Marketers are tasked with discovering and establishing the leads that will help get the product in the right hands; sales, puts that product in the hands of the consumer. As such, both jobs directly affect each other. If marketers can’t find where to place the product, sales cannot sell it. Likewise, if sales can’t sell anything, then marketers don’t know which products to pitch where.  

But when times are tough and sales begin to plunge, it’s usually the sales team that is pulled in and read the riot act.

Boss – “Why are we not converting sales”

Sales – “Marketing is giving us sucky leads.”

Marketing – “Sales couldn’t close a door, let alone a new client.”

So herein lies one of the greatest organizational debates of all time: sales continually feeling that marketing provides them with sucky leads while marketing feels sales is just doing a sucky job at converting. Of course, this is nothing new.

While the dynamic between the two has always been complex, it has become even more so with the advent of SaaS. (Software-as-a-Service) SaaS as a business model in conjunction with sales automation has streamlined almost every digital aspect of the business from invoicing to traffic monitoring. Sales automation condenses the menial everyday tasks of a sales rep through artificial intelligence assistance. Now essential business practices like content marketing have never been easier.  With the added simplicity and efficiency of sales automation and the unrestrictive nature of selling digital products and services, anyone can become a Quasi-Marketer Sales God by using these digital tools.

Reporting

One of the greatest features of SaaS marketing tools is its ability to produce vast snapshots of your business’ performances across multiple channels. You can combine all your performance metrics and data into a single, shareable and easy-to-read dashboard. The software can be used to monitor the traffic metrics of your website and determine how many people have viewed the page and how long they’ve stayed on it.  

When it comes to Sales, Revenue and Organizational reporting. Tubular present all this information in the click of a button. Information that previously took hours at the beginning and end of the week can now be seen, visualised and actioned in a matter of minutes.

If this type of reporting resonates with you then book in a call here and I will personally get your sales and revenue reports all set up for you.

Dashboard software allows you to get a seamless overview of different marketing and operational activities of various divisions. Products such as Yurbi are good for companies looking for white-labels dashboards and reports.

Attracting Attention

With the implementation of SaaS services, content marketing has become streamlined and multifaceted. Apps like Buffer allow you to actually schedule your social media content distribution immediately. You no longer have to work on and publish posts one after another. Now marketers and salespeople alike can coordinate all social media outreach at one time with just a click of the mouse. Content creation and dispersion have never been easier.  

Lead Optimization

Leads are the lifeblood of the sales department and should be treated as such. With the rise of email automated marketing leads no longer waste away in digital records. Historical information on leads is also more comprehensive than ever before. A.I and products like Clearbit and FullContact help sales as they scour the internet for all fragments of data concerning users purchasing profiles and history. There are also algorithms for prioritizing leads to determine which still need conversion and which are ready to buy.  

Improved Communication and Collaboration

A lot of SaaS services are geared towards making communication across channels and departments within your business much easier. The digital feature that has benefited the most from this is video conferencing. Software such as GoToMeeting and Zoom allows you to host conference calls with up to 100 people in HD. Some other benefits include:

• Advanced scheduling features
• Screen sharing capability with the added ability to control transference (Another caller can use your keyboard and mouse)  
• One-click recording
• Drawing tools for increased interactivity

SaaS has also done wonders for real-time collaborative work within businesses. Applications such as Canva allow all members to view, edit and comment on pictures, posters, social media posts, infographics, eBook designs, video thumbnails and everything in between. Salespeople can now collaborate on projects instantaneously rather than having to wait until the marketers have completed their research and developed their own leads.  

Note-Taking and Distribution

Sales A.I is perfect for keeping track of all aspects of a business. It can create summary points from a sales rep’s calls with customers, take notes during meetings (in-person or online) and it can instantly distribute call scripts to entire departments.  

Improved User Experience

The key to keeping customers is to keep them happy. Every aspect of their experience with the product should be productive and rewarding in some way. Sales automation A.I allow for efficient flow to the entire customer/user journey with the implementation of chatbots. Chatbots offer intuitive and instantaneous support to customers through their ability to accumulate and analyze customer information in order to offer tailored guidance. Ironically enough, this digital assistance also adds a personal touch to the user’s interaction with the product, which does wonders in retaining them as longtime customers.  

So who benefits the most from implementing sales automation and digital marketing into your business? The marketers or the salespeople?

The answer is everyone. Correctly implementing any type of new software can help you create comprehensive reports on sales and marketing activity. Now both salespeople and marketers can coordinate content creation and distribution and instantly respond to user queries. Anyone, whether they are in marketing or sales, can now access the business’ leads and reports and use that data to schedule email blasts, phone calls, and even their content marketing.  

All in all, sales automation is a double-edged sword for marketers and salespeople. It makes understanding marketing spend and tracking sales performance incredibly easy but can further blur the lines.

But, who’s fault is it for Q2 closing down?

The post The Rise of the Quasi-Marketer/Sales God appeared first on Tubular.

We are asked many times at Tubular, “What made you build a sales funnel CRM software in an industry that seems busy.” The answer is frustration. Frustration that CRM and sales software appears to be a control mechanism inserted into organizations without any particular division seeming to understand, or really care for, the organization objectives from adopting a CRM. From the thousands of conversations we’ve had with our clients since developing Tubular, we have learnt that many people shared our frustration. The most common question being…

Why are the existing CRM softwares so complex and difficult to use, and why does CRM implementation detract from the job many companies have to sell?

Those who follow the latest trends in sales will know that the traits which contribute to a successful sale tend to be resoundingly personal traits that can be attributed to the learned or natural skills of the sales person. Included are these traits:

• Confidence

• Tone

• Trustworthiness

• Authenticity

All of these personal characteristics are not features within a CRM. Yet stumble upon a CRM landing page and you are given the false impression that implementing a CRM will convert sales just by merely opening up an account.

Wrong!

A Sales CRM systems provide a platform to engage, prospect, nurture, and gather intelligence which a salesperson can combine with positive personal traits to build great rapport and convert leads, prospects and clients into sales.

So let’s take five points that sales CRM’s are incredibly useful for:

• Capturing leads
• Engaging
• Prospecting
• Nurturing
• Gathering intelligence

These are all activities which you would prefer to be doing faster. It’s a no brainer, but if you were to ask a company if they would rather spend one minute accurately prospecting leads as opposed to 20 minutes prospecting a lead, you would choose the faster option, as long as accuracy is not lost in speed. Speed and accuracy can be a deadly combination.

With that being said and as a huge inspiration for building Tubular.io, we continually asked ourselves,

Why is the CRM industry a throwback to 90’s-looking database industry, with little navigation providing an enjoyable User Interface (UI) or User Experience (UE)?

We set ourselves the following benchmarks.

1. Can we build a CRM where any analytical statistic relevant to a sales pipeline can be obtained in under 14 seconds, and in no more than six clicks?
2. Can we build a CRM with a minimalist interface that provides enough detail to engage, prospect, nurture and gather intelligence on a lead without looking like a Beethoven manuscript?

The answer is yes – but not overnight, and not without pouring hours and hours into updates and feature releases to ensure we never get away from our ethos. Updating your CRM should never be more than a few clicks away. After creating our benchmarks, we put ourselves to the test.

To test our benchmarks, we set up a list of tasks the people find a nuisance to perform in their CRM, the ones commonly forgone and that form organizational information silos. Can we create and complete these tasks in a matter of seconds? Can we make CRM software relevant and fun?

The following set of tests measured average number of clicks and average time it takes to complete each of the following tasks.

The Results

1. Creating a lead  

There are a number of triggers you can set up through Zapier to automate lead creation.

Adding one manually:

• Average No.of Click : 4
• Average Time (mm:ss) 00:14

2. Add a task

In Tubular, tasks can be added to Leads, contacts or deals.

• Average No.of Click : 3
• Average Time (mm:ss) 00:12

3. Add interaction/note

Within Tubular Deals and Leads portal – you can email, store notes and add tasks.

• Average No.of Click  : 3
• Average Time (mm:ss) 00:07

4. Set reminder to follow up

Reminders can be added to deals, contacts or leads.

• Average No.of Click  : 4
• Average Time (mm:ss) 00:14

5. Change lead status to “qualified”

In Tubular, leads are qualified and in your sales pipeline when they have a deal added to them.

• Average No.of Click  : 6
• Average Time (mm:ss) 00:18

6. Attach a document

In Tubular, PDF’s and or Google Docs can be added in the deal flow.

• Average No.of Click  : 4
• Average Time (mm:ss) 00:14

7. Generate a report

In Tubular, multifunction reports can be drawn up in the click of a button. The options available are endless to assist you in obtaining the financial and performance breakdown of your activity within your sales funnel.

• Average No.of Click : 3
• Average Time (mm:ss) 00:12

A unique interface!

In building Tubular, we realized that we had to keep a minimalist interface that provides enough detail to engage, prospect, nurture and gather intelligence on a lead without looking busy, or becoming too cumbersome for multiple divisions within a company.

How do you structure deal stages, deal tags, deal values, forecasts, forecasted weighted average, payment terms, emails, to-do’s calls and documents associated with a deal in one place – with no information overload?

The answer is yes, with the correct use of modals, drop-downs and infinite scrolling, you are able to remain concise yet provide detailed deal information to stay informed and on top of your sales pipeline.

Tubular is a UK based Sales Pipeline CRM that puts User Interface and User Experience at the heart of every feature. It has numerous awards for its UI/UX design, including being ranked in Capterra’s top 10 most user friendly CRM software.

The post Why UI/UX matters when choosing your CRM appeared first on Tubular.

The new Deal Page, is a powerful interface that has been designed to help you visualise your sales, update deals faster and provide more powerful KPI’s. We know you’re going to love it

Watch the video below to see how it works !

Ginni Rometty CEO of IBM said “When you remove layers, speed and simplicity happen.”

Let’s admit it, if you do something fast its fun. Living life in the fast lane, driving fast, all these actions are synonymous with fun.

Tubular has now introduced our quick actions button which decreases the time it takes to review and update your sales pipeline, all from the same window. From a single click you can now add notes, upload files, log calls and make updates with each deal. Look for the lightning bolt and speed up your sales today!

The post Introducing – Quick Actions appeared first on Tubular.

Listen to the podcast here :

We covered a number of topics and I truly enjoyed talking to the guys. The ProSales System  is a growth driven Team selling framework. Find out more here.

Keep selling!

Sean

The post Podcast with ProSales Systems appeared first on Tubular.

Also, surveys have found that more than half of businesses don’t have a specific program to align sales and marketing teams. This oversight can result in 45% of qualified leads buying from a competitor within a year. The same survey found that only 16% of business thought their marketing and sales teams were collaborating.

Three Sets Of Tasks

Leaders need to split tasks into three groups: marketing, sales or a combination of both. Certain marketing only tasks include market research, competitive analysis, segmentation, brand position and other non-direct promotional activities. Sales tasks include personal selling, distribution management, merchandising and account management.

The tasks which both teams could be jointly responsible for include strategy formation, lead generation, pricing and forecasting.

So why can’t sales and marketing work together on these activities? Well, there are five principle reasons why they don’t.

1. They compete for funding.
2. Marketing think selling is easy.
3. There is no corporate culture to support cooperation.
4. Traditional divides between departments are still present.
5. Their mindsets. Marketers tend to be proactive while salespeople tend to be reactive.

Aligning The Two Teams

The answer to solving this issue is simple. Both teams need to understand their vital position for business growth. They also need to be trained to cooperate and use their strengths to better the organisation.

This can be done through initiatives such as holding inter-team meetings, coordinating promotional offers (including emailing promotional offers to the sales team) and allow teams to sit in on each other’s work. These activities could help both teams to have a renewed appreciation for each other.

How Marketing Can Help Sales

Of course, the real challenge is for marketing to prove its worth. They can only do this by ensuring their activities are supporting the goals of the sales teams and not counterproductive. Here are five ways that marketing can achieve this:

1. Create Content Based On Sales Team Goals

Each month or week, the sales team will have a set goal, for example, “sell X units this month/week.” The marketing team can create content, like blog posts, promotional emails and other materials to generate and qualify leads to pass on to the sales team.

2. Share Information

A survey in 2015, found that 63% of all businesses don’t have marketing and sales teams sharing information. However, marketing teams can help sales by passing on information such as consumer behaviour. This information can be used by the sales team to make better decisions on who are good leads to prospect and sell to.

3. Create Sticky Information

Case studies and testimonials are very influential to customers as they help to build trust. If a marketing team can produce these for the sales teams to use in their prospecting, then the time taken for initial contact to a sale could be reduced.

4. Nurture Leads Better

It can take between 5 and 12 interactions for 80% of customers to buy. That is a long time and a lot of money to spend on customer acquisition. This can be reduced if leads are better nurtured. Marketing can drip-feed information to customers and build trust before any salesperson calls the prospect.

5. Join The Conversation

Marketing people often know their products inside out. Therefore, they are the perfect people to jump on the phone and help convert tricky prospects. Marketing teams shouldn’t be afraid of making a sales call. Nor should they be ignored if they help. Instead, they should be rewarded when they help to bring a successful conclusion to a sale.

Are Your Sales And Marketing Teams Working Together?

Sales and marketing teams are often in conflict, fighting over resources and recognition. Instead, the departments need to combine their efforts to make their jobs easier. There are many ways that marketing can support the efforts of the sales team, and once they start providing assistance, the sales team will reciprocate.

Are your sales and marketing teams in conflict? How can your marketing team support your sales team?

Let us know in the comments below.

The post 5 Ways Your Marketing Team Can Help You Close More Deals appeared first on Tubular.

People will only purchase your product when they know more about your business, and there is no way you’ll  be able to make a sale when you can’t be found.  Many businesses spend a great deal of  money just to create awareness of their products. That tells you how important it is to expose your business to potential customers.
Sometimes lack of ideas can limit your ability to expose your B2B brand to the right customers, but here you will find the ideas that will increase your sales. Check out the  B2B marketing ideas below that will help every entrepreneur  succeed in their marketing campaign:

1. Go Local

It’s best to take your business to a global level, but it won’t hurt you to first start earning locally.  It doesn’t matter if your business is large or small; local business listings can benefit you in a  way you might never have expected.  The good part about this  is that it favors Business-To-Business as well as Business-To-Consumer. You can try local business listings, such as Yelp, Google, Bing, Yahoo business pages and some other local business listings.

The local marketing idea is very important to any business that wants to earn revenue from a local market. Google search results show relevant local business listings on the right side, and the local listings are part of the organic search results. It’s unfortunate that most businesses do not utilize this local marketing tool.

You too can attract customers through local business listings.  For example, if you are an accountant and you have established your presence  on local business listings but your competitors have not  done that yet, it stands to reason you will get more service requests than your competitors.

2. Start a Blog

The world has gone digital, and if you want to expose your business to a large number of online users, then you have to go digital too. Establish a blog that focuses  on your products and services. These days, if people need to solve a problem or buy something, they thoroughly search online for information, and you need to have a strong online presence  in order to have a chance to convince prospects.

Even though competition is high online, try to optimize your blog  to get qualified customers to click on your links. It has been reported that 57% of companies who developed a blog for their businesses were able to significantly increase their customer base from their blogs.

No matter how small your business is, with a blog you can establish your business as an industry leader. A blog makes it easy for you to connect and develop strong relationships with  existing and potential customers. You will be able to get comments and feedback that will enable you to improve your services.

3. Content

Publishing quality content helps your readers gain perspective and insight on your business.  If there is any corporate standard you want your customers to know concerning your business, then do it via content. Establishing a publishing standard content is a free marketing opportunity that attracts more targeted customers to your business.

Content helps you  build credibility, promotes strong relationships with your customers, and increases your presence in search engines results. These results are what every small business wants to achieve in a marketing campaign.

If you  slow down with content, your business will lag in search engine results.  But if you want to establish your brand with content, then make sure you perform deep keyword research to confirm the terms customers are using to search for products and services in your industry.

You can spy on your competitors to find out the keywords they are using to out-rank you. Use the results of your findings to supercharge your content.

4. Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the best tools you can use to attract, convert and increase leads. Once a particular site visitor opts in as a subscriber to your site, it demonstrates that  that visitor wants to know more about your services. It’s advisable you learn more about your subscribers first before presenting them with an offer.

Knowing them first will give you  insight on the best message that will push them to action since each person is motivated by different marketing messages. Start with personalized messages that are likely to increase your click-through rate. If the person is a new customer, then begin with a welcome message.

Make sure your message is what your subscribers will understand and try to use an engaging  title that will make them want to open it. You will get a response if you communicate the right message to the right customer.

5. Mobile App

The use of the mobile app is a new trend you can use to increase sales in today’s market. As the use of mobile phones to make purchases online has increased significantly, you can offer your customers a way to browse your products and submit orders directly via an app.

You can use a promotional channel on your app to increase sales. With a push notification, you can talk about a special offer, deal, discount, or promo. If you have new products,  you can send messages to users and enjoy the results.

You can also  offer a mobile loyalty program to reward your frequent customers.This idea is known to promote more sales.

6. Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is a popular free method  you can use to create sound awareness for your business. Well-tailored social media efforts can increase your online presence greatly.. Social media will give you a clear and current overview of what people are talking about, what they value, and what affects them every day.  With this information, you can strategize the best way to connect with them and provide solutions to  their problems.

The thing about social media networks is that one customer you get there can recommend your brand to other people in his or her channel. With the click of a button, your brand can go viral, and that means more sales.

7. Video marketing

Video marketing can be a key component of a successful marketing campaign.  It must not be a viral video before it can make an impact on  your business. With video, you can tell your customers more about products and services and convey your personality.People prefer to watch video more than reading text, so you should   tap into this medium.. You can make a very good video of your products, or you can hire a production company to do it for you. Use a video to explain how your product or service can solve that particular problem.

You can post your video on  sites like YouTube, Vimeo, DailyMotion, LiveLeak and many more. In order to get the best results from your video, make sure that it  is short, showcases your products, add a little humor to it, and include a call to action. Include your contact info, such as your website link, address, phone number and email. You can also promote your video on  major social media networks.

8. Use Webinar

The webinar is a useful B2B marketing tool you must not ignore. It encourages existing customers and motivates new customers to stick to your brand. If you have a new product or there is a new service you introduced to your business, you can host a webinar to generate awareness of it.

Just make sure your webinar conveys the correct message and is straightforward  so  people will respond to the promotion of your new products. You will definitely make sales if your information is what your audience wants.   

There are so many complex B2B marketing ideas out there, but if you use the ones listed above, you are sure to start seeing results quickly. 

Create your FREE Tubular account here.

The post Top 8 B2B Marketing Ideas Every Entrepreneur Must Try appeared first on Tubular.