How To Manage Sales Leads, Without Killing Them

February 01, 2019 | Blog, Resources

From a top-down perspective, the hands of a man are visible holding a pen, while next to him is a laptop, a cup of coffee, a newspaper, a calendar, and an agenda.

Everyone working in marketing and sales dreams of getting the best possible sales leads – the ones that sell themselves and you barely have to do any work. Unfortunately, those leads are few and far between. Often, you will have to do the work to get the sales lead to turn into a paying customer. That work varies depending on the client, how far into the funnel they are, and what you know about their pains.

To start, let’s assume that your marketing function has done the work and has gotten a sales qualified lead for you. Now, you have to treat that lead in a way that fosters understanding and desire for the product. To do this, you have to maximize the chances for connection. How can you do that?

Here are some proven steps you can take to make that sales lead a paying customer:

You First Need To Do Some Homework

Before you reach out to your sales lead, you want to make sure that you know a few things about him or her. You want to know why that lead requested information, why you have their name. It could be that the lead clicked on an internet link, filled out a form, or spent a lot of time on your website. By knowing the behavior that led to the designation as a sales qualified lead, you will have more to work with when it comes to making a sale.

By doing some homework, you will be able to craft messages that relate to prospective buyers’ circumstances or pain points. If it is possible for you to gain this information (using predictive analytics can help here), you should.

Understand The Pain Points People Encounter

Once you understand this person and this company, you need to know a little bit about why they need your tools or services. Think about why your product is different from the other companies that might be on their list. What problems can you solve? How can you solve them differently than someone else? How can your products or services help them to achieve their end goals? What are their end goals?

You have to think about what outcomes this lead is trying to produce – and, maybe even more importantly, what they are trying to avoid.

Craft A Message That Connects

Now that you know your leads and know their pains, you want to craft a message that will match the dominant concerns. You plan ahead for some of the questions that your potential client may ask of you – they will likely have questions you cannot anticipate, so planning for the ones you can will be helpful.

Use the information that you have gathered before this step to better understand how your potential client thinks, how familiar they are with your tools and services, and even how desperate they are for that solution.

Don’t Let Your Sales Leads Slip Away

For many people, trying to figure out the best way to connect with a sales lead is the hardest part of the job. Sure, there are ways that we can do it, but it never really feels natural nor does it feel like we are doing exactly what we need to do.

Sometimes, the leads we lose that we went after the hardest, the ones that we think have to sign with us as the ones that haunt us.

It goes without saying that no method to connect with a sales lead that is entirely without work or a little bit of luck. Luck is part of it, but if you work extremely hard and use tools to help you, you will be able to bring your own luck to the table. With like the ones from MRP, you will be able to work your way through the swamp much more quickly than you can imagine – and perhaps find your go-to tactics to easily convert more sales.

TOPICS: Blog | Resources
TAGGED: B2B Leads | B2B sales | blog | Sales | SQL

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