This week I got a chance to participate in a small club party – where few of my friends who are in to sales were also present. While the party was going on its full space, one of our friend raised a topic – How Can we convert cold lead to hot one – in simple words – how to turn the cold prospect in to buyer! Since every one seems to be expert – they shared their views and came on some conclusion which I bet - no one remembered after the party.
But this topic has provoked me to do some research and thanks to different search engines I got to see few articles which were relevant. I picked few of them and prepared this document. [This document is only for reference purpose and its resources can be shared based on request].
To start with - I am sure we all have seen and face issues like prospects giving us the run-around, they had expressed an interest in our products or services when we first contacted them but now they don't return our calls, reply to our emails or seem interested in making a buying decision.
I firmly believe that in order to solve this or any sales related issue – the best weapon is Persistence. It’s an essential trait that all successful sales people should possess. This defines the ability to stick with a specific task, continue in the face of adversity, or use different strategies to achieve our goals.
However, there is a distinct difference between this and beating our head against a wall trying to convince the prospects to buy our products or services. I am sure that we all have gone through the phase where we thought - we are going to win every deal which comes our way – but later realized that we let that deal went away! But now since we got some experience under our belts – I guess it our duty to make sure that our team won’t face the same issues and start striking the deals with 100% success rate.
Below are few tips from experts that we can share with our teams and help them to be more successful and aggressive hunter :D :
1. Email Campaign: We should consider creating an email list of all the prospects and those who said no to our products or services due to some reasons. We can add these peoples into a monthly email campaign – considering some of them will have their situation change and still others are simply very busy with something that is more urgent. Without monthly email follow-up, we may lose the people that were temporarily distracted as well as those whose situation changed.
2. Account Mapping/Mining: This step is very crucial in current business scenarios. We should map the account and try to find other contacts too, since if we have another contact in the company, we can ask them for inputs or to find out why the decision has been stalled. This is particularly very effective if we have developed a good relationship with this person.
3. “Remember us” Campaign: We can also think about developing a “Remember us” campaign to keep our name in their mind. They may not be ready to buy now, but their situation could change in the future and we want them to remember us. We can stay in touch via postcards, letters, articles, newsletters, etc.
4. Respect Gatekeepers: I strongly believe that we should maintain good relationship with the decision-maker's executive assistant. Through this we can easily tap into that individual's insight and knowledge. In some cases, the E.A. can even help us to find a different way to approach the executives. They may also be able to share the reasons of why the sale did not happen or even what we could do differently in the future.
5. Effort Analysis: To become a successful salesperson we are supposed to be proactive. Before we put our efforts in any deal – we should ask ourselves 'How important is this sale?' If our answer is 'important', than determine what other actions or approaches we are willing to take to make this sales happen. We have to identify a best and creative way to pursue it.
To add - no solution is full proof and this is very much fair to raise the questions such as - What if this approach won’t work? What is the cold lead is still the cold one and not moving forward? Considering my experience, my answer probably would be – to drop that lead and focus on new opportunities. We have to realize that we have limited time with us to meet and exceed our targets and hence we need to wisely design our approach.
I have seen and heard that many times salesperson don’t realize the value of their time and they ended up running behind the deal which wont worth that much efforts.
It will always favorable if we follow the simple rule of thumb – wherein we ask ourselves - "What is the best use of my time, right now?" We should also consider the potential value of each sales opportunity. Chasing a high-value sale is a better use of your time than following up on a sale that is of low value (revenue and/or profit).
But this topic has provoked me to do some research and thanks to different search engines I got to see few articles which were relevant. I picked few of them and prepared this document. [This document is only for reference purpose and its resources can be shared based on request].
To start with - I am sure we all have seen and face issues like prospects giving us the run-around, they had expressed an interest in our products or services when we first contacted them but now they don't return our calls, reply to our emails or seem interested in making a buying decision.
I firmly believe that in order to solve this or any sales related issue – the best weapon is Persistence. It’s an essential trait that all successful sales people should possess. This defines the ability to stick with a specific task, continue in the face of adversity, or use different strategies to achieve our goals.
However, there is a distinct difference between this and beating our head against a wall trying to convince the prospects to buy our products or services. I am sure that we all have gone through the phase where we thought - we are going to win every deal which comes our way – but later realized that we let that deal went away! But now since we got some experience under our belts – I guess it our duty to make sure that our team won’t face the same issues and start striking the deals with 100% success rate.
Below are few tips from experts that we can share with our teams and help them to be more successful and aggressive hunter :D :
1. Email Campaign: We should consider creating an email list of all the prospects and those who said no to our products or services due to some reasons. We can add these peoples into a monthly email campaign – considering some of them will have their situation change and still others are simply very busy with something that is more urgent. Without monthly email follow-up, we may lose the people that were temporarily distracted as well as those whose situation changed.
2. Account Mapping/Mining: This step is very crucial in current business scenarios. We should map the account and try to find other contacts too, since if we have another contact in the company, we can ask them for inputs or to find out why the decision has been stalled. This is particularly very effective if we have developed a good relationship with this person.
3. “Remember us” Campaign: We can also think about developing a “Remember us” campaign to keep our name in their mind. They may not be ready to buy now, but their situation could change in the future and we want them to remember us. We can stay in touch via postcards, letters, articles, newsletters, etc.
4. Respect Gatekeepers: I strongly believe that we should maintain good relationship with the decision-maker's executive assistant. Through this we can easily tap into that individual's insight and knowledge. In some cases, the E.A. can even help us to find a different way to approach the executives. They may also be able to share the reasons of why the sale did not happen or even what we could do differently in the future.
5. Effort Analysis: To become a successful salesperson we are supposed to be proactive. Before we put our efforts in any deal – we should ask ourselves 'How important is this sale?' If our answer is 'important', than determine what other actions or approaches we are willing to take to make this sales happen. We have to identify a best and creative way to pursue it.
To add - no solution is full proof and this is very much fair to raise the questions such as - What if this approach won’t work? What is the cold lead is still the cold one and not moving forward? Considering my experience, my answer probably would be – to drop that lead and focus on new opportunities. We have to realize that we have limited time with us to meet and exceed our targets and hence we need to wisely design our approach.
I have seen and heard that many times salesperson don’t realize the value of their time and they ended up running behind the deal which wont worth that much efforts.
It will always favorable if we follow the simple rule of thumb – wherein we ask ourselves - "What is the best use of my time, right now?" We should also consider the potential value of each sales opportunity. Chasing a high-value sale is a better use of your time than following up on a sale that is of low value (revenue and/or profit).
6 comments:
You discuss some very good key points here. Thanks!
Hey!!! Nice blog. My comment on Remember us campaign has to be the fact that continious reminders can be SPAM. In the long run this can also lead to a negative image about the product or brand...:)
Keep blogging
Madan
www.dm4ya.blogspot.com
www.businessbubbles.blogspot.com
Varun
Excellent theme. Something that we face in everyday business life but seldom pause to think about it. Allow me to give my view the way I see it as honestly as I can with due respect to views of other contributors.
First of all we must recognize that a cold lead is a symptom of something going wrong in the sales process. I place the entire blame on the selling side. I have seen that more often badly trained sales people approach a potential lead with only one thing in mind: their sales targets and the product. With this approach, I would be surprised not at the lead becoming cold I would be surprised if it gets converted into a sale! A potential customer is a human being. This is the first lesson that should be homed into the sales person’s – not mind – soul. If it is a B2B sale a strong personal one on one relationship and if it is B2C sale a well orchestrated promotion campaign through media aimed at the emotions of the potential customer is what succeeds in making the customer lift a product off the shelf.
A successful sales person will first of all scope the potential customer before starting the pitch. You must gather as much information about the lead as you can to answer to yourself, “Why should this person buy this product?”. Empathy, therefore is the second most important skill or art that a sales person must learn. Empathy will give you the problem solving approach rather than ‘my sales’ approach. Do a complete job at scoping the potential customer and know in detail about its needs, financial strength, spending patterns, brand preferences, the degree of acuteness of its need for the product, and in the case of an organization, in addition to the above, also make sure that you know its decision making process or hierarchy, the most likely position who would make the buying decision, you will stand a higher chance of turning the lead into sales now or in the future. Listen to customer, that’s the point. Ask questions to scope him, before producing your cat out of the bag. Your frame of mind is selling solutions remember. Add something extra of value.
All potential customers may not buy today. Let the sales persons learn to have “work in process” inventory in their approach. Leads will be in different stages of preparedness, only the ripe ones will be converted to sales now. But the rest are not cold, they are somewhere along thawing and simmering in fact. They will have to be followed up with specific stimulation individually based on your scoping exercise. Accepting delayed gratification is therefore the third aspect, an attitude that the sales person must have. Isn’t it heartening to know that you have met 90% of your current target but have also met 20% of your next month’s target during this month? This is an attitude dimension and must be built into the sales process, the sales person and his/her boss. All too often it is the pressure from the boss that doesn’t let the sales person operate with his natural grain.
In addition to the fundamentals if you wish to refresh up what you already know you can se some nice some tips on:
http://selling.lifetips.com/cat/56958/approach/
And for customer-centric approaches see Ron Kaufman’s www.ronkaufman.com
Now coming to the lead gone cold and wrong. Start with apology, a little souvenir to get an interview scheduled. Never I would suggest should you approach the cold lead through an influencer or go up the hierarchy and contact the person’s boss. It is likely to backfire in most cases and in any case will lower your esteem. Wait out if necessary, after all, the wrong was committed also at this end. Do not come to the sales pitch for as long as you can hold on the discussion around scoping. Go back to the lead after scoping and doing your thinking as a result of that. Chances are you would be able to see through his eyes and come up with a solution that suits him and achieve a sales too.
Selling like any other transaction has to be a win-win proposition and also appear as one.
I hope I did not transgress your mindset. Forgive me if I did. In any case I enjoyed going through the mental drill and I thank you for this opportunity. It was refreshing for me.
Good article.
We need to be care about not spamming the potential customer otherwise we will turn them away.
Also key is if we know customer's exact requirements and can tweak our product to best fit their need, it increases chances of sale significantly.
Another point which I am not able to overcome easily is corporate politics.
Corporate politics could kill potential sell. One incident the department needed a product which we had and everything was going good but that particular company has corporate policy to invite each VP and above to final review, where someone killed the sale. How you overcome this? This was a simple case of buying department's head did not get along with other department's VP who is more influential.
Not exactly matches the topic we are discussing here, but still relavant. This is straight from Dale Carnegi's newsletter:
“A sale isn't a thing, it's a process. It isn't standing still, it's moving. It isn't one long job, it's a series of smaller jobs.”
- Anonymous
Those successful in sales know how to establish a foundation with a buyer by placing emphasis on issues that are relevant to the buyer's particular situation. There are many ways in which to work towards making the ultimate sale:
Cite general benefits your company provides that relate to the buyer's needs, wants, and issues
Give results of how specific clients have benefited
Suggest that similar benefits are possible
Things easily understood as beneficial to the buyer will be given high consideration, and will help establish your credibility as a knowledgeable salesperson.
Hey Varun indeed a very good blog...interesting insight....i mean i always thought "sales" is not an easy job...but the kind of information u have provided shows that it indeed requires brains and a lot of creativity to close a sale....but i have a question how does being persistent help in sales because there are always targets to be met.... keep writing cheers...
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