Authenticity and measurement: the experts’ keys to converting leads into sales

What company isn’t looking for more and better leads every day?

"Leads" has become a key word that catches the eye of the C-levels of any organization. At Central Gate, we spoke of the subject with experts from our member companies in order to share the advice and good practices that they follow in their day-to-day activities to ensure the achievement of Marketing and/or Sales objectives.

David Zamora, Regional Chief Digital Officer of Performance Marketing at Loymark advises a premeditated audience segmentation for the implementation of Marketing campaigns:

The hyper-personalization of messages through the use of first party data plays a more important role than ever in sales and post-sale strategies. At times when physical contact is scarce, digitization transcends and experiences lose their human warmth.

However, he also warns about the importance of measurement and monitoring:

Investing in the generation of leads, without tools or measurement and management processes is like having a ten-lane highway with only one toll booth. Qualified leads are useless without optimal follow-up. The greater the growth and technological penetration, the greater the expectation and demand for the users of the brands and companies with which they interact.

Claudia Selva, Marketing & Communications Director of Novacomp, agrees with this point and expresses the importance of documenting all the available information of the potential client:

It is key to understand which Marketing and Sales efforts were most effective. First of all, investigating the lead source, then documenting the diverse preferred methods of communication (email, phone, F2F meetings, etc). This will also allow you to better understand your sales cycle, precisely because you are keeping track of the lead progress and have the data to back it up.

In addition, Selva gives us an idea to guide each prospect into the right path:

Lead Scoring. We all want quality leads, right? Well it's important to first define your ideal lead. Those are the ones you want to focus on, of course. A properly constructed lead scoring system should reflect the path of the sales funnel.  This will allow you to prioritize leads based on specific criteria and determine how likely a lead is to purchase from you.

And last but not least, Hanna Retana, Business Developer at Bosch, invites us to rethink the customer experience and to be authentic:

It is important not to underestimate the value of authenticity when connecting with our customers. Sometimes it is easy to get lost in clichés and business jargon, but at the end of the day ¨people buy from people¨ - and regardless of the industry we represent, our purpose is the same: to design (find, and sometimes even devise) solutions.

Emphasizing humanity and listening to each client before taking them on a generic approach is key in attracting leads and keeping them in the pipeline. Managing the pipeline and potential business opportunities are integral processes that go way beyond the sales department. Aspects such as image and organizational reputation should not be forgotten. These also determine our network and the kind of leads we will receive.

Do you have any advice you want to share with us?

Written by: Gabriela Martínez