Find the signals within the noise and boost sales

Find the signals within the noise and boost sales

With the dramatic rise in revenue point solutions over the past eight years, GTM teams now have more data than ever. Unfortunately, because it’s siloed across so many diverse tools, it has never produced less business value. In today’s ‘noisy’ and competitive market, understanding your customers, what’s relevant to them, and their specific needs is an essential ingredient for sales success. And that requires true insight into the thinking and actions of your buyers.

The old way of building pipeline

The old way of prospecting was more ‘quantity over quality’ and every GTM team had a tool that they believed would give them a competitive edge. The onus was put on the revenue team to identify the target account ICP (employee count, revenue, industry, tech stack usage, including competitors).  Marketing or the SDR team would launch a demand generation or ABM campaign to contacts that fit the buyer persona (title, seniority) with messaging that addressed how a particular product was the only solution to the perceived pain points. Various call-to-actions from free trials to gift cards were used to try and secure a meeting. Call to meeting ratios, click throughs and open rates were used to gauge success. It was basically ‘spray and pray’ and no one ever had a complete picture of the buyer.

Signal-based selling. The new way of building pipeline

So, what is signal-based selling?

It's a sales approach that requires paying attention to the subtle cues, behaviors and indicators that customers and target customers reveal throughout the sales process. Top GTM teams leverage these clues, which can come in various forms, such as contact-level website traffic, page views, marketing campaign engagement, product usage, job changes, and even sentiments during call recordings. They also can come in the form of company signals, such as promotions, new hires, funding rounds and more.

By collecting and analyzing indicators at both the company and contact level, sales and marketing teams can gain valuable insights into the needs, preferences, and pain points of their customers. This deeper understanding allows them to determine who (both company and contact) to reach out to, when to reach out, and most importantly why they’re reaching out. By honing in on the thinking and planning of your target buyers you can find the signal in the noise.

How can you harness signals to boost revenue?

Personalization. Signals from target and current customers such as a major company event (funding round) or a contact-level event (job change) enables sales and marketing teams to personalize their interactions and offerings to build stronger relationships and get noticed.

Improved Sales Efficiency. Understanding customer signals can help sales teams prioritize who to reach out to, focus on high-potential opportunities, and optimize their sales strategies for better results. Leveraging tools that sync with internal tools and workflows can enable cross-functional team efficiencies.

Higher Conversion Rates.  When sales teams align their offerings with the specific needs and preferences of the buying committee which can be gleaned from their actions, they are more likely to convert leads into sales.

Strategies for Effective Signal-Based Selling

Collect and Analyze Customer Data. Start by gathering data from various sources. This can be done manually across LinkedIn, the company’s CRM and with tools that capture third party intent.  However, without a way to centralize and normalize the data, it’s just data with no value-add. Products like Lantern leverage AI to mine the wealth of customer data across 30+ different sources, aggregate it and then integrate it seamlessly into workflows. Once that data is normalized, AI can be leveraged to identify patterns, trends, and customer preferences.

Leverage Next-Gen Technology. 70% of customer data today resides outside of the CRM. By leveraging next-gen revenue platforms to streamline data collection and sync with internal tools, sales teams can better track customer signals in real-time and respond proactively.

Engage with Customers. Actively engage with customers through multiple channels such as email, social media, mutual action plans and recorded in-person meetings. Pay attention to their responses, feedback, and interactions to uncover valuable signals. As sales goes further into the buyer journey, they’re getting cues about objections, such as pricing, timing, the competition and more. These clues that are being broadcast can help dispel objections and move the deal along faster.  

Offer Tailored Solutions. Based on the signals gathered, customize the product recommendations, pricing options, and sales pitches to meet the specific needs of each customer. Reach out at the 9 month mark to closed-loss deals to competitors ahead of renewal time.  

Conclusion

Top-performing sales teams are already leveraging signals to unlock new opportunities, drive revenue growth, and build long-lasting relationships with their customers. By using technology to help capture signals across sources other than the CRM, embedding data into internal workflows, and personalizing outreach, sales teams can soar to new heights.

Discover job movement signals you may be missing by trialing Lantern’s Champion Chaser today.

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