Client candidates have as much life in your notebook as a glass of milk in the sun. In no time they stop serving! The belief that closing the sale is the most important thing causes many, many salespeople to pay insufficient attention to activities as important as the proper handling of new client candidates.
There is a strong tendency to dedicate ourselves to taking action on only what is considered to lead to the closing of the sale, such as the visit, the presentation of the product and using some magical technique to guide the customer who gives us the check.
This type of process has a relatively good result, as it is a short-term strategy that significantly limits obtaining exceptional results on a continuous basis and lasting over time.
The holes
It is not uncommon to find companies in which their sales force is only busy following up with existing customers and giving almost no attention to new candidates.
When we miss a lead or do not follow up on these new client candidates, we do our competitors a favor, because those who contact us with interest in buying will not wait forever and will go to the closest offer they have.: Which today is growing.
We could say that there is a gap between the reception of candidates, clients or leads and the first meeting or visit that is made by the seller. And then we complain that today sales, the crisis, competition etc. One thing is certain, the competition that knows how to take care of and manage their leads effectively will have a greater chance of doing business than other competitors in the market. This is a fact.
Alarming figures
For a few years I have been reading various studies that report that around 45% of leads are never followed up! Including ones that may have generated great sales.
These studies also show that the sales force constantly, either due to lack of custom or company policy, does not get the benefit that it should from client candidates because they often consider that they do not have the time necessary to work on them. This is fatal!
This situation is even more pressing and alarming with independent professionals and small and medium-sized companies, since due to lack of time and resources, they pay the least attention to this important activity.
Another study shows that 68% of shoppers who have bought once from a department store never bought from the same store again, because they did not return for a simple reason: No one ever asked them to return!
In this context, the store has been sitting under a gold mine of potential new sales, and declining to exploit them. All they had to do was just go to their first-time customers and say please come back!
Where carelessness leads
When was the last time you received an invitation by postcard or by phone to return to a department store where you shopped? I know, they don't have your address or your phone number (unless you have a card to buy from the store)… but why don't they?
It is a reality that the world is round, the vast majority of organizations will collapse over time, if they do not have a fresh source of new business that covers what old or existing businesses no longer generate. If this is so I wonder…
Why are so many professionals not exploiting and wasting new business opportunities?
Sure there are many reasons but actions to correct perhaps not so many.
The 10 keys plan
The following actions will help you to successfully process leads, which will significantly help you complete your sales process well and lead you to win a greater number of business.
1. Qualify your leads the moment they arrive.
2. Register the leads by the source of origin.
3. Assign a unique registration number to each qualified lead.
4. Capture your leads in a database.
5. Classify valid leads into 'Hot', 'Cold', 'Warm'.
6. In case your qualified leads have requested information or have any questions, let them know immediately that you are aware of their request.
7. Send personalized information.
8. Periodically analyze your leads.
9. Directly take action with those who qualify and those who do not qualify as well. Obviously the information and the time you will dedicate to them are very different.
10. Correlates the sales orders received or orders with the source of the lead.
This will work as long as the entire sales force follows a standard documentation system and is aware of the value of the system itself and the importance of nurturing and caring for prospective clients.
summarizing
It is extremely important to effectively process the prospects for clients that your company generated.
To have exceptional results, the rule to follow is simple: focus on those actions that are really productive and dedicate time to everything that is important. With a Coaching program tailored to your needs, it guides and accompanies you to transform your performance. Boost your talent with coaching.
