Would you be willing to bet your home on the quality of what’s in your sales pipeline? The vast majority of people would not, and I suspect you’re one of the vast. Why are you putting leads into your sales pipeline if you don’t think they have a chance of ever turning into a customer?
Watch this 93 second video where I talk about this issue:
The greatest asset you have is your time. It’s the one thing you can’t make more of. The best you can do is find ways to leverage it better.
This means you have be very judicious about what you spend your time on and the tools you use. All this sounds good, but don’t think all you need to do is add more tools, apps and hacks to your process to make it a bigger funnel. Falling into this trap is only going to result in one thing — more leads that don’t go anywhere.
Think of the last time you moved into a larger home. Immediately upon moving into the larger home, you began having more stuff, and very soon you thought to yourself, “How did I ever make it in the smaller home?” Our stuff expands to the amount of space we give it, and the same is true with our sales pipeline. We will put into it as much as we feel will fit.
A key part of knowing what you can have in your sales pipeline is knowing how much time it will take to manage it over an extended period of time. Just because you can make one phone call to a lead today doesn’t mean you’ll have time to make the necessary number of follow-up calls it will take to move the lead all the way through to customer status.
If you cannot gather quickly from a lead a key outcome you feel you can help them achieve and a timeline you can do it in, then the lead simply does not belong in your pipeline. The reason is simple. You don’t have the time. The time you do have is going to be better spent on better prospects.
It’s time you push back. I’m a firm believer you will achieve more success having fewer leads you can spend more time with than having too many leads with which you can merely use an unsuccessful “spray and pray” strategy.
And don’t forget that a coach can help you excel in your sales career! Invest in yourself by checking out my coaching program today!
Copyright 2018, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Results
One Response
Many thanks Mark, great post and video. Much appreciated. — Barry.