SALES LEADS: Subtle nuances of the species

Hi Folks,

Lat us go back to Sales-leads generation.As you will realize that although I have categorized "lead generating" in a no of types, the basic idea is the same-you got to develop a nose for the ‘apparently trivial but it’s not’ stuff. 


Where is the source or where are the sources ? They are all around you .Let me illustrate.
Think of Sunday’s paper job ads..company X wants experienced, dynamic blah blah for their new plant at Y (news!)..headline in page 5, ..the minister has said that land distribution will not be a priority (news!)…google new projects ..a lot of leads will come up and some maybe right next lane. All this information collected The fact is that despite your competence and expertise to sell, in minimum 25% cases you do not get the news in time. And when you do, it’s too late. (Of course, a few cases will always be there in the “current flow” but 25% is too high a figure).

We have discussed sales leads from the net.  Sales leads from the newspaper, seminars & conferences, 

networking etc. are more or less the same.  Therefore, Collect the information, do some research and be the first with the data. This three activities make up the second law of Sales Management  under ‘Lead Generation’. I will like to explain (to the extent required) as regards three of the points, as they differ slightly.

Leads by references : If you have started practicing relationship selling, then at the end of the supply & commissioning process, ask the customer to refer a few prospects to you. If the customer is pleased, he will give you genuine leads-from some meetings, social occasions etc. A rough rule of the thumb is that such deals work out 33% of the time immediately and after some time, even 50%.The beauty of this method is that the customer is pleased to give you the reference and he, as per human nature, wants to please your company, of which you are the representative. 

A word of caution here, the moment of interaction here is critical. Do not indulge in it when the customer is not in a good mood. He may be pissed off at someone else and not at you but nevertheless , wait.  Think and observe customer carefully before you approach him. But, you’ll say, " Dude, if the customer is pleased  at my work but is in a bad mood which has got nothing to do with me, how can this affect me?" It can.. because of  human nature. Once the word ‘No’ comes out of his mouth, he or she will never say ‘YES”-even though he may want to. This is because most customers like to portray themselves as men of their word. Otherwise it harms their reputation as macho and business savvy decision makers. So, think thrice before you approach the customer but certainly do so.

More in my next post

Love

Bilbo

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SALES LEADS: HOW TO GET THEM FROM THE NET-Part II

Hi Friends,

If you will remember, we were discussing sales leads connecting to sales of high value capital engineering equipment and we had just started talking about a free B2B business portal called www.processregister.com

You need to go to this portal (look at my last post for a screenshot of the portal’s home page). On the extreme left you will find a yellow box with links to catalogues, products, PROJECTS etc. Click on projects and you will see at least 200-300 nos of medium to high value projects in India, at different stages. Some  have been completed but most are 'in the pipeline' stage. To make things easier, the projects are even categorised into groups on the basis of the industry. 

Please refer to the screenshot below

The information given against each project is limited but sufficient, You get to know the project status, the cost, the promoter, the location. With these details anyone can come up with a plethora of information on the project from the net. Now the 80/20 law works here too and some of the projects will have been finished. But, you have what you wanted 'sales leads'. If you cannot cash onto this information and land up a few good and dandy orders, you are not a salesman. Time may very well be consumed specially in the first cases but later you will build up your own comfortable work cycle and when that happens, I really feel sorry about the competition. For readers outside India, this site does not list projects outside India (till now-so, maybe they have plans to do so)but my point is that there are a lot of sites on the Internet which can help you.What you need to do is to find them. 


If you do not take advantage of the net but rely on the same old unreliable word-of-the-mouth for your sales leads, well its your funeral buddy!!The internet is here to stay and revolutionize our creativity and the sooner you think about it that way-the better, 'coz in this story the turtle never wins the race, nor he is ever likely too.

Just a word of caution. It will not do if you devote all your time to do the above and be complacent about your work. This is a lose-lose situation. You have to give your routine work the same importance(if not more). The reason is simple. Not everybody will be convinced that what your doing will be good for the organization. People may call your activities as 'research'. From man's early days, we have always had an inherent negative attitude towards creativity inside ourselves along with a partisan streak. People think at least sub-consciously that they are the best. (For example, maybe some of you are thinking what gives me the right to give big lectures?..ha haa)

It is very easy to get carried away and ignore your work -your routine work, your reports etc. Don't do that -that can be fatal.

Wishing you luck

Bilbo

NB: If even after all that you have some problems in comprehension, you are welcome to get in touch with me for additional help, on a professional basis of course.