By TIbor Shanto

Part I

There have been many things written about the importance of managing your prospects to ensure success in sales; in fact we have presented a number of articles here in The Pipeline dealing with the subject. Without over stating the obvious, the better job one does in managing the pipeline, the greater the likelihood of increased output and enhanced efficiency in the sales cycle.

To a great degree what is in your pipeline is determined by two things, first, how well you manage the content of your funnel, moving opportunities through to close or removing them to drive clarity and reality in your pipeline. Second, how well you are able to feed the front end of your pipeline. The connection between the two is critical since what sales people emotionally believe their pipeline or funnel to be, triggers their urgency to prospect! If your pipeline is “full”, you are less likely to prospect, even if what it is full with is questionable.

To manage the former, we must prune our pipeline regularly, daily; either moving things through to close, or getting them out if they are not progressing at a proper pace. We have spoken in the past about not having opportunities with out next steps in the pipe. We are not suggesting that you give up and/or forget those, but unless they are actively moving through your pipeline, they are clogging your pipeline, and therefore should be removed. Done right this dramatically reduces the amount of “things” in your pipe; this then triggers more prospecting to make up for the void.

To prospect effectively, one must have a thought out approach to sourcing and managing leads that will be converted to prospects. At any given time only a small percent of your target market is “in play”, depending on who you believe, it is a low of 3% to a range of 12%. Not a large pool considering your competitor is targeting them too, and the incumbent is working hard to retain the account as well. However let’s not be overly pessimistic, because a good number of the remaining 90% or so can be sold, that is after all what we pay sales people to do. Well sort of, before we can sell them, we need to engage with them, and that’s something many sales people don’t like or do well. Sales people are regularly told to go out and prospect, and close sales. We give them the tools, the training to improve their skills (although not always prospecting training, mostly sales training); sometimes we give them leads, and we send them out to find prospects.

We at Renbor tell our sales people to create prospects. For us prospects are created not found. With that minor distinction we help sales reps view the process and approach differently; we place a different value on the lead. Most sales people are taught to believe that prospecting is a numbers game, knock on enough doors and you will find prospects. On the face of it that is true, but it assumes an endless source of leads, and impeccable timing on the part of the reps.

Consider this, most potential prospects, leads that is, generally will not engage until approached some 4 to 7 times. How many times do your reps work a lead, knock on the same door (phone) in trying to engage with a lead they want to prospect? The general response from hundreds of sales people surveyed is 2 to 3 times, and then they move on. They are not even a blip on the leads radar and they are ready to move on (give up). “We don’t want to bother them, don’t want to be a pest”. The reality is that after 3 times not only are you not a pest, you haven’t even registered.

What happens to this lead after three times? In some cases they are abandoned by Rep A, management believing that there might be gold in “them thar” leads, gives them to another rep, who tries three times and gives them back. By the time the third rep gets it, she hears that these have been tried, a waste of time, but she gives them the obligatory three shots, with some reluctance since her colleagues have told her there is nothing there, and gives up.

Leads need to be ranked and managed in an ongoing way; we refer to this process as “campaigning”. At any given time we have leads that we are being campaigned actively, and some that are between “campaigns” and therefore idle or inactive. Once we start a “campaign” on a target (an individual or a company), we make sure that there are at least 6 touch points with the target in a space of two weeks, 10 business days. This includes a use of voice mail, e-mail, and all means available to us to register on the targets’ radar.

Inactive or idle leads are put into a program of systematic contact flow, something others call the DRIP approach. Our goal is maximum touch with minimal effort and resources. The goal is to ensure that we “ping” the lead on a regular basis, for instance a newsletter like the one you are now reading. Other things could include product update, release notices, invitations to webinars or corporate events, this will primarily be driven by your industry and product specifics. We execute ours on a monthly basis, others more or less frequently, again no right or wrong as long as you don’t over do it.

Beyond the monthly ping, we schedule a direct call every three months, gauge and update the status of the lead. If nothing has changed, that is, they are not ready to engage and become a prospect; we schedule the next call three months hence. During the month that they receive our call, they are deemed “active” or “being campaigned”.

This leaves us with three groups, inactive leads, active leads (currently “in campaign” mode), and prospects, leads that have moved from above the funnel into the pipeline. This last group is then progressed through the sales process utilising our Funnel Management process.

This process allows fully monetizing our leads, engaging with them at the “right time”, and working with prospects that have some small familiarity with us since we have been pinging and contacting them systematically. Our reps see this as a means of slightly warming an otherwise cold call.

As our clients put this into practice, the next thing we focus on is how to best source leads, because everyone wants “the good leads”. Just like in Glengarry Glen Ross, if only they had the “good leads” they would close more deals. Maybe, but first they have to be prospected and brought into the funnel from above the funnel. We will tackle that topic next month.

Part II

In Part I, we highlighted the need to better manage things “Above the Funnel”, with a specific focus on how to best manage leads. The central message being that leads need to be fully maximized and nurtured using a system of campaigning that dictates what actions we take with “Active” lead and what needs to be done with “Inactive” leads. Clients, who embrace the methodology, monetize a larger percentage of their leads by consistently converting more of them in to viable prospects. This still leave a question that many reps claim to struggle with every day, and that is where you source leads.

One of the sad truths of sales is the activities involved in being successful above the funnel; Lead Generation and Prospecting are more “blue collar” in nature than the rest of the Revenue process Sales, which traditionally has been more “white collar” in nature. Many sales reps fancy themselves white collar professions and therefore do not take to lead generation and prospecting. They fail to acknowledge that there is heavy lifting, plenty of hard work, in this contact sport called Prospecting.

Having implemented a Touch > Contact > Engage, approach to managing your leads, you need to have a replenishment plan. The fact you are recycling leads, ensuring that you benefit from the fact that today’s dud is tomorrow’s cash cow, understanding that more is not best, just a start, you still need a means of brining new leads in to you base.

As with many things above the funnel, there are few secrets, the real deal is in implementing, and staying consistent; the things you’ll read below all will work if you put them in to practice, and do so in a consistent ongoing way.

In no particular order, and with the understanding that many verticals have other unique sources for leads, here are a few everyone could use immediately:

• Referrals
• Dependent Referrals
• Networking
• Directories
• Cold Calling

• Referrals – Everyone talks about them, very few actually do it, or do it right. I find it very interesting, at every workshop I ask how many people have success with referrals, and in a group of 15 or 18 people two people will put up their hand; I then ask how many actually ask for referrals, and the same two people raise their hands. Everyone has worked referrals, but very few actively generate referrals. The one that do seem to restrict it to people they “have a relationship with”; when asked why they don’t include prospects, or leads in pursuing referrals, they rarely have anything to offer other than that they “don’t yet have a relationship”. There have been numerous quality books written on referrals, we recommended one in The Pipeline’s Recommended Reading section. The key is you can get referrals from a lot more people you deal with in business, from prospects, clients, vendors, tradesmen, even other leads. It is never too early to ask for referrals, you may not get one right away, but people will know you are ready for them.

• Direct Authority Referrals – One source of referrals need to be segmented from the others, and needs to be more consistently pursued and harvested, we call these Direct Authority Referrals. These are people who have relationships with people who could use your service or product, and are in a position to have to more than strongly influence matters as a result of being an authority figure. Often as a result, they are privy to information that you can benefit from, and where their recommendation or referral will fast track the process of moving a Lead to a Prospect, and hasten the sale in general. These could be lawyers, accountants, business advisors, bankers. Within given markets there could very specific relationships where one party is in a position to help the referral take on real teeth.

For example, there is a natural synergy between what I do and Sales Compensation consultants. They are interacting with people who can use our services, and can often be perceived as “an authority” by these people. Not only can we add value to their relationships by ensuring that the client fully benefits from their service we are able to accelerate the cycle for both our companies and increase the benefit for the client.

Regardless of the nature of the referral, you can take the initiative in ensuring a healthy relationship, send referrals their way, if you can, before you even receive one from them, this is a small investment, but one that pays long dividends.

• Networking – It’s on everyone’s to-do, not all ways done effectively. There are all kinds of books and articles written on networking, everything from etiquette to finding different networks. Our focus here is to get you thinking about where prospecting fits in to your lead management strategy and program. Not all networks a suitable for every type of sale, but there are always a number that will provide you a steady stream of leads. Since networking is part of the over all strategy make sure you don’t over do it, but do it right. When you attend an event remember you are there to network not socialize. Have targets to measure against and adjust them and you networking based on clear objectives and results.

• Directories – Much like networking, there are a number of different directories our there. Some may cost more than others, but if they provide the leads you need you’ll find the cost negligible. We do quite a bit of cold calling, and we rely heavily on Scott’s Directories, over half our leads, managed of pre-sourced come from Scott’s. The ease of use, sorting, creating lists, all make this more than a cost effective way of securing quality leads and prospects on an ongoing basis. There are association member lists, chambers and boards of trade, and many more.

• Cold Calling – As we have outlined in this space before, other than referrals, cold calling is still the most time and cost effective way to gain and qualify leads and turn them in to prospects. A few moths back we wrote about this in an article called “Rediscover a proven and easy way to Increase Sales and Productivity”, we highlighted the finding detailed on Businessweek.com:

“That's right, because cold-calling works, if it's done right. The survey results showed that the top three ways companies generated quality new leads over the past two years were referrals from clients or partners (22%), general referrals (16%), and cold-calling or telephone prospecting (13%).”

Even in these days of global warming, the inconvenient truth is sales is that you have to have prospect to get sales, and cold calling done right is still an effective way to get those people who want to buy, who don’t know how to find you.

Using the sources above and other tactics, you can ensure that you have a steady source of leads. Using the strategies we outlined last moth in part One, you can qualify, rank and continuously convert those leads to prospects and then to sales.

While we have not found a way to make things easy, I think you’ll find that putting in to practice the things highlighted in these two articles, you will find it easier to engage with more people at a time when they are more likely to have an interest in what you have to sell, and manage those that will be prospects in the future.

What's in Your Pipeline?

If you are sad to admit, contact Tibor Shanto, Principal with Renbor Sales Solutions Inc., and find out how he has helped dozens of organization to fill their pipeline with real prospects - - driving real revenue.

For more information on helping your team sell better, write to: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , visit http://www.sellbetter.ca