Explore ways to expand your customer base when selling person-to-person or business-to-business. For other ways to find new customers, consider marketing activities. Show
On this pageInvesting time to find new customersThere are many ways you can improve your process to find new customers. While you're investing the time in finding new customers, make sure you continue to provide high-quality service to your existing customers. Satisfied existing customers who bring repeat business and referrals are very valuable. Funnelling contacts to customersThe 'sales funnel' is a model for transitioning people from being contacts to being customers. Contacts > Leads > Prospects > Customers (sales). At each step, the number of people decreases. For example, many of your contacts can become leads, but only some of your leads become prospects, and only some of your prospects become customers. Ways to identify contactsThere are many ways to identify contacts:
Tips for networking eventsLook for opportunities to participate in business events, industry and government forums, trade shows and stakeholder roundtables. Consider these tips to improve your approach to networking, which can help convert leads into prospects and customers.
Converting contacts to leadsOnce you have met and engaged with a new contact, work out whether they need your products and services. Create an 'ideal lead profile' to help you establish which contacts you should focus on to convert to leads. Based on your market research, your ideal lead profile will define characteristics such as:
Include your ideal lead profile in your marketing plan. Make an ongoing effort to forge relationships with customers who match your ideal lead profile—this will help convert these leads to prospects. Converting leads to prospectsProspects are leads who show interest or potential to buy your products or services. You have identified your prospects once you have found leads who have:
This process is called qualifying your leads. Once you've qualified your leads, you may find you have several prospects. Decide where to prioritise your efforts by assessing both the value of the sale and its probability of closing. Developing a prospecting planA prospecting plan help you make the most of opportunities to turn leads into prospects. This plan outlines useful information to send to your leads through media such as phone calls, emails, e-newsletters, your website and social media, presentations, marketing and signage. You can also use your prospecting plan to ensure your information stays relevant, professional and informative—offering useful industry news, trends and business tips. Use your prospecting plan to help your sales forecasting by calculating and defining:
Be selective about how often you make contact and what type of contact your make. Potential customers may reject businesses after receiving inappropriate, repeated or annoying advertising material. Make offers with meaningTailor your offerings or incentives specifically to the needs of each lead. Researching customers will provide you with a thorough understanding of what your existing customers need. Being able to quickly identify the needs of your leads will help you make offers. Becoming a customer-focused business will provide you with steps to segment, target and position your offers by dividing a big group (the broad market) into smaller groups called segments. These processes can be time consuming, but balance them against the value you achieve from customer loyalty and purchases. Avoid assumptionsYou may find that a lead you identified as a prospect some time ago, is simply not ready or not interested in buying your product. It is a good practice to do a 'clean' of your prospects, removing or archiving those who have been inactive. Listen and investigateObserve your lead closely and ask questions that will give you the information about their needs. It may also be practical to make polite enquiries to work out your lead's capacity to buy. Read more about improving your sales skills to help you negotiate successfully and convert your leads to prospects. Plan your approachBefore reaching out, define your purpose for making contact. For example, your objectives may be to:
Organising information about contacts, leads, prospects and customersKeeping accurate records can help you quickly identify and meet the needs of your customers. Depending on the size and nature of your business, your customer records may be kept in:
Your system can help you to identify strategies for achieving sales by looking at key customer information. A CRM usually includes a prospecting component to help you manage this information. Your system should store or reference correspondence with each contact, lead and prospect, including:
You can use this information to schedule future contacts and help you target your follow-ups to secure sales. Using customer informationLaws protect the privacy of your customers and the information you collect, store and use. Find out more about collecting, storing and using customer information. Making the most of your informationWell-maintained records allow you to generate information that will help you make sales. For example, with well-maintained data you could generate a list of leads and prospects who:
In the lead-up to quiet periods, you could contact prospects to promote products and services, encouraging purchase during the quiet period. With accurate data, you can predict future behaviour of your prospects and assess the effectiveness of past promotions and campaigns. Your records also allow you to classify people as leads or prospects, assign priority rankings to prospects and leads, and avoid sending repeat information and correspondence to your prospects. Choosing a databaseIf your business doesn't require sophisticated software, you can manage contact, lead, prospect and customer information using spreadsheets. As your needs grow, you may find that purpose-built software will be more efficient and valuable. To buy or license software to organise your prospect information, consider:
Also consider...
What is the process of identifying and qualifying potential customers in order to grow new business?Sales prospecting definition: the process of identifying and contacting potential customers in order to generate new business. Prospecting is the way sales reps find and engage with prospects (leads that are qualified) and set the sales process in motion.
What is the process of identifying and qualifying leads?Lead qualification is a process of marketing and sales teams working together to forecast the likelihood that a prospect will ultimately make a purchase. It occurs at every stage of the sales journey and ultimately decides if the prospect will be funneled down the pipeline.
What does qualifying leads mean?A qualified lead is a prospect who has been generated by the marketing team, evaluated by the sales team and fits the profile of an ideal customer with the intent to buy. The proper qualification of leads is essential to developing a healthy sales pipeline.
What is identifying and qualifying prospects?The first step of the selling process, prospecting and qualifying, involves searching for potential customers and deciding whether they have the ability and desire to make a purchase. The people and organizations that meet these criteria are qualified prospects.
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