One of the biggest struggles for most salespeople is to keep the pipeline full and plenty. The inability to keep the pipeline full is the biggest reason salespeople aren’t able to hit their monthly goals and stay consistent, so let us cover three ways to keep that pipeline full and keep you consistent.
- You need to set aside time every day to create a prospecting list. I suggest doing this before you go home, spend the last 30-45 mins of your day preparing for tomorrow. Too many reps end up spending time looking for people to prospect while they should be on the phone or out visiting prospects. So take the mystery out of who you are going to call or see, and carve out time to create this list every day.
- You must Prospect EVERY SINGLE DAY! This is the secret, consistency wins long term. Most salespeople will do a great job of prospecting for a week, two, or even three. They build up their pipeline and then have a great month or quarter, but while they are selling they take their eye off of prospecting… this is a cardinal sin when you take your eye off of prospecting you end up with the following months being slow. Realize what you do today affects you in 30, 60, 90 days. If you take your eye off of prospecting it will come back to haunt you. Great salespeople make this a non-negotiable, you must control your time, and allocate time for prospecting every single day regardless of how busy you are.
- Last, but not least, ask for referrals! Only 10% of salespeople ask for referrals, but 90% of customers say they would give one. WOW! Talk about missed opportunities. This leads me to another point, for those of you in very transactional businesses, don’t forget about the people who have already done business with. A lot of salespeople will make the sale, and then never talk to that person again, this is a huge mistake. Make 90 day, six month and one year follow up calls to see how the person is enjoying what they purchased. This allows you to hedge any problems but also gives you a great opportunity to ask for referrals. Why are referrals so awesome? You start the sales process by already having established credibility, which is one of the biggest elements to overcome in the sales cycle. Your probability of doing business with a referral is much higher than the average prospect because of this fact alone. So ask for the referral!
If you are struggling with keeping a consistent pipeline and you feel like you are already doing these three things, feel free to reach out to me, I am glad to help troubleshoot.
Here is the same info in a video I made, How to Keep Your Pipeline Full
