5 Tips to Winning Your Sales Cycle

5 Tips to Winning Your Sales Cycle

by | Jun 22, 2021 | Marketing, Uncategorized

Brand strategy is a tool you use to grow your business, increase visibility and build brand equity. One of the ways to build a winning strategy is to align your marketing with how you’re already getting and doing business. To do that it’s best to understand your sales cycle.

Leverage the Power of Your Data
When it comes to reviewing data, time is your friend. It takes time to gather enough data to observe patterns caused by your sales cycle. If you are constantly adjusting your messaging or operating without a strategy, your audience won’t develop with enough consistency to deliver measurable results. They need a clear long-term strategy and consistent messaging to build a relationship with your brand.

Change with the Seasons
Here in Pennsylvania, we have 4 robust seasons. Seasons mean weather, and drastic changes in weather can greatly affect people’s habits which in turn affects your sales cycle. We also see fluctuations around holidays, graduations, weddings, and other life events.

Indentify Irregularities
As you review your marketing each quarter, take note of each of the factors that could be contributing to your data. A dip in engagement and/or sales may not mean that your audience doesn’t like your brand or messaging. It may just mean they were busy planning for a vacation. Likewise, an increase could mean you capitalized on a unique seasonal opportunity or lucked out being able to provide a product or service that met a particular need. You’ll want to consider if these factors are one-offs or if they will persist year over year then make adjustments to your sales and marketing strategy accordingly.

Know Where Your Customers Are in Relationship to Your Process
You’ll also want to understand where your customers are in relationship to your sales process. In any sales process, there are phases your customers go through — beginning with the customer who knows nothing about you, then the customer who kind of knows about you but isn’t really engaged, followed by the customer who knows about you and is interested but isn’t quite ready to make a purchase, and finally the customer who is ready to take action, and the customer you’ve already converted into business. Each of your customers will also navigate through your sales process at different rates. So it’s important to adjust your strategy to offer unique support and messages to individuals throughout each phase of the process.

Create a Branding & Communications Strategy that Aligns with Your Process
The goal of branding and marketing is to leverage your messaging, visual assets, and data to shorten your sales cycle and increase your rate of conversion, thus maximizing your time, and resources. Ideally, you’ll want to begin communicating with your audience at phase 1 and continue the conversation so that you are already top of mind when they are ready to take action. Strategies that see the most effective results target the person who is pre-decision, so you gain their business the second they decide to shift into action.

Do you need help understanding how to align your brand strategy with your sales cycle? At Intelativity, we offer full-service brand strategy. Schedule a complimentary consultation with one of our Strategists to get started.

Is Your Audience Trying to Tell You Something?

Is Your Audience Trying to Tell You Something?

by | May 22, 2021 | Branding, Marketing

There are so many ways to track metrics. But it’s not doing your business any good just to have them. Analytics and data are meant to be used as tools to identify who is engaging with your brand, and how they are engaging. Interpreting the data allows you to strategize and respond to your target audience more effectively. Here are a few tips to create space in your schedule to interpret your information.

There are so many ways to track metrics. But it’s not doing your business any good just to have them. Analytics and data are meant to be used as tools to identify who is engaging with your brand, and how they are engaging. Interpreting the data allows you to strategize and respond to your target audience more effectively. Here are a few tips to create space in your schedule to interpret your information.

Set aside time each quarter to review your data and discuss what’s working or not working. Any campaign needs about 90 days to pull good data, so quarterly meetings are a great time to review your data and look for patterns. Did you have certain social media posts where your audience engagement was up or emails that people opened more often? Maybe there were some that were met with crickets. Also, make sure you’re comparing the analytics with data across your other platforms. Did your sales go up or down, did you generate more or less leads. Maybe you identified more qualified leads that are more likely to generate revenue.

Make sure ALL lines of communication are clear, and open. It’s an understatement to say that there are a myriad of ways to communicate with your customers today. From different social channels and video platforms, multiple online storefronts, private messaging and live chat — not to mention the old school methods of snail mail and telephone. You want to make sure you’re not missing anything. Be clear with your customers about which methods of communication are best to reach you. You can include a statement in your email signature, find a spot on your website or include it in your about section on any of your social media platforms. Also, make sure all your corporate emails are being monitored or forwarding to a monitored email address. If you’re hosting emails on your server that you’re no longer using remove them. Also, if you have a live chat make sure someone qualified is able to respond in a timely manner. Adopting these best practices will help to ensure your customers can get in touch with you when they need to and help to avoid any unforeseen pitfalls in your customer experience.

Having a successful brand is all about building relationships with your customers. Do you need help aligning your messaging? Schedule a complimentary consultation call to speak with one of our strategists.