How to fill your sales pipeline with quality leads

Ever get the feeling your pitch isn’t resonating? There’s a reason for that. As many as half of prospects aren’t a good fit for what you’re selling, according to research compiled by HubSpot.

Wasting time with junk leads has a direct impact on your sales goals and your company’s bottom line. To invest your time and energy wisely, you need to know how to build up your lead database while separating qualified contenders from the masses. There are several proven strategies that can guide you. Here are some great tips for spending more time on wins and less time on losses.

Create a buyer persona

Some people are more apt to buy your product or service than others. If you understand why customers buy, you can understand who they are with a buyer persona.

Before you approach your next prospect, take time to develop or refine the profile of your ideal customer and to understand their interests and challenges. Keep this profile in mind as you begin prospecting. Not all customers will fit this persona, but this process is about improving your win probability.

Ask for referrals (from true believers)

Good salespeople believe in their product or service wholeheartedly, and that enthusiasm is contagious. When they buy in, a sales pitch becomes a chance to add value.

The same can be said for satisfied customers, and converting customers into ambassadors is an excellent way to compound your sales and marketing efforts.

One way you can kickstart that process is by incentivizing your best customers to refer new ones to your business. This is a great strategy to build customer engagement and loyalty. After all, rewards have a tendency to make happy customers even happier. It also allows you to fill your pipeline with qualified prospects primed to love your product or service.

Keep your ear to the ground

There’s a key distinction between leading sales professionals and low performers. Low performers wait for opportunities. Leaders create them. And those who invest in the lead-generation process tend to generate a strong return.

Do some market research and keep up with the news in your area. Businesses are constantly opening, expanding and relocating to new markets. Staying abreast of those developments can be a boon for your outreach strategy. By the time a lead is obvious, you can rest assured the competition knows about it, too.

Start at the top

Qualifying leads is a time-consuming part of the sales process. It takes conversation after conversation to move a prospect along. To make the best use of this time, begin by qualifying the most important factor: the business or organization itself.

Understanding your customer at the organizational level is a step that can’t be overlooked. Regardless of how strong an opportunity or a personal relationship may seem, the business always comes first.

Watch for wholesale changes at a business level. This can be easier if your prospect is publicly traded or covered in a business journal. Sweeping changes like mergers and divestitures can sometimes present windows of opportunity. Other times, they raise red flags. In the long run, having a firm grasp of your customers and the organizations they represent builds trust and leads to repeat business.

Multiply your efforts with external resources

It’s all about who you know, and the only way to increase that pool of connections is through outreach. While in-person networking events have long been the standard, top sales professionals are tapping into online resources to build a deep roster of leads while saving time.

Earlier this year, American City Business Journals unveiled a new tool that expands on the digital trend, helping sales professionals and business leaders focus on the right prospects for their companies.

BizLeads is a cloud-based platform that allows users to leverage a database of information on more than 19 million private companies across the U.S. Users can search by geographic area and industry. They can also find a company’s revenues and employee contact information. It’s the kind of insight businesses need to find their way to stronger prospects and, ultimately, greater success.

Cultivating the right leads takes time and patience. But, by leveraging a combination of technology and strategy, doors will open.

You can schedule a demo to see the power of BizLeads to find your future clients at https://promo.bizjournals.com/bizleads/.

Mary Johnson is a freelance writer for The Business Journals Content Studio.