Relead.com Blog

Hello there, This blog is written collectively by people behind Relead, the real-time sales lead generator tool. We write about Leadgen and growing sales, product updates and ways you can get more Sales Leads with Relead. We'd also like to answer any Leadgen or sales related questions on this blog. If you have one (or many), just drop us a line.

[releadme]

Seven Steps to Finding Sales Reps

The answer for many firms is to use independent sales reps. These outside salespeople work as independent contractors, generally handling about five to seven similar products for different companies.

Because these sales reps aren’t on your staff, you pay them only a commission, and payroll expenses drop. And there are other advantages. Many reps are highly experienced, already have long-standing relationships with potential buyers, and can even give you feedback on everything from packaging to in-store displays. What’s more, they’re especially useful if you’re branching out into a distant territory.

Still, finding and hiring independent sales reps is no slam dunk. Here are seven tips to finding and hiring the right sales reps for your startup business.

1. Know where to look

Sales reps sometimes work on their own, other times as part of an agency. In either case, they tend to specialize. So your first step is to pinpoint where you need them to focus. It can involve anything from product category and geographic region, to specific distribution channels (discount chains vs. high-end retailers, for instance). Once you’ve defined that issue, you can start your search in earnest.

2. Do some research

Begin by doing research online, looking for sales reps with the right expertise. Also, attend trade shows where you’re likely to meet prospective sales reps or other companies able to provide leads – or both. When you have your list together, be prepared to contact many more prospects than you need. For example, got in touch with 50 reps, talk to five and ended up with two.

3. Now do more digging

Knowing a sales rep’s specialty is merely the starting point. Once you have your list of candidates, you also need to investigate a few other key things, starting with their success record. Then, be sure the reps aren’t overloaded, so they won’t be stretched too thin to do their best for you. Repping more than 10 products is probably too many. Also, your prospective sales rep probably spends a lot of time on the road. Investigate whether he or she has adequate staff at their own home office to fall back on if problems arise. That’s especially important if the rep isn’t part of a larger firm.

4. Take a close look at commissions

Reps get paid anywhere from 2-25 percent of the wholesale price. The number generally varies not only from industry to industry, but also according to product cost, length of time to make the sale and volume level. If you’re selling an inexpensive component to a company buying huge quantities, the commission will be lower than if you have a high-cost piece of capital equipment. The end result: you can try to negotiate the commission, but you probably won’t do much better than the norm for your category.

5. Train them

That may mean inviting the sales reps to your office for a day or three, especially if you’re selling a complicated product. For best results, pay their travel costs. If you can’t, then supply them with plenty of marketing materials and demos.

6. Be impossible to forget

Simply signing some sales reps to sell your product doesn’t mean they’re going to devote full attention to it. “Your job is to make sure you stay top-of-mind,” says Jayne Smith, a sales consultant and author of Creating Competitive Advantage: Think You Know Your Company’s Competitive Advantage? Think Again. That means staying in touch with your reps monthly, even weekly, and doing such things as assigning in-house staff to provide support. And you might think about tying compensation to volume as an incentive.

7. Monitor results

The biggest downside to hiring sales reps is that, because they aren’t on staff, they’re probably harder to supervise than regular employees. For that reason, you must stay on top of their performance. That means setting expectations ahead of time, and regularly checking with customers for their reactions.

Follow these guidelines and you’re going to do much better than just hiring sales reps and putting them on the beat. But just in case, put an exit clause in their contract, allowing you to say goodbye with 30 days notice. For them, like you, there’s also always a catch.

[releadme]

How to hire, train, coach and lead salespeople to greater success.

[releadme]

Infographic: Are You Ready to Launch Your Lead Gen Team?

[releadme]

B2B Benchmarks: Top Tactics for Driving Traffic and Leads

Social media still accounts for less than 5% of total leads to B2B websites, according to Optify's 2012 B2B Marketing Benchmark Report. Among social media, Twitter is the primary driver of leads, outperforming both LinkedIn and Facebook.

Google was the most important referring source of traffic to B2B websites in 2012, accounting for 88.21% of all organic searches (vs. 5.84% from Bing) and 36.07% of total traffic (vs. 2.34% for Bing).

Below, additional findings from Optify's 2012 B2B Marketing Benchmark Report.

B2B Leads by Source

Similar to the website traffic breakdown, the top three sources of leads in 2012 were direct traffic (34.00%), organic search (26.50%), and referrals (12.50%). However, the relative lead-conversion rate between sources was different, with paid search (10.50%) and email (9.00%) contributing proportionally more leads than their traffic shares (4.70% and 0.80%, respectively).

Social media accounted for 4.75% of total leads to B2B websites.

Conversion Rates by Source

Among key sources of leads, email recorded the highest conversion rates—defined as the proportion of visitors who submit a lead form during a single visit—with an average of 2.89%. Referrals ranked second with 2.04%, followed by paid search (1.96%) and direct traffic (1.65%). Organic search and social media generated the lowest conversion rates, 1.45% and 1.22%, respectively.

  Twitter Strongest for Leads, LinkedIn for Engagement

Among the top 3 social networks, Twitter was the strongest channel for generating leads, accounting for 82% of all leads from social-networking sources and outperforming Facebook and LinkedIn 9 to 1:

Even so, LinkedIn had the highest engagement rates (2.48 pageviews per visit), followed by Facebook with 1.94. Twitter, not surprisingly, averaged only 1.51 pageviews per visit, even though it had the highest average conversion rates.

Other key findings:

- Branded searches (those that include the name of the company) recorded the highest engagement of any other source (3.71 pageviews per visit) accounting for 31% of all visits from organic search.

- Paid search recorded a decline among B2B marketers: Over 10% of companies in the report discontinued their paid-search campaigns during 2012.

About the report: Findings are based on data collected from over 62 million visits, 215 million pageviews and 350,000 leads from more than 600 small and midsize B2B websites that used Optify's marketing platform. Data was collected using Optify's visitor and lead tracking technology and include only US-based .com sites with 100 to 100,000 monthly visits. The digital channel analysis included websites with a minimum of 10 visits per traffic source each month.

[releadme]

Introducing the new Relead WordPress Plugin

Relead plugin allows site owners to easily integrate their Relead Tracking Code into their WordPress site without having to change any source code or theme files.

Simply install the Relead WordPress plugin as usual entering your Relead Site ID. This will place the tracking code in the source of your WordPress site.

Get the Relead for WordPress plugin now →

[releadme]

Get your Free Trial - Relead.com 5 sales leads included

For each purchased Relead Sales Lead you will get: • Complete company profile:   - Company Name,    - Industry,   - Company Size,   - Quality Score. • Visitor GEO Location • Decision-maker list:   - Full names,   - Positions,    - Cellphone numbers,   - Email addresses. • Visitor history

[releadme]

Happy Valentine's Day from Relead

[releadme]

10 Email Tips For Better Customer Relations

1. Add a signature to each email.

Put links inside your email signature. Link to your social media profiles, press releases, newsletters, your business’ blog, and so on. This is an unobtrusive way to share marketing information with people.

2. Integrate email signatures with RSS feeds.

You can create a signature feed that links to your latest Twitter post or your blog update, etc. This can get email readers to your website. (Tip: WiseStamp offers a free version of a signature that does this.)

3. Integrate email with your CRM software.

If you choose CRM software that is integrated with email, all discussions will be saved in your customer relationship management tool. This will help you track deals and discussions better, enabling you to deliver on promises. You can do this using software like @Streak (CRM for Gmail) or @37signals (Highrise)

4. Create an email autoresponder series and ask people to opt in.

You don’t want to send emails out regularly without the opt-in otherwise you could be reported for spam. The opt in could mean that people receive a daily or weekly email that follows a sales funnel methodology. Software can help you track open rate and conversion rates so that you can measure the efficency of this method.

5. Create an email newsletter.

Follow the same rules and guidelines as the email autoresponder series.

6. Use email to check in.

Periodically email clients and prospects to say hello, thank someone for their order, or ask if they need help with anything. If you have some news about your product or you have been in the press, share it.

7. Don’t use email solely to sell.

If your clients and prospects aren’t as responsive as you’d hoped, watch their response rate to determine whether or not they respond better to other sales methods.

8. Analyze your open rates via email marketing software.

Email marketing software typically provides this info to you as well as opt-in and opt-out features that make it much easier to manage email. You may still want to send emails outside the system but if you analyze the results from email marketing software you can determine best time of the day to send email, best types of subject lines, and so on. You can track this using software like @campaignmonitor (Campaignmonitor.com) or @MailChimp (Mailchimp.com)

9. Don’t send spammy emails.

Deliver what you state in a subject line and don’t push sales pitches in every email you send. Spamming people is not the way to go about creating lasting relationships.

10. Remember to check your emails before sending them out.

Don’t haphazardly send out round robin emails to customers or you could find yourself upsetting someone or having to honor a deal you offered in error.

Good luck for your sales.

Do you have any doubt about this article, feel free to ask me. Don’t forget to use the comment box for your Thoughts. At last have a nice day…..

[releadme]

Cold Call vs. Cold Email, Which is Better?

COLD CALL

+ Pros 1) Quick Response

It takes far less time to get a response from someone on the phone. It only takes a few minutes to research a contact and make a call, and only a few seconds more to get a response.

2) Stand Out

A well-conducted conversation with a potential customer may help set you apart from the hundreds of other potential competitors who have sent emails to a prospect.

Some customers don’t like receiving cold calls from unknown people interested looking to sell something. Make sure that you know beforehand that it’s okay to cold-call a company before you pick up the phone.

Must Be Knowledgeable

You may get caught up with a question you’re not sure how to answer, so make sure you’ve done your research on the customer and their likely objections to your product (e.g it requires too much effort to integrate your technology) or your pricing. You don’t want to end up looking like you're uninformed and pre-assuming objections will allow you to close quicker.

COLD EMAIL

+ Pros 1) Control

With an email, you have the ability to plan exactly what you want to say before you actually send it. You lose tone of voice and body language, so make sure it doesn’t offend, seem aggressive or do anything you wouldn’t intend to do with the opening of a face-to-face pitch.

2) Well thought-out response

An email gives prospective clients the chance to organize a well thought out response, instead of an on-the-spot answer that comes during a cold call. Their initial response via a call might be to reject your pitch, but an email might generate a passive response requesting more information.

- Cons 1) Email purgatory

When you send an email, you run the risk of it being left in the inbox with all the hundreds of other emails a company receives each day. There is a chance that no attention will be paid to your email at all. You should pay attention to your subject line first of all to ensure you get a good open rate. You can track this using software like @campaignmonitor.

2) Harder to stand out

Tons of companies send cold emails everyday to customers trying to sell something. Make sure that you make your message stand out.

[releadme]

How do I generate awesome B2B traffic?

Who knows you?

The difference is crucial. You see it’s all very well having a ton of great connections, but if those connections have no real idea who you are, and don’t regularly interact with you, then they are essentially just a worthless distraction.

This particularly holds true for social media.

So how do you go about getting all those online socialites to stand up and take notice? It all comes down to your image.

In today’s crazy online world, pretty much everyone has some sort of profile and they’re all competing for, fans, followers, likes, tweets and so on – so YOU need to build YOUR profile in order to get people’s attention and get an edge over the competition. The Internet is probably the biggest advertising platform there is, and word-of-mouth is a powerful marketing tool. In order to raise your game – and your reputation – you’re going to have to think very carefully how you represent yourself online.

True, online networks are a major player when it comes to reaching a wider audience and growing a global reputation, but you’ve got to be aware that whilst it gives you massive scope and huge reach, it can also mean you’ve got nowhere to hide when things get rough. This makes raising your profile critical – it gives you much more control over how you want to be perceived, what your message is and what people say about you. If you don’t give people something to go on, they’ll simply fill in the gaps themselves, and that can be bad for business.

So what if you’ve already got a big following on Facebook and co – think this doesn’t apply to you?

Well it does. You see after a while, people forget why they started following you in the first place – unless you know how to build your presence the right way…

Image is key.

You need to create your own unique identity.

Here’s how in 9 steps:

1. Be Bold.

Use what makes you unique. Have strong principles and stick to them. Choose and grow the key attributes you want to represent your business. These will form a big part of your identity and they are what you will be famous for. For example?

2. Make your website a pleasant place to be.

One of the aims of your social presence has got to be to get people to your website – so when they arrive make sure it’s somewhere they’re going to be glad they stopped by. Slick, simple design with quality images and video (but not so big or so many as it will slow you page load time right down), ease of navigation and correct spelling and grammar will all build the impression that you are a professional with an eye for detail and emphasis on user experience.

3. Get personal.

Proving you’re human and taking the time to interact with your audience will pay dividends. Always answer comments and respond to posts, no matter how negative they are. Be charming and provide excellent customer service. This kind of direct contact with your target audience is key to boosting your profile. Use narrative and keep them informed – tell them your story to engage them on a personal level. Champion a relevant cause and show them that you care – get them involved.

4. Make quality connections.

Collaborate. Make friends with your peers – especially those with influence. Building and maintaining relationships with relevant contacts will lead to information-sharing, reaching a wider audience, an increase in traffic and lead generation through cross-referencing and joining forces with other professionals in the same field. This isn’t hard to do either. Simply by interacting on their social networks – like posting comments or joining groups and making regular contributions – you will quickly develop a relationship, and become associated with them in the minds of potential customers.

5. Inspire trust

References from respected third parties, positive reviews and glowing testimonials will all encourage your audience to trust you. Be open with them. Freely give them information about you and what you do. Tell them about awards you’ve received or professional organisations you belong to.

Validate everything by publishing positive feedback from existing customers. If they don’t give you something worth publishing, then ask them if they’d mind if you wrote something similar and sent it to them to have them sign off on it. If they’re happy, the majority of them will say yes, although they may need chasing as this is a low priority task for them. Building an online reputation takes time, and once you have it in place, managing it is equally as important. Whatever identity you create for your business, make sure you have it in place right from the start ready to build on – and guard it fiercely. Stay true to your message and core values and watch your profile blossom. Your public will thank you for it.

6. Make use of as many Social Networks as you can

There are many social sharing networks to increase your blog traffic. The list expands every year (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Stumble upon, Digg, Pinterest…..etc) and there’s a real danger that you will lose focus and your head will be put into a spin.

Don’t mix up everything - try at first to become well-versed in two that are relevant for B2B. The main ones here in terms of volume potential are of course Twitter, Linked-In and to a certain extent FaceBook

On Twitter, follow top bloggers and influencers in your niche. Also, follow their followers because this is the most simple and effective way to increase your targeted followers. After that, you can tweet new articles and ask your followers to retweet it.

Try to connect with groups in Facebook. You should also try to promote yourself there so you won’t miss bringing Facebook traffic to your blog. You may find it hard in the beginning but once you get Facebook followers, it becomes much easier.

7. Comment on other blogs

This is the simplest way to get traffic to your blog. Go to some great blogs and read their article then give a comment. Your comments must be relevant to that article and be well structured, though-out and likely to be of interest to both the blog owner and the other people reading it and commenting on it. If possible, leave your company name in the title field when you comment (for instance ‘John Doe, Head of Sales, abc Inc.)

8. Create some Videos, if possible

Create at least 2 videos that include your blog link at the beginning, then submit them to YouTube, Metacafe, and other video networking communities. This helps you expand your network not just to readers, but also to video viewers. If any of your videos get good exposure, then your blog will receive some nice traffic of people interested in your industry. Try to create quality videos or motion graphics, if you have budget available, as poor quality videos send a nagative message about your brand..

9. Write At least 400 to 500 words

Do not assume that you can get quality traffic without a lot of effort. You need to present your blog as a unique site to others to make it successful. It takes time to create content, and while you don’t have to focus solely on writing 400-500 word posts, you need to make sure everything you write is of the highest calibre possible.

Try to Create Quality Content

If you can’t spend your entire time on blogging, at least try to create detailed posts once or twice a week. This way, you can grab others’ attention and show your blogging expertise to your readers.

It’s really essential for you to make detailed articles regularly to survive in blogosphere, with no shortcuts. This can bring your quality traffic from other sites or search engines.

Website content doesn’t have a shelf-life, as with other traditional marketing collateral like a brochure that you mail out and has a limited lifespan. Online content can be seen on a regular basis by an infinite number of people. Not only can it be infinitely seen but it can be shared and measured, too. You can gauge reactions to specific types of content through website analytics tools like Google Analytics to help you determine what type of messaging works best to help you reach customers.

Don’t forget SEO

Many people say just forget about the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) when you’re just starting out. But that’s a dumb suggestion! You have to focus on and be careful with what keywords to use. You should also know how much keyword density you have to maintain in your content to bring search engine traffic to your blog.

If you’re just starting out, the least you can do is to make a proper keyword analysis before you write your articles then add them into your posts. There are many free keyword tools like Google AdWords, and SEO-friendly blogging platforms like WordPress or Joomla. Just don’t go overboard with the keywords so search engines won’t tag you as a spammer.

That’s all….There are many other ways to make traffic to your blog. My suggestion is follow these tips, if you are a new blogger you will never get disappointed. Concentrate to create a good social network.... Good luck for your future blogging.

Do you have any doubt about this article, feel free to ask me. Don’t forget to use the comment box for your Thoughts.

At last have a nice day…..

[releadme]

If you don’t identify your missing customers, someone else will.

Our research tells us that a mere 1% of companies in the US take advantage of B2B lead-based analytics.

We checked out the top 1 million B2B websites in the USA and were amazed!!!  As it turns out, 47% of websites are have Google Analytics, yet only 1% are hooked up to any sort of analytics program that can give them sales leads.

Most companies' conversion rates (from website visitor to actionable sales lead) are at a dismal 3%, which means that the majority of sales teams aren’t even able to get to know the other 97%. What a waste, no?

Imagine for a second the hypothetical problem faced by the owner of a luxury real estate business in Beverly Hills. Their advertising expenses in the local press and other marketing channels are sky high. As a result, they’re naturally eager for their sales team to focus on selling to every person that walks through their front door. At the very least, their sales guys will want to get each prospect’s contact information, so they can introduce new condos as they hit the market, while also reminding them that they’re just a call away.

Now imagine how it would feel, if their customers were invisible, every time their business doors opened. This is not the latest Steven Spielberg movie, this is the very real problem faced by B2B sales managers whose websites serve as a shop window for their products & services.

Infographic below.

Are you from the sales department? Take a look at our site and give Relead a try.

[releadme]

How To Make A Perfect Cold Call

1. Acknowledge Your Fears

If you weren’t afraid of the cold call, you wouldn’t be reading this. So embrace it. Identify what exactly you fear will happen. Is it that you might irritate or enrage the person on the other end? That they might reject you? Determining the worst possible scenario can help you embrace your fears and move on.

2. Build Your Philosophy

Set your goal for the call. It most likely won’t be getting the person you’re calling to hand over their credit card details, so maybe it’s setting up an appointment, or getting them to register on your website. Make it a simple and easy goal. The big sell can come later.

You also have to have the attitude that the worst thing that can happen is the person tells you no. That’s not the end of the world, is it? Prepare what you’ll say to exit the call gracefully in that case.

3. Practice What You’ll Say

It may seem stilted to practice your dialogue over and over, but it can actually help you feel more confident after you’ve gone through different scenarios. Avoid sounding like you’re reading from a script. Keep it natural.

We’ve all gotten this call:

“Hello, Amanda. My name is Robert and I’m calling from Relead. How are you doing today?”

(Immediately I’m suspicious and my guard goes up.)

Try something more disarming, like this.

“Hi Amanda, my name is Robert. Do you have a moment?”

I didn’t necessarily identify the company I'm with (which usually does me no good, as she have to ask again where I am calling from once she forget), and she's more likely to be honest and say yes, I have just a moment.

I will add a good cold calling script template and some tips later.

4. Do Your Research

You should ALWAYS, ALWAYS know who you’re calling, and what the company does. If possible, look deep to figure out any obvious pain points that your product or service might be able to help with. For example, if you find out a company on your list just bought another company, they might be in the mode to buy some new office equipment. The more you know, the more impressed your contact will be that you did your homework. (With Relead you can sort your sales leads by industry!!)

5. ONLY Call Relevant Leads!

There is nothing worse than getting a call from someone trying to sell me a corporate copier. If I work out of my home. I am a staff of 1.75. I certainly am not in the market for a $5,000 copier. When I get calls like that, I feel they are a waste of my time, and I am irritated. Don’t waste people’s time pitching them the wrong products.

It’s better to spend 10 minutes online researching your prospect to see if they even are a good prospect, than to waste two minutes of that person’s time only to find out they aren’t your target.

6. Don’t Forget About Email!

One thing I as the recipient of a cold call melt to is a followup email. It’s much easier for me to say no via email, but I find that sometimes I don’t want to. So if you’re getting a no or your contact is trying to get you off of the phone, ask if you can send more information for him to review via email. That way, you now have another way to contact him.

Send a customized email with links to what you want to show him. Thank him for his time on the phone. Then follow up via email a week later to see if he’s interested. You might turn what would have been a dead end on the phone into a sale after all.

As they say, practice makes perfect. Once you get a few successful cold calls under your belt, you’ll find it easier to call a stranger. Good luck!

[releadme]

5 Tips for Creating a Killer Business Proposal

A solid business proposal can be enough to win you your next deal or project. It can be what separates you from the pack. Here are some tips to help you knock your next business proposal out of the park.

1. Know What Your Customer Needs.

Sometimes the customer doesn’t get specific about his needs, and you have to read between the lines. For example, if you’re a web design firm and your client says he wants more sales, what he really needs, at least from you, is more visitors. That you can achieve with a well-designed site.

2. Keep it Simple.

You can find dozens of proposal templates online, but stick to the basics. You’ll need to include:

An overview of your company

The goals you want to help the client achieve

An outline of how you’ll achieve those goals

A timeline for getting it done

Pricing

Policies, such as cancellation

Contact information

3. Get Professional.

Once you create your own business template (meaning it’s got the same information you’ll use on hundreds of proposals), you can hang on to it and modify it for each client proposal you put together.

4. Keep Them on Their Toes.

Business proposals don’t have to be boring. Don’t be afraid to inject a little of your own personality into it (as long as it’s professional). Graphics, too, can spice up a proposal and keep it interesting.

5. Re-Read it for Errors

So many salespeople pen off a proposal and hit “send” without spell-checking or reading through it one last time. Read it to make sure it’s easy to understand. Keep sentences short. Make sure you define any terms the reader might not know. And of course, make sure there are no grammatical errors! There are few things that will turn a potential client away more than a proposal full of errors.

The key to a killer proposal is doing your homework and making sure you keep the customer at the center of it. Make sure the amount you quote is what you end up charging (sometimes companies update their pricing and forget to update it in the proposal), and clearly outline what the rate includes.

After you present the proposal, make sure you’re available to answer questions and close the sale!

[releadme]

7 Follow-up Strategies to Close a Deal

1: Confirm They Got the Quote

If you’re sending a quote via e-mail, it’s wise to contact the buyer to see if they did receive the quote. This is an excellent opportunity to judge their reaction and determine probability of closing the deal.  This may not be the only time you need to follow up, of course. The buyer may have other quotes to reviews, may have to get approval from their boss, and so on. Making sure they got the quote you sent and asking where things are at is a good first step to helping you judge what to do next.

2: Carefully Choose Your Timing

Monday mornings and Friday afternoons aren’t the best time to follow-up with clients and prospects. People may be groggy on Monday mornings or anxious, on Fridays, to get out of the office for the weekend. As you talk to your clients and build relationships with them, you might develop a knack for knowing the best time to reach them. When you follow-up, if there isn’t a firm answer, ask the client when you should follow-up next. This will help move things along in the process in a way that suits the client, too. (And that could bring you favor with them as they’ll anticipate follow-ups and may be prepared with more firm answers)

3: Have a Reason to Call

Constant follow up can be an annoyance. But if you have other reasons to call, this could get you an update without annoying the buyer. If you can come up with a good enough reason to call (Note: Make it good. Buyers will see through feeble attempts at diversion and it could harm the trust in the relationship), you can slip in a follow-up question before the end of the discussion.

4: Do it through Email

Follow-up on deals via email. This is a less obtrusive interruption, for many, than a phone call or visit. If they don’t answer within a reasonable amount of time, consider a phone call.

5: Ask for a Meeting

Buyers could be open to a meeting to discuss your proposal. Some may be willing to be taken for a game of golf (they do say that the biggest deals are signed on the golf course) or lunch, for example, and that lunch meeting or golf game could cover discussions about potential deals and /or recent quotes.

6: Get to Know Them so You Can Strategize

Knowing your customer can help you devise the best strategy for follow-up. This isn’t always easy to do when you’re first trying to woo a new prospect. Keep track of discussions and responses with clients and prospects so you can measure the best way to approach the sales process.  Consider keeping notes in your customer database so you know what approach works best with longstanding or repeat buyers.

7: Use a CRM Tool to Manage Contacts and Deals

A customer relationship management tool with sales pipeline tracking features can help you close more deals. You can use it to measure where, in the sales process, you’re at with every client and prospect on your radar and you can use it to analyze won and lost deals. A CRM like Salesforce.com will help you manage every deal with phases that can help you strategically close more deals. It can also help you regarding suggestion # 6 as you will be able to generate reports to help you  analyze past wins and losses so you can refine your deal closing strategies.

[releadme]

Making the Web a Better Salesperson

The latest Internet Statistics from eConsultancy contains some fascinating numbers.

Multichannel retailers are focusing their efforts on their websites (88%), email campaigns (84%) and social media activity (66%). Most B2B marketers (69%) are expecting their budgets to remain fairly flat over the coming year. Their top priorities are generating new leads (60%) and converting those leads into customers (57%) as opposed to creating brand awareness (45%).

So we have an environment where companies are trying to create and convert more leads, using online tools, without increasing their budgets. That may be sensible: money doesn’t seem to be the problem. According to ZenithOptimedia $56.8 billion was spent driving traffic to websites last year. But only 2-3% of visitors actually convert. Amazingly only 36% of marketers report being dissatisfied with that statistic.

If website was my sales director, I’d fire them.

change media channel or mix it,

choose different target audience

retarget audience,

split or multivariate testing: seeing how different versions of your website affect buyer behavior

create a new website, change banners or even worst

increase campaign budget without any changes on campaign

But this approach is problematic for many: it is expensive, time-consuming, requires expertise, and needs a reasonable number of visitors against which to test. It also only addresses a small fraction of the potential reasons why your conversion rate might be low.

The solution to get more sales leads.

We’re taking a different approach. We want to treat every single visitor to a B2B website as an corporate individual. Get to know what they are, from where they came and which products or/and services they are really interested in. We believe that the more we can help companies to understand their online prospects, and the easier and more efficient we can make it to respond to those prospects’ needs, the more chance they have of turning those prospects into customers.

How do we do this?

Relead is web-analytics and Lead-gen platform for Business customers. By using our unique real-time algorithm, we take website visitor data, match that with GEO-locations, Financial, Social and B2B contact databases and generate actionable sales leads - company profiles, financial results, decision-maker lists, positions, emails, phone numbers and more.

Our mission is to tell you who that customer was who left your site and why.

Do you want to know who your website visitors are?

[releadme]

How to install Relead on your site?

Manually integrating Relead with your website is easier than you may think.

Note: You'll need access to your website's source code (the HTML) to integrate Relead in this way. 

Choose the site you need from the dropdown on the left and Go to Settings, and Go to the "Tracking Code" tab for the selected site, and copy your Tracking code from the text field. Make sure you copy the whole code - leaving out any of it will likely stop if from working. With your tracking code copied, access your website's source code (HTML) with the software program you normally use (such as DreamWeaver, Coda, Espresso, or other). Paste your Relead Tracking Code into your site's HTML just before the closing </body> tag.

Note: You need to install the code on all pages of your site. If your site has many pages, you will probably have a template system set up, or include a global header and footer file. If so, it will likely be best for you to paste your tracking code into a file included on all of your website's pages.

What's HTML? Where's the </body> tag? Get in touch with us for help.

[releadme]

Private beta

Hello world! In this short and simple kick-off post of the Relead blog, we simply wanted to let you know Relead is in private beta. If you’re interested in participating, do not hesitate to get in touch with us via http://relead.me