Establishing Sales Leads

Posted by Business Development Team on Jul 23, 2010 in Best Practices | Comments Off

Establishing Sales Leads

If you do a search for “get sales leads,” you’ll find several companies that will sell you “leads” by the thousands. But… how many of those will turn into actual sales? Is this the right approach for your business model? If not, what is the best strategy to grow your sales pipeline? If you have others in your organization contacting customers, then how do you empower them with the tools they need to maximize their success?

Grow

Sure, you can spend about $150 and get a list of 1,000 or so names. Realistically, how many of those people will buy your product or service? That’s where “quality” comes into play. How do you get qualified sales leads? In today’s market, you have to really know (1) where your customers are, (2) their immediate needs, and (3) their economic circumstances.

If you don’t know who your target customers are, then perhaps it’s time to revisit that business plan! Knowing your customer’s demographics will give insight into where they typically find the products and services to meet their needs. Do they prefer to shop online or in a store? Do they need face-to-face time before making a decision? Where do your customers seek information – search engines, social networking sites like Facebook, or local networking events? Wheverever that conversation is taking place, you need to be there! Being a part of the conversation will help you assess needs and may give you an inkling of what price points are being sought.

“Active participation” in the right venue is what is required of you to obtain quality sales leads. If your customer base is senior citizens looking for specific home improvement products for mobility, then hanging out in Twitterville probably isn’t going to do your business a tremendous amount of good. A better choice for that particular business would be sponsoring a seminar on household safety/accessibility products at the local community center. Again, it comes back to where your customers’ conversations are taking place.

I recommend heeding my Grandmother’s advice, “people don’t like butinskys.” Avoid the temptation to jump right into your sales pitch. Listen first to what’s being said and then join in the conversation.

Empower

Whether it is just you or you have a sales representative or two, you need to have a strategy in place to get qualified sales leads. As you expand, this strategy could morph into company policy or training procedures. Having a sales lead plan will empower and energize you -it’s better than sitting around waiting on referrals!

Sample elements of your sales lead plan might include the following:

  • Company vision
  • Philosophy about customers
  • Plan for communicating with customers on social sites
  • Policy for responding to comments about the company on social sites
  • Target local networking events to attend
  • Community participation guidelines
Presenting a unified approach to customer interactions will ensure consistency and will empower you and your team with a repeatable process tailored to your business.

Manage

Pencil or pen and paper; spreadsheets; and sticky notes are not the right way to manage your sales leads. The choice then becomes do you need a Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) application or a lead management application?
CRM applications help to organize and automate your sales and marketing activities and focus on the customer relationship. A lead management application focuses on customer contact information and prioritizing sales potentials. Talk to a business mentor to find out what they use and see what would fit for your business style.
Which ever route you take, the key point is to manage and track your customer interactions. This will allow you to measure what works and what doesn’t.

Succeed

The ultimate measure of success is that sale! If you’re tracking your processes and managing your leads, you will quickly learn what it takes to generate a successful sales lead.

GEMS Key Points

  • Grow: Knowing your customer and participating in their conversations will help you grow your sales pipeline.
  • Empower: Have a strategy in place for customer interactions and let it serve as part of your sales training.
  • Manage: Make sure you have a proven way to manage your customer interactions and sales pipelines. Sticky notes all over your desk area don’t count!
  • Succeed: Finding what works and repeating the process will yield success as you fill your sales pipeline.

Related posts

  • No related posts.

Comments are closed.