You’ve heard it before…. having an all-inclusive sales platform helps sales representatives close deals more quickly upfront rather than waiting weeks, months or even years. 

Well, that’s easy enough to say, but why not hear it right from a daily Salesforce user? HexArmor‘s Director of Sales, Geno Lechuga, recently spoke on the AdVic “Salesforce Simplified” podcast about how his team benefits from being able to see every interaction prospects and customers have with his business—regardless of department—using the CRM platform that connects his whole company. Here’s some highlights from that conversation.

Sales Team Adoption of Salesforce

Change can be difficult for any person, but for HexArmour’s Lechuga, trust and respect make the process much easier. 

“If you come to our company as a new employee in our sales department, it’s likely that you have not used Salesforce the way we do. But the way we use Salesforce is a part of the reason why we’re so successful. If you come to our company, we promote the way we do things through trust and respect, [which] are the pillars of any particular team; [and] they’re earned. They’re not granted to anyone, nor should they be. But once the trust and respect is there, now the sales team can see the company vision, and then they can buy into the way we do things, i.e., Salesforce. And all that comes a little easier with that trust and respect.”

Salesforce Improves Lead Generation

Leads are costly for any company, and that’s no different for HexArmor. 

“We want to see the ROI for our leads,” Lechuga explained. Whether they’re marketing-generated leads, trade show leads, or even leads generated by a rep. With Salesforce, we’re able to track the ROI and determine really if the leads make sense from a company aspect. So in other words, if we track specific leads to a specific trade show and the ROI is favorable in our favor, then looking at our budgets for the following year will be helpful knowing that we need to invest in that trade show again. And again, all of these results are tracked right there in Salesforce. So, with these types of results being tracked, companies can really decide what type of lead generation they want to invest in. So, the overall efficiency and knowing where to put your dollars, it all comes from the data that’s generated through Salesforce.”

Analyze and Share Customer Data 

Commenting on how his team analyzes and shares customer data internally via Salesforce, Lechuga said, “The nice part about Salesforce is it’s all right there on the same platform. If I run a specific report for a specific region, I can easily do that right inside Salesforce and allow that region to see that report as well. So, we utilize this data daily and it helps our teams drive more business. And as a company, we’re big on data and we make big company decisions based on the data.”

Salesforce Helps with Retention, Too

It’s no secret that customer retention is directly proportional to increased revenue and business growth. Customer acquisition becomes futile if you cannot keep the customers coming back. Here’s how Lechuga says Salesforce helps HexArmor with retention:

“Retention really is an area that I can say I am very proud of the job we’ve done here at HexArmor. Now, partly it’s because we offer certain technologies that are proprietary to our company that our customers need and we know what they need, but a lot of it is the type of data that we’ve tracked inside Salesforce that really helps us to stay in front of these customers and communicate what’s important to them and what they need. So all the way from setting future tasks or reach outs, organizing a detailed sit down meeting, all this information is right there in Salesforce.”

There is much more to our conversation with HexArmor’s Geno Lechuga, including discussion of how the Salesforce mobile app helps his team better serve their customers. Listen here, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

With a Salesforce® solution your sales team will drive more revenue because of the power of built-in automation and analytics. Additionally, you’ll maximize the time reps spend selling with productivity and collaboration tools that work anywhere, on any device.  It is flexible, scalable and integrates with all other Salesforce Clouds. Why not let the AdVic team show you how Salesforce automation tools can improve sales by increasing leads, reducing costs, accelerating productivity and closing deals faster? We’re just a click away!

Related Resources: 

The Best Features of Salesforce Sales Cloud

Maximizing Salesforce for Sales Teams (Podcast)

The Seven Stages of a Sales Pipeline

Do You Need Sales Automation or an Upgrade?

Subscribe to the AdVic Salesforce Blog on Feedly:

The post HexArmor’s Sales Director Talks About Sales Cloud appeared first on Ad Victoriam Solutions.

Not to be confused with a sales funnel – which looks at the whole customer journey and the various stages a consumer will go through in their journey towards purchase – a sales pipeline looks at the different steps in the sales process, from gaining the lead to closing the sale. It is brand-focused, in that it looks internally at the stages that your sales and marketing teams need to move a prospect through in order to gain a customer and retain them.

And while you could do an internet search and come up with various numbers of stages – and numerous names for them – that people feel are in a sales pipeline, these seven are generally considered to be the “standard” stages for a business that follows a typical sales process.

1) Lead Generation: Sometimes called prospecting, lead gen is typically done through advertising to let your potential customers know that you exist, community initiatives/volunteering/giving back, or other promotional activities.

2) Lead Qualification: At this step, you are determining if a viable opportunity is worth adding to the pipeline and adding applicable information into your CRM. Also at this point, you have to consider if this marketing qualified lead (MQL) has the potential to become a sales accepted lead (SAL) or sales qualified lead (SQL).

3) Initiate Contact: Here’s where the real work begins in the various pipeline stages, as this is where the sales rep attempts to contact the lead to understand their business and requirements. This stage will help you map your business services against the lead’s needs.

4) Schedule a Meeting and/or Demo: So you have had your initial conversation with the lead. If the lead is convinced that your services could possibly be a solution for them, you may schedule a demo during this pipeline stage. You may also try to set up a meeting with the decision maker with a goal of negotiating the deal.

5) Negotiation: Many salespeople will tell you that the negotiation stage of the pipeline process is the most exciting to them. This is where top sellers separate themselves from others. And in a perfect world, your proposal would check every box, and your prospect would immediately sign on the dotted line. But in the real world, this doesn’t happen often. The goal of your negotiation is to find common ground. Sometimes it’s simple, and other times it seems like a struggle. Be prepared for everything that the prospect could throw at you, and rely on your experience to bring you across the finish line.

6) Closing the Deal: Here’s the coveted finish line! You found and qualified the lead, provided a proposal during a meeting/demo, and successfully negotiated a deal that works for everyone. But before you get too excited, you still need to close the deal, and that only comes when you have a signed contract in your hand – and not a moment before.

7) Post-Purchase: Now that the contract is signed, it’s time to seal a positive future relationship and you do that by providing exceptional service during onboarding and regularly monitoring the account’s progress. At opportune times, you can cross-sell existing customers on new services and upsell them on premium solutions. When the contract is about to expire, you can explore renewal options with them. And among your happiest clients, don’t forget to ask for referrals to other potential customer

“AdVic has become a true business partner for us. We are seeing improved sales rep morale due to system simplicity, speed of execution for quoting, and accuracy of data entered into the system. Every interaction with the team has been positive and their work is top notch.” – Ryan Hesske, Sales Operation Manager, ConnectWise

---

Salesforce, the world’s leading CRM platform, helps you streamline, manage, and track your sales process and pipeline – so your team can close the deal more times than they are today. And as a Salesforce Partner, the AdVic® Consulting Team has the breadth of experience to quickly implement a CRM system that will make your sales team’s pipeline steps a seamless success. Let’s get your business on the road to closing more deals today! Schedule a call with us below.

Related Resources: 

How to Improve Sales Forecasting in Salesforce with AI

Salesforce Tools for Retailers

Inside a Salesforce Implementation from Initiation to Go-Live

Follow in a Reader

The post The Seven Stages of a Sales Pipeline appeared first on Ad Victoriam Solutions.

Andrew Deutsch, CEO of Fangled Tech, was a recent guest on AdVic’s “Salesforce Simplified” podcast and talked about converting sales no’s into yes’ by analyzing important data he says may be “leaking” within your sales funnels. Then we dug into transforming sales teams into selling machines, and more. Here are some highlights from that conversation.

What changes are we witnessing in the sales world today when it comes to generating, nurturing, and converting leads into customers? 

“I don’t know if I would call it a change as much as a maturity. Many people are starting to recognize that they don’t know what a lead is. And if you asked a bunch of different salespeople, even those in the CRM world, there’s a piece of lead that’s missing that really it’s become valuable. The difference between a suspect and a lead. So suspects are people who you don’t know, but very possibly could do business with you. Once they become a lead, there’s at least a clue that says that this is somebody who could do business with you as you start to narrow those things down. I think that the maturity now is that people are recognizing that the sales funnel leaks. And it’s good that it leaks. And it has more stages in it. Although, many times the sales process allows stages to be in microseconds rather than having to actually, physically in your mind, go through each stage. So, those are some of the concepts that I’m seeing that are different as folks are maturing and really understanding that process.”

Bottom Line: 

• Lead vs. Suspect.
• Suspect: unknown, however can possibly become a customer.
• Lead: provides greater detail on who the suspect is.
• Maturity: understanding leaks in the sales funnel.
• Maturity in the sales funnel allows for greater understanding of “leaks” and the expansion of phases throughout the sales journey.

It was interesting that you used the term “leaks” when referring to sales funnels. What would be leaking?

“I’m speaking in generalizations because it’s not everyone, but there’s always been what I’ve called the ‘kiss or kill’ mentality… As you’re going through the leads in your funnel, if you get a ‘no,’ they’re gone. They’re not viable. There’s no future for them. And now with tech that’s out there, those no’s have value. When you rule out a lead, you may discover that if you’re paying attention to those pieces of it, it may lead to the need for a new product development. Maybe the reason that all of those people left your funnel is because there’s a need that you’re not meeting, or they don’t recognize that you do meet the need that they’re looking for. In the old days of the sales funnel, you would see a chart where the first two steps are sales. I mean the first two steps are marketing and then they turn it over to the sales team. And of course, I always call that throwing a turd over the wall. ‘Here it is guys, go sell it.’

“A true sales funnel is an hourglass. You’re collecting customers at the bottom of the hourglass and continuing to nurture them.”

“In the maturity of the sales funnel, now marketing needs to go further down the funnel before sales. Marketing has learned that they need to be involved at every level to check the leaks, the stuff that’s leaking out of the funnel that didn’t make it. And also at that point of sale, because if marketing is not involved at that point, how are you going to convert all those people who just bought your product into voracious advocates for your brand? They’re going to go out and shout from the hilltops, how wonderful it was to do business with you. So, a true sales funnel is an hourglass. And you’re collecting those customers at the bottom of the hourglass and continuing to nurture them. Not just because you expect them to buy again, because you expect them to love your brand so much that they’re going to convince the world that there’s no other business out there you should be doing business with.”

Bottom Line: 

• A “leak” is no longer a lead. 
• Leaks provide valuable insight to a company’s future development, as their needs can become a new product.
• Marketing is more involved in the sales funnel from  checking  ‘leaks’, to point-of-purchase.
• Sales funnels are comparable to hourglasses, as customers are continuously nurtured even after purchase  to become ambassadors for the brand.

How do we turn sales teams into selling machines?

“The mistake that people have made in the past is thinking that salespeople are only motivated by commissions. So, one of the things that we do is we actually look at our salespeople as human beings, not as selling machines, as we convert them into that. Because when you really understand what are the personalities, and motivation structures, and the attributes of the human, and compare those to high-performing salespeople, what you find are the true motivation strategies of your sales folks.

“The way to create monstrous sales teams that go out is to actually understand and know the personas and every detail of your people. And treat them as individuals in ways that get them to work together as a team.”

Bottom Line:

• By understanding that sales people are human and not machines, enables a relationship that influences them to perform at their best.
• Understanding what motivates salespeople.
• Design training and development in a way that people can connect and identify with.

If you think your company’s lead, sales and brand advocates need better tools to navigate your company’s sales funnels and stop the “leaking,” why not have a chat with an Ad Victoriam consultant today about solutions that will plug those leaks? Fill out the brief form below, or reach us here. 

[gravityform id=5]

Resource Articles:

Four Ways Salesforce CRM Improves Lead Conversions

Sales is Not a ‘Churn and Burn,” It’s a Partnership (Blog or Podcast)

Follow in a Reader

The post What’s Leaking from Your Sales Funnel? appeared first on Ad Victoriam Solutions.

So, how can you keep your pipeline running smoothly to maintain a repeatable cycle of success? Here are six tips that will help you accomplish that goal.

1. Score the Right Leads

Want to accelerate your sales pipeline? Then evaluate your leads as soon as they come in. If a lead has a serious interest, an immediate need for your product or service, and that lead has the authorization to make decisions and allocate their company’s budget, that is, without question, a well-qualified, high-scoring lead and should be inputted into your pipeline immediately.

However, spending time on just any leads will not accelerate your sales pipeline. You need to be spending your time flushing out the right leads. When you do, you avoid clogging your pipeline with deals that simply are not ready for primetime. So, if you want to increase your forecasting accuracy, your goal should be to add qualified leads into your pipeline that are actually expected to move through the process.

2. Nurture Those ‘Not Ready’ Leads

Remember that all leads are not ready to buy, so you don’t clog up your pipeline. Make it a priority to create a separate list of casual browsers and those who you know don’t expect to make a purchase in the foreseeable future. Those are the clients that should be classified as leads to be nurtured. In the end, this will speed up your pipeline sales efforts as it allows your team to focus on the well-qualified leads.

3. Execute a Well-Defined Sales Process

Your business should identify potential pain points, obstacles that may prevent sales early in the sales process. Sales Managers need to commit the time and resources to discuss the pipeline with their teams in an effort to define a good sales process and gain incremental commitments.

4. Manage the Pipeline with CRM

Along with having a well-defined sales process, Sales Managers also need to carefully manage the pipeline, an activity which is more than simply looking at daily or weekly reports. The best Sales Managers are always asking themselves – and their teams, “What can I/we do differently today to win more deals?” For starters, they need to understand that sales pipeline management is much more than simply tracking numbers. Yes, sales pipeline tracking produces reports, but good sales pipeline management also allows sales departments to drill down into the numbers to see where their actions can accelerate the sales cycle. Customized CRM software, such as Salesforce’s Sales Cloud, is what is going to give Sales Managers easy access to that data, which in turn will allow them the necessary time to coach their teams and manage their company’s pipeline.

5. Coach Your Sales Team

Speaking of coaching the sales team, the best Sales Managers use CRM reports to understand and analyze data that gives them the information needed to coach. Remember, good sales coaching isn’t just a daily “rah, rah” speech. Good coaching is drilling down into your company’s CRM pipeline reports with your team and planning specific steps for each and every deal in your pipeline.

6. Where Possible, Automate

Once up and running with a CRM, take the time to look at the various stages of your pipeline and decide which tasks can and should be automated. Automating sales activities helps in both lead scoring and in improving the sales process, ensuring that leads are not ignored or forgotten.

Remember, accelerating the sales pipeline process is about knowing which leads to enter in the pipeline and which leads to nurture. Accelerating the sales process also means defining your company’s sales process, coaching your team, and managing your pipeline.

And last, but certainly not least, the other key to achieving the sales cycle speed you’re after is in finding time-saving ways – like implementing a custom CRM – to help your team have more face time with their customers.

At Ad Victoriam, our skilled team of Sales Cloud developers and consultants are experienced in cloud computing, CRM, and Salesforce solutions, delivering proven results to small and large sales teams in any industry. We are fully prepared to help you grow your business starting today. Let’s talk!

Related Article:
4 Ways Salesforce CRM Improves Lead Conversions

Subscribe to the AdVic Salesforce Blog on Feedly:

The post Your Future Revenue: 6 Tips for Sales Pipeline Management appeared first on Ad Victoriam Solutions.