I work in the social and digital marketing department at Consensus. Being a startup, it’s pretty exciting to test what strategies work as we organically grow our online presence.
One of our tests has been to use Consensus in our efforts. Using Consensus in our marketing strategy has proven to be one of the most effective ways to bring in qualified leads for our sales team.
As we’ve said before, in its simplest form, demo automation is a marketing automation system for sales. But we’ve also come to realize that it’s a sales tool for marketers.
How? Let me show you in three different ways, broken down below:
Trying My Hand at Sales:
There have been a number of times when I connect with new leads through “direct messaging” on Twitter or Facebook. Once I have their contact information, I have the power to send them our own Consensus demo video. Rather than distracting a sales rep and pulling them from their own work, I send the demo.
Typically, the demo aspect of the sales cycle is reserved for the sales team – but the automated demo allows both sales and marketing to follow up with leads the moment we connect. Depending on how the prospect responds after watching the demo, I will introduce them to one of our account execs so they can talk more specifics.
It Improves the Quality of Our Leads:
Once I’ve sent the demo to a prospect, I wait to see if and/or when they watch the demo. If they watch it, did they share it with anyone else in their company? If so, who? What did they each select as the most important benefits and least important benefits?
By the time I introduce them to an account exec, they’re much further down the sales funnel. They’re more educated, more qualified, and sales can do more of the heavy talking and less of the introductory talking. This ultimately helps shorten the sales cycle.
Sales loves that.
It Educates Marketing about Sales:
Using Consensus in our marketing efforts is the equivalent to sitting in on a sales call. We’re seeing first-hand how prospects interact with our demo. What are their main interests, or main pain points? If our sales team notices a common trend in what prospects are selecting as “important” or “not important” benefits, we’re going to see that too.
Our sales team uses these types of insights to tailor their conversations with prospects. We use those same insights to customize our marketing messaging, which helps target our buyer persona on a much more focused, granular level. This once again circles back around to: more qualified leads for sales.
Lastly, but oh so importantly, it blurs the line between marketing and sales. The age-old “battle” between sales and marketing is non-existent at Consensus. Since both teams have a clear understanding of the methods we’re using to collect leads, it’s just reassuring. Our sales team knows that we’re following up with potential leads for as long as possible until we pass them over to sales. Is it too cheesy to say knowledge is power?
