Leads.
That is all a business is about.
But filling the sales pipeline remains a challenge for marketers in 2020. Your prospective clients have a LOT more options to look to.
What do you do then? How do you win the hearts of most prospects? How do you make them stay and buy ONLY from you time and again?
This post has got all the answers simplified for you. I will be explaining how to:
- Find ideal prospects for your business.
- Channels to use to reach your prospects fast
- Nurturing the prospects – making them go “Not Ready to Buy” to “Very Excited to Buy!” from you.
If you are willing to ENTIRELY dedicate just one hour each day nurturing your prospects, read ahead. Yes! Just one hour daily!
The sales prospecting tips coming forth in this post gets to the core of each customer’s wants.
The rule is simple:
“People trust a business with their money when they think it understands their needs better than they do.”
That’s why sales prospecting outperforms all other traffic generating tactics.
Most essentially, keep this in mind! You are NOT reaching prospects to close more deals. You are investing your time in building a life-long relationship with them. This is important because:
Sales are momentary. Whereas relationships stay.
Here are the top 3 most impactful sales prospecting tips to date.
1. Analyze Your Traffic
Come down to a LOT more granular level to study your website’s visitors.
Mastering the art of harnessing user data through analytics will increase your business sales tenfold.
Identify the fluctuations in the stats and understand what causes them.
This is the best means to learn about your target audience’s behavior.
Google Analytics Comes Handy
Track your leads and marketing campaigns daily.
From the most engaged “Hour of the Day” to the most engaged “Day of the Week,” Google tells you all.
Assessing traffic data will help you make an informed decision in your next marketing strategy.
When you understand what your customers love more in your business, you will know where to invest more time and effort.
There are three stages to a buyer’s journey:
Awareness – Consideration – Decision
Using analytics, you can perfect your sales collateral assets to win the leads that are stuck in the Consideration Stage and push them to the Decision Stage.
77 Agency, the winner of the “Best Use of Data,” 2019, shared their strategy “thinking globally and acting locally” for its Shutterstock campaign. They utilized Google Analytics’ internal site search report to meet their clients’ exact search demands next year.
2. Apply Conversational Leads Follow-Up Approach
Be straightforward in your response to your lead’s queries. But never be robotic.
Create Personalized Email Replies
60% of marketers agree that personalization is the key strategy for sales prospecting.
Getting a qualified lead to convert has got much more to it than just answering the request.
Since they have approached your brand themselves, they are ready to buy. Their purchase decision is just a correct response away.
Ideal Customer Engagement Day and Time
According to a Lead Response Management Study:
- If you choose to call your leads, do it on Wednesdays and Thursdays between 4-5 pm. There is a 49% higher response rate on Thursdays compared to Tuesdays.
- Monday, 3 pm onwards is ideal to get back to your leads via email.
Think of ways you can make your prospects feel they are listened to.
One way is to address them with their names, instead of the cliched “Dear valuable customer.”
Emotional Affirmance is Important
“Dear James, I can feel you are confused/frustrated/excited…but I am here to help.”
Leaving any of your leads’ requests unattended, puts your brand reputation at risk. At the least, you can acknowledge their emails and assure them you will return to them when you have a solution to their query.
3. Utilize Every Channel of Communication There Exists
You would never want to regret losing a potential client in the hands of an untapped opportunity to engage with them. With over 3 billion users, social media is an excellent platform to drive more visitors to your site.
Replying to Social Media Comments
After an in-person interaction, social media platforms are now the second most sought after areas where customers find comfort to get in touch with a brand.
Therefore, you should never make them feel you are too busy to reply back to their comments.
Many sales prospects hesitate to ask about a product in public and get ignored. Your replies to other customers will motivate them to put their queries before you because they will know you will respond to them.
And hurry!
83% of the commenters will want a brand to reply back to their comment within a day, or they will move to the brand’s competitor.
The 80/20 Rule
Keep the posts coming in. Be consistent.
But only 20% of your content should be based on selling. This 20% will bring 80% of the sales.
The other 80% should:
Create Awareness – Entertain – Educate
Share humorous content, personal photos, and literally anything your audience will be excited to see.
Commenting on Others Posts
Commenting on others’ blogs and social media posts also give your brand the exposure it needs.
Make the comments appreciative, fun, and engaging.
Conducting Webinars
20% of webinar attendants end up buying premium products from a brand. That’s crazy, right?
But it’s believable looking at how webinars facilitate explaining a product’s use to those interested to know.
Unlike social media comments and emails, webinar leads don’t have to wait long to get their answers.
The live commenting helps them clarify doubts, if any, there and then.
By the time the webinar is over, they’ve made up their mind regarding making the purchase.
Make sure your post-webinar lead nurturing strategies are done correctly.
Put these three sales prospecting tips into action and witness your sales outrank your competitors.
