This Is Why Your Lead Generation Process Isnât Working
Let me guess. Your lead generation process plays out like this: You donât have enough leads in your pipe, and your reps arenât calling high enough. You canât count on accurate forecasts when pipelines are unqualified, so youâre never really sure whether your team will make quota until itâs too late.
Big problemâthe kind of problem that will keep a sales leader up at night, or worse, get a sales leader canned.
Iâm not telling you anything you donât already know. Reps say theyâre challenged finding the right prospects. Once they think theyâve found them, they try every trick in the book to reach themâcold calling, emailing, sending videos, pitching on LinkedIn (bad move), more cold calling, and unrelenting emails.
In most cases, their lead generation process depends on marketing to round up online leads. No wonder it can take a dozen touches to reach prospects. Those leads are not qualified. Sounds like a waste of time to me.
If youâre teaching your reps how to prospect, is that how you want them spending their time? There is a better way, and I can prove it.
Do You Have a Referral Lead Generation Process?
Sales issues havenât changed that much over the last 20 years. Yep, that long. What has changed is the abundance of technology tools, and with that change comes a huge risk. Reps over-rely on technology. They think technology can do their jobs. Theyâve forgotten that technology doesnât replace conversation. Theyâve forgotten that their most powerful prospecting tool is referral sales.
Referred salespeople receive introductions to people they want to meet, and they get meetings in one call! But few companies make referral sales a significant part of their lead generation process.
Thatâs why Iâm not surprised by the results of our Referral I.Q. Quiz. Answers have been consistent year over year. Salespeople say itâs easier to close a deal through a referral, and if they could get all their leads through referrals, theyâd be more effective. Yet, nearly 80 percent say they donât always get past the gatekeeper.
Why canât they get past the gatekeeper? Because without a referral introduction, theyâre cold calling.
Why arenât sales teams getting more referrals? When asked if their referral sources know the top two reasons to refer them, and if everyone knows their ideal client profile, the majority of salespeople said no.
If referral sources donât know the business reasons to introduce your team and are clueless about the key people your sales reps want to meet, your team has some serious skill gaps. And itâs high time to fix them.
Breeze Past the Gatekeeper with Referral Sales
A referral-based lead generation process is your teamâs ticket into the C-suite. Itâs the #1 way for your sales reps to land and expand in their named accounts. They reach the right person, get in early, earn trust and credibility, build strong relationships, and outsmart the competition.
Of course, reaching the right person at the right level typically means thereâs a gatekeeper looming. Reps view gatekeepers like trolls guarding the bridge. The #1 reason sales teams find their job so daunting is they believe circumventing the gatekeeper is the answer to their prospecting woes. Theyâve become convinced that digital technology should solve all their business development challenges, but thereâs still no button to push that will make gatekeepers grant them access to decision-makers. That requires conversations and real-world relationship-buildingâskills that many salespeople have let become rusty.
Thereâs only one way to get past the gatekeeper, and that is to be an expected and welcome call.
Thatâs why, without a referral lead generation process, strategy challenges continue to escalateâdespite all the promises that youâve heard about how disruptive technology will automate online lead generation and make the process effortless, seamless, and scalable (you know, just throw together a lot of buzzwords and youâve got the gist of it).
But technology doesnât seal deals. People do. Your sales strategy isnât working unless you have a pipe filled with referral businessâi.e., qualified leads.
(Note: This article originally appeared on NoMoreColdCalling.com.)
If youâre a sales leader and want to learn best practices for referral sales, send an email to joanne@nomorecoldcalling.com, or call me at +1 415-461-8763. Weâll schedule a short call. Curious how your team will score on the Referral I.Q. Quiz? If you have more than 10 sales reps, weâll create a custom URL for your team, and work with you to analyze the results.
About the Author
Joanne Black is Americaâs leading authority on referral sellingâthe only business-development strategy proven to convert prospects into clients more than 50 percent of the time. She is a member of the National Speakers Association and author of NO MORE COLD CALLINGâ¢: The Breakthrough System That Will Leave Your Competition in the Dust and Pick Up the Damn Phone!: How People, Not Technology, Seal the Deal. To learn more, visit www.NoMoreColdCalling.com. You can also follow Joanne on Google+ or Twitter @ReferralSales, or connect on LinkedIn and Facebook.
Your guide to bigger deals with bigger customers
6yThank you, @Joanne Black, you are my favorite "closet" whale hunter! I am always preaching to my clients that cold calling is simply an inferior way to approach an executive in a large company. It marks you as someone without access, without allies, without the wherewithal to get an introduction! Not that cold calling is "dead," but that for reaching certain people at certain levels, it's just inappropriate. So, YES, have a referral strategy--several referral strategies--and cultivate the life out of those!!
Author & Speaker @ Buyer First | Founder @ Unbound Growth
6yIt still amazes me how much silence I hear from sales leaders when asked what their referral strategy is. I guess I shouldn't be surprised since since the salespeople I coach share in that silence. Close to 90% of my business comes from referrals and introductions-talk about low hanging fruit!