Following up with medium-hot prospects can be overwhelming, but you need to spend your time and energy where it’s going to be the most fruitful. That is why being organized is critical. You need to know which contacts to put into drip marketing and which ones are your aces.
Question: What are some tips to stay organized with people at different points in the sales pipeline?
Robin: The most important step when following up is having a CRM or what we call MAP (Marketing Automation Platform). I am telling you, get your follow-up process automated. You need to be organized so there is a systematic approach to following up with your prospects. This will keep you from burning them (and you) out.
Add EVERY Contact To Your CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
Now the person who sweeps the floor should choose the broom, so you’ve got to find what works for you. Everybody goes into your CRM if they are even remotely qualified. When I say qualified like they’re the owner of any business you would like to have as a client. Maybe they’re not really in the market right now, and that is ok, still put them in your CRM. Add where you found them, as much information as you can, and get them in a drip marketing sequence at minimum. Everybody goes in the CRM and I’m talking to you as a salesperson. I was always a top-performer salesperson in organizations that I worked for and one of the things that I was really good at was using a CRM to build a list and organize opportunities. The next step is having a process for the contacts being added. Are they going into a drip sequence? Do they need to be called?
When you’re talking to that person, let’s say it’s a networking event, you must be able to assess if they are even in the ballpark of being a buyer. Now, some people aren’t interested but still add them to the damn CRM – put them in. They’re not interested now but that doesn’t mean they aren’t lukewarm, and you always want to be trying to the next action. Ask if you can send them some information about your company. You could send a mini shock & awe and let them know if their situation changes and when they are ready, give you a call. I would also gather more information like who they are outsourcing with and are they in a contract? Are they happy? Ask if they are opposed to getting a competitive bid, and if they say yes, schedule time to meet. They can be in a contract and still be an opportunity, right? That is why it is critical to add everyone remotely qualified to your CRM and put a note to follow up in about 3 months. Without a CRM following up can get really chaotic, unorganized, and lead to burn out.
Stay In Front Of Lukewarm Prospects
Those lukewarm contacts can be hot, and you want them on drip marketing and following up with them periodically, so you are next in line. The, “let me think it overs” are still opportunities too. Offer to send some information and if anything changes, if your current provider ever starts not treating you right and don’t appreciate you, all I would ask is at least give us an opportunity. You guessed it. Put them in your CRM and add them to drip.
Find The Aces (Not The Kings)
Get the book High Probability Selling and read it. I teach my salespeople when they are going through opportunities, it’s like a deck of cards. Here’s the game, I’m going to give you one minute and I’m going to put a deck of 52 playing cards in front of you, face down. I’m going to give you $5 for every ace you find. Now, here are the rules. You can’t pick up the whole deck and sift through it to find the aces. You got to turn one card over at a time. I’m going to give you one minute. So, it’s time-bound. $5 for every ace you want to play. I start the timer and they flip over the first card and it’s a queen of hearts. How long are they going to stand there trying to convince me it’s an ace? Not at all. They flip, flip, flip because they want to find the ace.
Part of what you want to do is make sure you have a process for finding the aces and not the kings because they’re close, but it’s not an ace. Then you add those people to your CRM and the drip marketing and that will help you with the ground cover of what you need. Call them up and invite them to events and webinars. I know it’s hard to believe, but not everybody buys, and one of the things that we do is give free reports and webinars. We just did a report infographic on the most lucrative markets for MSPs, so we give those reports to the sales reps and they’ll call the person and say to them, “hey, we just published this report on the most lucrative markets for MSPs and since we talked before a couple of months ago, I thought you’d be interested in seeing this.” We just send it, we don’t even ask if they are ready to buy yet because that’s annoying, right? I’m just providing you with a little Scooby snack. Every time when you call, you are just inviting them to a webinar or giving a free report.
So again, number one, really use your CRM and put tasks and reminders in for you and your team. Then the second thing is to get better at qualifying earlier and getting moving, either moving it forward or having a real definitive call back. Get a process and follow it.
