Kick start your sales – create a sales pipeline

Do you need a sales pipeline?

Christmas and New Year break is over, you are back fully refreshed and ready to go. Opening up your diary and it is marked with reminders of contacting prospects and clients. It may even have appointments that you set before you left for the holidays.

Or is it?

You may be in the fortunate position of having a full order book just now but what about further into the year? All businesses need a sales pipeline – a list of prospects at various points in the sales cycle, from leads to those ready to close. Building a sales pipeline is about keeping in regular contact with your prospects and clients. Using social media, networking, advertising and the telephone will help you, over time, to develop business relationships and generate sales.

Generate sales leads with telemarketing

One of the most direct ways to generate sales leads is telemarketing. It will help you build a relationship with the prospect before a face-to-face meeting. The way a telephone call is structured, asking the right questions will help you understand what the prospect needs. The best way to qualify your sales leads is by using B.A.N.T.

B – Budget, does the prospect have the expectation to spend on a solution? Do they have the money?

A – Authority, have you identified the key decision-maker with the authority to buy?

N – Need, is the prospect seeking a solution; do they need what you are offering?

T – Timing, when will they be looking for a solution, are they likely to buy soon?

Wendy has written a blog on how to find and qualify sales leads.

It takes time and hard work to build a sales pipeline but increased sales and profits will be your reward