What’s the end result they are looking for? To take 50 customers a month to 150? Increase revenue from x to 3x?

What’s the average deal size? What about the sales cycle? What kind of sales team do they have? What’s the sales closing rate on average?

My thoughts: a 2.5% conversion rate sucks, especially for B2B. Which means there is either an inefficiency in the sales process or the leads process.

It’s usually a bit of both, but in my opinion, the marketing process gets scrutinized far more than the sales process.

The biggest gains imo, are made in the sales process, not the leads process. A good sales system can make good leads into great customers. A bad sales system on the other hand, takes good leads and turns them into negative reviews.

Benchmark for “average” companies in B2B for paid media is around 2.5%. That’s for average companies. If I were you, I would focus on doubling that conversion rate, because not only does it keep your cost down, but it helps keep the salespeople happy.

A weekly email newsletter is a good start, but in my opinion, that alone will not move the needle.

So here’s what I would do.

1: Review the existing sales process, as well as predominant sales trends. This has to come first before anything else. If the sales process sucks, you could be giving them home run leads and still end up in the shitter. I would ask for a breakdown conversion rate by month for the entire sales team. Talk to the CSO or VP of sales. See how they think things are going. Then, talk to the sales managers on the floor. Normally the VP and CSO will feed you all kinds of honeyed bullshit, but the sales managers will tell you if the sales process really works or not.

2: Look at the existing customer base. Can you upsell them? Too many companies are focused on getting more customers…but they forget that the best customer is a customer you already have. Customers that already like you will buy more, and buy more frequently. Any company that doesn’t have an upsell needs one.

3: Once you’ve looked at current customers, and have your conversion benchmark, break it down even further by channel. Which channels are doing the best? For B2B, normally the best lead sources are organic and referral, followed by SEM.

4: Find the channels that are performing above average, and the ones that aren’t. Separate them out into two groups. Ideally, you’ll break them even further down into separate classifications by channel, depending on what data is in the CRM.

5: For the winners, identify if there is potential to scale the existing efforts. For example, let’s say Google Ads is producing a 6% conversion rate. Dive into the data and figure out how much of the addressable market is underserved. There are multiple different ways to look at this, so I’ll leave that up to you.

5a: If you have existing clients, FIGURE OUT A REFERRAL PROGRAM THAT WORKS. So many freaking B2B companies have referral programs, but they suck! Figure out what works, whether it’s a premium upgrade for the referer and referee or a discount. Get it right though, and you’re in for it.

6: Now, look at the underperforming channels. Figure out why they are underperforming. For example, Facebook might be generating a lot of leads, but the leads are poor quality and not leading to conversions. Can you optimize what is currently being done without having to change everything? If you can’t, better to more or less cut the channel and double down on the winners until you can re-incorporate it.

7: Once you’ve optimized your existing channels, now it’s time to get creative with new opportunities. In my opinion, over a 12 month period, you should be looking at organic traffic combined with a multi-channel lead nurturing sequence combining email, paid media, webinars, and perhaps person to person outreach. Again, this can be complicated so I’m going to leave the details out.

If you want me to go more in-depth, I can. This is very basic and leaves out messaging, authority building, reviews, partnerships, and all that fun shit out. But, hopefully, this is helpful.

Good luck my brother, keep us updated on what happens. I hope you get the job. I’m rooting for you!