Sales and Marketing Funnels as a Communication Network

Overview

Uniform Teeth is a top healthcare provider with national branches throughout the United States, focused on chiropractic care for patients. Their business model consisted of a centralized office that supported administrative and marketing practices with affiliate doctor offices throughout the states that were able to support the growth of the business.

While the business model highlighted robust growth and fast opportunities for those requiring dental care, the internal approach to marketing was ready to move into a growth phase, with many of the processes and systems for marketing still using a start up and manual approach that now required scalability. 

Problem

The audit as well as the responses from the sales and marketing team highlighted that their approach was a “Frankenstein” setup. This expression started with the number of platforms being used, including HubSpot, Customer.io, Monday.com, a data warehouse, Zen Desk, and independent systems that were set up by practitioners within each location. When someone entered into the system as a prospect or a patient, it was difficult to determine where they were in the customer journey as well as what correspondence was taking place. 

The central issue that was highlighted from the build of the communication processes was the sales team. This was hindering the customer support, central data warehouse, and the lifecycle team from being able to build and grow their capacity. Because of the Frankenstein methodology, the sales team found that the best approach was to place their efforts in a Google Excel sheet. Each night, someone would update inquiries and the workflow took place manually by the team updating the sheet as they decided which leads they would follow up with. 

Not only did this create a lack of transparency of where the leads were in the pipeline. It also caused customer support and sometimes the local practitioners to overlap with sales they were trying to close. In other instances, many inquiries were dropped and never received information, showing a loss in net revenue as well as growth within the company. 

Sample of the spreadsheet that was used for the sales team. When a new inquiry was made or a new reach out was made, it would go into a completely different excel sheet, highlighting limitations in the pipeline and the ability to track or follow the process for those that were in the sales stages. 

Not only did the spreadsheet limit the process for sales, but it was not readily available to other practitioners, specifically because of compliance that had to be followed and which developed bottlenecks with those that were working within the system. 

Defining the Data

The first stage to the audit and correctional course was to begin to define and streamline data. This pivoted from the data warehouse, redefining this as the central source and building outwards. Before, each piece of data was different between the inquiries, causing confusion with the prospects, personal information, as well as what types of inquiries and information they had. By consolidating this, it provided a pivot to support with those that were associated with the company. 

Before

After

To define the data to its fullest, it was divided between actions that someone could take in various platforms as well as profile information that was help within each of the platforms. This was streamlined between the different platforms, creating consistency in how data communicated to each of the platforms. As a result, the providers, whether they were centralized or in local offices, were able to define exactly who someone was and what events and behaviors related directly to them. 

Defining the Pipeline

The pipeline was furthered with how it communicated from the data warehouse and to the sales team. To leverage this efficiency, mapping of the data took place from the warehouse and to Monday.com, which was able to add in members in real time and support better results. This helped to streamline the operations and help with the necessary communication taking place with prospects. This gave the sales team consistent information to work with and also supported consistency with the local to centralized information that all members working within the company needed to know. 

Building the Monday Platform

The consistency with the pipeline followed with building line items and information in the Monday platform, specifically to have customized data from the sales team that was added in and pushed back to the central data warehouse. This supported the level of communication that needed to occur with those that were associated with the brand while providing consistency between team members and roles within the company. 

Line items were connected to the main pipeline within the system which then provided reporting and transparency with team members. The dashboard creation supported those who were on hold, lost leads, won leads, total revenue, and the build of the results from the processes needed. This offered measurable results that allowed the team to continuously work toward improvements and assisted with the managerial processes that were required. 

The line items were not only inclusive of the sales team management but interrelated to the clinic visits that took place before a lead closed. This was a communication process that was added in for local practitioners and connected back to the sales team for a different pipeline. The leads were defined by the before and after consultation process, specifically to support follow-up measurements that were needed to deliver tangible results. 

Defining Communication

To support the development and growth of the sales channel, streamlined approaches to communication were added in. This consisted of defining the methodologies for communication in 3 steps. The first was the scripting and approach that the sales team needed to continue with. The second was a semi-automation playbook that created consistency in when someone should be contacted based on the data, pipeline, and initial information. The third was sequencing approaches that were added in as an automation to help with those that were in different stages but needed gentle reminders as a follow-up. 

The flows that were created were inclusive of cross-channel methodologies, (SMS, email, and calls), showing fluidity between the different platforms as well as best methodologies for contacting someone at a specific time. By combining this approach, there was more consistency and opportunity to have better results and to communicate easily with those associated with the brand. 

The defining points within each flow also considered when someone should receive marketing materials vs. customer support vs. sales, specifically to streamline communication between different points. Doing this in combination with the data warehousing approach allowed the teams to have effective communication while focusing only on the tasks and follow-up for their team while the platforms and data warehouse information provided the rest of the support. 

Conclusion

The build of the sales system with opportunities to consolidate data supported a robust, consistent, and streamlined system for the company. By building out the centralized data warehouse in a way that communicated with the team members and platforms, it provided better opportunities for those that were in each team. As a result, it was able to create better processes, understanding of prospects, and an increase in the rates to close within the team. 

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