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Sales Strategies - 5 Ways to Handle Leads That Will Not Close
You go back and forth. "Should I give this lead one more chance? Or is this sale not going to happen?" As a salesperson, you want to know that you have done your best to close the deal. But after repeated attempts without results, you question whether it ever will. How do you decide when to give up on a lead? Tough call. Here are some things to think about when deciding. If you find that your energy is dragging and that you have spent several hours meeting, preparing proposals, and following up, you might want to start calculating how many dollars you are wasting by pursuing a lead that may never close. Your time has a dollar value attached to it whether you work for yourself or someone else. By calculating how much you make per work hour, and how much you need to make to stay in the profit zone, you can easily calculate the point at which you or your company start incurring a loss. Chasing leads that will never close may make you feel like you are working. But remember, in sales, the only successful result is a sale. Everything else is busy work or just going through the motions. There are several strategies, both preventive and curative, that you can take to help minimize or eliminate the negative effects of leads that are going nowhere. 1. Document Your Progress - If you are not doing this already, keep a record of every time you contact the client and the results of every contact. You will start seeing patterns. 2. Establish the Next Step Every Time - Every time you have contact with the client about a sale, establish the next step both of you will take to move it forward. If you do not follow through, the lost sale is your problem. If the client does not do what they agree to do, they are sending you a message. Barring extenuating circumstances, a client not following through or not contacting you in a reasonable amount of time should launch your three-strikes policy (see next strategy). 3. Develop a Three-Strikes Type Policy - Though the actual number will depend on the type of business you are pursuing, develop a three-strikes type policy for each lead you pursue. After three unsuccessful attempts to close the deal, at least move it to the next step, or just establish contact, drop it! After keeping records of how many attempts it takes for me to close a deal, I realized that I was trying to close the business sometimes five, six, or even more times. Even worse was that after that many times, the sale was not any farther along than after the second attempt. Time to move on. 4. Try Later - Maybe the reason your client is not closing is because it is just not good timing. Develop a tickler file or other reminder system to alert you to follow up down the road. Then forget about it! Do not keep stewing over a lost sale and worry that you did not do enough. 5. Keep Filling the Possibility Pool - The reason many salespeople doggedly pursue impossible to close leads is that they do not have enough leads to pursue. Keep filling the possibility pool through networking (both online and off) and other lead generation and qualifying activities. When you have lots of leads, the impact of losing this one or that is less.
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More Sales Skills Ideas and Tips The Question is the Answer in Sales Skills Why Customer Service Destroys Salespeople 10 Ways to Increase Your Sales Do You Know What Your Sales Team Are Saying To Your Customers? |
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