How many website visitors does it take to generate one qualified lead? How many qualified leads to convert one customer? How many sales or marketing touches does it take to engage a lead? To close a sale? It is easy to get caught up in the statistics of sales and marketing, but often we do so in a misguided attempt to ensure success through some sheer volume of activity. And despite their terrific benefits, marketing and sales automation tools have also enabled the quantity-over-quality mindset. Just because we have the capability to send out 10 email blasts and 30 tweets a day, doesn’t mean we should do so. Sales and marketing leaders need to be aligned and vigilant that all communication, including automation, improves the customer experience rather than undermines it.
Be Conscious of What Works for You
Consider your own day-to-day experience with unsolicited emails, phone calls and social media touches. The individual or organization that generates a continual stream of communication quickly becomes a nuisance, an unwelcome source of clutter and digital noise. This is particularly true if the content lacks quality or relevance. Why would we assume our own low-value clutter to be any more effective or less annoying?
Quality Focuses on the End Goal
As leaders, we need to stop seeking comfort in sheer numbers, website visitors, blasts, leads, sales touches, etc., and be sure we are giving due consideration to the quality of our engagement on all fronts. Of the touches coming from our organization, what high-value content is provided on the company website or in our email blasts? If we are expecting our sales team members to “touch” customers X number of times before giving up on the pursuit, then we owe them X-plus number of assets that are well-suited for this purpose. Your marketing team may find comfort in delivering large numbers of leads, but if the leads are low quality, they are actually counterproductive in eating up the time, energy and motivation of your sales team.
Build Systems that Allow Quality Work to Flourish
As with any endeavor, sales success requires we arm our teams with the right equipment (products, services, content, marketing assets) and the right selling skills (exploratory, objection-handling, presentation, consultation) that enable them to have high-quality and meaningful conversations and digital engagement. Focusing too heavily on quantity versus quality puts us at risk for generating great volumes of frustration and inefficiency and undermining our business development efforts.
