The number one priority for any business attempting to attract and retain customers is to establish a well-oiled sales pipeline with sufficient leads to allow the sales team to generate interest and lower customer acquisition costs over time.
Creating a stable sales funnel has never been about a single marketing channel. Instead, a multi-channel approach is essential to ensure you are not missing out on potential new business. Plugging a hole in your sales funnel is critical to reducing lead leakage and maximising ROI.
Control and manage all your lead sources to prevent them from being forgotten
Not having an effective CRM tool will mean you could lose potentially hot leads. Do you currently use a CRM tool, and does it work?
Businesses that already use a CRM tool and are still struggling with lost leads need to address their approach to customer management. CRM software may store data for you, but it’s up to you to nurture these leads and stay up to date with client information.
Preventing leads from landing in your competitors’ CRM programme starts with a simple follow up. Every single lead requires a follow up. Don’t just focus on the hot leads that are likely to purchase immediately. The leads that need time and convincing to convert should not be neglected. Remember our blog on “nurture not neglect”? Every forgotten lead represents a hole in your sales strategy.
If this needs making any clearer, let us share with you that “60% of customers say “no” four times before saying “yes”, whereas 48% of salespeople never even make a single follow up attempt.” (Frost, 2022)
We’ll let that sink in.
Follow-up communications should always include recommendations for further products and services relevant to the original purchase, which will potentially generate “upselling” opportunities
The marketing and sales loophole
Avoid leaving lead nurturing entirely to just the sales or marketing team. A collaborative approach will ensure no valuable prospects are missed. Do your sales and marketing teams understand what constitutes a lead? Is a lead someone that downloaded a white paper? The trick is to align your sales and marketing team. A sales team that receives a warm hand over from the marketing team, equips the salesperson with qualified information that helps frame the customer interaction.
Target your sales and marketing teams with delivering a wastage free operation!
The curse of excess leads
Having an abundance of potential leads can actually cause problems to lead management. If a business is so focused on acquiring new leads, the leads already sitting in the sales funnel can end up neglected. There is such a thing as marketing that is too effective. The key is to balance your sales funnel with new leads, whilst acknowledging and nurturing existing ones.
The good news is that stopping lead leakage is possible. Patching up the holes in your sales funnel all comes down to firm management and strategy.
Bibliography Frost, A. (2022, May 6). 60 Key Sales Statistics That'll Help You Sell Smarter in 2021. Retrieved from Hubspot : https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/sales-statistics#:~:text=Sales%20Follow%2DUp%20Statistics,12.
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