When it comes to business growth, us marketers love to get creative – And it’s no secret that we love lead generation!
But what happens to those precious leads once they have been passed over to the sales team? We worked hard for them, and we know that the bottom line is what really matters.
Whether you’ve got the best sales team in the industry or you’re an SME building your empire, it could be time to take a sales pipeline health check to ensure it’s not leaking leads.
But before you get stuck in, why not download the ultimate guide to building a healthy sales pipeline? It’s our best practice tips to optimise and refresh your sales process.
Step #1: “Let’s talk about you.”
Forrester Research discovered in a recent survey that 80% of executive buyers feel the sales agenda focuses not on their needs, but on the seller’s objectives instead. It’s time to say “enough about me”, lose the sales pitch and really get to know your buyers. Like it or not they expect you to read their minds, fully understand their business challenges and engage on a level that’s meaningful to them – before you talk about your product.
And when you do get to know your prospect, make sure your approach is personalised. How did your product help similar clients with the same challenges? How will your product help them achieve their personal goals? Get to know your prospect on a personal level and you’ll create a loyalty and trust that will help you beat your competitor every time.
TIP: With Lead Forensics you’ll discover when your prospect visits your website and exactly what they looked at whilst there, so you’ll know what they’re really interested in. These clues will help you get to know your prospect and nurture them to the next stage of the sales pipeline.
Step #2: Prioritising Opportunities
On average, companies that nurture leads experience a 45% increase in lead generation ROI. Great, but now you’re wondering how you can possibly spend all this time building relationships with your entire pipeline, right?
We know your time is precious and investing time in the wrong prospect is not just damaging, but really, reallyfrustrating too. It’s time to prioritise, and pick out those opportunities that deserve your extra attention.
Scoring leads will help you make fast and effective decisions about lead strength. Is the prospect really the key decision making contact? What is the potential sales and lifetime value of the prospect?
Make note of their behaviour. Do you notice anything that changes, increases or decreases in each phase of the buying cycle? Spend some time turning your learnings into hard metrics and you’ll have the power to manage your pipeline according to behaviour rather than hoping for a win. In turn, you’ll be able to evolve your sales pipeline, shorten the sales cycle and increase win rates.
Step #3: Getting pipeline proactive
If you’re reading this blog, it’s likely you’re already being smart about your pipeline management and you’ll know what your common objections are. Whether it’s “no budget”, “no current need” or a lack of authority, you’ll know exactly what to do to win those prospects back. But what about the dreaded “no decision”?
According to a CSO Insights research report, sales don’t close 53% of their forecasted deals and a staggering 26% are attributed to “no decision”. But “not right now” doesn’t always mean “no”.
It’s easy for prospects to decide not to decide but whilst winning the deal is sales priority number one, getting to a conclusive “no” fast is crucial to your pipeline management. Remember that feedback is gold dust, and it’s crucial to ask yourself “why did a no decision happen?” to avoid investing your time on non- movers in the future.
TIP: Consider using Lead Forensics to be alerted when a prospect re-engages with your website. You might be surprised when a “no decision” prospect comes back to life.
Don’t forget to download the ultimate guide to building a healthy sales pipeline
What would you do to take a sales health check? Tweet us @LeadForensics
