| Many sales professionals are very comfortable | | | | clients |
| maintaining long term relationships and developing | | | | Managing your Sales Leads |
| repeat business from existing clients. However, it | | | | To manage your leads effectively there is a |
| is the goal of every company to retain existing | | | | useful model called the Sales Cycle. This gives us |
| business and to develop new clients and new | | | | the stages from lead to advocate. |
| sales. This involves identifying a pool of sales | | | | 1. Leads |
| leads, and converting some of these leads to new | | | | 2. Contacts - we make contact with the decision |
| business. | | | | maker, perhaps on a telephone call or casual |
| Key Points with Sales Leads | | | | meeting |
| There are several key points when it comes to | | | | 3. First Contact Meeting - our first sales |
| beginning work on developing your leads. | | | | presentation meeting, where we build rapport, |
| 1. EVERY lead is precious, do not dismiss it easily. | | | | establish needs, present our offering and, |
| 2. Keep an open mind about every lead. Sales | | | | hopefully, close a sale |
| people make assumptions about the potential of | | | | 4. Active Prospect - we have met, and the |
| each lead, whether this person is likely to buy or | | | | prospect may buy, but hasn't made the decision |
| whether they will be interested in our products. | | | | yet |
| Unfortunately, clients that prove to have a huge | | | | 5. Client - the client buys from us |
| spend do not come with a label on their | | | | 6. Advocate - the client is so pleased they |
| foreheads! Work every lead until you have firm | | | | recommend us to others |
| evidence that this is NOT a prospect. | | | | The idea is to work at each phase to improve |
| 3. Think of yourself as competing with another | | | | our conversion rate and effectiveness at sales. |
| very good Sales Person rather than an opposing | | | | The more leads we convert to contacts, the |
| Company. If this lead is a real prospect, they | | | | bigger the pool we have for the next phase. |
| WILL buy from someone. Is it going to be you, | | | | Work conversion rates for each phase of the |
| or is in going to be the other guy who gets the | | | | cycle. |
| sale? | | | | Improving your Conversion Rates |
| 4. Plan how you will work those leads effectively, | | | | We improve our conversion rate at each phase |
| develop a good personal management system. | | | | of the Sales Cycle by using skills, recording and |
| Set Targets | | | | tracking systems, and good motivational |
| Sales is a numbers game, the bigger the numbers | | | | techniques. Above all, every good sales person |
| the better the Sales Person! However, when it | | | | plans HOW they will improve each week and each |
| comes to managing leads, it is better to think in | | | | month. As well as managing the normal weekly |
| terms of conversion rates rather than flat | | | | activities, they focus on an improvement area so |
| numbers. The reason for this is simple. Take 2 | | | | that they are constantly increasing their potential. |
| sales people, one with 10 sales and one with 20 | | | | For example, you could concentrate one week on |
| sales in a week. You might at first think that the | | | | improving the first phase of the Sales Cycle, |
| second sales person with 20 sales is the better of | | | | generating more contacts from your leads. Isolate |
| the two. However, you then find that she | | | | a time for making appointments. Prepare a list of |
| contacted 100 people to generate those 20 sales, | | | | contact names and telephone numbers, and |
| while the first sales person contacted 20 people | | | | anything else you will need to carry out an |
| to get their 10 sales. | | | | effective period of calling. Set a target of number |
| The sales person with the 50% conversion rate is | | | | of dials, or number of contacts or number of |
| by far the better sales person. Indeed, the first | | | | appointments made. Work out how you will |
| sales person, with the 10% conversion rate may | | | | motivate yourself to keep going till you achieve |
| well be a liability. It would be much more | | | | your target. After the batch of calls, review your |
| productive to give her leads to your good sales | | | | performance, and use this review to plan your |
| person. This is the way to think about your own | | | | next session. |
| leads. | | | | Spend the next week focusing on improving your |
| Plan how you will manage each batch of leads and | | | | recording and tracking system, with the target |
| set your targets in terms of conversion rates. | | | | improving the conversion from your Active File to |
| Set a target of - | | | | Clients. A good sales professional is always |
| How many leads you will convert to contacts | | | | working at his or her role and is always working |
| How many contacts you will convert to | | | | at improving. |