Marketers are tasked with discovering and establishing the leads that will help get the product in the right hands; sales, puts that product in the hands of the consumer. As such, both jobs directly affect each other. If marketers can’t find where to place the product, sales cannot sell it. Likewise, if sales can’t sell anything, then marketers don’t know which products to pitch where.  

But when times are tough and sales begin to plunge, it’s usually the sales team that is pulled in and read the riot act.

Boss – “Why are we not converting sales”

Sales – “Marketing is giving us sucky leads.”

Marketing – “Sales couldn’t close a door, let alone a new client.”

So herein lies one of the greatest organizational debates of all time: sales continually feeling that marketing provides them with sucky leads while marketing feels sales is just doing a sucky job at converting. Of course, this is nothing new.

While the dynamic between the two has always been complex, it has become even more so with the advent of SaaS. (Software-as-a-Service) SaaS as a business model in conjunction with sales automation has streamlined almost every digital aspect of the business from invoicing to traffic monitoring. Sales automation condenses the menial everyday tasks of a sales rep through artificial intelligence assistance. Now essential business practices like content marketing have never been easier.  With the added simplicity and efficiency of sales automation and the unrestrictive nature of selling digital products and services, anyone can become a Quasi-Marketer Sales God by using these digital tools.

Reporting

One of the greatest features of SaaS marketing tools is its ability to produce vast snapshots of your business’ performances across multiple channels. You can combine all your performance metrics and data into a single, shareable and easy-to-read dashboard. The software can be used to monitor the traffic metrics of your website and determine how many people have viewed the page and how long they’ve stayed on it.  

When it comes to Sales, Revenue and Organizational reporting. Tubular present all this information in the click of a button. Information that previously took hours at the beginning and end of the week can now be seen, visualised and actioned in a matter of minutes.

If this type of reporting resonates with you then book in a call here and I will personally get your sales and revenue reports all set up for you.

Dashboard software allows you to get a seamless overview of different marketing and operational activities of various divisions. Products such as Yurbi are good for companies looking for white-labels dashboards and reports.

Attracting Attention

With the implementation of SaaS services, content marketing has become streamlined and multifaceted. Apps like Buffer allow you to actually schedule your social media content distribution immediately. You no longer have to work on and publish posts one after another. Now marketers and salespeople alike can coordinate all social media outreach at one time with just a click of the mouse. Content creation and dispersion have never been easier.  

Lead Optimization

Leads are the lifeblood of the sales department and should be treated as such. With the rise of email automated marketing leads no longer waste away in digital records. Historical information on leads is also more comprehensive than ever before. A.I and products like Clearbit and FullContact help sales as they scour the internet for all fragments of data concerning users purchasing profiles and history. There are also algorithms for prioritizing leads to determine which still need conversion and which are ready to buy.  

Improved Communication and Collaboration

A lot of SaaS services are geared towards making communication across channels and departments within your business much easier. The digital feature that has benefited the most from this is video conferencing. Software such as GoToMeeting and Zoom allows you to host conference calls with up to 100 people in HD. Some other benefits include:

• Advanced scheduling features
• Screen sharing capability with the added ability to control transference (Another caller can use your keyboard and mouse)  
• One-click recording
• Drawing tools for increased interactivity

SaaS has also done wonders for real-time collaborative work within businesses. Applications such as Canva allow all members to view, edit and comment on pictures, posters, social media posts, infographics, eBook designs, video thumbnails and everything in between. Salespeople can now collaborate on projects instantaneously rather than having to wait until the marketers have completed their research and developed their own leads.  

Note-Taking and Distribution

Sales A.I is perfect for keeping track of all aspects of a business. It can create summary points from a sales rep’s calls with customers, take notes during meetings (in-person or online) and it can instantly distribute call scripts to entire departments.  

Improved User Experience

The key to keeping customers is to keep them happy. Every aspect of their experience with the product should be productive and rewarding in some way. Sales automation A.I allow for efficient flow to the entire customer/user journey with the implementation of chatbots. Chatbots offer intuitive and instantaneous support to customers through their ability to accumulate and analyze customer information in order to offer tailored guidance. Ironically enough, this digital assistance also adds a personal touch to the user’s interaction with the product, which does wonders in retaining them as longtime customers.  

So who benefits the most from implementing sales automation and digital marketing into your business? The marketers or the salespeople?

The answer is everyone. Correctly implementing any type of new software can help you create comprehensive reports on sales and marketing activity. Now both salespeople and marketers can coordinate content creation and distribution and instantly respond to user queries. Anyone, whether they are in marketing or sales, can now access the business’ leads and reports and use that data to schedule email blasts, phone calls, and even their content marketing.  

All in all, sales automation is a double-edged sword for marketers and salespeople. It makes understanding marketing spend and tracking sales performance incredibly easy but can further blur the lines.

But, who’s fault is it for Q2 closing down?

The post The Rise of the Quasi-Marketer/Sales God appeared first on Tubular.

David Henderson is Founder and Creative Director at DHD an award-winning multimedia design company based in Kilkeel, Co. Down, Northern Ireland. We talked to David about the future of design, sales in a Creative Agency, and why video is so important.

How have you seen the creative industry change since your first job as a Freelancer and where do you think things are headed?

The creative industry has changed in huge ways! Since starting, back in 2008, there has been changes in almost every area we work in: branding, graphic design, animation and 3D but by far, the area we have seen massive developments and technical transitions is the world of UI, UX and web development. If I were to narrow down to 2 areas which have forced us to adapt and evolve our creative working processes, in the last nine years, I would suggest the explosion of smartphones/tablets and the rise of social media. Both of these trends have opened up so many opportunities for new ideas, creative processes and even businesses to develop, but along with that, we have to ensure we are not only keeping up with the changes but are both technically and creatively aspiring to be innovative in our creative approach.

Concerning design, trends are always shifting, but as creatives, we should hold these “trends” lightly and always ensure the client’s needs are the forefront of the creative brief.

Over the last year to 18 months, we see new technologies like VR, IoT, and 3D printing push more boundaries for our industry. Smart design and the need for new creative ideas will never change, but we as a company have to carefully watch how technology and industry moves and to which mediums we then apply our creative skills.

What do you think is the most powerful part of your design process?

There are so many aspects which are critical to a successful design process, but for us, I think the ‘power’ actually lies in a very under-rated but essential part of the creative process: listening and communication. As we start each project, whether it’s a re-brand, a new e-commerce website, a large magazine or an animated explainer video, we have to listen to the purpose and needs from our clients. As we talk through the purpose and target audiences, we begin to piece together the creative brief which informs, directs and most importantly guides our creative thinking. Only then, from that strong foundation, can we produce the designs and creative ideas to produce the best project possible.

You’re based in Northern Ireland but currently working with a range of global companies from New Zealand to New York. How do you manage your sales process and stay on top of things?

It’s alway a challenge being able to plan and organise a steady flow of projects. We have found that because we work with so many clients within so many different time zones and industries, we are constantly having to tweak our workflows to maximise our time and communications. In recent years we have started using a number of tools and apps that allow us to capture our new projects and position them in our sales pipeline, now we have found Tubular it makes it so much easier for us at a glance to see which projects are at which stage and then communicate effectively with my team and clients to ensure everything keeps moving in the right direction as efficiently as possible.

You recently completed our Explainer video which we were excited to put on our new website. How have you seen these sort of video impact Sales and signups in online businesses?

We loved working on the Tubular explainer video and are very happy with the result. We have been providing animated explainer videos for around six years now and have seen changes to how these are now being used. Almost every year or even every few months we are seeing new ways for our explainer videos to reach even bigger audiences. With the continued growth of social platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat and many others and the development of targeted ads we are seeing our videos reaching greater audiences and engaging directly with the carefully targeted people groups.

This has meant that there has been a shift from traditional broadcast advertising to social and online. The power of video is evident to more sales and sign ups because as studies have shown, in engages audiences more than static images and text and if you can hook viewers in the first 3 seconds, they will usually watch up to another 60 – 90 seconds of video! Over the last five years, we have seen more start-ups, organisations and companies recognise the value in animated explainer videos to increase engagement, sign ups, and sales.

How is your team set up?

We are a small team of 6, who all have our unique skills and talents. I’m the Creative Director, and my role includes managing the team, business development, and from time to time branding, user interface design and animation. Paul is our Lead Developer, and along with planning and building our web projects, he also manages and organises a lot of the client’s relationships. We also have Aimme, our Junior UX Designer, Ciara our Junior Graphic Designer, Ryan our Junior Designer and Melissa our Digital Marketing Manager. We have a lot of fun, really love working together and combine our skills and creativity to work on some amazing projects for our clients.

What’s the one thing you would have done differently when you started your business with Sales? How would you approach it now?

I think if I had the chance to start again I would have looked at smarter ways to capture our leads and new clients rather than sticking them into a spreadsheet which I used for years. Also, I would plan to be more strategic in our approach to gaining new customers and aim to be more proactive than reactive.

Do you have any advice for young designers or anyone thinking about starting their own business?

Yes: Go for it! It seriously is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. It takes a lot of time, sacrifices and hard, hard work, but I love running my own creative agency and the opportunities that come with working with so many amazing people across the world.

Thank you very much for your time, David.

You can see more of the DHD Teams work here: View DHD Portfolio

The post Inside Creative Sales at DHD with David Henderson appeared first on Tubular.