B2B sales and marketing are two very important, business critical disciplines with a reputation for often working in conflict and isolation from one another. It’s madness considering both cannot function in their entirety without each other. For this reason the Sales Pipeline Nurture Programme was born.
My first experience of working within the B2B world as a marketer showcased this fractured relationship when I was introduced to the sales team. For me, I knew that in order to truly deliver growth for the business, marketing was responsible for not only generating leads but also supporting the sales team in converting them into customers.
For this team of highly experienced sales rock stars, my words on this unison couldn’t have sounded more alien. For most of them, their interaction with marketing up until this point was nothing but an ongoing feud of who was responsible for what part of the buying journey.
Safe to say this relationship took time to build and nurture into one of trust, however once it was, the results and performance spoke for themselves. Together we rebuilt the end to end buying journey, establishing clear steps in the process and measures to ensure marketing supported the sales function.
The birth of the Sales Pipeline Nurture Programme
Experience really is priceless. Throughout the years, one element of the buying journey that proved to be a continued stumbling block and weak link was the sales pipeline. It’s important that I make it clear this had nothing to do with the quality of the sales team or their ability to convert, more the sheer volume of leads that ended up falling from the pipeline, never to be seen or heard from again.
There’s only so many hours in the day, and because of that the Sales team often have to prioritise hot, active leads. So what happens to those warm/cold leads that fail to convert for one reason or another? The answer… nothing.
After years of reviewing sales conversion reports across multiple companies, it became evident that historic leads may still have converted if only they’d been nurtured longer into the next consideration window. How does a sales team do this without sacrificing valuable time that could be spent on hot leads?
The answer… they don’t. Marketing does.
As a marketer with a specialist focus on CRM, I know first hand that automation is one of the most powerful tools in the marketing and sales toolkit and could help prevent leads disappearing from the sales pipeline. This is where the Sales Pipeline Nurture Programme (SPNP) was born.
After several years of live trialling, the Sales Pipeline has been refined into an advanced automation programme that sits underneath the sales pipeline, acting as a safety-net for inactive leads. Utilising dynamic content, the automation can continue to sales conversation on behalf of the sales team, drip-feeding Prospects relevant information that keeps the brand and products/services at the forefront until another consideration window opens. Once criteria for reactivation is met, the SPNP and CRM push the deal back into the relevant stage of the sales pipeline. See below for an overview of the process.
Ready to discuss further?
To learn more about how our Sales Pipeline Nurture Programme can help support your sales and marketing function, as well as increase pipeline conversion, get in touch with us.
