Podcast Introduction;
Lead Quality Vs Sales Challenges
Lynsey Sweales, director at SocialB and Sarah Whelan, director at Find New Business Ltd, discuss some of the difficulties faced by sales people post lead generation. Is the problem the leads or could it be the sales persons?
The Podcast
We both know that leads can be generated but how the sales process is often broken and so it leads to being pointed at the leads themselves or where they come from. I’d like to chat about how companies can identify this and what process they should have in place to ensure they have the right sales process in place.
Let’s start with leads! What are these, where do they come from and how do we capitalise on them?
An experienced sales or marketing manager will have a clearly defined“ lead criteria”
What type of company, by size, turnover, employees, industry type, geographic location that is most likely to buy from them?
Who in the organisation they want to engage with, a key influencer/budget holder/decision maker or decision makers?
What stage in the buying cycle for their product or service they are willing to engage at? Would you want a lead from a prospect that is looking into your product or service for future use say in 12 month to 18 months’ time or do you only want to engage with a prospect ready to buy now?
Once this criterion is agreed who is going to audit each lead against the criteria before a sales professional is allocated to working it?
If the lead meets the criteria what is next?
So, you will have generated a mix of leads at various stages in their buying cycle for your products and services each and every one should be worked methodically and professionally to enable the prospect to make an informed decision about buying from you when the time comes. You want the prospect to buy from you not a competitor so how can you ensure this happens?
Why do leads NOT convert into business?
Before we attempt to answer this question I want you to ask yourself would you go on road trip with two small children in your car on your own to somewhere you have never been without a map/satnav, without researching where you are going, how much fuel you might need, how long it might take you, what you might need by way of food along the way or when you arrive, who you are meeting what weather conditions you might encounter along the way, how frequently you might need to stop for loo breaks and how were the children going to be entertained, assessed the risk of going alone etc etc etc
You would probably have a PLAN on how to manage this situation I know I would!
So back to the question:
Why do leads NOT convert into business?
Typically, it is for a number of reasons including that the leads have not been clearly defined as “ideal clients” and then when they arrive into the business to be worked they are not worked effectively.
Blaming the quality of the leads goes away IF and only IF the “ideal client lead” criteria has been met so that’s tick number one!
After this a clearly defined and well-trained professional sales methodology needs to exist which each and every touch point on the journey that the prospect takes with your organisation is mapped out and adhered to.
Some of these touch points could and should include:
Confirmation of the initial meeting – how professional is this, has a meeting invite been sent and confirmed as accepted? Has a professional brochure been emailed or sent through the post to give the prospect an overview of the products or services on offer to allow them time to review ahead of the meeting? Has a personal approach been made with evidence that they understand the prospects potential requirements and a bit about their company by email or letter? If appropriate has a linked in request been sent or any testimonials or other supporting case studies, white papers that can be sent for free etc.
So many times we see that a client rocks up to a meeting we have set for them with very little prep and planning done in advance or even worse they don’t turn up to the meeting at all DESPITE the prospect meeting the “ideal client” criteria at lead status. There are a huge range of costs associated with generating a lead for a business from the man power costs to organise it to the marketing costs to generate it to the business costs if it isn’t won! A sales person needs educating on the costs associated with these leads and putting a value on it should help to focus their minds on doing the best job possible.
Are you meeting that prospect virtually or face to face? Both meetings need thorough planning ahead of the meeting to ensure you engage the prospect once you are speaking to one another.
So the big moment arrives and you have to wow this prospect and you have done your prep and planning so you know about their company, why they have agreed to speak with you and a bit about them personally because you have researched them too, what comes next?
A clear and strong introduction!!!! This is when the prospect will make up their minds about whether they are initially impressed by you and your company ahead of finding out more about your products and services. The introduction will make or break the remainder of the meeting! You MUST get the prospects attention; we call this stage “attention gained”. DON’T say you spoke with my colleague and I am going to show you a demonstration as the prospect needs to re-engage and remember WHY they agreed to the meeting in the first place.
Planning a clear and engaging introduction and confirming what is in it for them to go further with you is CRITICAL and so many businesses do not do this.
So, the next step is also NOT to show them the demonstration and NOT to rely on information gathered at lead stage but to fact find to identify why this prospect is on the phone or in front of you and where they are in the buying cycle before showing them your wares. How many times have we worked with businesses that go to great lengths to produce professional sales collateral only to show a stunning presentation but not go onto win the business as they hadn’t reconfirmed if indeed the person who said they could make the decision really could, that the business had a clear and genuine reason for purchasing such a product or service and a reasonable time frame in which to buy.
No prospect will every mind if you ask them open questions about their circumstances as this shows interest in them and helps them understand that you understand what they are looking to achieve. We call this “attention retained”
So, by now we have their attention and respect from our introduction, and they can see a clear value already to the meeting and now we have outlined with them why they are having the meeting with us by clearly understanding their needs and situations that they need to improve which our products and services might help them with.
Next we “summarise and commit” to them what we have found out about their situation so we repeat back to them “I just want to make sure I have understood you correctly so we have just discussed that you have this situation currently and are at this stage in the buying cycle and you are the key decision maker or have colleagues you need to bring on the journey with you and you have a suitable budget or a basis to request budget” We call this “needs appreciated”. Both the prospect and the person selling to them has a clear understanding at this stage about WHY they should progress the meeting to finding out if what we have will solve their issues, meet their situational requirements, meet their time frames to buy and fit their needs with a budget that’s affordable/comparable to their current situation.
Now we get to show them the AMAZING and professional demonstration, sales collateral, talk them through how the product or service will improve their business and why.
This is the “power of the product” and we call this stage “value appreciated”
So the prospect by now is impressed with you and your company, clearly understands what issues they are facing in their business and how your product or service could help and you know how you can help them, how long it might be before they will buy and where they might get the budget from and if it is realistic to expect them to be able to afford to buy from you!
So depending on your sales process you may be going back to them with a proposal or further information so at this stage you MUST book the next meeting and make sure you have a mobile number for the prospect that you can reach them on in case they are difficult to reach. Get the date in the diary and make sure they confirm it. Write to them after the meeting with a quality overview of the meeting and what comes next for both you and the prospect. Make sure you do your level best to get all of the decision makers to that meeting and that you write to them all after the first meeting with a clear overview of what was covered in the meeting.
So we then need to deliver price and ask for the order! No point delivering a £50,000 price to a business on its knees with no budget or route to that type of budget unless what you are proposing could turn their business around!!! There is a whole other podcast we can do on price delivery and price conditioning through the sales process BUT today we need to be clear about how and when to deliver price and to whom in the prospects business. “Consideration of cost & value” is what we call this stage.
Asking for the order needs to also have a clear outline the same as an introduction and which your experienced sales manager will help you with.
The same prep and planning is required for all sales situations, now sales people by definition are extremely good at talking and engaging with clients BUT following a disciplined structured approach and ticking the boxes off one by one as they go through the process does not come naturally to them which is why they have sales managers! If the sales manager is also not disciplined and hasn’t established a clear structure in place for those sales people that he can monitor/audit and train they are far less likely to be successful.
There are MANY reasons a lead might not turn into a sale BUT a successful business will always have a clearly defined sales process that increases their likelihood of turning the lead into a sale.
I hope this has been helpful?
Ask yourself have you arrived at your destination with your two small children safe, comfortable, well entertained, on time and all of you happy? If you have you have done a GREAT job can the same be said of your approach to sales leads?
Thank you to SocialB for allowing me to take part on their podcast its to both of our advantages if we help you to improve your sales processes as we bring you leads, and we WANT and NEED you to close them to retain you as valuable customers.
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