By Nick Belcher, B2B Account Director
Everybody wants to see more of their leads turning into customers. Whatever lead sources you’re using, that’s the key to top-line growth and greater ROI. But there can be a temptation to view lead sources as being of higher or lower quality, whilst your outreach effort and sales process are seen as relatively static. We see it differently.
Today there’s no such thing as an exclusive lead. Any prospect buying a product or service with differentiators other than cost alone will do their research. This is particularly true in the B2B sphere, where buying managers aren’t really doing their job correctly unless they gather a range of quotes and options before making a purchasing decision. So sales processes matter and being just okay really isn’t okay!
MVF specializes in generating large volumes of high quality leads to feed Sales teams for a broad range of products and services. We can manage lead quality in terms of marketing channels, but some of the biggest improvements in conversion rate we’ve been able to generate have been when we’ve stepped forward to work with our clients’ Sales teams directly.
We have three, tried and tested stages for how we’ll help a client review and improve their sales execution.
Stage One – Where Are You Now?
We start with fact finding to set a baseline. Firstly, we gather current benchmarks in speed to lead, communications content and the number, frequency and diversity of outreach attempts. We compare these with our industry benchmarks, identifying gaps. Secondly, we walk reps through the prospect user journey in detail and gather any questions, concerns or objections that may be roadblocks to success.
Stage Two – Get the Basics Right
Once we’ve set the baseline, we can then address the opportunities.
Speed and tenacity are the keys to making contact with as many of those prospects as possible. We create a bespoke checklist for our clients that includes:
- Be the first to call – According to research from InsideSales.com, 35-50% of sales go to the vendor that responds first. That’s a prize worth chasing, so make sure your CRM, dialler and lead routing all support the fastest response possible.
- If you can’t be first, still be fast – Even if you’re not the first to call, reaching out within seconds rather than minutes or hours can dramatically improve your chances of making contact and having the chance to sell.
- Keep on trying – That same InsideSales.com research found that the average number of call attempts made by sales reps to a new lead before giving up was just 1.3 times. MVF’s own in-house contact center has found a sweet spot of 8 call attempts over the first 5 days before diminishing returns make it less effective to continue chasing a lead. If you’re doing much less than that you’re almost certainly leaving a lot of potential value on the table, and your ROI on your current lead gen spend could be significantly better.
- Diversify your outreach – A phone call has always been the gold standard for lead contact as it puts you in dialogue with the prospect so that you can make a sale. But to get that phone conversation you’re likely to need a mix of several call attempts, strategic voicemail, an email and SMS cadence, and even a potential follow and a few likes on LinkedIn. Be willing to create your own mini-brand campaign to get your name in front of the prospect so they might pick up the phone on that next call attempt.
Stage Three – Make a Connection
With these tactics, you’ve got your foot in the door and are speaking to a lead… what next? While it is crucial to explain the benefits of your product, an overlooked aspect of Sales success is building a connection with the prospect so that you can advise them on a topic where your knowledge is valuable to them.
How can you make a connection with the person? How can you learn about their needs and position your product as the right solution? Asking a disarming question, sharing useful information and letting them know you want to help them find the right solution for them, even if that’s not your own product, can all help to build rapport. This can create enough of a foundation of trust that you can move a prospect from a defensive position (I’m being sold-to), to actively listening (I’m learning something).
Conclusión
Of course, improving your contact strategy isn’t a one-and-done situation – you need to test, measure and improve over a period of time. The most important thing is to always believe you can do better, and keep trying to make those gains.
In fact, MVF has seen conversion rates increase by as much as 250% after we’ve got to work with our clients, and helped them to overhaul the parts of their process that were holding them back.
MVF covers a broad range of industries and sectors, in both B2B and B2C markets in over 40 countries. As one of the world’s largest lead generators for inside sales teams, we have a wealth of knowledge and experience to bring to bear in helping our clients get better. To find out how we could help you, please get in touch…
