Are too many of your sales leads “nearly” closed?
Have you considered outside lead generation services?
Too many sales leads, that are near the end of your sales pipeline and not closing can be a problem. This can lock up your cash flow, which means you may have to delay investing in your business while you’re waiting for your sales team to close deals. You have a good sales team, so you’re pretty sure these deals will be done soon, so you concede that a new piece of big-ticket equipment or software can wait. But the days go on into weeks, and weeks turn into months.
You’ve been patient long enough. There are ways to shorten your lead generation sales cycle and unfreeze your business’ cash flow.
Things such as…
Outside lead generation services
You may have built up a stellar sales team. However, bringing in outside help that offers lead generation services and specializes in sales effectiveness training can give them a different point of view on things and help them refine or change their approach.
These lead generation and sales specialists can audit your entire sales process and find new ways to shorten your sales cycle or generate more qualified sales leads. The sooner you give your sales team the tools and processes they need, the sooner your cash flow will reap the benefits. Results from our Black Report indicate that 57% of sales and marketing professionals surveyed said that insufficient budget is being invested in their B2B lead generation efforts.
Say “No” to some would-be sales leads
Sometimes saying “no” isn’t closing the door to a possible sale. It’s opening the door for your team to work on more qualified sales leads.
Be specific in defining your ideal target customer, so you know when to tell a sales lead, “Maybe this isn’t an ideal match.” This is particularly true in the B2B lead generation space.
You don’t want your sales team spending too much time preparing detailed quotes or traveling to on-site visits if this sales lead can’t afford your solution.
Good lead generation strategies require that you determine 3-5 steadfast criteria that your qualified leads need to meet. This might be:
- A minimum size of X
- A minimum budget of Y
- Direct access to (or influence on) the decision-maker
Read the sings, analyze the deals you’re closing and the deals you’re losing to find your company’s telltale signs.
Find tasks to automate
A sales job is a lot of work, researching, pitching, nurturing. It’s entirely possible that your lead times are too long because your sales staff doesn’t spend enough time selling.
Research shows that the average salesperson spends:
- 21% of their time writing emails
- Another 17% prospecting and researching leads
The sum of those tasks can equate to 2 lost workdays each week. Your full-time staff is now basically selling part-time.
You may uncertain whether you need to invest in a CRM automation solution. However, ask yourself how much time your sales team is spending on those “extra” tasks, and how much it’s worth to have them selling full-time. Since they really can’t do it all, you can also consider external lead generation services.
Make it as easy to payed
Be flexible with payment. Ensure that your company can accept any type of payment method that your customers would want to use. Also, make it easy for clients to pay you using any mobile device in a few quick touches.
You can also offer alternate or incremental payment plans to break things up. That way, you will have some money coming in and a predictable idea of when the next payment will arrive.
In times of financial stress, you might wonder if you should lower your price to bring in more cash. That’s possible. But before you do something that drastic, consider outside sales or lead generation services, automation or CRM software, and removing any possible payment barriers.
Remove the barriers and consider using any one of these tactics to shorten your sales cycle right away!
