount of effort? Cooperate with your marketing and BI specialists to set up automated email flows for leads with low scores coming from different sources. You should differentiate the content you send them (on a biweekly, monthly, or quarterly basis) given where they came from: webinar, ebook, public form, or other material.

Try to keep the content of your automated nurturing messages relevant to that lead so they don’t lose interest or feel like they’re interacting with a robot. After all, the reason we’re nurturing these little leads is because we’re hoping these seeds eventually grow into big, strong, beautiful money-making flowers that bring you lots of profits… (that’s how gardening works, right? ;)

Lead Distribution

Now, if a lead scores above 20%, they deserve a little extra TLC – but still not equal treatment across the board!?

The next step to automate is how you distribute leads among your sales team. Designate score brackets that will send leads to varying levels of sales representatives from your team. For example:

1. 20 to 45% will go to BDRs
2. 46 to 70% to a junior/mid level sales rep
3. 70% and above to your senior, executive sales reps

As long as you set up these systems, there should be no possibility of leads slipping through the cracks, time wasted on useless missions, or tension on which lead goes where.

But this is just the start of automation… If you’re looking to truly revolutionize the way your team works, or if you just think there’s some room for improvement, feel free to reach out to me – I’m happy to chat about your business!?