Does it seem like you have plenty of leads to follow up? But are you feeling any heat from any of them? What other suspects and prospects do you have in your pipeline? Any active proposals?
Follow up sales activity is critical to your success if it is the right activity. The right activity is that which has the highest probability of moving prospects through your sales pipeline. If you are relying on gut instinct or other esoteric criteria to determine activity, you will win some and you will loose… a lot. On the other hand if you take a logical, systematic approach to prospecting, your sales activities will yield systematic results.
Your sales pipeline is a predictable, manageable process that starts with suspects. Suspects are companies that show some interest in you. Perhaps they email an inquiry from your web site, or request a brochure. Your high probability sales activity here is to determine if they are prospects. Prospects are companies who show some interest in you, who are in the market now for your products, and who have money to spend. Your sales activity here is to get them to ask you for a proposal. The remaining activities you know; prepare the proposal, present it and close.
Now you can improve the efficiency of your sales activities if you can figure out on average, how many suspects you need to get one prospect, and how many prospects you need to get one request for a proposal, and how many proposals you need to close one. Calculating these sales ratios helps direct your activities, keeps you motivated, makes it easier to forecast sales and commissions, and helps you diagnose the problem when sales drop off.
Some rough ratios to work with are: to get one contract, you need to be invited to submit three proposals, to be asked to submit three proposals you should be talking to three to six qualified prospects. A qualified prospect has 1.) a budget, has 2.) a specific and current need, and 3.) makes the decision or at least the recommendation. Qualified is not a subjective term, as in they "ought to be" qualified, "they fit the profile" or "I wish" they were qualified. To generate six qualified prospects....that's the tough part. There are an awful lot of suspects out there, i.e. people who have some of the qualifying criteria or people whom you think might/should have it. Suspects may be very interested in what you do, or they might have the right job title, or they may be both, but if they have no budget for a specific need, don't waste time with them.
Each industry has different sales ratios. You might have to screen 100 suspects to find five or six qualified prospects. Sorting out suspects and prospects is what direct mail, trade shows, advertising and telesales do best.
However, in my youth, I built a training firm that generated millions in annual fees by hitting the phones myself. I started the business with a handful of referrals, first, of course, but moved on when it became clear that a suspect was not qualified. When the referral leads ran out, which was very quickly, I made 168 cold calls before uncovering a qualified prospect who became my first significant client. So it can be done if you have enough fire in your belly.
If you can scrounge up some money, invest it in lead generation (well-targeted direct mail is still best). If not, hit those phones!
The hard work of your sales activity can pay off for you if you take a systematic approach to it. Calculate your sales ratios. Track your activity. Measure your activity against the sales ratios and modify it where indicated. Maintain steady pressure and inevitably you will close sales.
And the very best of luck -- that's in the equation somewhere, too.
Win More Business by Choosing the Right Sales Activities - To learn more about this author, visit John Brennan's Website.
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John Brennan
(Visit John's Website)
John Brennan Ed.D.
Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal
Development, LLC, a training and
development firm. Interpersonal
Development has provided sales training
and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps
from over 100 companies.
A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan
received his doctorate from the University
of Rochester. His dissertation researched
the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling
Technology in training people in
interpersonal skills. While he has spent
most of his career designing or delivering
training, he was also a Vice-President of
Sales of a training and development
franchise with operations in 25 markets.
Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered
sales training in North America, Asia,
Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He
has been a guest speaker at numerous
national and regional professional
conferences.
When Microsoft wanted Best Practices
articles on sales for their web site, they
called Dr. Brennan. The results are at office.microsoft.com/e
n-us/FX011387391033.aspx
His firm’s clients have included Volvo,
The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman
Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the
Economist Group and countless small
businesses.
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