Generating sales leads used to be cited as the No. 1 obstacle to company growth. Now with sales productivity declining and competition increasing, the most critical challenge for many organizations is ensuring sales resources are focused on qualified, salesready leads in order to maximize sales results. Customer relationship management (CRM) or salesforce automation solutions have historically been the primary driver for enhanced sales productivity. But leading companies understand sales productivity starts at the top of the sales funnel with lead generation and lead development, even prior to a lead being entered into a CRM solution.

Vtrenz iMarketing Automation works seamlessly with CRM platforms and allows marketing professionals to facilitate a dynamic, repeatable and measurable lead generation process which ultimately optimizes sales performance and delivers profitable results.

iMarketing Automation Strengthens CRM Investment

CRM tools are a necessity for helping sales and service representatives manage oneto- one relationships with prospects and customers. However, prospective customers have short attention spans and immediate needs, requiring marketing teams to take a more active role throughout the entirety of the sales cycle. Using marketing automation technology, marketers have the capability to automate the process of generating and nurturing leads until they become qualified, allowing sales to focus on the prospects ready to purchase. By optimizing real-time communications driven by behavior-based customer insight captured within the marketing automation application, there is no time lag between inquiry and follow-up. In addition, sales now has visibility into ongoing marketing activities, while marketing is able to leverage sales information to further target relevant messaging to prospects and clients. Successful marketing automation implementations ensure sales and marketing share a common understanding of the lead-to-sales process, helping build a more productive, rather than contentious, relationship between each organization. And with dynamic lead routing, iMarketing Automation works seamlessly with CRM platforms to close the loop between lead generation and closed sales.

Technology Needed to Optimize Sales Performance

Optimizing sales performance starts at the first point of contact with a prospect. In other words, marketing plays an important role in sales productivity long before the lead makes its way into the CRM platform. The process begins with marketing execution, lead generation and lead development. Therefore, marketing automation technology is an integral component for every organization looking to optimize sales performance. While there is a variety of marketing automation tools available, five components separate best-in-class marketing automation applications from the remainder:

• Centralized marketing database – aggregating marketing profile data with the ability to integrate easily with CRM systems;
• Rules-based marketing engine – driving subsequent communications based on previous interactions and customer insight;
• Lead scoring and dynamic lead routing – automatically delivering qualified leads to the appropriate sales professional or sales channel;
• Integrated marketing tool set – managing email, direct mail, Web tracking, telesales, lead routes and surveys with one tool; and
• Marketing and sales reporting – measuring the progress of leads, ROI and effectiveness of the marketing mix.

What to Look for in a Marketing Automation Solution

As with any technology purchase, value is derived from increased revenue or decreased expenses. Integrating a bestin- class marketing automation solution with your CRM application, or using a marketing automation platform standalone provides organizations both a sales lift and a decrease in marketing expenses. However, to maximize sales and marketing performance, organizations should consider the following when evaluating marketing automation technologies:

• How easy is the application to deploy and use?
• Does it integrate with CRM applications?
• Can it be deployed and used by marketing professionals with minimal reliance on IT?
• Is the solution supported by experienced and knowledgeable marketing professionals, helping to transfer thought leadership and best practices into my organization?
• Have other customers demonstrated the value with a low total cost of ownership and a proven return on investment?
• How do all of these answers result in a speed to benefit?

Driving Profitable Marketing Results Is Tied to Optimized Sales Performance

For more on optimizing sales performance and driving profitable marketing results, sign up to participate in the Vtrenz PAIN campaign. This interactive campaign allows you to experience firsthand the power of a multistep, multitrack automated campaign driven by iMarketing Automation. To get started visit: http://results.vtrenz.com/paincampaign

ABOUT VTRENZ

Vtrenz’s integrated marketing automation platform, iMarketing Automation, allows marketers to create, execute and automate multichannel marketing campaigns, score and route qualified leads to sales professionals and analyze marketing results through robust campaign analytics. Customers have access to additional services including worldclass support, guidance from experienced marketing consultants and live online training classes. For additional information on Vtrenz, go to www.vtrenz.com.