A Concise Guide to Sales Prospecting and Sales Funnel |
Posted: April 13, 2018 |
When sales representatives make outbound calls and/or send outbound emails to leads in the hope of making a successful sale of some product or service, this is called sales prospecting. Several businesses like to hire prospectors or SDRs (Sales Development Representatives) for helping them with enhancing sales prospecting results. Two things associated with sales are very important, numbers and time. Mostly, they go hand-in-hand. The biggest challenge is to maximize the numbers while staying well ahead of time. For this, a number of right processes, activities, and skills are required. Sales representatives need to web their own strategy to cope up with the every growing buyer-focused requirement. Definition of Sales Prospecting Sales Prospecting is a process of searching potential buyers, clients, and customers for developing new business opportunities. The ultimate goal is to move prospects through the sales funnel, i.e. converting them into revenue-generating customers. Prospects vs. Leads Prospect and lead are somewhat similar, but not the same, terms. Here’s a brief definition of each: Prospects - When leads qualify as potential customers, they transform into prospects. Simply, when a lead aligns with the persona of an ideal buyer or consumer of an organization, the lead becomes a prospect. A potential customer that has limited or no interaction with an organization can be a prospect but not a lead. Sales Prospecting Funnel Sales representatives have the responsibility to assist prospects or leads pass through the sales funneling process so that they ultimately decide to purchase an offered product or service. For this, some sort of dialing software, called sales dialer, is used to get in touch with a customer. Alternatively, email is also used. And, in some cases, a combination of the two is used. A sales funnel has five important sections or phases. Each one of them is defined as follows: 1. Research - The goal of this phase is to determine the quality of a lead. Sales representative make use of Qualifying Dimensions in this phase. It is actually a set of criteria meant for evaluating the probability that a lead or prospect will turn into a customer. CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software is also used in this phase. 2. Prospect - The ultimate goal of this phase is to get a connect. Two important concepts of this phase are Gatekeeper and Decision-maker. 3. Connect - This phase aims at scheduling next meeting with a prospect or lead. This phase introduces the concept of Discovery Call. It is the first contact with a sales rep for making a prospect and qualifying them as a lead in the next step. 4. Educate and Evaluate - In this phase of the sales funnel, sales representative need to evaluate prospect needs and requirements. This phase identifies Pain Point and Objection, i.e. a prospect’s business need and prospect’s challenge leading to opposing the offering respectively. 5. Close - The last phase aims at turning opportunities into customers. A prospect can be closed-won (successfully purchasing the offering) or closed-lost (not purchasing the offering). Closing Ratio is defined as the ratio of closed-won and closed-lost deals made by a sales representative.
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