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Writer's pictureDimitris Adamidis

The Revenue Gap: Why Personalized Sales Messaging Outperforms Generic Approaches by 40%.

Personalized Messaging
71 percent of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions

RevOps Venture's mission focuses on the significance of processes, measurement, and technical alignment. We enable effective management and optimization of GTM strategy through methodologies, tools, and best practices. Our focus on success criteria and technical fit guides decision-making and ensures solutions align with business goals.


 

According to McKinsey, over three-quarters of customers (76%) said personalized messages were essential in enhancing their consideration of a brand, and 78 percent said such communication made them more willing to repurchase. In the same research, 71 percent of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions, and 76 percent get frustrated when this doesn’t happen.


So, what does this mean for your sales messaging? The bottom line is that personalizing sales messages is no longer a luxury; it's a necessity. Sales message personalization refers to tailoring sales communications to meet the specific needs, preferences, and behaviors of individual prospects or customers. According to McKinsey stats, your communication becomes more relevant when you try personalization and incredibly irrelevant when you do that. However, the messaging is not as easy as it seems, as it involves a couple of things that must work in concert between many parties and must be very well coordinated by the revenue operations teams, aiming to drive growth and enhance customer relationships. Personalized messaging is not limited to customized emails, as many think. Yes, that will include it, but it must be well connected to market reality, competitors, product enablement, a deep understanding of the persona's problems, and day-to-day work. Understanding procedures inside your ICP will be critical in ensuring you can tailor a game plan for your accounts while working on them as a seller. 


Personalization is an essential element of execution that has two problems. One is the creativity part, which combines the known results and unchartered territory. The sales teams must use both while trying to provide the value proposition. On the one hand, since your value proposition was tested and had traction of success, this is no longer a pure hypothesis. This means you can hinge on this, talking about your product and your successes implementing it. However, the market is constantly changing, bringing new competition, so you need to change how you convey the message. That's where the personalization comes into play. However, we need to remember that personalization can't be successful without a clearly stated value proposition around your product or services. This is a critical component that your teams, marketing, SDR, and sales can use to build sustainable elements of the GTM execution. 


Using an example, we can consider a company that sells cloud-based project management software with a value proposition: "Our project management software helps mid-sized marketing agencies streamline workflows, improve team collaboration, and deliver projects 25% faster, resulting in increased client satisfaction and profitability." With that clarity, teams can  define the approach effectively:

  1. Marketing team: They can create targeted content for marketing agencies, highlighting how the software addresses specific pain points like missed deadlines or communication gaps. They might develop case studies showing how similar agencies improved project delivery times. This is where we create a broader space for the SDR and Sales team to choose from to be creative. 

  2. SDR (Sales Development Representative) team: When reaching out to prospects, SDRs can tailor their pitch based on the agency's size and typical projects. For instance, "I noticed your agency specializes in digital campaigns in the automotive industry. Our software has helped [many similar-sized] agencies reduce campaign delivery times by 25%, allowing them to take on more clients. Here are a few documented use cases you might want to learn from. I'm happy to walk through in detail."

  3. Sales team: During demos or sales calls, representatives can focus on features most relevant to marketing agencies, such as client reporting tools or integration with common marketing platforms. Tailored experience through prerecorded demos can bring some questions to the meeting, allowing you to get deeper into the solution the prospect seeks. They can ask targeted questions about the prospect's current project management challenges and demonstrate how the software solves them.


Without this clear value proposition, personalization efforts might be scattered and inconsistent, as you are not framing the messaging throughout the sales process. The marketing team might create generic content about project management. SDRs could struggle to articulate why the software is precious for marketing agencies, and the sales team might not emphasize the most relevant features and benefits. Having good examples that correspond with the buyer's objectives and customers and providing familiarity with their business model helps accelerate the go-to-market (GTM) execution. Since your sales teams are moving in the same territory created by the marketing team, you will be supported at each step. 


The second problem is how to measure effectively the results of the personalization process. The answer here is more complicated as this can be done at the very individual, team, and entire sales organization level. The individual level is easy as all tools like Chilli Piper, Outreach, Salesloft, and Revenue.io will solve the problem. No single metric will answer that at the organizational level except for an increased conversion rate. Yes, it's the sales cycle that I'd consider the first measurement that must be monitored while working on the sales personalization process. If your leads are not coming in from the channels, you can't convert enough leads to contacts. The same would be true between contact conversion and opportunities/ deals that SDR converts. You must discover these bottlenecks by diving deep into them based on that metric. You can measure this in multiple ways depending on your sales process motion. I outline this metric because customers are more likely to respond positively to messages that speak directly to their needs and circumstances. By differentiating themselves from competitors who use generic messaging, companies can capture the attention of their target audience more effectively. This differentiation can be the key to winning new business and retaining existing customers in a crowded market.


Before we nail down the complete list of metrics and recommendations for improvement, let's outline the potential risks we might face if we don't solve the problem early enough. Or at least are not constantly searching for improvement in the conversion rate. Firstly, generic messages often result in a loss of customer interest and engagement. Yes, surprisingly, it usually starts in customer success when you see that most of your customers are not responding. These are the symptoms of the bigger problem that very likely will put the CTO/ CPO and post-sales team in a tough spot. Customers today are bombarded with numerous sales communications, and those that do not stand out quickly get ignored. Yes, it means your messaging to your existing customers can't be neglected. Your post-sales teams can't hire constantly or linearly expand their workforce. You can use many tactical solutions to optimize it, but one thing must bring all teams together. Your personalization mechanisms start with the value proposition that must be embedded in the range for sales maneuvering, giving them the ability to be creative. If your value proposition can't be proven by your post-sales team, you will face disengagement and be ignored. This lack of engagement can lead to higher churn rates as customers seek out competitors who provide more tailored and relevant communications.


Additionally, the absence of personalization can lead to a negative brand perception. As found in McKinsey's survey, customers and prospects expect to be approached in a personalized way. If you lack that approach, your company may be perceived as out of touch with their needs or indifferent to their preferences. This perception can be detrimental to brand loyalty and long-term customer relationships. Furthermore, lower conversion rates directly result from ineffective communication, ultimately impacting the company's revenue and growth.


We can't forget the long-term Importance of personalization for a company's strategy execution. This is the biggest fallacy on the market. Most sales teams consider personalization very situational and tactical, at best, to spark someone's interest. If this becomes a north start target, then after several waives, your value proposition will become useless, and your sales teams can't even articulate this properly. Sales message personalization is not a short-term tactic but a crucial component of a company’s long-term strategy execution. Companies can better meet evolving customer expectations by aligning sales communications with customer-centric strategies. Personalization helps businesses adapt to these changes, ensuring their messages remain relevant and adding value. SDR and Sales leaders should constantly monitor their employees' messaging to reveal these wrong practices. 


Moreover, sustained competitive advantage is another benefit of long-term personalization efforts. Here, we have a bit of product dependency and an overall company strategy that must be product or service-experience-oriented. If this is not ingrained in the company's culture, it will be tough to elevate the game from this perspective. As companies continuously refine their personalization strategies, they become more adept at engaging their audience and converting prospects into loyal customers. Gathering the information is the first step. Using written introductions and materials is another one. However, ensuring you provide everything you committed to the customer takes another effort. Demonstrating that the entire organization is dedicated to improving and working continuously to add new ways of communicating about successes and learnings and planning new developments fosters long-term customer loyalty and retention, which is essential for business success.


Conclusions:

I like to think about personalization in terms of buying relatively expensive clothes. You walk to the costly store and are asked what you want. Of course, you have known about this store for a long time after seeing the advertisement, but you have also heard from your friends that they have recommended it. You passed the store often while walking to your office to check the display. You have all the signals about this place, so you are ready to walk in and experience a personalized approach. Yes, the clientele is demanding, so people who work in the store ask you questions that help them to create that experience. They are not like dealership sales folks pushing you to buy extras you don't need, but they sincerely care about your objective. Are you buying a suit for a wedding? Or something for another occasion? That's how it starts, and it should be managed by the sales team. You can't just gather the information for the sake of collecting it in your CRM; it takes a more extensive picture of the customer/ prospect goal to create the approach that will work for the customer who you want to come back and buy another product, perhaps for a different season. While you stay authentic and genuinely care about the customer's big event in their life, you care about the customers buying your software. Sales is the experience you create throughout the process that must be navigated with the element of authenticity. 


Sales message personalization is a powerful tool that significantly enhances value proposition communication, reduces risks associated with generic messaging, and supports long-term strategic goals. By focusing on key metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates, sales and revenue operations teams can effectively measure and adjust their personalization efforts. Integrating these metrics into the company’s strategy ensures sustained competitive advantage, long-term customer loyalty, and overall business success. No single metric can give you the answer, but rather a combination. Yes, starting with the conversion rates gives you a direction or places to optimize. But the list of metrics is much longer, including:


  • Open Rates: Measure how often personalized emails are opened, indicating the effectiveness of subject lines and initial engagement.

  • Click-Through Rates (CTR): Track the number of recipients who click on links within the message, reflecting the content's relevance and appeal.

  • Conversion Rates: Assess the percentage of recipients who take the desired action, such as purchasing or signing up for a service.

  • Response Rates: Measure how many recipients reply to the sales messages, indicating engagement and interest.

  • Customer Satisfaction Scores (CSAT): Evaluate customer satisfaction with the personalized communications they receive.

  • Net Promoter Score (NPS): This score gauges customer loyalty and the likelihood of them recommending the company to others.

  • Revenue Attribution: Analyze the revenue generated from personalized sales messages, clearly showing the financial impact.

  • Average Order Value (AOV): Analyze whether personalized product recommendations lead to higher transaction amounts per customer. An increase in AOV for personalized experiences suggests effective upselling and cross-selling.

  • Revenue Per Visitor (RPV): Calculate the average revenue generated by each visitor exposed to personalization. A higher RPV for personalized segments indicates that personalization drives more value per visitor.

  • Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): Assess the long-term value generated from personalized interactions. Personalized customer segments should have a higher CLV if personalization increases repeat purchases and loyalty.

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