Completing the Sales Process

Completing the Sales Process
by Andrew Grinaker, VP of Strategic Services

Often as the strategy and business development lead at FGI, I hear clients mention that they have budget to spend. However, they preface that statement by saying, "of course, only if it is justified." Meaning, they want to see a return on investment; whether that is more sales, more customers, more responses, etc.

It is understandable and what we try to achieve for our customers. Businesses don't spend money just to spend money. They spend money to make money. The key is educate the client that they must take part and conform their own sales process to help with this desire for a positive ROI.
Here are a few questions to ask yourself if your online model is not helping with Sales and Business Development.

1. Have you talked/coordinated with your Sales team? One key factor is knowing exactly what your sales team is looking for. If they can be included in this process, they will no longer complain about the information (or lack thereof) they are being provided. Sit down with your team and discuss the information they need and build your contact/response forms around this meeting.

2. Double check the source and final destination of all forms (contact, request for more information, etc.). At times, these forms can be lost to a previous email or destination. Review and test the delivery process, making sure that the appropriate form is being provided to the appropriate staff member.

3. Test and Review the User Experience. When viewing your conversion process, put yourself in the shoes of the consumer. Are you asking for too much information? Does it take too long to complete? Is it boring? Is it confusing? Make sure the process for delivering the information is short, concise and easy to use. If not, contact your agency of record and improve the design or development aspects to help the user experience aspect.

4. Create a Reporting Mechanism. After reviewing what information is being asked, checking the source and testing, the final stage is integral to success. Make sure you are receiving monthly reports from your web metrics on the number of successful delivered forms to your sales department. With these reports, follow up with the sales teams on the amount of leads that were converted into customers. This is the toughest part of completing the sales process. Help your sales team create a document for tracking leads from the internet and how successful they are.

Creating and completing an effective sales process through the web is no easy task. It takes time and effort from both your agency of record and your internal staff. However, the hard work and willingness from your staff to create a good system now will help justify costs and marketing projects in the future.