Let’s say you’ve reached out to some businesses online, resulting in a few interested leads. The easy part is done, right? Not so fast – lead nurturing can be the most crucial process in closing a deal (79% of marketing leads never convert into sales).
The most important part to any sales process before you even start moving along the sales pipeline is making sure you can keep track of everything. CRM’s (Customer Relationship Management) are a type of software that can help you do just that – register and track leads, analyze success rate, and do things like send automated follow up email. Best of all, most CRM’s nowadays are hosted in the cloud, so that you can continue the sales process from anywhere in the world.
Are CRM’s pricey? They can be, depending on your needs – but a recent study has proven that every dollar spent on a CRM averages $5.60 in ROI – a worthwhile investment in the end.
Once you’ve got a CRM in place, it’s time to start preparing for conversation with your prospect. Thankfully, there’s a ton of publicly available information about people on the internet, via social networks such as LinkedIn. Try and find a common ground between you and your prospect to help move along the conversation and avoid awkwardness.
Next, it’s important to be knowledgeable and confident about what you’re trying to sell. You’ll also want to answer any of your prospect’s questions as soon as possible, since on average, you’re 9 times more likely to convert a prospect into a lead by answering emails within 5 minutes.
But don’t just stick to emails and calls – an in-person meeting can be extremely beneficial in the sales process, because it allows face-to-face interaction and an easier way to present things to your prospect (such as slideshows or physical products). Plus, people are more likely to accept your offer while in person vs the easily avoidable phone or email.
Negotiating and following up is the last part of the sales process, but the most crucial because it’s make it or break it time. You’ll want to give your prospect enough time to think about the offer, but at the same time be somewhat persistent and follow up every few days. Unfortunately, many salespeople do not follow by these rules – up to 48% of sales people never follow up with a prospect.
Refresh, an app that aggregates publicly available profile data from several social networks to help people prepare for conversations and find a common ground, has put together the Infographic below, highlighting more tips and stats on converting a sales prospect. What tips have you found most useful during the sales process?
