Why Sales Lead Generation is critical to sales success?
Why Sales Lead Generation is critical to sales success?
As the saying goes, “it is possible to prospect without selling but it is impossible to sell without prospects”. To a small minority of us who are lucky enough to be fed copious amounts of new sales leads this should not be a problem. But to the rest of us, poor unfortunates, it is!
We can expect some level of leads to be generated by the company marketing machine, but they will be very “hit or miss” and rarely as qualified as we would hope. Regardless, there will never be enough of them to guarantee hitting our sales quota or success. So, what does this mean?
Many business leaders believe the main reason why sales-reps under-perform is because they are not closing enough sales. That is the result but not the reason. The primary reason why salespeople struggle is their inability to consistently add qualified prospects and opportunities to their pipeline. When sales professionals invest time into developing an effective and robust prospecting process to fill their pipeline, they have a lot less problems closing – FACT.
So, what does prospecting involve? I once remember scolding an under-performing sales team about the need to spend more time prospecting and less time navel-gazing as to how they were to turn things around. My call-to-action fell as flat as a pancake, you could have heard a pin drop in the room. It was then I realised that they had no idea as to how to even go about prospecting. This is not as incredulous as you might think. I challenge you to ask your nearest salesperson what their prospecting strategy looks like and see what they have to say on it…
Prospecting is as simple as it gets. It is all about starting a relevant sales conversation with someone who has the potential to become your customer. Once you have qualified the prospect as one who may potentially need or want your product or service then let the sales game commence. So why do we fear the art of prospecting if it is as simple as that, I hear you say.
The five primary reasons why salespeople fail at prospecting are these.
1. They do not have a Prospecting strategy. What is the reason for calling the prospect? What is the business case you want to discuss with them?
2. Their Prospecting Value Proposition is weak. You must demonstrate that you understand their business problem. That you have a solution to it. That you can make their life better because of it.
3. They do not make enough calls to produce the results. Prospecting is a structured activity – make no mistake!
4. Sales pitching or asking for big commitments too early in the process. Prospecting is not for selling, it is for starting sales conversations only! There will be time enough for selling.
5. No plan to overcome the prospect’s initial fears or concerns. Objection handling prep is key to your prospecting strategy. Know your enemy and being prepared for all eventualities will help overcome any fears of picking up the phone to someone you do not yet know.
To find out more about effective sales prospecting visit www.jordanwolf.ie
