The new word “smarketing”, a combination of sales and marketing, was introduced at a recent Sales 2.0 seminar in the Boston area- for a very good reason. The lines between sales and marketing have become blurred with the introduction of Sales 2.0 processes, techniques and tools including social media, inbound marketing and the focus of this blog post- digital body language.
Digital body language is a phrase most often used by marketers, to describe how a customer or prospect behaves online and/or responds to an internet or digital marketing campaign. Digital body language is measured with KPIs such as email open rates, email link clicks, website visits and PDF downloads.
Since buyers have become extremely web savvy and email has become a popular communication medium, sales leaders need to incorporate digital body language concepts into their sales contact tracking and their measurements of success.
Let’s contrast a traditional sales contact history, with an updated, digital version. This example is inspired from a post on the Innovative Marketer Blog, titled “What is Digital Body Language?”.
Traditional Sales Contact History
- March 1: Sent email – No response
- March 14: Sent email – No response
- March 21: Called – Left voicemail – No response
- March 31: Called – Left voicemail – No response
Based on this history, it is likely that a salesperson will assume that this prospect is not interested and may stop contacting them.
Traditional Sales Contact History PLUS The Customer’s Digital Behavior
- March 1: Sent email – No response
- March 3: Visited 10 web pages at 8:15 a.m.
- March 14:- Sent email. Opened at 8:45 a.m, Clicked through to 3 web pages
- March 21:- Called – Left voicemail. No response. Visited 2 web pages and downloaded an ebook
- March 22: Sent out a Tweet, mentioning ebook and asking followers about your company
- March 31:- Called – Left voicemail – No response
- April 2: Visited 8 web pages
- April 3: Sent out a Tweet providing a link to an article on your company blog
Once you add the digital body language, you get a completely different picture. This prospect is reading your emails, visiting your website and downloading product information. The prospect may be very interested! (Although they may need some training on email and voicemail etiquette!)
How To Track Digital Body Language:
You can track digital body language in your sales department, by upgrading or adding technology to your existing CRM.
If you have Salesforce.com, you can incorporate “The Genius Tracker™, which alerts sales, in real-time, when a prospect reaches a lead scoring threshold or exhibits specific buying behavior. The cutting edge software can even provide “website visit replays”, so a sales person can see exactly what the prospect looked at online. (Cool!)
Eloqua, a company known for marketing automation, recently introduced “Eloqua Prospect Profiler”. Per their website, this CRM add on “provides an intuitive graphical summary of prospect online activities and behaviors – their ‘digital body language’ – that sales professionals can use to focus conversations on topics that will resonate with buyers.”
The standard version of Microsoft Dynamics Sales CRM offers some high level digital behavior in the “lead tracking and routing” area. Partnered with Microsoft Dynamics for Marketing, your sales team can get access to even more digital tracking functionality.
SalesView by InsideView can monitor the web for digital body language on social networking websites, then alert your sales reps when customer/prospect behavior aligns with your selling cycle or activities.
Are you tracking digital body language in your sales organization? Please share your experiences in the comments section.
Terrific article Marci… something we’re thinking through seriously in terms of extending our digital reach and using these enhanced observations to drive greater relevance. “Content is king”, so we have a lot to gain from understaning our customer’s digital body language. In some ways, the selling cycle has become more complex / less obvious… so these new tools are invaluable… ‘smarketing’ is born!
Thanks for the great insights!
Sandro
Sandro[Click to quote this in your comment]
Sandro, thanks for your thoughtful comments. I agree that the selling cycle has become more complex and less obvious… so Sales 2.0 tools can definitely help to improve sales productivity.
Marci Reynolds[Click to quote this in your comment]
I think we need to put it on the table that visibility into “digital body language” is a double edged sword. In your first scenario, the buyer is not responding to outreach by the seller. In the second scenario, the buyer is still not responding to outreach by the seller. Net/net… no forward momentum in the sales process.
Visibility into buyer activity is critical. But, when push comes to shove the only thing that matters is having a conversation with the buyer. The challenge with digital body language is that so many sellers confuse “activity” with “opportunity”.
At the end of the day if you are selling a solution that requires human interaction at some point, the buyer can visit your site till the cows come home but until you engage with them mano y mano, it is just activity not opportunity. Use the data as part of your view of their potential value but don’t make it the only view. That singular view is the double edged sword problem we see in the market. Thanks for listening – your posts always make me think!
trish bertuzzi[Click to quote this in your comment]
Great points Trish! If I were the sales leader viewing this history, I would likely investigate the effectiveness of the sales contacts themselves and determine what the rep. might be able to do differently to generate that interaction. Or, maybe someone new should contact the customer- even the sales leader him/herself.
Bottom line.. the customer is more interested than they appear on the surface. And, you are right. You need a sales interaction- to make the deal.
Your comments make me think too!
Best,
Marci Reynolds
Marci Reynolds[Click to quote this in your comment]
Having implemented marketing automation two years ago after watching Eloqua for about four years (didn’t understand what they were doing), we had the epiphany. For B2B sellers, marketing automation to capture, manage and measure the result of marketing campaigns is a “must have.”
Daily, we take actions that reflect activity on our website, microsits, SEO, email and other programs that we didn’t have visibility to prior to implementing marketing automation.
The ability to track all marketing interactions into a single database (record), to automate subsequent nurturing of initial contacts with relevant content, to score based upon buyer actions so we easily know what’s happening, to engage at a more appropriate time then the initial contact, and to engage with the buyer’s history of interactions to guide our conversations have transformed our marketing and selling activities.
Prices have come down over the last few years so even small companies can deploy what previously was a large company option.
Love your insights. Thanks,
Jim Burns[Click to quote this in your comment]
Jim,
Thank you for your very insightful, detailed comments! It was very helpful to read how your company leveraged marketing automation and used digital body language.
Marci Reynolds[Click to quote this in your comment]
Marci,
Great post, and I love the discussion that it has started. Trish makes a great point (as she always does) that in this example, you’re still not seeing engagement between buyer and seller. BUT, from what we’ve seen in the field (disclosure, I’m with Eloqua), giving sales an understanding of digital body language truly does allow for a lot more direct engagement, on two main fronts:
1) knowing who to connect with: using digital body language to prioritize who you call, and who you don’t
2) knowing what to start a conversation about: perhaps even more important, knowing what a person’s hot-buttons are makes it much more likely you can pique their interest. Seeing the most recent search, or an area of interest, can give you a great guide on what to talk about first, rather than a “can we schedule an hour” type of opener, which rarely works
thanks for the post, great to see the discussion.
Steven Woods[Click to quote this in your comment]
Steve… Thanks for your comments and I appreciate you sharing two ways digital body language has helped you and your salesforce.
Marci Reynolds[Click to quote this in your comment]
I love this convo, because everyone is right. Most of our client campaigns are somehow prioritized in light of digital body language. It helps you rule people out (email bounces from people no longer with company or getting lots of clicks from unqualified “prospects”) as much as rule people in (not only opened email, but clicked on specific qualifying links). The fact is – it’s ultimately the human intervention (analyzing who opened/clicked or placing that phone call to hold that qualifying conversation) that determines the value (and the accuracy) of the digital process.
At the end of the day, digital body language can be misleading. Your digital prospect may be a tease. They are opening and clicking like mad – but all that may prove is that they like your content – they may not be qualified to buy anything from you. There are two things marketers can do to increase the odds of getting the right response from the right prospect. #1 – manage your database carefully. Make sure you are courting your true target, and #2. Qualify with content and links. You can ask your audience to segment themselves – and base your follow-up on that data. This is particularly lucrative in the B2C space – especially if you are getting paid per click, but I digress.
I am working on metrics from our call center that will help demonstrate the value of integrated online campaigns that include tight process between online marketing and outbound phone. Let’s just say that we’re fortunate to live in a time when online marketing is so affordable, and a great crutch to oubound phone (not the other way around, btw).
Kathy Tito[Click to quote this in your comment]
Kathy.. Thank you for adding these insightful comments to the Digital Body Language discussion! I agree that everyone who has commented is right- in some context. You need both the human and digital interaction to make selling work.
Marci Reynolds[Click to quote this in your comment]
A prospect that is interacting with your website, downloading content, reading blog posts, and sharing your content on social networks is a REAL GOOD THING. Get as many of these types of prospects as you can. They will help you spread your message through social WOM and there is a strong likelihood they will at some point soon buy from you or your competitor.
Sales leaders need to understand the way the new economy works. They need to realize the opportunity that exists when you create something that makes prospects and customers circle around your brand. They need to be in their marketing department’s ear about creating this type of forum for customers. It will make it much easier to sell if you do.
Chad Levitt[Click to quote this in your comment]
Chad.. I completely agree with you and like the added concept of WOM. The prospect him/herself may not buy- buy they may influence other prospects to buy. So, no matter what, their digital behavior is important to track. Thanks for your comments!
Marci Reynolds[Click to quote this in your comment]
Marci,
I just wanted to let you know that I will be including this blog post in our newsletter tomorrow morning. I felt the content and message were spot on to some of the things happening in our portfolio and prospect base right now. I’d like to send you the copy, but I had trouble finding an email address. Thanks for sharing!
Cheers,
Amanda
Amanda Maksymiw[Click to quote this in your comment]
Nicely put Marci. Relevant, clear, concise. It is surprising to me how many companies do not yet take advantage of these technologies. We have looked at several of these including Marketo and find they offer real advancements and productivity gains. Our company designs and creates Blueprints for Automated Marketing. As simple as it sounds, it really is nice to have a blueprint in front of you when you build a marketing process in Genius, Eloqua or any of the others. It shortens the implementation cycle and makes our lives much easier. I appreciate your insight! http://bit.ly/ayeen.
Ayeen[Click to quote this in your comment]
Ayeen.. Thank you for your comments and sharing some of the vendors available to help other readers.
Amanda.. Thrilled to have this post linked in your newsletter. Thanks!
Marci Reynolds[Click to quote this in your comment]
Please send my subscription to the email above.
Felipa Mata[Click to quote this in your comment]