Stop wasting time on 97% of prospects who are low potential customers....

If you have been in sales long enough, you probably love those calls when you reach someone who is in an active buying role.  The problem is, that only happens about 3% of the time, and the other 97% of the time you waste chasing after prospects who are either not interested, content with their current supplier or have not had enough irritation around the problem you wish to solve to warrant a change.  So how can you make you sales force more efficient and see greater return on effort?

The 3% Rule

At any given time, only 3% of your market is buying.  They are the companies calling for proposals, requesting demos, and engaging your sales staff.  These active buyers are in the sales funnel and willing to commit within the next 90 days.  The problem is identifying who these three percent are versus the 97% who are not ready to buy today.

·       3% are Active Buyers.
They have a need, they have made a commitment to change, and are actively shopping for vendors.  They want to make a purchase decision within the next 90 days.  These are sales leads.

·       7% Intend to Change.
These are passive buyers.  These companies might respond to a well-timed cold call or marketing campaign, but otherwise they aren’t proactive in their buying efforts yet.  They are simply talking about it internally, but haven’t gone out shopping for options.

·       30% are Irritated, but not enough to change.
These companies have a pain or a problem with their current solution, but have other priorities at the moment.  Until this issue becomes a priority, they won’t buy.  This is a frustrating segment, because sales people waste countless hours trying to sell to these companies that aren’t ready to buy.

·       30% are Content, and definitely won’t change.
These companies may have recently purchased another solution, they may be too small, or they may not be feeling any pain.  Either way, they aren’t buying right now.  Any sales or marketing message targeted to this group will fall on deaf ears.

·     30% are not interested in you, period.
Honestly, these companies are never going to choose you.  These are possibly customers you don’t want, or companies that don’t want you.  Don’t sweat it.  Just recognize that this dynamic occurs, and you can’t be all things to all people.

Why Cold Calling Doesn’t Work

As you can see by the numbers above, cold calling will work at best 10% of the time, and the other 90% of time is wasted.  Remember that it takes 5-7 phone calls to get someone else at the other end of the line.  When you consider that there is about a 1 in 10 chance that they would even be interested, you need to make about 50-70 calls to find a lead.

So how do you overcome these well-established metrics?  Actually, it’s pretty simple.  We can marry/align inbound and outbound campaigns to deliver leads in fewer than 10 calls.  Sounds impossible? Actually, it’s not. 

I have a simple rule, let your sales people focus on the 3% who are ready to buy, and let marketing focus on the other 97%.  The problem is, many companies have their marketing teams also focus on that same 3% and the other 97% are totally tuned out.

Sincerely,  

Chris Wilkinson.

Certified Business Behaviour & Attitudes Analyst.

Business Coach.

Tel: (905) 275-2907 (Mississauga) CANADA.

E-mail: buspilot@bell.net