5 Strategies to Fix a Dry Pipeline – FAST
First and foremost, I need to say, I am no advocate of letting your pipeline go dry. In my book, sales is a lifestyle, not a task. Touching prospects and clients is something you should do each and every day. So promise me, first, that you will not tell anyone you heard me talking about closing the quick sale. You’ve got to keep this between you and me. Second, promise me that you will go back to my other blogs and books and implement the strategies that make sales fun, easy, and effective and ensure you never get in this situation again. Agreed? Okay!
Now, with that said, I will crawl down off of my high horse. Hey, I get it; it happens sometimes. We get busy. We get stuck. We get so consumed with taking care of existing business we forget to go out and look for new business. And then it is too late. Then, it is the end of the month, end of the quarter, or heaven forbid, end of the year, and you are seriously shy of your goal. You need sales now. Right now. What do you do? Where do you turn? You need revenue! You have bills to pay, a commission to earn, and those darn kids actually expect to be fed and educated. How do you find the quick sale? You immediately implement these five strategies:
5 Strategies to Get Sales Now!
1. The BIG Ones:
Take a look at your existing customer base. Ask yourself: how well do you know them? How well you understand their needs? Why are these questions important? Because there is gold in your existing customer base! There are easy sales and sales that have value for your customer as well as you. Let me ask you, do you know the BIG Ones? Do you know the big questions every salesperson should know about their customers?
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- How does their business work? What exactly do they do?
- What are their biggest challenges?
- How has this economy impacted their business?
- Where do they see their business in the next five to ten years?
- What do they see as their biggest opportunities?
Take the time to make five calls this week, to any of your existing customers, and ask them these questions. Get the conversation going, and you will find enough products and services to fill your pipeline.
2. Your Alternative Sales Force:
Oh, we all have ’em, those five or six customers that just love us. For some reason they love us. They love our staff, what we do, and they believe more in our business than we do. No one thinks we hung the moon more than these customers. You need sales now. So why not turn that support into more than just sheer admiration? Sit these folks down, and ask for their help. They love you, they believe in you, they believe in your product. And believe me, they want to help you. Having them on your side, out there drumming up business for you, will put sales in your pipeline ten times faster than you can. Why? Because in today’s economy our advocates’ sales power is far more impactful than ours. What may take us eight to ten times to close a deal, they can do in two.
3. The Looking Glass:
Okay, hate to tell you this, but if you have been in sales longer than one year, you have left sales on the table. You have done the hard part. You have made the initial call, had the conversation, followed up once or twice, then given up because the prospect didn’t bite. Now, we all know most customers do not buy without at least seven to eight touches. Yet we give up at two or three. The good news is, we left sales on the table. And they are on the table just at a time when our pipeline is dry. You need sales now, right? So now is the time to pull out the looking glass. Analyze the sales calls you have made in the last year. Look closely, and choose 10 or 20 who deserve a follow-up call.
4. The Big Sweep:
Yep, you guessed it, now it is time for the big sweep. A whole week of follow-up calls. Just let those prospects know you are getting back in touch with them, seeing what has changed or is new in their business, and you have a few ideas for how you can help them. In today’s economy, you have to learn to master follow-up. You need to consistently practice the BIG SWEEP. If you don’t, you are leaving sales consistently on the table and making sales a much harder process than it has to be.
5. Change Your Lifestyle:
There, you made it. Your pipeline is full again, and this crisis has been avoided. Now is not the time to rest on your laurels. Get back in the game and change your lifestyle. An empty pipeline, combined with a big goose egg where closed sales should be, never feels good. So get that stress out of your life, and set yourself up to Win in the Trust & Value Economy. Follow these guidelines to make sales a lifestyle, not a task. You have to spend time on it each and every day.
Again, I am not in any way advising you to get yourself into this pinch, but I do get it, and have been there myself. Sometimes it is just urgent. These are the strategies, ideas, and tips I use to fill my pipeline when I need a quick sale. What I love about these strategies is that they may produce quick results, but never ever at the expense of your integrity as a sales person or the increased value to the customer. And those are points that, no matter how dry your pipeline, are never okay to put on the back burner!
