In this action-packed ebook we share the steps you need to take to transform virtual events into revenue, starting with better post-event sales follow-ups.
High-conversion sales follow-ups require two simple things: data and a rockstar sales team.
At Goldcast, we have your back on the first one. But unfortunately, it’s on you to close the gap between sales and marketing — and for many field marketing teams, the struggle is real because:
With sales and marketing misalignment cited as the #1 reason an organization’s annual revenue stagnates or declines, you need to get on the same page — and fast.
Because although marketers and sales people tend to be seen as inherently different, you do share a primary objective: Revenue.
Above all other teams, sales and marketing have a tangible, measurable, frontline impact on ROI.
Producing a stellar event only for sales to abandon the leads after the event closes, is like baking a cake and forgetting to put a timer on — a frustrating waste of time and money. As a revenue-driven field marketer, you need sales to fulfil their role, and they need you to ace yours.
If one fails, so does the other.
In this action-packed ebook we’ll help you make sure both sides do their part by answering your biggest questions about how to work with sales to create better post-event follow-ups. Ready? Let’s go!
Sales and marketing misalignment cited as the #1 reason an organization’s annual revenue stagnates or declines.
You already know you need sales, so it’s up to you to entice them in.
And what better way to engage them than by kicking off a conversation about, you guessed it — revenue.
Your initial conversation should focus on setting clear, sales-led goals.
Depending on the size of your event, you’ll likely need anywhere from 4-6 weeks promotion time in order to hit the attendee numbers you’re after. The earlier you start the conversation, the better.
To really make a connection with sales, switch up your mindset. Instead of asking ‘What event data can marketing get out of this?’, consider asking:
‘What revenue-friendly event data can we provide to the sales team?’
“When two teams respect each other and respect each other's work, I think that's when you have the most success,” says Anna Suslova, Senior Marketing Manager at Axonius. She regularly checks in with sales to ask ”How can we help you be more successful as a sales director or rep?”
Best way to find this out?
Your job is to get sales to see that this event is worth their time and attention. Get them excited about all the ways event data can help them hit their targets and bring in revenue.
Event success differs for everyone, so sales needs to communicate which KPIs will best measure event success for them.
For the sake of keeping things clear and focused, there are essentially three levels of virtual event KPIs you can offer.
First, you have your baseline virtual event KPIs:
But honestly, number of registrations doesn’t help sales all that much. They need to know what opportunities are waiting in the pipeline now and in the near future.
So up your game with some deep engagement insights, including:
Did we just hear a “meh” from sales? Ok, time for the event data superpowers.🦸
While deep engagement analytics can be an awesome tool to empower sales to personalize their follow ups, if you really want to win them over, you’re going to need to prove a real connection between your event and their bottom line.
You’ve heard it before: The money is in the follow up.
So while it may be the last action point on the agenda, you need to be focused on nailing the post-event follow-up from your very first kick-off meeting.
These data-driven event KPIs can help get the sales team’s buy-in:
1. Net new leads
2. Number of touch points/influenced pipeline
4. Lead progression velocity
5. Closed-won opportunities
Now there’s the “wow” factor we were after. 🤩
3. Specific account level insights
Terminus Marketing Manager, Ottavio Dattolo, understands the impact working with sales before the event can have on follow-up success rates.
Opening a dialogue with sales from the get-go allowed the Terminus marketing team to:
And all of this needs to happen long before you get to the ‘thanks for coming’ email.
Did you know that in an average sales loop, 60% of the cycle is over before a sales rep even gets involved?
And who’s doing all the work up to that point? You of course! But with sales on your side, you can spend less time spinning your wheels and more time making your event as relevant as possible.
Because no matter which way you cut it, sales have the most experience when it comes to talking to prospects. Why not leverage their insights and communication skills to create content that will help accelerate the pipeline post-event?
To help bring sales in closer (and improve your chances of relevant follow-up), choose a virtual event platform that allows reps to attend and engage customers via:
Facilitating relevant sales-led sessions allows the sales team to experience how great your event is firsthand and compel them to take action to transform those sessions into revenue after the event is over.
Alright, if you’ve taken the above steps, you’re fast on your way to awesome closed-won opps. But the smarketing fun doesn’t stop here.
You need to hand over relevant and insightful data that’s on the money (and generates some too 💰).
It’s easy to get carried away with all the amazing data you’ve collected, but when handing off to sales you need to hone in on the data they requested for their goals.
This is where detailed data from your event platform comes into play.
Sales really appreciated that they knew exactly what the attendee had done...When they were following up they could say, ‘Hey, we saw that you watched talk, here are some talking points’ or ‘We saw that you clicked on this, do you have any questions about it?
The more insights you have on each and every account in your pipeline, the more specific and need-meeting the conversation becomes. And that’s important.
So much so in fact, that customers who feel recognized by a company are 90% more likely to buy your product. That’s a massive conversion increase just by collecting insightful virtual event data and applying it to your sales follow-ups.
It’s no wonder then that companies with good smarketing alignment achieve 20% annual revenue growth — sharing data insights is second nature to them. And it can be for you too.
Allocate time to go through your data and ensure you’re providing sales with the relevant metrics they care about (and not a bunch they don’t).
You’ve prepped, you’ve tracked, now time to kick back with a glass of vino and catch some z’s, right? Afraid not.
The post-event hand-off is a vital part of any data-led event strategy. Here’s how to nail it.
Display virtual event data in a sales-friendly way
Maybe it’s an unfair judgment, but salespeople are not known to be the most patient.
They have calls to make, emails to send and bonuses to claim. If you do a data dump right on their lap (or screen) they’re not going to thank you for it.
Find a virtual event data solution that seamlessly integrates with your existing systems.
Now that you know which metrics your sales team actually cares about, find a virtual event data solution that seamlessly integrates with your existing systems, such as:
With the right event platform, you can even give your sales team direct access to the analytics dashboard where they can access all those juicy account-level insights.
We’re not just signing people up and dumping them into Salesforce hoping the contacts get found. We’re as thoughtful as possible about the backend systems as we are about the front end experience.
We never want to see a situation where these great people went to an event and are like, ‘So what happens next?’ simply because we got in our own way.
Don’t forget to segment your attendees
Anna Suslova knows data rules. She takes it as a given to make things simple, both for her and her sales team. Here’s how the Senior Marketing Manager at Axonius segments the different types of attendees and sets sales up to know exactly which content they should send each one post-event:
Follow up is how you convert. You have to test different things out beyond just ‘Here’s your recording, I’m here if you need me.’ You have to keep going.
Provide data-driven drip campaign templates
When it comes to sales follow-ups, it’s tough to overemphasize the importance of personalization.
Anna also sends her sales team done-for-you post-event follow up templates to make sending those emails a complete no-brainer.
You can also go the extra mile and present sales with your super compelling account-level insights, simply by adding up attendee touchpoints, such as the number of:
By arming your sales team with curated campaigns that nurture the attendee based on their engagement level, you’re helping bring the brand experience full circle and accelerate their journey through the pipeline.
Speed is important because leads are obviously the most engaged immediately following an event. Having clear metrics for expected follow-up from your SDRs or AE (within a certain amount of time following the event and minimum number of follow-ups) is crucial. Agreeing on these expectations early and often in the event prep will ensure your teams are well aligned to execute.
