If you’re looking to set up better lead sequences and cadences for inbound leads, you’re not alone.
In fact, the MO Pros are already talking about it in our Community and on Slack! So we figured we’d break down what they had to say, fill in the gaps, and slap a pretty little bow on this quick guide (🎀)
Here’s what our Marketing Operations Professionals had to say.
In this edition, Jeff Aldorisio asks…
Great question, Jeff! If you’re running inbound sequences you’ve already got your prospect’s attention. Let’s collaborate with sales to see how we can get them involved in the process, shall we?
As Maxwell suggests, reps are busy and time is money (especially for them, right? 😉). So, why not make their job as easy as possible?
Identify triggers and touchpoints ahead of time to determine the best point to get your reps involved. If a lead fills out a form to subscribe to your newsletter, it’s probably best to wait and warm that lead up before knocking down your reps’ door!
Know when to walk away… (ahem, sorry).
As Chris suggests, make sure the rep has the necessary information to do their job. If it’s a hot lead looking for information on your products or services, sales is going to want to make that call immediately.
Set internal Service-Level Agreements (SLAs) so reps know exactly when they need to make the call and are held accountable to doing so within the specified timeframe.
On the other hand, Stephen suggests that a more personalized experience will lead to better results. Reps may need to do a bit more homework to get the job done, but if it brings in more sales, isn’t the juice is worth the squeeze?
Well Then, Which Should you Choose?
Since Jeff mentioned that his team specifically uses Outreach, we figured they might have a say in the matter. Here’s an excerpt from their article on Building Sequences for Inbound Leads.
Automated emails vs. heavily personalized touch-points
Depending on the level of personalization you want, you may choose to build fully automated email sequences, task-based sequences or both. However you slice and dice your inbound leads, you can always address each customer segment with its own set of customized triggers and sequences. For inbound leads that are considered ‘high value’, we recommend building sequences into a cadence of manual tasks that give the sales person the freedom to personalize each touch point on their own.
So, it kind of depends, doesn’t it?
Let’s try this then. Start by identifying all possible triggers that would initiate a sequence. Chances are you’re going to have quite a few to build out from there. Each will be comprised of automated emails, personalized emails, and phone calls from reps.
The most important questions being, what action did that lead take, and what is their likelihood of making a subsequent purchase?
For hot leads who are filling out ‘contact us’ forms and want to learn more about your products or services, this is where reps are going to want to put their focus. Call fast and follow up with highly personalized touchpoints.
For warm leads who have taken action and continue to indicate purchasing signs, a healthy mix of personalized touches and automated messages is probably okay here. Reps want to be involved to own the relationships but not have it consume all their time.
For cold leads, go fully automated, baby! Reps aren’t going to want to get involved until these leads start to warm up and show some interest.
No matter what, it always comes down to the lead. Let their actions guide you. The closer they are to making a purchase, the more personalized the touches need to be for the rep to truly own the relationship.
But it’s Going to Take a bit of Collaboration
The last thing you want is marketing saying one thing and sales saying something completely different. A little bit of the left hand not knowing what the right one is doing. We’ll let Maxwell take it from here though…
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Sources:
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