Split The Sales Cycle Into Two Critical Business Processes

By Barry Lieberman
Advantage Plus Marketing Group

Today more CEOs, as well as sales and marketing vice-presidents, realize that sales reps don't nurture 'leads.' Over 75% of the time, they don't follow up those 'leads' more than once or twice. This means a tremendous amount of money is spent with little return on marketing investment (ROMI).

In addition, today's prospects are busier than ever. They're hit with more marketing messages than ever before. To break through and create a good "qualified prospect" (not just a lead), i.e. someone who really needs and wants your product or service, takes an ongoing consistent effort.

Successful Executives understand there are two cycles involved: the "Prospecting Cycle" followed by the "Sales Cycle". The Prospecting Cycle is a process that when applied consistently, yields higher quality "qualified prospects" for sales and therefore a higher conversion rate to sales revenue dollars.

The processes and people involved in the Prospecting Cycle are a very different approach and personality than a good relationship manager/closer sales representative. Cold-calling from a list of leads is the first thing to fall by the wayside when more profitable activities appear on a sales representative's radar.

The prospecting process requires sustained commitment to an annual budget. Its success depends on a persistent program of coordinated marketing campaigns and consistent one to one follow-up. Most importantly, your company's top executives must understand its potential for producing future sales because their support will be crucial to its ongoing role in your company's future.

I call this on-going methodology a "Prospecting Engine^©." The good news is that a Prospecting Engine does not require a large investment in personnel and systems. It can start small and be scaled upward in stages as the function proves its worth in higher sales and profits. And, it doesn't matter whether the effort is performed in-house, outsourced, or combines the two approaches.

Permanent funding and consistency are key
"Stop and start" lead generation or demand generation—the typical approach in many marketing and sales organizations—is inherently nonproductive. A hit or miss effort disrupts the flow of qualified leads prospects to sales, and makes it more difficult to predict sales trends with any accuracy.

Don't set your prospecting program up for failure by perpetuating these common mistakes:
  • Developing separate campaigns that must be individually justified and funded.
  • Inadequate follow-up on promising prospects; failing to educate them and keep a relationship going until they are ready to talk to a sales person.
  • Using highly paid sales closers and relationship builders (your sales people) to cold-call trade show bingo cards and follow up on Website inquiries, 800 number calls, and the like.
  • Cutting funding for prospecting when sales dip and budgets tighten. In reality that is when the funding should increase!
  • Failing to develop a system that ranks prospects in terms everyone agrees on, defines procedures for prospecting, and categorizes appropriate responses for suspects and prospects in various stages of decision-making.

Plan ahead for prospecting success
Here are general guidelines for a guaranteed-results prospecting program:
  • Establish permanent funding to maintain a consistent effort whether it be outsourced, in-house or a combination of both.
  • Define the processes and benchmarks by which the effort's success will be judged.
  • Plan specific activities—direct marketing or internet touches via postal or email, webinars, newsletters, seminars, telephoning—to use depending on where prospects are in the cycle.
  • Keep in mind that prospects respond best to communications that address their pain (not generic) and really provide added value by educating the prospect on how best to solve the problem.
  • Continue to work the system non-stop and forever; it's what you wish your sales team had been doing but could not.

Consistently managed and appropriately funded, the prospecting process yields an excellent return on the investment your company has made in advertising and promotion to attract those inquiries in the first place.

Want to know more about the Prospecting Engine^©, direct marketing solutions and Advantage Plus Marketing Group? Call us at 800-432-9466 and/or visit our website at www.apmg.com.