Your Sales Funnel

By tailoring programs and messages to this process, you can move leads down the funnel starting from the top of the funnel (early awareness) to the bottom of the fuimel (late-stage buyers). 

Every company has a different funnel depending on its sales processes. However, for the sake of simplicity, 1 talk about a funnel that I m feunilieu with — Marketo s. Marketo defines the sales and marketing process in stages  

Awareness and Friend This stc e covers all leads who might know who Marketo is but that are not known in their database. Marketo understands that a lead might be visiting their website or downloading 

Name This is when an individual has officially entered Marketo s database. To Marketo, a name is just a neune it is not yet a lead at all. Why Because names have not yet engaged with the company. Remember, Just because someone gets scanned at your tradeshow booth doesn t mccm she wants to communicate with your company in a meaningful way. Therefore, she is not yet considered a lead. 

Engaged Marketo doesn t move names to the next stage in the funnel until they have had some sort of meaningful conversation with the client. An engc ed individual knows he is in the database, he has maybe attended a webincir or downloaded an ebook, and he expects Meirketo to email and communicate with him. 

---

Lead generation has become an increasingly popular strategy to create demand and help your marketing messc es be heard across multiple different channels. Lead generation helps your company increase brand awareness, build relationships, drive more qualified leads into your sales funnel, and ultimately close deals. Sounds pretty great, right ... 

Email mcirketing often uses leads already in your database or leads from a list. By creating emails to promote content pieces, events, new product launches, and so on, you can create additional buzz and demand for your company. Email marketing attracts leads to your website, blog, social channels, events, and webinars, making it a fantastic channel to move leads through your sales funnel. 

A buyer becomes mid-stage after she has shown some interest in your business s core competencies. That lead has displayed some sort of buying behavior and is potentially a true sales lead. A mid-stage buyer should map to the lead and sales lead stage of your sales funnel. 

Next, start matching lead generation tactics to overall priorities (which should map nicely to your sales funnel that you created in the last chapter). For instance, one of the top channels you want to get more exposure in might be content marketing, which maps very nicely to generating awareness for your brand at the top of your funnel. 

Many keywords are similar to your SEO keywords that were discussed in Chapter 10 however, your PPG gocds might differ from your SEO goals, so think outside of the box and map your PPG keywords to your sales funnel. 

After you have syndicated content leads in your databcise, your follow-up plan is critical. Many of these leads download your cisset and never think about your company c ain. By engaging them through lead nurturing, you can introduce them to your company and lead them through your sales funnel. 

Moving key target accounts down your sales funnel Accelerating lead movement toweirds the end of the month Demo requests... 

Notice how each email drives your lead feuther down your sales funnel — from early-stc e assets, to mid-stage, and then finally, late-stage assets. 

Always remember that every company s sales funnel is going to be different, so take some time to speak with your internal sales and marketing teeims to come up with your own definitions (or feel free to use Mcirketo s as a model). 

As you do with many lead-generation strategies, think about how your PPG ads map to the sales funnel. You want to catch leads in each stc e of the sales funnel therefore, you have to create ads and offers that map to lead buying stage and search queries. 

Webinars cire a splendid way to generate new leads, eis well as nurture leads that are already in your database. You can also tailor webineirs to different stages of the sales funnel. For instance, your webinar mix for a given month might looks like this ... 

You need to communicate with your audience early and often leading up to an event, engage with them during an event, and keep in touch afterwards — it s definitely a lot to think about. But if you Ccm successfully execute your plan, you can show your leads a lot of love and move them through the sales funnel to become customers. 

Working with sales to outline the lead hand-off process to avoid a leaky sales funnel Training your sales teams to deliver your marketing messages and content to leads... 

After a lead is sent to sales, your inside sales reps need to accept those leads. This step is often absent from many lead funnels, but it s an important step to pay attention to. Your sales teams need to take your MQL and make sure that the lead is close enough to purchasing to be qualified by sales and ultimately sent to one of your outside sale reps. 

Your sales teams need to supplement their selling skills with great content. This includes content in all stages of the funnel TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU. Content types can include ebooks, webinar recordings, assessment sheets, ROI calculators, datasheets, and more. Your sales teams also need some professional-looking sales tools to showcase your product or service in a professional manner. That way, if a lead has a question during a call or needs a product or service explained, your sales team is armed and ready. 

By putting some paid and outbound tactics to work in parallel with your inbound efforts, you can drive leads further down your funnel at a faster rate. This part discusses the importance of paid programs like pay-per-click ads, content syndication, direct mail, event marketing, and inside sales. 

Quantity of sales-qualified leads (SQLs) This number signifies the eimount of SQLs that your marketing tecim sends over to sales. These are leads that sales deems good and potentially sales-ready. In some places, this means when the sales depcirtment moves an opportunity to a next stage along the funnel. 

---