Working Your Way Down the Sales Funnel: Some Helpful Hints

03.12.2012

Most of us know the fundamentals of a basic sales funnel. You start out with a hot lead from varying areas. This ends up as an opportunity for business. You send out a proposal for services. And, hopefully, in turn you have yourself a new customer! A sales funnel starts at the very beginning of the new business stage when you initially capture the attention and interest of your prospects via your website, social media efforts, a well stated voice mail or phone call, newsletter, or maybe even a referral. Yet, no matter which way the sales funnel begins, once it begins, making sure you stay on target is key to making sure the end result is more prospects becoming clients.

One way to ensure that the process stays on track is to maintain regular communication with your current clients, referral sources, and potential clients, while making sure they have a clear understanding of not only what you can do to help them, but also that you really do want to help them and not just sell to them. Sometimes this process is pretty quick, requiring only one or two conversations to “close the deal.” Other times those seven to thirteen calls it usually takes to get a prospect to trust you enough to talk about the issues you are looking to solve are necessary; in these cases a fair amount of nurturing needs to take place over time.

In general, there is a direct correlation between the length of the sales cycle and the overall cost of a deal. This is one of the reasons why I never understood the process used for purchasing a timeshare. The larger the cost, usually the longer it takes to make a sale.

So, how do you know that you are working your way down the sales funnel? Sure, you can pick up almost any sales book and find a description of a sales funnel in there, all just a little bit different. For me, I have six simple guidelines:

  1. First, evaluate what it is you are going to sell. What is it? Who needs it? Why would they want it?
  2. Think about the decision process of your potential customer or client. If you are selling a pack of gum, the decision process will be relatively quick and simple. If you are selling a high end business to business service, a high tech piece of software, or a large piece of industrial equipment, there will likely be several meetings and maybe a few plant tours involved.
  3. You can’t get a yes if you are not talking to the people who can give you a yes, so identify and develop relationships with all decision makers and influencers. Again, pair this with the complexity of the sale. You don’t expect the person at the store selling you a pack a gum to see if they are one of the four out of five dentists who have partially influenced your decision to purchase a particular brand.
  4. You cannot sell something to someone if I do not know what they need. This is a key point that a lot of people miss. They try to sell what they have rather than understand the prospect’s need.
  5. Prospects will not buy if they do not have the money. So, before asking for the sale or even presenting a solution, get an understanding of their budget and make sure it is in line with the solution you plan to present. I heard someone say once, “I want it fast, I want it good, and I want it inexpensive,” to which we replied, “We can most likely help you…PICK ANY TWO.”
  6. The most overlooked part of the process is time. If you present a solution, can they implement it now? Does testing need to occur prior? Is there another contract that needs to run its course before implementing your solution? When this part was skipped, deals fall through.

Hopefully this advice was helpful, and, if you need additional assistance working through this process, Randolph Sterling, Inc. is well versed in all levels of it, from qualifying prospects for the top of the sales funnel, to setting meetings for your experts with the decision maker at target company, to helping you close the deal!

 

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Posted in Business Secrets, Inside Sales, Jolene Pratt, Management Services, Outsourced Sales, RandolphSterling, Sales Funnel, Sales Management, Sales Strategies, Social Media |

Randolph Sterling: Partners NOT Telemarketers

03.05.2012

Recently I had one of those weeks of practically non-stop travel! Although I may never hear that knock on my door from a Yankees recruiter, it’s weeks like these that make me think I’ve had at least a taste of the lifestyle, or at least the schedule. With stops including Boston, Raleigh, Charlotte, and Chicago, the birth place of Randolph Sterling Inc., it was not difficult to forget what city I was waking up in the morning, but it was definitely been worth it!

At my first stop of my four city tour, Boston, I had a particularly interesting meeting that led me to realize that as much as we tell our clients and prospects that we provide an inside sales team and not telemarketers, many people still see them as the same thing.
I was spending the day with our Boston Regional Sales Manager, Wayne Sutherland, meeting some of the prospects he has been talking to about Randolph Sterling. One of them told us his company has been working with a telemarketing firm for a while now and he thought it was a complete waste of time. He mentioned that, while this firm sends them a ton of “leads” out of their call center in India, he doesn’t even follow up on the ones he specifically receives.

I know salespeople get busy and don’t always have time to follow up on leads, but to consciously throw them in the garbage when the company pays good money for them…

I didn’t understand him, but knew he was not alone.

He told us that the leads were nowhere near qualified. In fact, their “script” did not even mention their company by name, leading Wayne and I both to think that this telemarketing firm was sending these same leads to more than one company.

He further mentioned that when he questioned the firm about the leads, their response was, “They did show some interest, but you will likely have to call them 7 to 10 times to schedule an appointment with them.”

STOP THE MADNESS!

Needless to say, we were shocked. This style of “telemarketing” goes against everything we stand for and everything our inside sales teams do. I have told people for years that we are different than the stereotypical telemarketing firms that are just pushing for an appointment, any appointment…but this, well I can’t even think of a word to describe how bad this is!

Maybe it is time to spell out how we do things differently:

  1. Our inside sales teams are based right here in the U.S.A., either out of our Chicago, Raleigh, or Boston offices, or satellite offices around the country.
  2. When we make a call for you, we are making that call for you and you alone. We are an extension of your sales force. When we contact prospects for your company, we are calling as your company. There is nothing generic about it nor are we “Randolph Sterling, Inc. representing…”
  3. We are the ones making the 7 to 13 “touches” to build trust with the prospect, not passing that job onto you. We are also learning about your prospects as much as they are learning about our client so we help determine if they really are a good fit for our client.
  4. For some clients, we handle the entire sales cycle from start to finish, however for most, we are turning the lead over to our client at a point where their salesperson or engineer making that client visit or next level call is being brought in as the expert. When they walk into a meeting, the conversation is more “here’s what we are doing, show me how you help,” or the expert is being brought in for a high level discussion on how things will work; not “tell me about yourself.”
  5. As Wayne mentioned to the prospect, “Our reporting is ridiculous. You will have more information than you can imagine.” We are a partner with our clients, not a vendor. Our job is to communicate what is working and what isn’t so we can constantly adjust the message to reach the right people and have the right conversations. It is just as important for us to say, “We don’t think this is a good fit” as it is for us to say “These guys are very interested.”
  6. We work with your sales and marketing groups. There is no adversarial relationships here, no ego. Our job is to get a better return on your marketing investment and to allow your salespeople to do what they do best…sell.

The work we do isn’t easy…it is hard work and not everyone can do it. We start at the top of the sales funnel and work our way down finding the RIGHT prospects and turning them into the RIGHT clients.

If you have questions on how Randolph Sterling could make an impact being part of your sales team, please contact us at 847-305-3710

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Posted in Business Growth, Business Secrets, Chicago, Client Relations, Inside Sales, North Carolina, Outsourced Sales, RandolphSterling, Rich Burghgraef |

Case Study: Garvin Industries

02.20.2012

Garvin Industries is a 120-year-old family owned manufacturer of UL Listed electrical, low voltage and lighting products. Their products include steel boxes, covers and device rings, fittings, weatherproof boxes and covers, hangers, straps, fasteners and clamps, devices and wallplates, tools and installation accessories. Garvin Industries also has the ability to customize standard electrical products upon request. The company features plants in the United States, China, India and Mexico, and has become recognized for designing innovative, labor-saving products and will custom design and manufacture products to meet specifications.

Challenge:

Bart Garvin, the President and CEO of Garvin Industries had attended a supplier meeting held by one of their largest clients. During this meeting, their client suggested to their suppliers there was more that could be done to improve their overall relationship. The main concern was how to improve communication between the suppliers and more than 700 local branch offices that often purchased products from suppliers independently.

Garvin Industries wanted to develop a plan to directly and individually reach out to each these local branches. However, they did not have the internal resources to do so.

Process

Rich Burghgraef, president and CEO of Randolph Sterling, Inc. met with Garvin Industries’ executive team to discuss this issue and how to achieve their goal. Garvin had a list of all of the branch offices, however, the list was unclear as to who the decision maker or decision makers were in each office. They wanted to obtain the phone numbers and e-mail addresses for those they should communicate with, as well as find out their preferred method of communication (i.e. weekly e-mail or phone calls).

Garvin quickly realized this relatively simple project was a larger problem than anticipated. As their team of six to seven associates began the process, they discovered calls being made to the smaller, local offices were redirected to a larger office if a phone call to a specific person was not answered. The challenge was getting the information they needed because although they may call three different people at three different branches, each of these calls could be transferred to the same larger office where someone was available to answer it.

The Randolph Sterling sales team met this challenge and did more than just ask for information. They developed relationships with the local contacts of Garvin’s client. The team handled the calls in a professional manner, so the people they reached several times were not only understanding, but became more and more helpful by providing the contact information of people in the location they were trying to reach, even if it wasn’t the office they called.

There were also locations that provided individuals’ e-mail addresses. As they continued the process, they realized using e-mail became a direct way to reach out to these contacts and reduce the number of calls being redirected to another office miles away. Thus Randolph Sterling found Garvin a better way to communicate with the local decision makers of their client. Having the e-mail information also allowed Garvin to track local decision makers who would visit their web site, looking for items or to purchase.

Through their effort, Randolph Sterling’s sales team conducted good conversations with those who were willing to share information because they did not come across as trying to sell something. Because the goal was communicated well, the team obtained the information they needed for all 700+ offices.

Result

The process became a win-win for Garvin Industries and their client. Garvin listened to their client who said, “We need to communicate better.” They quickly acted upon their client’s suggestion which ended up being a great benefit to Garvin. From their client’s standpoint, it helped them get information into one of their major client’s hands more frequently and turn that into more business.

Rich said, “This is a simple process of we have what they want. They do X amount of business with us. We can turn that into Y amount of business just by having better communication.”

There are areas the relationship can still grow by continuing to improve communication lines with their cleients offices. Already it is becoming easier for Garvin to be able to put together a weekly special they can send to their client’s offices offering something they may need instead of having to call 700 offices.

The end result, Rich said, was using the right communication methods and this resulting in more business. This was important for everyone involved!

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Posted in Abby Scalf, Case Studies, Client Relations, Inside Sales, Outsourced Sales, RandolphSterling |

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