Many enterprise software sales reps receive leads from the marketing department. Many of those leads come from digital lead nurturing funnels. However, when salespeople call on the supposedly warm leads, those potential buyers often say, “Thanks, but no thanks.” The rep then abandons the lead, rather than understanding that the prospect likely meant, “I wasn’t expecting your call, and I’m not ready to talk about your product just yet,” or “We might be interested, I’m just not the right person to talk to.”

This process of passing raw leads that die a quick death contributes to the notoriously strained relationship between sales and marketing teams. Marketers think the sales reps are ineffective, and sales begins to resent the time they waste on bad leads. However, there are changes on the horizon. Many enterprise software sales companies are starting to utilize Big Data to help bridge the divide between sales and marketing teams.

Big Data can Have a Big Impact on Lead Nurturing

Research from CSO insights shows that 42 percent of all B2B sales reps feel that they aren’t getting enough information from marketing when following up on raw leads. 45 percent indicate that they need help prioritizing their accounts, and 100 percent say they spend at least 20 percent of their time conducting their own research on prospects to try and sort everything out. This boils down to a lot of wasted time and resources, and ultimately, lost opportunities.

By sharing data and customer insights, enterprise software sales professionals can access actionable data when it comes to their prospects, helping them save time and improve their closing ratios.  Five Big Data insights that can impact enterprise software sales are:

1. Behavioral Intent: Marketers typically track this information to help them understand a client’s spending habits, what they purchase, and how long it takes them to make a buying decision. Sharing this information with sales will help reps understand what to expect from a prospect.
2. Lead Mapping: By tracking a lead’s digital interactions with the company (email opens, clicks, page visits, downloads, etc.), marketers can help sales teams get a feel for a lead’s potential needs and pain points and help them predict buying behavior.
3. Sphere of Influence: The person doing the research about a software solution is just a single stakeholder. They are rarely, if ever, the sole decision maker. The researcher will have to convince the rest of the team that a solution is worth pursuing. Big Data can help salespeople determine who the decision makers are, and can help them reach those decision makers earlier in the process.
4. Buying Journey: Big Data insights can help salespeople stay in touch throughout the sales cycle. Targeted messages can be sent to a prospect at each phase: discovery, awareness, consideration, and close. Those messages can be further personalized through different platforms based on a prospect’s preferences, helping to keep them engaged.

Big Data insights can help salespeople nurture leads with relevant content to help guide the prospect through the sales funnel, increasing the chances that salespeople will reach them precisely when they are ready to start talking. By putting the right data in front of sales reps, it can turn raw leads into hot prospects, ensuring a positive impact on the bottom line.

If your enterprise software organization is on the lookout for strong sales talent that knows how to leverage data to close deals, Strategic Search Solutions can help. We recruit sales professionals for this industry only, which means we understand how to spot the right talent at the right time. To learn more about us and our proven methods for hiring success, contact us today.