Successful prospecting requires a coordinated strategy among your sales team, including your channel partners, but it can be taxing for them to execute this strategy every day when they’re focused on so many other tasks that are critical to business growth.
But it’s not something you can just put on the back-burner:
Your prospects want to hear from you, and if you’re not generating new leads regularly, you’re going to see some gaps in your sales pipeline – and miss out on the chance to grow revenue long-term.
Many companies struggle with regularly setting appointments, following up with prospects, and filling the top of the funnel with leads. And the situation is becoming somewhat dire as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. According to a McKinsey survey, 50% of U.S. B2B buyers are holding off on purchases because of the pandemic. While times are tough now, eventually those buyers are going to start purchasing again, and you want to be in front of them when they’re ready.
Here are some of the biggest challenges B2B companies face when it comes to generating new leads and setting appointments:
This is the most common obstacle in the way of successful prospecting: there simply isn’t enough time to do it. It’s not for lack of knowledge; your sales team, along with your distributors’ and dealers’ sales teams, know what they’re doing. They’re seasoned professionals who know how to generate leads and nurture them through the pipeline. But prospecting requires a sizable time commitment.
On average, it takes eight cold call attempts to reach a prospect. But making so many calls can steer your sales team away from other business-critical activities, like closing deals and servicing current accounts. Because of that, it can be difficult for many companies to dedicate so much time to prospecting, even though their sales team is perfectly capable of converting on those calls in the long run.
There tends to be a negative perception around cold calling, but the truth is, 92% of all customer interactions happen over the phone. It’s not just a worthwhile activity for brand new prospects; it can also help you generate new business opportunities with dormant accounts or even existing customers, who may want to upgrade products or services.
Without a high volume of calls, though, you won’t be able to net enough qualified prospects to keep your pipeline full. The challenge here ties back to the first roadblock: time. It’s difficult for a sales team to make cold calling a regular priority when the process is tedious and the return may not be the greatest, let alone the fact that many sales people just don’t like making cold calls and will procrastinate endlessly.
If you’ve got appointments on your calendar with leads that may not even be qualified, it’s going to divert precious resources away from prospective customers who are a better fit for your company.
If a lead isn’t a good fit for your organization for whatever reason (company size is too small, they’re not ready to engage with you right now), then you probably won’t get very far with that call. To be efficient in your prospecting, you need to make sure you’re setting appointments with qualified prospects, before you pick up the phone.
Sometimes, it’s hard to know if a specific contact is the right fit for your sales team until you actually have them on the phone – especially if you don’t have very good source data on that contact. It can be extra frustrating when an account is a good fit, but you just can’t connect with the right stakeholders or influencers.
To be efficient and keep your funnel filled with engaged leads, you need to spend your time on prospects who do have influence within their companies, and have the decisionmaking power to make a purchase or partner with you down the road.
If your company has an inbound marketing strategy in place, or you’re investing in digital marketing tactics like pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, social media, or email marketing, then you may already have a good number of prospects flowing in at the top of your funnel. However, most of these leads are unqualified, and your sales people and channel partners may not be eager to follow up because too often, there’s no substance to them.
You want your marketing efforts to produce tangible results for your business, not lead to dead ends. Following up with leads from your website gives you the chance to qualify more prospects and keep them moving along the buyer’s journey.
Your smaller accounts present an excellent opportunity for you to grow your business. For starters, they’re already purchasing from you, so there’s an established relationship and a foundation of trust there that you just don’t have with fresh leads. They’ll be more willing to buy from you in the future, and expand their purchase to include more services or products.
If your sales team doesn’t have the bandwidth to go after these smaller client accounts, you’ll have a tougher time prospecting and hitting target revenue goals.
At the root of all of six challenges is this: time is a finite resource. While you unfortunately can’t add any more hours to the day, there are some steps you can take to fill your pipeline and reach your revenue goals – before your sales team even needs to lift up a finger to make a cold call.
Three quick solutions to improve your prospecting pipeline:
These simple steps all start with picking up the phone and having a conversation – but if time is your greatest obstacle, how do you make it happen Don’t just stand pat and leave your prospecting to the wayside. There is a viable option if you’re tight on those resources – a partner with a proven track record of delivering qualified leads for your sales team. A B2B call center can help you and your channel partners generate new leads, re-engage cold accounts, and qualify leads to keep them moving through the pipeline and keep your revenue flowing.
For the past 20 years, York Consulting has delivered quality leads and grown the pipeline for a broad spectrum of companies, from Fortune 200 to small and midsize businesses. We’ve focused on building a reputation with seasoned sales leaders, delivering targeted, qualified pipeline that scales with you.
We pride ourselves on our experience and credibility. Our team has an average tenure of five years. They’re in their mid-30s to mid-50s, are locally educated, and are native English speakers. They have experience in both inside and outside sales, so they understand the process they are starting for you, and they’re comfortable and productive in conversation with any level of management, including executives.
We know you have high expectations, which is why we guarantee that every opportunity we pass to your team will be qualified to your exact specifications. A partnership with York will unlock your pipeline and keep your sales team focused on closing deals and booking revenue.
Or contact Davis Elisha directly:
Director, Business Development
York Consulting Inc.
437-537-5865 (Direct)
416-733-0916 (Office)
Elisha@yorkc.com