In business it’s easy to find software to spend money on – everything from accounting software to applications that help you create business plans. But for the sales and marketing teams, software costs can run into five or six figures, so what software will help you generate sales leads and still offer good return on investment?
Get better, more qualified leads
When it comes to generating sales leads, there are a few software solutions that can help you out. First, you want a product that’s going to help you find leads you can chase down and turn into prospects. What makes a good lead? They have to meet two simple criteria: 1) they need what you’re selling and 2) they can afford to pay for your product or service.
Software that can help you with this are sales intelligence tools like Winmo, SalesLoft or LinkedIn Sales Navigator. Basically they will help you find people in the industry you’re trying to sell to, and then filter and sort them my budget so you can reduce a big list of names to a manageable shortlist of people to call on.
If you’re in the media and advertising sales space, or if you work in or with sponsorships, Winmo has the added advantage of sending you hand-curated opportunities right to your mail box so you can be first to act on them.
Track your prospects
Staying on top of your sales leads as they progress toward becoming a customer will make your prospecting more effective. Using a CRM like SharpSpring, HubSpot or Salesforce means you can keep track of which prospects you’ve reached out to, and even which pieces of content on your site or inbound campaigns they’ve interacted with.
When you analyze this data it can give you insights into where in the sales funnel they are. Content that addresses more basic questions places the prospect at the top of the funnel, while more in-depth content that includes more technical language lets you know that the prospect is closer to making a purchase decision.
Manage your outreach
Whether you write each email individually or send messages based on behavioral or timing triggers, making sure you’re sending the right message to the right prospect at the right time is vitally important. There are tools that can help you with that, too. SharpSpring and HubSpot have some great built-in functions for email marketing, but there are comeptitors like Constant Contact, Outreach and Campaigner which offer the same or similar outcomes.
The key to effective outreach is to begin by building your email address list with qualifiable prospects and when those prospects become customers, leverage them to create testimonials that will generate new prospects. Creating the content prospects will find interesting throughout the sales cycle, and sending it to their mailboxes builds trust and establish you as an authority, while adding a personal touch to each message will remind your prospects that you care about helping them solve their problems.