Small Marketing Teams Josh Paul

The Role Of Lead Management In Growing Your Business Who doesn’t love inbound leads?
Inbound leads are amazing.
You create helpful, insightful, educational, and original content for your market, and people find you.
Next, they request a demo, take a product tour, download an eBook, cheat sheet, or checklist, and then enter your marketing and sales system as leads.
Unfortunately, most salespeople don’t know what to do with them. In fact, converting leads at the top and middle of the funnel is problematic for most organizations.
In the following video and article, we’ll explore how your lead management process can serve two very important purposes.
First, it helps your sales team close more leads, and secondly, it works to surface what is working and what is not within your sales process.
What is Lead Management (And Why Should You Care)? During my first year using HubSpot to generate inbound leads at a B2B software company, I consistently generated 100 leads a month (up from 10 leads per month).
I was very excited about these results. I had HubSpot set up. I had leads coming in. I had the data and metrics. I had everything working. I was pushing a lot of leads over to sales.
After that first year, I walked into my review meeting with the executive partners with a lot of swagger, subtly gloating about what I had done.
I sat across from the rest of the executive team and got one of the biggest shocks of my life.
They said, “Josh, I don’t think this is going to work out.”
I was completely blindsided and devastated. I was at a point in my career where I felt like I was finally contributing.
The problem was that none of those inbound leads I had passed over to sales had turned into revenue.
Fortunately, the executive team kept me around and gave me one more chance. I had to make it work. I had to find a way to get the sales team to convert those leads into customers.
I purposely put less time into generating leads and became a student of B2B sales.
I had to figure out how to get the sales team excited about working inbound leads, which enter during different stages of the sales process (unlike “contract-ready” ready-for-a-demo leads).
The Beauty of Inbound Marketing For Increasing Sales When you implement inbound lead generation, you expand your lead pool to include people who are researching their problem and looking for information about solutions. This allows you to build those relationships sooner, instead of just talking to people who are ready to buy. While the sales conversations are different, you’re getting many more leads.
Since that time, I’ve become an authority on lead management. This is where I’ve spent the bulk of the past few years. Rather than helping people on the traffic and lead generation side, I help companies set up business-specific lead management processes.
Why, you might ask?
I know firsthand that you can generate tons of traffic and hundreds of leads each month, but your business won’t grow if the leads are rotting on the vine and slipping through the cracks.
That’s the whole purpose behind lead management: preventing good leads that you are investing in from going to waste.
Lead management is the process of knowing:
What to do with leads Where they go in your CRM What data gets changed How to track and follow up with leads How to know where they are in the sales process How to spend your time selling, instead of entering data into your CRM Anyone from your team should be able to go into the system, look at a lead, and know exactly where that lead is in your process.
Pillars of Lead Management There are a few things you need to focus on in order to create a strong lead management process that will turn leads into revenue.
Pillar #1) Definitions These are clear, agreed-upon, company-wide definitions for lead statuses, lifecycle stages, and how you track next actions (such as initially connect with the lead or schedule a demo). Your lead management de

There are 4.5 million new blog posts published every day. What does that mean for a company that is publishing content to get found?
It means that the competition is fierce.
Not only does your blog content need to be high quality, but your headlines (i.e. the promise of what is in your blog post) need to be high quality too.
“Why” Is Good, but Prospective Buyers Need More One mistake small marketing teams make when they’re just starting to publish content is using “why” headlines (i.e. headlines that start with the word “why”).
For example, one article I was asked to write for the software company I previously worked for was “Why Fortune 500 Companies Need an Online Customer Community.”
Many companies publish articles like these to create an idea in the reader’s mind that their services are of value. But these articles don’t sound particularly compelling, do they?
“Why” headlines CAN still work, but they must be curiosity-based. They can’t be an obvious sales pitch.
The person reading the headline can’t easily assume where the article is going. It must create curiosity.
One good example is: “Why Half of Florida Will Be Underwater in the Next 20 Years.” That headline creates curiosity. Here’s another one: “Why E-mail Won’t Be Part of Your Marketing Strategy by 2025.” People will be curious and want to know more.
Your headline must stop people in their tracks. If they’re scrolling down, it must make them STOP when see it.
The downside of “why”articles is that once people have their answer, they immediately leave your page. You’ll get more clicks, but less long-term value.
“How-To” Content Teaches Readers a New and Valuable Skill Resist the impulse to create a sales pitch in the form of a “why” article. The approach that works a lot better is a “how-to”article. These are more utilitarian articles with evergreen value for your reader.
Teach them how to do something. Examples are: “How to Accomplish X” or “10 Steps to Achieve Y”. You’re teaching prospects how to achieve something that matters to them.
However, be sure to avoid basic surface-level headlines like “How to Engage Your Customers,” followed by generic and obvious tips like “Step 1: Understand Your Audience.”This is isn’t new information. You have to go deeper.
If “How-Tos” Are Better, Why Do You See So Many “Why” Blog Posts? There are several reasons why people prefer to write “why”articles in place of how-to articles.
One reason is that how-to articles are harder to write. These articles require specificity, examples, value, and visuals. Therefore, they take a lot longer to write.
Another reason people avoid writing how-to articles is the fear of giving away their “secret sauce.” But you should want to give away as much value as you can to rise above the noise and attract people to your business online.
People always want to learn how to do things that will save them time, make them money, or save them money.
“How-To” + “Without” = Interested And Informed Reader (Curiosity + Trust!) A how-to article might initially sound boring, as it is utility-based and seems to lack a certain spark compared to a why article. However, you can add some spark and curiosity by coupling the how-to article with the word “without.”
For example, an article for my consulting company might have this title: “How to Turn More Inbound Leads Into Sales.”
Sure, this headline might be interesting to people who want to solve this problem. Now, let’s add the word “without.”
The new title becomes: “How to Turn More Inbound Leads Into Sales Without Firing Your Current Sales Team.” This title will stop people in their tracks. Here’s another one: “How to Sell Your House Within 30 Days Without Giving 7% to Realtors.”
It’s important to note that your “without” has to be a compelling task that your reader fears having to do.
With this formula (how-t

The following experiment shows how using HubSpot’s sales tools correctly can help sales reps redirect 30 hours a month back to selling and building relationships. These days, the line between jargon and effective business communication is razor thin.
When you are running a fast-paced business, the language you use can bring clarity.
However, words can also add confusion. If you have ever tried explaining your job to a friend or relative who is not in your industry, it quickly becomes apparent that we cram too much meaning into business terminology.
For instance, take the following terms:
“Sales enablement”
“Lead generation”
“CRM”
“Marketing automation”
“Sales tools”
“Lead management”
“Sales efficiency”
If I asked 10 executives in my network to define each term, I would get 10 different answers for each.
In addition to business terms meaning different things to different people, marketers have dulled the meaning of business terms so that one term can cover a broad range of business functions.
When you read the terms above, it’s easy to assume their meaning without ever needing to understand the nuances of each strategy and how to implement them successfully in your organization.
“Of course, I want more lead generation.”
“Of course, my team needs a CRM.”
“Of course, marketing automation is important.”
“Of course, my sales reps would benefit from the right sales tools.”
“Of course, my company needs a lead management process.”
We are all in agreement that busy people demand concise language.
However, this attempt to sum up a business function in a couple of short words leaves the conversation at a surface level without ever getting to the heart of how to use these tools and tactics to grow your business.
Moving The "Sales Tools Conversation" From Theory to Real-Life I am in the business of making a big impact on companies and their employees.
General use of business terms, such as  “We will work on sales enablement,” or “Let’s use our CRM to grow faster,” is not enough.
When most people first hear about the HubSpot Sales Tools, they think, “Those sound cool.” This initial reaction is often a major factor in selecting the HubSpot CRM and sales platform.
However, implementing the HubSpot Sales Tools and getting your sales team to use them is a different story.
I talk to HubSpot customers every week that have access to the HubSpot sales accelerator tools, but are not using them. They are either unaware of how using these tools could benefit their company, or are simply choosing not to use them.
I could share my Hubspot story with these clients until I am blue in the face, but it still would not enact change at some organizations.
So, I took a different approach. I collected real data.
We Ran A HubSpot Sales Tools Experiment To get this data, my team and I at Small Marketing Teams did an experiment!
 

We wanted to know how meaningful the time savings was from just TWO of HubSpot Sales Tools: task queues and email templates.
We Started With A Common Sales Rep Scenario Sales reps have to handle a lot of different types of communication - from prospecting and re-engagement to proposals and follow-ups.
When a new marketing or lead nurturing offer is created, the marketing team will send the content to most of your company’s list.
However, for the leads and opportunities that are engaged with a sales rep, you don’t want marketing interfering with the relationship and messaging that the sales rep is establishing.
For leads they are working, sales reps often distribute new content offers themselves. Having sales reps distribute new white papers, invitations to webinars, and other relevant resources is also a common practice in account-based marketing, where there is a small number of target accounts.
To normalize this scenario for our experiment, we sent five contacts that we are engaged with a personal invitation to an u

Is your sales team is struggling to get leads on the phone?
This might be one of those situations where technology and easy access to digital data are getting in the way of good old fashioned common sense.
Check this out...
When a new lead gets assigned to one of your sales reps, there are things that sales reps do before trying to connect with the lead?
They decide when they are going to reach out (hopefully asap) They prepare their “connect call” script or outline. They open up a new note in their CRM. Most importantly, they do research on the lead. It is important that sales reps try to understand the lead’s situation or the context of their initial conversion so they can make their first touch a relevant interaction.
How Small Marketing Teams Leapfrog Larger Competitors Since this cursory research only takes a few minutes, it is a major leverage point for small marketing and sales team.
By doing things smarter,  your sales reps can close a lot more sales using the same amount of time and effort.
In this episode of the Small Marketing Teams podcast, I discuss how using your lead intelligence differently can result in an increase in revenue.
The first thing you need to know is that not all sales reps use lead intelligence (the data you have about a lead and their interests) the same way.
An AVERAGE sales rep looks at which offer or landing page the lead converted on before calling or emailing them.
A GOOD sales rep analyzes additional digital behavior, including:
How many web pages they viewed When they were last on your website. The most recently opened emails Data submitted in the landing page form Social profiles Both of these approaches represent the use of quantitative data in building your assumptions about a lead’s problems, priorities, and motivations.
The BEST sales reps take it a step further. They build on quantitative data by adding qualitative elements.
These top performers build a narrative around the journey that the lead look - from the first ad or search engine query to their landing page conversions.
Where do they get this information?
They put themselves in the prospective buyer’s shoes by immersing themselves in the experience that the buyer takes.
They take into account the ad that got the lead’s attention and the language that led them to click on the call to action.
They analyze the copy on the landing page to identify the hook that caused the lead to first opt-in.
If the lead converted on a second or third offer further down the funnel after their first conversion, what was the communication and copy that drove them to take the next step?
Together this information in your CRM enables savvy sales reps to create a fairly accurate narrative that will inform how they connect with, qualify, and build relationships with leads.
Next, let’s explore why this is important.
Continuity Is The Key To Productive Sales Calls It used to be that prospective buyers did very little digging online before contacting a company. Today, leads do 50-70% of the research on their problem online before reaching out to a sales rep.
That means that they have an understanding of their problem and potential solutions before they ever get connected with your sales team.
Think about the way that you make a purchase. You research online first. By the time that you speak with a salesperson, you are an educated buyer.
Have you ever had an initial conversation with a sales rep where they brought up points and addressed issues that were not relevant to your situation?
Now, think about sales calls you have had where the discussion felt like a continuation of the research and direction you were already heading?
The rapport and momentum of these two calls are completely different. The conversation that is built on a continuation of the experience you have already had closes a lot faster.
Instead of going into sales conversations cold, empower your sales team to look beyond basic sales analytics

How many concerts did you attend last year? 1 concert? 2 concerts? Every other weekend?
For most performers, a concert is a one-time event. They move from city to city scooping up revenue from each performance’s ticket and merchandise sales.
I want to share a story about how one savvy superstar rejected that model so she could spend more time on other priorities.
This story comes with a very important lesson for marketers.
My wife and daughter recently watched Beyoncé’s new concert film, Homecoming. It is her live headline performances at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival last year and the story behind it.
The visually-impressive film caught my attention as I made dinner and afterwards, I sat down the join then. By that time, I was hooked since I had been watching from a distance.
Apparently, the release of this film on Netflix coincided with her new live album featuring these performances.
Beyoncé had not released a new album in several years.
Since her last album, she had a very difficult pregnancy and gave birth to twins.
Beyoncé’s big comeback was this Coachella performance in 2018.
Beyoncé’s Powerful Lesson For Small Marketing Team Leading up to the music festival, Beyoncé and her team had a choice.
Option #1) They could work really hard to put together this performance for Coachella.
OR
Option #2) They could work slightly harder and accomplish:
The headlining Coachella performance. A new live album that will sell hundreds of thousands of copies. An impactful concert film documentary that is packaged as a cultural moment and will keep Beyoncé on top of the relevancy ladder for the next year. They chose to work harder and so they could get more from the effort they were putting into preparing for the Coachella event.
In marketing and sales, I call this approach to prioritizing inputs and outputs a “Mileage Mindset” and it is a key to growing your business with a small marketing team.
To understand if you have a “mileage mindset,” let me ask you a question.
How many times have you done the hard thinking and writing around creating a whitepaper or webinar then left it in that singular format when the campaign was over?
Have you ever prepared for a presentation at a conference or industry event and then never re-purposed that into a webinar, ebook, or video series?
Beyoncé prepared 4-5 months for Coachella. She put in the brutal effort of preparing for a mega-concert once, but leveraged that work in other assets that would continue to pay off.
You may be thinking to yourself, “I’m really stretched thin. I don’t have time to plan out or repurpose my content to make the most of my investment.”
Beyoncé had a similar problem. She has twin infants. She had a 6-year-old daughter. She had an extremely busy megastar husband. She was getting pulled in all directions at once.
How did view the hill she needed to climb? Beyoncé knew this was not going to be easy, but she chose to push hard and put in the extra time upfront, so that her investment would pay dividends for the next 1-2 years without her needing to be in the spotlight all the time.
You see? Content repurposing is not a time suck. It is a marketing strategy for getting hours back in your day.
I think Beyoncé is great, but I’m not an avid fan. However, watching this concert film made me realize the brilliant marketing move that Beyoncé employs to do more using less of her time.
Just like you, Beyoncé’s time and attention are needed elsewhere.
Her lesson for content marketers, especially those with small marketing teams, is one that every growth-oriented company needs to take seriously.
This is a lesson in leveraging your time.
When it comes to marketing, all of the hours you put into your work are not equal.
Beyoncé shows us that one hour of work does not need to produce one unit of your desired outcome.
How To Copy Beyoncé's Content Repurposing Playbook If she had thought of Coachella as

If you are under pressure to increase revenue, it can be an awful feeling.
Everything becomes very urgent and chaotic.
You are motivated, but if you don’t get tangible results in short order, your mindset and ability to take action can start to spiral.
Have you been in this position? Are you there now?
Do you feel like you have tried everything to increase sales, but you are only seeing slight growth?
Maybe you are banging your head against the wall because, even when you work your butt off to fix it, you keep ending up in the same place.
Today, I want to share a basic math equation that has a direct impact on your sales growth.
The problem is that is most sales managers ignore it.
They contort their team into messaging acrobats and implement complex sales training and technology before solving this fundamental element of lead management.
I don’t know for sure why people overlook this secret to unlocking revenue growth.
Maybe it is so simple that you assume you have already gotten the formula right.
Maybe getting it right is harder than you thought.
It goes like this…
If your sales reps can sell X every hour they spend selling, they can sell 2X if they spend two hours selling.
I know….mind blown.
You thought the issue was your product. You thought the problem was bad leads coming from marketing. You thought your sales team needed more sales training. When, in fact, this is 100% on you.
You are giving your sales team a clunky process and inefficient toolset, so reps are only spending 2-3 hours a day selling.
You are not alone. Most reputable research indicates that sales reps only spend 30% of their time on sales activities and the rest of their time is spent on sales admin and CRM tasks.
When was the last time you audited your sales reps’ days?
If they are getting your current results selling 3 hours per day, what would your revenue look like if they spent 4 or 5 hours per day on selling activities?
But, it is not as easy as cracking the whip to get them to spend more time selling.
Lack of efficiency in your sales process is caused by an imbalance in what I call the “Sales Efficiency Formula.”
>>> Easy Processes + Time-Saving Tools + Clear Data
Combining the three components of this formula gets to the heart of how your sales team works their leads - from how leads are routed, how outreach and follow-ups are tracked, and which leads get converted to opportunities.
It also makes it easier to coach your sales reps and identify friction in your sales process sooner.
Giving your sellers a lead management process built on this formula might feel like a big undertaking at first.
However, it is the deep planning you do upfront that will deliver a simple and efficient process to your sales reps – that will serve them and your company’s growth goal for 5-10 years.
Choosing to do the hard thing gives you MORE control over your results and MORE levers to work with to get results in the future, than any of your other options.
In fact, your old instincts to change up your product or messaging OR fire your sales or marketing team will begin to feel like “hope and pray” strategies.
When you have a solid lead management foundation - built into your CRM and that your sales reps use and love – you’ll have a tremendous amount of confidence that the leads you are investing so much in to generate will turn into closed sales.
Want to get my secret sauce for turning your sales team into a hyper-efficient sales machine?
I recently led a masterclass on my method for turning more leads into paying customer (without firing your sales team and turning your company upside down).
I’m making this training available to people in my network for a short period of time.
If you want sign-up for the next web class, visit https://hssalessuccess.com/