Higher Conversion Rate

Heey there,

Why do some trial users convert while others just vanish?

Sam Kuehnle, VP of Marketing at Loxo, has some insights that might just be the missing piece in your customer conversion puzzle.

Check out the full episode with Sam for more insight on raising the effectiveness of your sales & marketing teams.

But first.

Why do you think Stanford & MIT students used Arpanet (a precursor to the Internet we know today) in 1971?

I'll let you know why at the end of today's course.

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Topic Of Today

• 🎙 Episode Highlight: Navigating the Customer Journey

• 📚 Deep Dive: Social and Consultative Selling

• 📌 Actionable Advice

• 📚 Homework

• 💡 Pro Tip

📽️Connecting The Dots: The Art Of Selling📽️

In a recent episode of Connecting The Dots, Sam Kuehnle talked about the transformative power of blending social and consultative selling. He shares how this approach not only nurtures customer relationships but also has a much higher possibility of turning them into champions for your brand.

1. 🎙 An Episode Highlight: Navigating the Customer Journey

Sam draws on the importance of a consultative approach to customer engagement. He advocates for leading with value, offering resources and advice, and focusing on long-term relationships rather than immediate sales metrics.

Key Takeaways:

1. The Consultative Approach:
Sam advises against the hard sell. Instead, he suggests that your BDRs should lead with value by offering helpful resources. It's about guiding the customer, not pushing them.

2. The Role of BDRs:
Your Business Development Reps can and should be more than just the initial salespeople. They should act as guides, offering relevant & specific resources for their target audience's pain points and advice to help users get the most out of your product.

3. Focus on Adoption Over Attribution:
Sam makes a compelling point about not letting attribution metrics distract you. The end goal should be turning trial users into product champions. When they love what you offer, they'll naturally become advocates, and that's invaluable.

It's easy to get caught up in attribution. Tracking the customer's journey to understand which marketing channels or touchpoints led them to take a specific action, like making a purchase.

While this data can be valuable for optimising ROI, it shouldn't be the end-all-be-all of your strategy.

Why?

Because focusing solely on attribution can make you lose sight of a more critical aspect: customer adoption. Attribution might tell you where your customers are coming from, but it won't necessarily tell you how well they're engaging with your product or if they're likely to become long-term users.

Sam's advice is to look beyond the initial conversion metrics.
Instead, aim to turn your trial users into product champions.

When people find real value in what you offer, they're not just likely to continue using it; they'll also become advocates for your brand.

And in the long run, that word-of-mouth and customer loyalty can be far more valuable than knowing which ad campaign brought them in the first place.

Not to mention solely basing their journey on a few visible touchpoints can easily misdirect you, as it won't be able to tell the whole story of what happened in the background.

In essence, don't let the quest for perfect attribution data prevent you from focusing on what truly matters: building a product that people love and want to talk about.

2. 📚 Deep Dive: Social and Consultative Selling
Sam's approach to customer engagement is a blend of social selling and consultative selling, and it's all about creating value.

Let's unpack this with additional insights from some articles we've explored.

Social Selling: The New Norm
Social selling isn't just a buzzword; it's a strategy that focuses on using social networks to find, connect with, and nurture sales prospects. Social selling is about leveraging your social network to find the right prospects, build trusted relationships, and ultimately, achieve your sales goals.

Sam's approach aligns perfectly with this, as he emphasises the importance of nurturing relationships rather than hard-selling right off the bat.

Consultative Selling: More than just a Sales Pitch

Consultative selling is all about understanding the customer's needs and providing personalised solutions. Sam's strategy of leading with a consultative approach, offering resources and advice before diving into a sales conversation, is a textbook example of this method.

This Overpass webinar with Sam further elaborates on creating quick wins through consultative selling, emphasizing the importance of solving real problems for the customer.

The power of Multi-Team Collaboration
In my opinion, a key point to remember from Sam is the importance of getting multiple departments on the same page. This is echoed in an article with Sam from Metranomic, which discusses re-envisioning the SDR role through the lens of a demand-gen marketer.

When marketing and sales teams align their goals and strategies, the impact on customer engagement and revenue can be significant. Of course, it pays to add customer success and analytical teams to the mix as well, if you have those.

Creating Champions from your customers
Sam's approach aims to turn users into champions for your product. When customers become champions, they not only continue to use your product but also become advocates, thereby "pouring fuel on the fire," as Sam puts it.

The tools you need
Sam's strategy isn't just theoretical; it's backed by tools and platforms that help automate and streamline the process. From social listening tools mentioned in Hubspot's guide to social selling to customer relationship management platforms discussed in IntroCRM's blog, the right tools can make all the difference.

3. 📌 Actionable Advice

Ready to turn your customers into champions? Here's how you can put Sam's wisdom into practice:

Lead with Value, Not Sales:
Before you even think about making a sales pitch, offer something of value. Whether it's a helpful article, a how-to guide, or a quick tip, make your first interaction about helping the customer.

Train your BDRs to be Guides:
Your Business Development Reps should be more than just salespeople. Train them to act as guides, offering tailored resources and advice that help users get the most out of your product.

Focus on long-term relationships:
Don't just aim for quick conversions. Build relationships that turn one-time users into long-term customers and, eventually, into advocates for your brand.

Use social media wisely:
Social selling is all about leveraging your online presence to build relationships. Use platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter not just to share content, but to engage with your audience. Respond to comments, ask questions, and participate in discussions.

Implement Consultative Selling:
Take the time to understand your customer's needs. Don't just offer your product as a one-size-fits-all solution; tailor your pitch to address their specific pain points.

Don't get lost in attribution:
While it's important to know where your customers are coming from, don't let attribution metrics distract you from the ultimate goal: customer adoption and advocacy.

Use social media wisely:
Social selling is all about leveraging your online presence to build relationships. Use platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter not just to share content, but to engage with your audience. Respond to comments, ask questions, and participate in discussions.

Implement Consultative Selling:
Take the time to understand your customer's needs. Don't just offer your product as a one-size-fits-all solution; tailor your pitch to address their specific pain points.

Don't get lost in attribution:
While it's important to know where your customers are coming from, don't let attribution metrics distract you from the ultimate goal: customer adoption and advocacy.

4. 📚 Homework:

Value-First Outreach: Draft an email or message that leads with value rather than a sales pitch. Share it with at least three prospects and gauge their response.

BDR Training: Create a mini-training session for your Business Development Reps focusing on consultative selling and leading with value.

Social Media Audit: Review your current social media strategy. Is it aligned with the principles of social selling? Make a list of changes you need to implement.

Customer Needs Assessment: Pick a current or potential customer. Spend some time understanding their specific needs and how your product can meet them. Try to use this understanding in your next interaction with them.

Attribution vs Adoption: Review your current metrics. Are you focusing too much on attribution? Identify ways to shift your focus towards long-term customer adoption and advocacy.

Team Alignment: Hold a meeting with your marketing, sales, and customer success teams to ensure everyone is aligned in their goals and strategies.

Tool Evaluation: Make a list of tools that could help you implement a social and consultative selling strategy. Evaluate them based on your specific needs and budget.

5. 💡 Pro Tip:

Remember, the ultimate goal isn't just to make a sale; it's to build a relationship » so you may make sales continuously.

When you focus on solving real problems for your customers and providing genuine value, you're not just closing a deal » you're opening the door to long-term loyalty and advocacy. So, don't just chase the sale; aim to create a customer champion.

It's a win-win that pays off in the long run.

Fun fact answer:  Quite unsurprisingly to sell weed 🌿 » Stanford students bought weed from their MIT peers, which apparently is also the 1st ever online transaction. I wonder how much social selling was involved.

Isn't that just fun?

Keep learning and growing! 🚀 ❤️

New episodes of Connecting The Dots & Business Companion are coming out regularly, so stay tuned.

Subscribe to our podcast and keep an eye on your inbox for the next edition of our newsletter as well.

LinkedIn posts worth reading this week:

1. Cookie Box but without the fun part 🥲
Smart marketing from HockeyStack.

2. Reveal Customer Engagement
Dreamdata's new tool, which collects engagement data from key B2B intent sources.

3. Do this to support alignment between Sales & Marketing
Practical tips & proven techniques to bridge the gap between marketing and sales.