Page 121 - The Sales Acceleration Formula: Using Data, Technology, and Inbound Selling to go from $0 to $100 Million - PDFDrive.com

In the Mid-Market group, 7,000 leads were nurtured to the Solution Education
stage and passed to sales in Q1. By the end of Q3, 6 percent of those leads had
converted to customers, for a total of 420 customers. The average annual
contract size for each of these customers was $200,000.

In the Small Business group, 11,000 leads were nurtured to the Problem
Selection stage and passed to sales in Q1. By the end of Q3, 20 percent of those
leads had converted to customers, for a total of 2,200 customers. The average
annual contract size for each of these customers was $40,000.

With the conversion data in place, we can start to optimize the stage at which
each buyer should be passed to sales. For example, one conclusion to draw from
this data is that the customer conversion rate on Small Business leads is really
high. Perhaps we waited too long to call these leads, and failed to call some
closable prospects that hadn't progressed beyond Solution Selection. Obviously,
this theory can be tested. Instead of waiting for small business buyers to reach
the Solution Selection stage, we can start passing the leads to the sales team
when the Small Business buyers reach the Problem Education stage. Let's
assume, after running the experiment, we find that 30,000 Small Business leads
were nurtured to the Problem Education stage and passed to the sales team. After
a few quarters, only 5 percent of those leads converted to customers, for a total
of 1,500 customers. The average purchase price remained the same at $40,000.

In this case, the experiment failed. When the Small Business leads were passed
to Sales at the Solution Selection stage, the small business sales team converted
2,200 customers at an average purchase price of $40,000. They generated $88
million from those leads. During the experiment, the Small Business leads were
sent to the sales team at the Problem Education stage. The sales team converted
1,500 customers at an average purchase price of $40,000. They generated $60
million from those leads. The team performed better when the leads were passed
to Sales at the Solution Selection stage. When the leads were passed at the
Problem Education stage, the team was likely overwhelmed with the volume of
leads and wasted more time on lesser qualified opportunities. This, in turn, drove
down revenue productivity.

Become a Buyer Matrix Expert through Microsegmentation

In this example, we started with a very simple buyer matrix. I recommend you
do the same when starting out. However, as you begin to understand your buyer
matrix in greater detail, you realize that there are more complex behaviors in
play than this simple model can accommodate. For example, in the Enterprise