Today’s CRO faces a growing number of key challenges.
When strong revenue performance and growth are required, the closest scrutiny tends to fall on Sales.
Faced with these significant challenges, an increasing number of CROs are exploring the possibilities with Revenue Operations, also known as RevOps or RO. RevOps brings together Sales, Marketing and Service.
Not hard to understand the C-suite curiosity when, according to HubSpot research, companies with aligned departments close 38 per cent more deals.
Here’s an outline for creating an Inbound RevOps framework for smarter growth.
The inbound approach demands a shift in thinking. It’s not a quick fix yet early ‘wins’ are part of the strategy. Instead, it is about creating a sales evolution and more sustainable transformation in growth.
Organisations may want to picture what doubling or trebling their revenue within three years could look like for the business.
The core components of the Inbound Sales Framework are designed to help Sales close more deals, faster.
Think: Strategy. The Buyer’s Journey. Lead Stages. ICEA - The 4 Strategic Phases. Sales Enablement. Marketing and Sales Alignment. Sales Productivity. Sales Agility. Sales Performance. Client Service Handover. Monitoring and Forecasting.
The strategy is ‘Customer First’ - being a helpful seller. Offer value, service and integrity all the way to create trust. Pave the way for more meaningful and longer lasting relationships with prospects, consumers and clients.
Align this approach with the Inbound methodology of Attract, Engage and Delight. Remove the friction from the ‘flywheel’ to closer more deals faster.
It’s not uncommon to see an organisation set out their sales process - then try to fit prospects into it. The smarter CRO works the other way round.
First, map out the buyer’s journey. Then adapt the sales process to match. Be in service, offer value and create a good impression.
Move people through the three core stages of the buyer’s journey - Awareness, Consideration and Decision.
Think about the ‘Who, Why and What’ questions to answer about the ideal prospect and how the organisation serves them.
In an Inbound Sales pipeline, there are five lead stages. These are designed to focus your efforts, reduce wasted time and attract better results.
The Inbound lead stages take a contact through Prospect, Lead, Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL), Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) and Opportunity. Beyond that people become a customer.
The aim is quality, not quantity. Filter out time wasters. Design it so salespeople have more meaningful conversations with those most likely to buy.
Buyers don’t want to be prospected like a nugget in a goldmine, be demo’d until they drop or feel they’ve been ‘closed’ on a deal. They want to be educated, supported and guided through their own buying process.
The Inbound Sales approach is more like a consultant doctor with a patient. Consult, diagnose and prescribe.
The Inbound Sales Pro uses four strategic phases to structure conversations, communications and activity with a prospect, lead or opportunity.
Identify - From the start, attract the right business opportunities using buyer personas. Create a predictable pipeline and scalable sales funnel.
This is why it’s good to have three things in place: A high-performing CRM system. Strong communications and collaboration between Marketing and Sales. A bank of assets and resources to share with leads and prospects at the right time.
Connect - is where Inbound Sales Reps filter leads to find the best prospects.
Explore - is about understanding the prospect’s challenges and testing for fit.
Advise - is about offering a clear ‘prescription’ and positioning products and services as a solution to challenges and goals. A 6teen30 Digital blueprint for this is in our Inbound Consultative Sales Coaching Guide.
Make it as easy as possible for salespeople to do what they love best - closing deals, winning faster. Sales enablement is the infrastructure put in place to give them the support they need - the process, the content, the technology.
Sales content could be guides, PDFs, webinars, email templates, conversion copy or videos. Provide pipeline documents at each stage, with automation sequences, to make life easier and serve better.
Sales needs Marketing to deliver leads and quality leads. Marketing expects Sales to convert leads. Instead of a blame game, RevOps gets them working as one.
Create a plan together and underpin it with a two-way Service Level
Agreement (SLA).
According to InsideSales.com, salespeople only spend on average about 35 per cent of their time selling. That means for two-thirds of the time, they’re not doing what they’re best at.
For improved efficiency and productivity, remove the hurdles between sales reps and their buyers - so they spend more time selling and having more meaningful conversations. Adopt the frictionless selling framework to help plot the way.
Remote and hybrid working have become the norm and look to be here for good.
There are advantages and challenges with this arrangement. Balance management and support with a smart way to empower remote sales teams to perform better.
To raise performance, put the foundations, systems and support in place for teams and employees.
The Inbound RevOps approach with support from a Growth Agency like 6teen30 Digital promotes focus on what helps people do their best work.
A sale is not the end of the process. Next up it’s the turn of Customer Service to deliver wow. An integrated handover helps to deliver a smooth transition.
Performance requires monitoring and measuring it. Same goes for Sales.
Enter smart technology.
A robust, sophisticated CRM can help to manage things and do much of the heavy lifting: including pipelines, deals, lead scoring, CRM handling, automated sequences, personalised video messaging, and real-time analytics on your dashboard.
Discover how to create a Sales Forecast using a 6-Step framework. Measure the pipeline more accurately.
There’s that quote from Zig Ziglar...
"You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win”
Growth is spearheaded by sales. Scaling presents additional challenges. Conversations about increasing revenue need to include talk about acquisition costs, sales per lead, processes, systems and people.
Organisations cannot just ‘throw a things together’ and hope for the best. It requires strategy, tactics and planning.
Inbound RevOps provides a framework around which to design future growth and success. The go-getting CRO is in a strong position to lead the way.