Most Business Owners Are Looking For More Leads…

While The Smart Ones Are Making Twice The Money With The Leads They Already Have.

The Missing Link to making more profitable sales while simplifying your life and working less, is NOT more leads, it’s sales and marketing automation.

Now this might sound strange coming from a marketing company, but the truth is if you do not have an automated lead management and sales system, you are leaving a bucket load of cash on the table and here’s why.

Research over many industries, shows that out of everyone that enquires about your product or service today 50% of those people will buy within 18 months, BUT only 15% of these people will buy now (within 90 days). While the other 85% of these people will buy the thing they enquired about over the next 15 months.

So what does that mean for you in non-geek speak?

It means if you currently don’t have a sales and marketing automation system in place then you are most likely wasting up to 50% of your qualified leads. Good leads that you are paying for in one way or another.

Here are some more interesting stats from research companies that invest heavily in providing accurate information, with our comments below:

By 2020, customers will manage 85% of their relationship without talking to a human. (Source: Gartner Research)

This means – others are adopting Automation already and companies that are not adopting it now, will find themselves either out of business or struggling to keep up in the next 5 years.

The average sales cycle has increased 22% over the past 5 years due to more decision makers being involved in the buying process. (Source: Sirius Decisions)

This means – Customers are becoming smarter and more weary before making a decision to hand over their hard earned money, so as business owners we need to foster the relationship longer to make the sale.

Businesses that use marketing automation to nurture prospects experience a 451% increase in qualified leads. (Source: The Annuitas Group)

This means – Not everyone that lands on your website is ready to call or send you an email today. However a large portion of these people will be happy to give you their email or home address in exchange for something of value.

Once you have gathered their details, if you have an automated educational based lead nurture system in place, you will bring in a significant more qualified leads, maximising the 97% of people that will leave your site and never come back.

Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales ready leads at 33% lower cost. (Source: Forrester Research)

This means – If you are wasting 50% of your qualified leads, then your marketing is costing you twice as much as it should.

Here’s the thing… If your competitors have an automated sales and marketing system in place, then they are paying 33%-50% less than what it costs you to acquire a client.

If they are paying 33%-50% less than what it costs you to acquire a client, then not only are they making a heap more profit, but they can also afford to out advertise you at the drop of the hat. Scary thought.

Nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads. (Source: The Annuitas Group)

This means – People buy from people they trust. People also buy more from people they trust more.

I’m sure you would agree trust is something that cannot happen instantly. It is built up over time and the longer the good relationship the bigger the trust.

If you have automation in place then you can afford to keep in contact with prospects longer, without having to rely on staff.

Companies that automate lead management see a 10% or greater increase in revenue in 6-9 months. (Source: Gartner Research)

This means – Hmmmm, another company saying the same thing, except they put an immediate date on it, where as the one above is lifetime.

25% of marketers who adopt mature lead management processes report that sales teams contact prospects within one day. Only 10% of marketers report the same follow-up time without mature lead management processes. (Source: Forrester Research)

This means – There has always been the battle between the sales team and the marketing team.

The sales team says, “The marketers send us bad leads and that’s why we can’t close sales.

The marketing team says, “We send heaps of leads and they don’t follow up properly”.

Well the truth is always somewhere in between and with a proper sales and marketing automation system in place there is no hiding or finger pointing, because a good system will:

Event-triggered marketing can potentially save 80% of your direct mail budget. (Source: Gartner Research)

This means – A well oiled sales and marketing machine will allow you to segment people based on behaviour and interests, so that you are only sending the right people the right message at the right time, cutting wasted resources in the process.

Isn’t Sales and Marketing Automation Expensive?

After working with automation software and processes for years, we have found there are only 2 reasons that it could be expensive, otherwise it’s free.

First reason it could be expensive: You decide to set it up yourself after never having done it before and make your marketing worse and more complicated than before.

Second reason it could be expensive: You or your staff don’t use it. This is quite common and the reasons why people don’t use it stems from the system being set up in a way that is cumbersome or too technical.

Knowing this we proactively ensure that whichever system we set up for our clients, is set up in a way that makes it so easy to use, you will wonder how you ever managed without it.

There Are So Many Sales And Marketing Automation Systems Out There, How Do I Know Which One To Choose?

We can tell you from experience there is only really 2 ways:

1) Spend hours and hours researching and comparing systems to the point where you are blue in the face and wishing you never heard about Sales and Marketing Automation.

You then decide on the one that looks good and fit within the budget, only to find out it doesn’t integrate with other software you use or causes other problems. Then you have to make the move to something else. JOY!!

2) Find people that have been through it all before and deal with this stuff every day and have them guide you in the right direction while pointing out all the potential potholes.