If your company has a pre-sales team or is outsourcing this activity to a lead generation company, you know how crucial the handover of the qualified sales opportunity to your sales team is. If the handover from the pre-sales time is not smooth and done in the most optimum manner, it can jeopardise the sales opportunity and you may lose the interest of the prospect entirely.
Consider the following elements to ensure a smooth and efficient handover of information from your pre-sales to your sales team, whether the follow up is a face to face meeting or a call.
Lead Qualification Criteria – ensure that your lead generation team has a clear understanding of what constitutes a lead to your sales team and therefore what questions they need answers to in advance of the follow up call/meeting. Your prospects’ time is like gold dust and during the preliminary stages it is important to get as much information as possible but without annoying the prospect. Obtaining this key information will help your sales team in terms of how they will direct the conversation but will also define the level of priority of this new opportunity
Take this for example, say the functionality of your solution differs based on the number of users. Asking for the number of users and having this information readily available for your sales team will allow for a better, more tailored follow up call or meeting and it will look better as your sales team will be more prepared.
Information Review – Whether you have outsourced your lead generation or you are doing this in- house, you must ensure that the information gathered is reported clearly and reviewed before the follow up with the prospect. If there are any areas that are unclear, ask your lead gen team to clarify. All information should be passed on to the sales person so that he/she can progress the conversation.
Review your CRM on any activities had with the prospect to date. Your prospect will not be impressed if he/she is asked for the same details as before – make them feel that they have been heard – take a look at our blog on the importance of listening: “What does a Salesperson and a Politician have in common?”.
Emails – nurturing opportunities is one thing (Companies that nurture leads make 50% more sales at a cost 33% less than non-nurtured leads. - Forrester Research). You would nurture a relationship with the prospects who are not quite ready to engage and have perhaps given your lead gen team a date when they may be ready to discuss further. But when a lead or potential opportunity has agreed to a follow up meeting or call with your sales team, it is important not to overload him/her with too many nurturing emails. Doing so would run the risk of pestering the prospect and may give off a negative perception of your offering and additionally, your brand too.
Your sales team should send a calendar invite for the follow up and also introduce himself/herself to the prospect. They could also connect with them on LinkedIn – this is a softer approach and will still remind your prospect of who you are and what you do.
Timing – Always try to have a set date for the follow up call or meeting to take place, even offer the option of a second date. If the contact cannot provide a specific set time, ask for an approximate timeframe such as early July or late August. However if the time has been agreed, it is crucial that it happens at that time. Your prospect will be annoyed if that call back is delayed and feel that their time is not valued. Likewise, if the prospect has been asked to be contacted at a later date for example, in 3 months’ time, do not call them earlier than agreed – this may lose their interest.
Send a calendar invitation to make sure that the appointment is in the prospect’s calendar. This will firm up the arrangements. People are very busy and their calendars fill up very quickly so it is really important to do this.
Pre-sales & Sales Manager Collaboration - There should be an open line of communication between the pre-sales team and the sales representative who is following up. This will ensure that there is consistency and understanding of the information gathered from the prospect. It is also important to mention that it is always good for the representative to provide feedback in relation to how the meeting/call went. This will help the pre-sales agents enrich the messaging even further, on other calls.
If possible, why not have the pre-sales team member facilitate the follow up call? This means that the agent will contact the prospect, conference the sales representative and the prospect into the call and then make the introductions. This will also help the agent from a training perspective to see how the next interaction with the prospect is handled.
Have a NEXT STEP – So the follow up meeting/call took place and it all went well. It is so important that your sales manager agrees the next step with the prospect. This may be to send the prospect further information, a proposal or perhaps to have an additional meeting with a demo for example. Research shows that 80% of sales require 5 follow-up phone calls after the meeting. 44% of salespeople give up after 1 follow-up call. (The Marketing Donut). So make sure to agree the next step and set the time and date to make it easier for your sales manager to reach the prospect.
Do you feel your sales managers and representatives are fully armed for their follow up meetings/calls with prospects?
Maven TM is specialised in B2B Telemarketing and Sales Leads Generation. We offer our clients nothing but highly qualified sales leads using BANT & other methods. Why not let us provide you with highly qualified leads and allow your sales team to focus on what they do best, closing sales! For more information, please contact Maven TM at info@maventm.com.
