Lead Management New Year’s Resolutions for 2018

Every New Year brings the promise of renewal and rejuvenation for everyone who works in sales. Jan. 1 presents a clean slate and a chance to do things differently reconnect with promising prospects, enhance your sales processes, improve your efficiency, and find new ways to add value for customers.

If you’re looking for new ways to take your business to new heights in 2018, you can start by looking at your sales lead management processes.

Here are few points about New Year’s resolutions that any sales organization can employ to create a more efficient and profitable 2018:

• Long range business leads:

Wondering why you have a never-ending need for new fresh sales leads? According to a recent research, only 25% of leads that are deemed sales opportunities actually close. That means that without a formal lead nurturing program, the remaining 75% of qualified leads that do not turn into short-term sales are slipping through the cracks.

Chances are your sales team – whether they realize or not they shutting the door on many older business leads. Maybe your sales team completed a follow-up call several months ago and did not receive a favorable response. This doesn’t mean that the sales leads are truly done.

Whatever the change may be, take a fresh start and pursue these old business leads to a new angle. We make sure to re-establish contact with old sales leads every six months to see if our services are now needed. A lot can change your prospect’s business in 6 months.

• Pipeline of business leads:

Make honest and realistic assessments of the condition of your sales pipeline. Establish some new benchmarks for 2018 to measure your conversion rates at each step of the sale and look beyond the simple metrics of conversion and close ratios. Finding the hidden value deals within your pipeline means you need a system of multiple marketing touches to uncover opportunities along the way.

Too many sales pipelines look great on paper or in your database reports, but in reality your projections and probabilities of closing deals may be too flushed.

Knowledge is the power we all know what if your sales pipeline needs to be expanded with additional lead generation efforts, you need to know this as soon as possible so you can react. A better-managed sales pipeline will create a more predictable sales process and a smoother revenue curve.

• Overcome sales call reluctance :

Salespeople talk themselves out of making a sales call. Whether it’s lack of confidence, lack of understanding of the prospect’s business, or lack of a compelling angle to approach the customer, sales call unwillingness is a profit killer. After all, you lose 100% of the sales that you never try to make.

This year, make it a resolution to be more open to possibilities. Be prepared for your prospects to surprise you. Prospects that may not initially fit your ideal client profile based on what you see on their website might turn out to be better suited than you expected, once you get them on the phone. It’s not uncommon to find that the website you were looking at is not up to date and doesn’t reflect a recent merger.

Sales are the business of creating something from nothing, making the calls and making things happen with customers every day. Every year is a chance to make a bigger difference for customers, companies and ourselves. I hope these New Year’s resolutions will help you get out there and have a great start to 2018!