You've just had a productive call with your prospect. But what are your next steps? Do you register your meeting notes in your CRM and move on to your next task for the day?

A fundamental step in your post-call routine that you might be missing is sending a recap email. A recap email after a connection with your prospect is one way to keep the conversation/discussion you've had with your prospect at the top of your mind and reinforces the next steps in 3 important ways:

Emails crystalize the highlights of your meeting. This is a great way to reinforce the key takeaways from the meetings and increases the likelihood of the prospect remembering the main points of the discussion.

Gives you the chance to confirm the next steps. This is a great way for you to reference a specific date and time for your next meeting. This serves as a way to remind the prospect and motivates them to add this to their calender. 

Add value. You can dive deeper into your prospect's situation, goals, and pain points to get a better sense of how you can help them. Every recap message is an opportunity to provide a tip or offer a relevant resource.

3 Recap Email Templates to Use After Connecting with Your Prospect

1. Call recap

Connect calls are typically used to establish a relationship with the buyer and are relatively brief. In your follow-up email reiterate the main challenge or objective you have identified and some relevant advice. Attach a useful piece of content if you have one.

Template example:

Hi [name]

Thanks for sharing about your role at [company name] earlier today -- not to mention, speaking about [rapport building point]

To recap, you're currently [struggles to achieve what goal]. I'm suggesting [strategy or quick tip]. Here are some resources attached that cover [this topic], which may also be of help.

Let me know if I can answer any questions about this content and/or my recommendations. I'm looking forward to speaking to you again on [date and time].

Best,

[Your name]

2. Touch base recap

You're not always going to be following up with a prospect after a lengthy call or pitch meeting. However, it is still equally important to send a follow-up email after the call to answer questions or see how they're progressing in the process.

Don't skimp on these emails. Offer as much content and value as you would after a demo, and reinforce that you're always happy to answer more questions.

Template example:

Hi [name],

I really enjoyed answering your questions this morning and taking a deeper dive into how we can help you overcome [challenges discussed].

Here's [resource #1 and #2] that demonstrate how we can help you boost [goal] and solve [your challenge].

Looking forward to our next meeting on [date and time]. In the meantime, let me know if you have any questions.

Regards,

[Your name]

3. Meeting recap

Your post-discover email should tell the buyer you're on the same page so they feel confident enough to move forward. Summarize the most important things you've learned from the conversation: their high-level challenges, the tactical suggestions you've provided and the mutually agreed-upon next steps.

Template example:

Hi [name],

Thanks for a great conversation today. We discussed the [obstacles you're facing in X area, progress you're hoping to make with Y initiative, changes you're implementing to Z], specifically:

• Point 1
• Point 2
• Point 3

I'm linking to more information on these points and potential solutions.

As mentioned the next step is [recommendation]. I look forward to our next meeting on [date and time].

Regards,

[Your name]

Conclusion

A concisely well-written recap email helps buyers to keep track of the main points of your sales discussion and it also looks more organised. Which may boost your prospect's confidence in you. And this doesn't take much time or money to do. Just 10-minutes to improve your prospect's sales experience with you.

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3 Creative Chinese New Year Marketing Ideas

This is the year of the ox. Happy Chinese New Year from everyone at EVERWORKS. ‘Niu’ (which is Chinese for ‘Ox’ for us non-native speakers) ushers in unconventional ways of celebrating the Lunar New Year. For many, red money packets are replaced with online transfers, family reunions are smaller and held in private, and traditional yee sang’s are delivered by Grab riders instead of waiters in restaurants. Yet despite these changes – the excitement to leave a year marred by a global pandemic remains high. While the Year of the Rat was fast, hard and active; the Chinese Zodiac foresees the year of the Ox to bring positivity, honesty and hard work. According to Chinese astrologers, the traits of the Ox, such as diligence, persistence, and altruism will be greatly rewarded in the coming year. Here are some of the ways the traits of an Ox can carry us through yet another uncertain year.

Here are 3 creative content marketing ideas to boost up your marketing campaigns

1. Encourage user-generated content

Celebrate Chinese New Year with your audiences by encouraging the to create and share festive-themed content. 

This can be a related challenge for the first Chinese New Year in Malaysia that's from home and without visitations!

If developing a website or app is beyond your budget you can try some of these ideas:

1. Come up with a social campaign through your owned social channels or
2. You can trigger a Chinese New Year-themed email campaign or
3. You can plan for an SMS Marketing campaign

2. Create an Awesome Live Video

Did you know that live video is one of the biggest trends moving forward into the #newnormal?

Businesses used to deliberate the relevance of producing videos due to the heavy costs of production, but with the dawn of the internet and ever-increasing tools from apps the cost vs the popularity of video has proven to be an avenue that most businesses can explore now.

In fact, people appreciate raw, in-the-moment footage. Take that self vlogs covering everyday life to be one of the biggest trends in YouTube currently. You can show how your business is going about festivities amidst the pandemic situation. Also, a great way to showcase your company culture!

3. Provide useful content for your customers

Festivals can be stressful occassions. The 15 days of Chinese New Year, and all the preparations that lead up to it, especially during the pandemic of COVID-19. From not knowing where to get food to having to juggle the kids while working from home!

Your customers will surely appreciate the content that will make their lives easier and your customers with their Chinese New Year planning by offering tutorials, guides, and templates! You can even take it one step further by preparing custom made sets that make it easy for them to prepare for Chinese New Year.

Conclusion

Get creative and your customers will remember you for it. In this ever saturated advertising market place festive discounts and promotions are nice to have but predictable and not very exciting. If you want your marketing campaign to stand out this Chinese New Year, get creative and try one of these holiday marketing ideas!

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5 Important Sales Metrics You Should Track

In today's age, there's an abundance of data. And even with today's latest tools helping us to measure everything there's a lot to digest. Just which metrics should you be focusing on when there is an endless list of metrics, reports and data points collected.

This can be overwhelming, and when you're overwhelmed, it can be difficult to analyze the data, interpret it and make the right decision. So here's where things take an interesting turn. Is there a solution to the overwhelming data. Rather than tracking everything it would make the most sense to track only the important things.

Performance metrics are a measure of a business or employees' tasks and activities. They are often quantified and measured over time. These metrics are tracked and ranges are selected to identify what is an ideal performance.

Businesses use performance metrics to determine if their outcomes align with the goals that were set. Usually if a performance metric falls below the range that was set, this may indicate underperformance, whereas, if the outcome falls on the range or above it the business is deemed to be meeting its goals or exceeding them.

Metrics are important because they help you to evaluate your performance and inform your decision making.

Choosing the "right" metrics depend on various factors such as your sales organization, industry or company. We've found these 5 metrics to have the tendency of holding impotance to sales leaders across the board.

Here are the 5 most important sales metrics you should definitely be tracking to skyrocket your sales.

1. Percentage of sales teams hitting their quota

Attainment of quota means that the percentage of salespeople meeting or exceeding their targets tell you whether your quotas are set too high or low. As a general rule of thumb, your quotas may be unrealistic if less < 60% of your salespeople are hitting their allocated quotas. On the flipside it could also mean that you need to hire better salespeople. One other area that is often underlooked isn't the target or the team, but it could be the compensation plan. 

2. Average deal size

Average deal size is calculated by dividing total number of deals by the total dollar amount of those deals.

When measuring this metric on a monthly or quarterly basis tells you whether your contracts are getting larger, smaller, or staying the same. If you're trying to move upmarket, you want the average deal size to increase. If you're trying to land more small businesses you want this number to go down (however your number of customers to go up)

Average deal size can also help you to spot potentially risky deals. Let's say one of your salespeople adds an opportunity which is 4x larger than the normal ones you usually track, you should expect the probability of closing to be lower and the sales process will likely take longer.

3. Conversion rate

This measures how many leads that actually convert and ultimately become customers. For example if you have 500 leads per month and on average 50 buy your product your conversion rate is 10%.

This metric will help you to calculate how many leads you need to make to reach your revenue targets. Historical conversion rates also show whetther your reps are becoming more effective. Keep in mind that your win rate will probably reduce as you move upmarket but will increase as you shift to small businesses.

4. Revenue

Revenue is your most important KPI. Although gross income might seem to be a relatively simple metric, it can be often be overlooked.

On the other hand for subscription businesses you should track revenue based on a recurring basis either monthly or annually. 

Break down in these 3 ways to see more about your revenue metric:

1. Percentage of new business
2. Percentage of upsell/cross-sell/expansion
3. Percentage of renewal

Depending your goals, growing each of these will differ from time to time.

5. Sales funnel leakage

This tells how many prospects have dropped out of your funnel. To determine your leaky points track stage-by-stage conversion rates. At different stages of your sales process you can learn different areas to improve.

For example, if 40% of new prospects agree to a discovery but half of these make it to the demo stage, but just 5% end up buying. This difference between the demo and buying can lead to a few different inferences. 

1. Your salespeople are not qualified enough
2. Your salespeople are giving bad demos
3. Your salespeople are negotiating poorly.
4. Your product does not meet the demands of the market.

Conclusion

By finding and improving on these weak points you can dramatically improve your sales results by at least 50%.

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