You’ve determined your target audience and you’re exploring different channels to find new leads. But you won’t make a sale if you don’t engage in effective outreach. Here are five tips to help you get a better response from prospective customers:
Build Trust, Then Sell
As with anything in business, having a great strategy can make or break your business development efforts. Knowing how to qualify your leads is the foundation of any sales efforts. But that’s only the beginning. Once you’ve identified your leads, you want to build their trust before going for the sale. In the early phases, your salespeople need to provide helpful information and educate prospective customers about the product in order to draw leads in with your expertise and value.
Provide a Solution
Sometimes your customers don’t even know they have a problem. When you’re reaching out to a prospect, ask about challenges they face in their jobs. They may be aware of an issue, but they don’t always know there’s a solution. This is why sales is more than selling a product. It’s about showing the customer the value you bring to the table. You can take the opportunity here to explain how your product or service can help address their frustrations.
Follow up Immediately
One of the biggest mistakes for all sales professionals is not following up with leads in a timely manner. In a Harvard Business Review study, 24% of businesses don’t respond to leads within 24 hours, and 23% never respond at all. The average company response time was 42 hours. When a customer is looking to make a purchase, they shouldn’t have to wait on you to get back to them. Make sure you follow up within 24 hours—you’re more likely to get through to a key decision maker.
Embrace Email Marketing
Email newsletters are a great way to improve your sales funnel as it enables you to stay relevant, even if the customer doesn’t make an immediate purchase. With Connectivity’s Automated Marketing Campaigns, you can schedule your emails to existing customers, and keep in contact with inbound prospects. Whether you’re sending out industry insights or special offers, email marketing is one of the most cost effective ways to grow engagement with your business.
Integrate Sales and Marketing
Marketing automation software is gaining popularity today is because it makes it easier for teams across your business to work together. How many times has someone from your sales team come to you looking for promotional or product educational materials? Marketers are the ones who research and identify your ideal customers, while sales teams are the ones who reach out to leads and try to close a deal. The two departments need to coordinate. With Connectivity’s tools, you can collect and segment new and current customers by demographics using Customer Insights, and reach out to them via email through the Automated Marketing Campaigns product.
Identifying qualified leads and using different channels to find them are the first important steps in lead generation. Delight prospective customers with quick response times, effective solution, and tailored information, and you’ll be able to grow your business much more efficiently.
Top image credit: BrAt82/Shutterstock
Alex is Connectivity’s VP of Marketing and Client Services
