Selling is a highly competitive business activity. There are a limited number of qualified leads, and every member of your team wants every one of those leads. In fact, after getting proper training, finding quality leads is the biggest challenge for sales people. But it’s not just a matter of getting the leads – it’s what you do with them. Making the most out of the leads you do get will drive your team to success. Following a few best practices will help your sales staff stay focused on the leads.
- Start with the best data-qualified leads. Almost 60% of inside sales managers ranked finding good leads as their biggest challenge in a Forbes article. In order to find the best leads you want to start with what you know. Who are your best customers and how can you find more customers like them? Those should be great leads. What characteristics do your best customers share? For B2B sales, there’s commonalities between industries, geography, and business size. For B2C sales there’s commonalities between demographics, purchasing behaviors and lifestyle indicators. Know your customers and you will know their key characteristics. The data marketing experts at Salesgenie help find good leads all day, every day, working with our proprietary database of 245 million consumers and 25 million businesses.
- Respond immediately. If a prospect sends an inquiry email, or fills out an online form, your team should be prepared to follow up within minutes. Anyone seeking out information from your business is very likely highly interested and motivated. Every minute your team spends not responding is one minute that prospect could be working with your competitor. Set a response time – five minutes, one hour, etc. – that is reasonable for your business. The larger your sales team, the shorter response time you should expect. Keep track of email arrival times and when those leads are followed up, then make sure you’re providing adequate support to close the gap.
- Be persistent and nurture. Your team needs to know the difference between “not at this time” and “don’t call again.” Following up on a “not at this time” could turn a lead into a customer. Train your staff in the art of being persistent without being a pest and nurturing leads. Finds ways to continually provide value and deepen the relationship. Knowing how to get past even four or five “no” answers could boost your success. According to Marketo, companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales at a 33% lower cost.
Making the most out of your sales leads takes practice and discipline. Once a prospect enters your sales funnel, you’ll want to track and nurture that lead until it becomes a customer. Let Salesgenie help, with one of our packages that offers everything your team needs to close the deal.
