Your sales people’s motivation is critical to your company’s success, which is why you must know and avoid several common sales-morale-killers. You can easily fix these problems
IF you know what they are.
So, let’s dive right in. Here are three surefire ways to kill sales morale and ways to address each:
Morale Killer #1: Misaligned Marketing & Sales Efforts.
The goal of your marketing efforts should always be to support and enable your sales team. Without such alignment, you may end up with either a.) very few leads, or b.) unqualified leads (like those NON-decision-makers walking the trade show floor) and a LOT of wasted time.
Did you know that according to The B2B Lead 50% of sales time is wasted on unproductive prospecting?
Example: The Dreaded FishBowl Drawing: Marketing Loves It – Sales Does NOT
If your marketing efforts call for a fishbowl drawing at a trade show, what kind of quality are those leads likely to be? You may end up with loads of contact names, but most are not the actual decision-makers your sales team needs. This example of misalignment between marketing and sales happens all the time and is highly frustrating to the sales force. By forcing your sales reps to call on unqualified trade show leads, huge time and money is wasted pursuing people who will NEVER buy from you. This is just one example of what can happen when marketing and sales efforts are misaligned.
To avoid this issue you must develop a more comprehensive strategy that aligns the goals of both marketing and sales. Management from both groups should work together to clearly identify the attributes of your ideal qualified buyer. Next, develop and execute an effective marketing strategy aimed at those potential buyers with a goal of generating qualified sales leads. What tools do your salespeople need to achieve success? Talk with them directly…they can tell you what they need to succeed.
Creating such alignment between marketing and sales leads can lead to:
- 38% higher sales win rates (source: MarketingProfs)
- 57% increase in close rates (source: Marketo)
- 209% increase in revenue from marketing efforts (source: Marketo)
This brings us to the second critical element that can kill sales morale…
Morale Killer #2: Lack of an Effective Marketing Engine.
By not establishing a marketing engine that regularly generates qualified sales leads, your sales team will suffer. So, how can you create a well-tuned marketing engine that will greatly improve sales lead generation?
- Establish value-added marketing tactics that engage target prospects in an informative, educational way. Act as a trusted consultant, offering free value even before the sale.
- Make use of cost-effective email marketing. Done properly, email marketing builds trust, evokes “hand raisers” (i.e. the “clickers”), and helps initiate meaningful conversations with decision-makers who can actually make a purchase! (For best results, be sure your sales team calls to follow up on every email “clicker” within 48 hours.)
- Use Value-Added Content (NOT sales content) in your emails. Content should be 90% informational, and only 10% promotional.
- Consistency is KEY. Send value-added email content once or twice a month at regular intervals, without fail. Doing intermittent marketing will not yield sufficient results.
- Be Sure to Market to ENOUGH Targeted Leads. A well-tuned marketing engine is worthless if you are not marketing to enough targeted leads. You must cast a WIDE NET! Are you honestly marketing to a large enough pool of targeted decision-maker contacts? Have you given your salespeople the tools they NEED to succeed?
Think of it this way: According to industry average email marketing “open and click rates,” you can expect roughly a 10% open rate and a 5% click-through rate from a well-produced email marketing campaign.
Let’s work some numbers using these industry averages with two very different sized lists…
Example #1: Average Email Results to a List of 1000 Targeted Contacts
= 100 Email Openers
= 5 Email “Clickers” – This means that of the 100 openers, 5 “interested” people will click through to read the article.
Bottom Line: An email list of 1000 contacts will yield an average of only 5 people to follow up on via phone. FIVE leads is clearly not enough.
Example #2: Average Email Results to a List of 10,000 Targeted Contacts
= 1000 Email Openers
= 50 Email “Clickers” – This means that of the 1000 openers, approximately 50 “interested” people will click through to read the article.
Bottom Line: Sending an email campaign to 10,000 people will yield an average of 50 hand-raisers. These are much better results and will provide your sales reps with 50 good quality leads to follow up with via phone.
Morale Killer #3: Turning Professional Sales Reps into Research Analysts.
One of the most demoralizing things for a sales rep is being forced to hunt-and-peck for their own leads. Once you open up the requirement for salespeople to perform research to find leads, you create a monster. Your sales people will spend more and more time as Research Analysts and increasingly less time selling as they are forced to:
- Work through outdated lists of in-house contacts
- Hunt for their own leads online via LinkedIn, “Top 100” lists, or other sources
- Wade through a morass of poor quality trade show leads to find the real buyers…
While reps are busy doing those things, the real selling work is NOT getting done. By forcing your sales reps – your most valuable asset – to constantly dig around for their own leads, you are KILLING their morale and causing serious harm to your business. Reduced selling time, sales morale, and sales earnings will lead to costly employee turnover as well.
To fix this morale-killer, the simple question that needs to be addressed is:
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Do you have enough new targeted prospects added to your marketing and sales process on a regular basis?
It’s the start of a new year – NOW is the time to take action! Do not ignore the morale of your salespeople. The ripple effects can be catastrophic for your business.
Instead, take action:
- Make it a point to align your sales and marketing efforts
- Create a marketing engine that generates enough REAL qualified leads
- Free up your salespeople from Research Analyst drudgery and give them back the time they need to SELL MORE!
- Look into partnering with Mentor Tech Group to secure a database of accurate, high-quality decision-makers in Corporate Training & HR… Corporate Training & HR is our only focus, and that makes all the difference!
- By working with MTG, you will also receive FREE Lead Gen consulting to help you get the best results with your new decision-maker database. Check out all the unique benefits you get by working with MTG.
Mentor Tech Group offers the most accurate, highly targeted lists of decision-maker contacts in corporate training, HR, e-learning, and talent management available in the market today. Our database is hand-built by industry experts – we have done all the hard work for you! MTG has the decision-makers you need for all your marketing and sales efforts!
Be sure to contact us today to learn more: (651) 457-8600, Ext. 3. It could be the best business decision you make this year!
P.S. Happy New Year to all!
