| Lead Ideas From The Experts... |
|
I just returned from an SME (Sales and Marketing Executives) meeting a few minutes ago. There were about 40 people there, along with a panel of sales pipeline experts. Since I'm all charged up with some new ideas, I'm going to include my notes here in this newsletter. "Share the knowledge!'
Now, read on for some statistics you can share with your boss, your marketing team, and with yourself--in the hopes that you will learn something new: 41% of salespeople come in under quota It takes 10 months to train a new salesperson 52% of leads come from salespeople (the balance, from marketing) Close conversions average at about 50% of leads 80% of un worked customer leads means customers buy from someone else Take a look at that last statistic. If 80% of un worked leads go unclosed, it's probably because a salesperson wasn't diligent in his/her follow through. As you know, most salespeople give up after 2 or 3 attempts. That's not good enough. Remember that there is a power of 10-15 touches you need to make in order to get a customer's attention. There was an executive on the panel who is the Director of Sales and Marketing at a medium sized software firm. He said that he gets 50 calls a day from vendors. No one asked how many of those calls he returns, however, I can assure you, that the number is very small by the way he talked about it. He said what I've been harping on for years: that we, as salespeople, compete on a daily basis with EVERYONE who sells--not just those in your industry. All the more reason not to throw your hands up in the air and yell, "I give up!" Leave that expression to the rest of the vendors calling! The executives also mentioned "nurturing" their customers with monthly touches of articles, white papers, podcast links, You Tube links, Twitters, and other items of interest. One recommended that this nurturing take place in lieu of phone contact until you have a more interested customer prospect. I only recommend that if you have more leads than you can handle. About 2008's sales plan, a panelist said that regarding sales, they chose not to panic. They just stayed laser focused, despite the fact that it took 10,000 people to sign off on a $100 sale. What about you? Are you concentrating and nurturing your top account prospects for 2009? So, lessons learned from the experts. If you have a idea to share, please email me at: www.salespeak.com, or you can send a Tweet from your Twitter page, or LinkIn. Either way, I look forward to hearing from you. Happy Selling! |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|