Are you a business owner frustrated by your inconsistent, declining, or non-existent lead flow? Or perhaps you’re fed up with the increasingly low-quality and infrequent referrals you receive?
If you’re vulnerable to sporadic month-to-month revenue swings, it’s definitely unsettling, even if you’re a more established entrepreneur and no longer in startup mode. Many of my clients come to me looking for more high-quality leads and more high-paying customers. On the other hand, some prospects and clients I work with have too many leads to handle, as they scramble to keep track of them all and aggressively work in a timely manner. Thus, their sales conversions suffer and the reliability and predictability of their cash flow declines too.
Whether your business is in launch or turnaround mode, here are some tips to improve your lead qualification and conversion process to increase your revenue.
In today’s marketplace, there are a plethora of entrepreneurs fixated on building complex, tech-intensive online sales funnels. Don’t get me wrong, having that skill set can certainly be a valuable asset. However, relying too much on technology automation has resulted in many newer entrepreneurs getting lazy. As they hide behind their computer or social media, they’ve become too reactive when they should always instead be proactive in expanding their network and growing their sales pipeline. Though they’re tech-savvy, these entrepreneurs struggle to quickly vet and qualify their prospects or recognize buying signals. They have very unproductive sales discovery and enrollment conversations with the wrong people at the wrong time, thereby missing out on massive revenue opportunities. Additionally, they’re going after too broad of a market with very limited success, or they feel completely overwhelmed by the onslaught of leads coming their way.
So in your case, do you have a clearly defined target market?
Getting clear on who you serve will produce three positive results. First, you won’t waste time interacting with the wrong audience. Secondly, you will attract more of your ideal target client as your specialization and experience in working with a certain micro-vertical or segment will demonstrate your expertise. Thirdly, your sales conversions will increase as you become more familiar with the trends and most common pain points prevalent in your niche market. So many business owners worry about the number of leads they have. In reality, they need to prioritize getting the right type of lead so they can increase their odds of converting the lead to a paying customer.
Once you’ve firmly carved out your target market, it’s essential to adhere to a rigorous, yet streamlined sales process to ensure you are spending your time with prospects who are interested and have the budget.
As you begin to engage with your leads, be sure that you go deep enough to uncover answers to the following discovery questions:
Using your own version of this script in a conversational style will allow you to gauge how serious your prospect is at considering and potentially investing in your offering.
Related: 10 Research-Backed Ways to Improve Sales Success
Assuming you have now qualified your prospect, established a fit, and aligned on their goals and expectations. You need to confirm the prospect is committed to you, your company, and your product or service. The below checklist can help you gauge this commitment:
Incorporating these questions and controls into your sales framework will prevent you from wasting time, money, and effort chasing the wrong deals and speaking to non- or pseudo-decision makers.
Related: There Is No F in Sales!
Each lead interaction is a learning experience for you, whether or not they proceed to the next stage of your sales cycle or you eventually win or lose the pursuit. Along the way, it’s imperative to document all of the sales objections you hear so you can successfully respond to the inquiry or revelation the next time it comes up. Once you do this, you’ll begin to view objections as buying opportunity alerts rather than obstacles.
Additional key data to gather and analyze with the help of your CRM follows:
Before you know it, you will have gathered some great intel to help you be more prepared for future sales opportunities and maximize your time.
Whether the majority of your leads come from online or offline efforts, you need a sound sales tracking, qualification, forecasting, and conversion process in place to shorten your sales cycle and attract and win clients that will stay, pay, and refer.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Original Article Here.
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