You scored the big deal, the sale you’ve been going hard after for most of the year. Now what? Sure, go ahead and celebrate. But if you haven’t been keeping a healthy amount of attention to sales prospecting — going after opportunities to connect with other qualified prospects, you could still come up short in hitting your sales targets.
The temptation to focus on those current prospects, the ones that are “just a few weeks” — or” just a couple of months” from closing can force too many sales reps to neglect the practice of constantly sales prospecting to ensure that they have additional opportunities in the sales pipeline.
It’s time to develop some healthy habits to make sure you and your team are constantly engaged in the practice of sales prospecting as part of your strategy. Start with these 3 habits to get you going.
1. Learn to quickly qualify a prospect.
One of the most important keys to developing an effective sales prospecting strategy is understanding what your company defines as a qualified prospect. From there, make sure you’re connecting with those people. You don’t have to be rude when asking the questions that will help you find the answers you’re looking for. There’s no need to chase down a prospect that’s really not interested in your services or products — or don’t have the budget for it, when you could be moving on to the next opportunity.
2. Quickly follow up with a new qualified lead.
Studies show that responding to a lead quickly — within two minutes or less is an ideal — can lead to an increased level of sales success. In fact, those who are contacted within that time frame are four times as likely to become a client than an average lead. One Boston-based company that sells study abroad programs checked their response rate — and found that their sales team’s average response time to a lead was 36 hours. As it turns out, their sales reps were regularly prioritizing follow-ups over new leads. When the team cut their response to those new leads, sales numbers doubled.
3. Have more intelligent conversations.
It’s important to understand that most of your prospects have already done plenty of research on your products and solutions — and more than likely, those of your competitors. There’s no need to waste your time and their time rehashing the obvious. You can ask them about where they are in their understanding of the services and products, and move on from there. Don’t go into a spiel with no consideration that they more than likely already are well informed.
Keeping your sales prospecting strategy focused is essential to consistency in sales. Give your sales reps the tools they need to succeed. MonsterConnect provides a sales prospecting enablement solution that has been helping sales teams in a variety of industries make more sales. Contact us to find out how we can do the same for your team.
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