What percent of your prospects actually wind up becoming customers?
Too often, those prospects turn out to just be shiny objects.
What really happens is you get these prospects and it’s two, three months later that you realize they’ll never become a customer. Why are we chasing these?
For some reason, we get caught up in the euphoria.
I don’t want a sales pipeline that is plugged up like a sewer pipe. What I want is a water tap.
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1. Qualify fast.
You don’t have time for shiny objects in your pipeline. This is how your pipeline winds up becoming a sewer pipe. I want to spend more time with fewer prospects.
If I can’t bring it to fruition, then why am I wasting my time? If they’re not sharing proprietary information with me early on—that means information not known publicly —they’re not a prospect.
Read more to follow these 4 Steps to Qualify Prospects Fast.
2. Ensure they link up with your ICP.
If they don’t line up with your ICP, don’t think for a moment, “Hey, this would be a great new ICP for us to go into.” This is not the time for you to suddenly seek a new vertical.
3. Know their timeline.
If they haven’t given you some sense of a timeline of their decision-making and what their process is, then I don’t have time to dance with them. Just because it’s a big opportunity, has huge potential or it’s a logo you’d love to have, that does not make them a prospect.
You have to be incredibly judicious about who you allow in your pipeline.
Sales managers, please don’t look to your salespeople to have them stuffing the pipe—unfortunately that’s what many are already doing. They’re stuffing the pipeline and it winds up turning into a sewer pipe that nothing gets through. Instead, I want leads that are going in and turning out to be customers very, very fast.
4. You can’t force the prospect along.
There has to be some sense of gravitational pull on the part of the prospect towards you. If they are not demonstrating some sort of interest in you and your solution, not your product, but your solution, then cut them loose. You don’t have time.
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Copyright 2024, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of A Mind for Sales and High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Results.
