How can you make the Pareto Principle work for your sales team? A better approach to sales forecasting and predictability.
Step #4
There are many factors that contribute to the inaccuracies in today’s sales forecasts, which can lead to major issues and impact every department of your organization. This can be caused by not having enough opportunities to build an accurate predictive model for your company across all your lead channels.
HubSpot’s statistic clearly shows that you need to have a steady flow of opportunities to achieve or set the right goals. 72% of companies with 50 or fewer new opportunities per month failed to meet their sales goals.
What can you do to avoid this for your team?
Understanding your sales goals and the volume of leads is the first step in better forecasting future sales. It also gives you insight into which outreach channels are most effective at generating new opportunities.
You’ll be able to forecast better if you have a steady new supply of qualified opportunities, and if they are well managed because you can rely on the process. Outbound lead generation gives you control over how many people you speak to and connect with. Your numbers will be solid, and your predictions will be a trusted source to make the right decisions.
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It doesn’t come as a surprise that many businesses have sales pipeline leaks.
According to Harvard Business Review, 44% of executives believe their organizations are not managing their sales pipelines effectively. Do you see many opportunities in your team’s pipeline being pushed out month after month, only to be eventually lost or not closing at all?
A lack of qualified opportunities can result in bloated sales pipelines with unrealistic deal estimates because sales people want to show a high probability of success in the sales meetings. This makes it difficult to create realistic predictive models for your company.
It also creates unnecessary work because now the sales team is expected to follow up on these lukewarm leads, instead of focusing all their efforts on closing deals with prospects that are truly ready to move forward.
What if your sales team could focus only on the 20% of opportunities that will generate 80% of your revenue?
This is the premise of our B2B Pareto Funnel.
We will work with you on a strategy to ensure that your sales team gets a consistent stream of qualified leads, which are ready to move forward.
Click here to book a call with us.
In the next step, you’ll find out, how top sales organizations build trust, and foster genuine relationships throughout the entire customer journey.
Step #5
To create sales opportunities, persistence and cadence are essential.
Research revealed that only 3% of potential leads are ready to buy at any given time, and that 92% of marketers, sales professionals, and businesses give up after the fourth touch-point.
Even if you believe some prospects are right for you to communicate with because they are problem-aware, they may not even know that a solution exists yet. Knowing this information will help you decide on the best strategy or approach to establish relationships with the different segments of your target prospects to generate sales.
Outbound lead generation for sales growth works because it is proactive and disruptive.
It increases your chances to reach the prospects that are not yet actively looking for your specific solution, but are aware of the problem they need to solve. Now you will connect with your future clients, even before they know that they will need you.
This will significantly grow your list and add many qualified opportunities to your pipeline that are ready to move forward. Your sales team will love it.
How do we build trust and foster genuine relationships with these prospects?
Let’s take a closer look, how successful sales people are doing this. They know that hard selling is not going to work because most prospects are not ready to buy yet.
Sales professionals, who are top performers, know that most prospects need 7 to 13 touchpoints, before they will consider doing business with them.
79% of business buyers believe it is essential for them to have a relationship with a business and salesperson they can trust, to help them make the right decisions, and build a long-term relationship. This requires to add value, build trust and establish strategic relationships with prospects at every touchpoint over the course of the customer journey, before the client is ready to engage with a salesperson and move forward.
If you want to create short-term SQLs, without sacrificing long-term gains, consider building a qualified sales development team or consider outsourcing to an organization that excels at both.
SalesPilot recognizes that every opportunity is unique and requires a different sales cycle. This includes what it takes for each opportunity to add value, build trust and establish strategic relationships with your prospects.
To discuss your options, click here and schedule a meeting with us.
Find out in the next step, how you can make sure that your sales team can function at its best.
Should you build an internal sales development group, or can it be outsourced to a sales development agency?
Before you spend money on a top-notch sales development program for your company, it is important to understand the different aspects of each option.
There are a few critical factors to consider…
Step #6
Budget considerations: How do you best allocate your investment?
Let’s put everything together!
Filling your pipeline with a reliable stream of qualified opportunities will enable your sales team to function at its best because they can focus exclusively on closing deals. This means you can be sure that they will hit, or even exceed their goals consistently. Your team will be on fire!
This is possible with a highly specialized group of people to implement and manage the process to consistently generate hot leads that are ready to move forward. To accomplish this task, you can build an internal sales development group, outsource it to a sales development agency, or a combination of both.
Let’s look at a few details and compare the benefits and cost of each aspect.
When you spend money on a top-notch Sales Development Program for your company, it is critical to understand what you could potentially invest, when you look at your ROI.
Let’s assume that your average client is worth $40K per year in Lifetime Value. Your sales team might close 10% of the meetings and sales opportunities that you have. If you had 10 sales appointments, it might be realistic to close one new client. To get 2x ROI, you would spend $2,000 per lead.
Do you have to invest this? Most likely not.
If your sales development program is well-executed, you should be able to schedule qualified sales appointments at a fraction of the cost.
Do you need to build an in-house sales team, or are you better off outsourcing to an agency?
There are many factors to take into consideration, but let’s just focus in the next blog post on the most important aspects.