BY Tim Londergan
When one of your customers changes jobs, do you track it? You should because that person can vouch for you, and you’ll make more sales in their new place of employment.
Also, are you in the habit of following prospective companies for events such as mergers, acquisitions or partnerships? This is yet another opportunity to swoop in with your product.
Pay attention. Because these are simple suggestions for growing and shortening your sales pipeline to achieve success.
Earn More Sales by Developing Healthy Pipeline Habits
Colleen Francis is a no-nonsense sales consultant and author who takes her work seriously. Her Engage Selling website offers great tips on building a sales strategy that can help sustain your business career.
She maintains that there are two ways to grow your business:
1. Bring in new customers
2. Sell more products and services to existing customers
In a recent video, she expresses the importance of developing the habit of feeding your pipeline every single day. Just like compound interest, these leads can grow and become customers — but you must add to the pipeline daily.
More Sales Will Come as You Develop Your Sales Skills
In today’s B2B sales world there are lengthier sales cycles and more complex decision paths. Therefore, the work needed to feed your sales pipeline requires special skills.
Research skills: Thoroughly researching prospects, their companies, industries, and challenges is crucial for effective prospecting. This endeavor allows you to qualify businesses who can use your product. Research tools such as AdMall can assist with industry knowledge and a strategy for engagement.
Networking and social selling: Add quality leads to your pipeline by building connections through networking, social media platforms like LinkedIn.
Cultivate referrals: Actively seeking an introduction through someone you know is a great way to add to your pipeline. Importantly, personal introductions hold more weight because of the involvement of the third party.
Active listening: Listening attentively to prospects' needs, pain points and goals enables you to position your offering as a valuable solution. What’s more, it’s easier to prequalify your prospect with details of what you learn.
Qualifying prospects: The ability to quickly qualify a prospect is key to filling your pipeline. Important details such as budget, timing, need, and authority are necessary to determine the value of each prospect.
Rapport building: Personalizing your communication will help you develop rapport and trust with your prospects. Understanding their perspective and providing consultative value is key for successful prospecting.
Persistence and a structured approach: The discipline to set aside dedicated time for prospecting is crucial. As Colleen Francis suggested, the simple habits that become routine are essential to making more sales.
Coachability: Being open to learning from client feedback and using constructive criticism as a learning tool shows maturity. Plus, continuously improving your skills and techniques is vital for long-term success in B2B prospecting.
Adopt a Successful Pipeline Generation Strategy
The sales professionals at UserGems have put forth a strategic approach to lead generation. Ultimately, many of the skill sets above will help you to carry out your strategy.
You can attract the best leads if you know the buying signals to look for. Keeping your finger on the pulse of the economy is a great way to start. Noting financial growth, job changes and partnership changes is key.
Staying aware and teasing out these internal or external ‘sales triggers’ can be a game-changer. Additionally, the UserGems people have suggested new ways to structure the old practice of cold calling. They provide mindset tips, sample questions and encouragement.
Their advice covers a variety of scenarios and closing techniques sure to help you achieve more sales.
Photo by Ala J Graczyk at Pexels.com