Anouk van Deurse
Sales funnel Management is essential for any commercial organization. As an organization, you naturally invest in finding new customers. A good way to do that is telephone acquisition. In this way, companies can be approached that are not yet in your network and so you can broaden your network. The commercial staff are the feelers in the market. Through good calling techniques and smart reporting, those callers provide concrete and relevant market insights and of course: qualitative sales leads. But in doing so, let sales funnel management certainly not out of consideration!
Start with good preparation
For sales funnel management, it is important to have a good understanding of which prospect you want to call at what time, but more importantly: why? Immerse yourself well in your prospect. Is the prospect in a niche market? Are they already working with one of your competitors? Which of our unique selling points will you highlight to ensure that you can convert this prospect into a lead? Then you will approach them. For structural telephone lead generation, it is important to be well prepared.
Next? Wait a minute!
Upon approaching your prospect, you learn that the topic is not currently on their agenda. ‘Not interested!’, they indicate. ‘Next!’, many will think. But wait, what do we do with this prospect now? They indicate that the subject currently is not on the agenda. But why not? Don't they have time? Perhaps in 3 months they will! Don't they have a budget? There may well be speculation about next year's budgets a few months later. So good time to call!
It is essential to keep up this contact over time. That way you get to the right table at the right time. How do you ensure that this happens? Right, with good sales funnel management.
Top, Middle, Bottom, Customer!
Take a look at the figure above. The first telephone market approach, that happens in the top of the funnel: your first goal is to awareness for your solution or service. Of course, with this you intend to immediately schedule an appointment to physically explain your product or service.
If this fails, you will follow up with the contact over time. When? That depends on what is said during your first conversation. That follow up, that is already warmer contact. Or actually; lukewarm. You know who you need, you've spoken to this person before, and they've heard of your product or service before. Come back to your previous contact and include why you are calling back now: “I am curious to see if you now see some more room in the calendar to consider our solution.”
Recognition from the previous contact combined with the good timing with which you call now increases the likelihood that you can convert this call into a lead. Then you bring the prospect deeper into the funnel and the contact gets warmer and warmer. That's what you want!
Outsource lead generation
The process of structural B2B lead generation, and in particular telephone acquisition, takes time and effort. It can therefore be a good consideration to outsource lead generation. By engaging a party for telephone market approach, you provide structure and focus to your sales process.