Shortening the sales cycle is a common agenda in management meetings and senior-level interactions. A business cannot overlook slow-moving leads and wrongly targeted customers, and therefore, needs to deploy strategic changes to expedite the process. Whether you buy a custom email list or generate leads in-house, your sales team needs to leverage every possible measure that may shorten the sales cycle, thereby allowing better use of time and resources. If you are unsure of how to go about shortening the sales cycle, this blog post is for you.
Lead Qualification and Profiling
When a salesperson follows up with hot leads, it automatically increases the speed at which they close the deal. Instead of passing all the leads, try forwarding only the right ones to the salespeople. You may use lead scoring and grading to filter out the qualified leads and leave out the disqualified ones that you feel might waste the time of the sales team. Buyer profiling is another thing you should not miss in the process. Understand your buyers, their pain points, and why they might say yes or no to your product/service. Pass on the information to help salespeople understand the customer better, so that they can close the sales with more confidence.
Sales Automation
Sales automation helps the sales team initiate personalized and targeted communication with the lead based on the information gathered by the software. The chances of errors and omissions also reduce if the business introduces an automated process. The software helps in building the company’s knowledge base and expertise based on prior experiences and interactions with the customers.
Lead Nurturing
A specific category of customers prefer to decide on their own if they are ready to take a step further to lead closure by speaking to the sales representative. A telemarketer should be able to identify if the lead wants to take it further and expedite the process through lead nurturing. The first step in the identification process is to build highly-targeted lead nurturing tracks on the basis of the activities, interests, and pain point information about the lead.
Prompt Follow-ups
Sales and marketing teams often hesitate in giving follow-up calls, which could be a loss for the business. If the lead shows interest in the product/service, it would expect a call from the representative sooner and appreciate a prompt follow-up. You may use automation software to schedule follow-ups so that you don’t miss out on a sales conversion. Another advantage of prompt follow-up is the opportunity to build a relationship with the prospect without losing momentum during the sales process.
Last Few Words
The last thing to remember is the length of the sales cycle entirely depends on you and is more in your control than you probably think. Be proactive, have a plan of action for every sales call, and make sure that the entire team goes by the rules to close the maximum possible prospects. You may read our blog to know more about what works in telemarketing and get an industry insight. If you want to get customized telemarketing lists, feel free to call us at 1.888.981.3099 or 1.972.713.6622. You can also fill out our contact form and we’ll get back to you shortly.