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Build your Sales Pipeline and Boost Your Prospect Numbers

Written by: Karen Andrews

Article Overview: Do you get frustrated constantly searching for prospects and contact information? The traditional methods of building a list of people that you can market and sell to such as purchasing databases, driving around business parks and noting the tenants of buildings that you walk past are great, and they do work, however, they are costly and time consuming.

Build your Sales Pipeline and Boost Your Prospect Numbers

Do you get frustrated constantly searching for prospects and contact information? The traditional methods of building a list of people that you can market and sell to such as purchasing databases, driving around business parks and noting the tenants of buildings that you walk past are great, and they do work, however, they are costly and time consuming. If your looking for something quick and effective that you can do from the safety of your desk, try these:

1. LinkedIn

If you do an advanced search on LinkedIn you can search for contacts in a particular industry, location, position or a mix of all three (e.g. All Sales Managers in Sydney). It will give you their name and tell you if anyone in your network is connected with them, so you can ask your contact for an introduction.

2. Google Earth & Google Maps

Google Earth and Google Maps are great tools to find concentrated areas of business and to avoid having to drive around or randomly call through the yellow pages. If, for example, you have a client in Building A and you would like to find out who else is in that building that you can sell to (always smart to sell to their neighbours, it’s known as sandwich selling) or that location, a quick search on Google Earth or Google Maps will give you a list of the businesses in the building, the street and the suburb. Google Earth will also let you pan around the area and see other buildings and other streets.

3. Industry Association Websites

I have used these for years and it has been a great way for me to target an industry sector and get new appointments. Quite a lot of the Association websites will list their members by location or profession. A quick search will give you a list of their name, address and phone number.

4. Franchise Directories

Selling to franchises can be a very successful and very lucrative way to increase sales and help you to consistently meet your sales targets. This is where volume sales come in and when you have a critical mass of franchisees as customers, they tend to do the selling for you and promote your business through word of mouth and referrals.

5. Your Website

This one is mentioned a lot these days but I’m still amazed as to how many people don’t utilize their website to generate new enquiries or build their contact lists. Offering free tips, e-books or access to free resources and tips is a great way to build a marketing and prospect database. I send out information every 2-3 weeks on sales techniques, sales tips and free resources just like this blog article! It has been a great way of accessing people I would never normally come across as well as building my profile.

Related Articles
  The Sales Pipeline
  Franchise Sales are Predictable with a well defined Franchise Sales Process
  Improve Sales Performance with More Effective Pipeline Management
  Filling the Sales Pipeline Whos to Blame
  Top 6 Factors for Killing an Opportunity or Prospect

Article Tags: closed questions, increase sales, managing sales, open questions, prospecting, questioning, sales, sales coach, sales expert, sales person, sales pipeline, sales strategy, sales tips, sales tricks, strategic selling



Related Forum Posts
Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing
Re: Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - [quote="ltrahan":31w9r2iz]Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing[/quote:31w9r2iz] I second the request...
Re: Great start, but no finish - My advise is FOCUS on your business. Focusing is the main factor to succeed on business. If you have a great idea, then follow it only, don't look anywhere else. It is especially essential in an online business. Because there are a lot of mind blowing sales letters promising millions dolllars or overnight success, people find it difficult to concentrate on one business and they lose their energy. Concept is simple. 1- Have a good idea; 2- Build your business on it; 3- Monetize your business; 4- Promote it; 5- Build list of responsive customers; 6- Maintain You Business. Focusing and not fearing from competition (instead you can learn from competitiors) are main tips of billionaires ,BTW. Orxan
Re: How to do Link Building? - Be diligent. Build blogs.Pay attention to the contents.
Simple way to avoid Cold Calling - Gary, A chiropractor I work with hates cold calling (me too!) and he uses a technique to warm people up to using his services - it's so simple! In Sales your dealing with 3 pools of people: 1. Strangers 2. Prospects 3. Returning Customers You need to move people from one pool to the next. We'll concentrate on #1 and #2 as it's most relevant to your question. My Clients does the following (you just have to tailor it to your situation - be creative). My Client (we'll call him Bob) Bob leverages his time and resources to only get people that need his offer (pain relief) to put their hand up. Dealing with Strangers can get expensive and they don't like to be told what to do as they have no trust or relationship built with him. So to get Strangers to put their hands up he writes up an offer with a free report on a particular pain relief - let's say lower back pain (note: he can simply just change lower back pain to neck pain and have a new report). and uses multiple marketing vehicles to promote the Free report - magazines, newspaper, forums, postcards, private clinics etc. The only people picking up this information are the very people Bob would like as customers as they have Lower back pain. Bob's Free report ends with him stating his services and includes a Free in-house Consultation with no obligation. You'd be surprised at how easily Bob converts Strangers into Prospects. Note: They become prospects when they ask for the Free Guide and in exchange provide their contact details. This gives Bob unlimited opportunity to contact them for the Free in-house consultation with no obligation to continue using him. At this stage Bob's ability to close the sale lies in his office providing good customer service, Bob's ability to help the prospect and provide value at the free in-house consultation. Notice, he hasn't had to pick up the phone to COLD-CALL his Stranger pool or his Prospect pool. Hope that example helps to increase your prospecting!


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