lead generation

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The Value of Good Prospecting

Posted on by Jason Kanigan

Good prospecting is a rarity. If you prospect well, you can stand out in a way your competitors won't. You'll shorten your sales cycle. You'll get to the point faster with more prospective customers than you have before, and faster than your competitors do. Your ideal customers will be saying, "How can we work together?" rather than, "So what's your price?"

Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay

I've covered what's wrong with prospecting before. And I've also provided a FREE solution. But I have to tell you, the records show that you folks don't click over and follow that free course from someone else who's not associated with me, ie. I have nothing in the game in sending you over there. It's simply great stuff.

The Effective Prospecting Course I Share For Free That No One Gets

Yet almost nobody hits that link.

Why?

Is the idea that you're going to have to learn something, do some work, actually go through a course to be able to prospect well too much? Or did you not see the link because it's at the end of the article? Curious.

Anyway, I signed up for a free accountability program from another sales trainer who I respect. It offers to accelerate your results through the rest of 2022, the final three months of this year. I wasn't struggling, but I do always want to be better. It's been about a week and I've already:

1 - made a new series of videos on effective prospecting, as my daily video content creation per the program

2 - hit a personal best in closing six five figure sales in one day.

And my prospecting & qualifying method, as outlined in this video series, is responsible for a lot of that result.

Here is the playlist. Keep coming back to it because I'll be adding more videos, sharing more prospecting tips. As people have pointed out many times over the years, my stuff isn't some idea, some unproven concept: it's based on trial and error and real results in the sales world over the past two decades. (Man, when I think back to the late 1990s, after I got out of college and was in my first bizdev job, just how little I knew about selling...and that nobody trained me on anything beyond technical features of the products!)

Good Prospecting Training Videos Playlist

 

The first video alone will show you the difference between the spam-a-lot outbound leadgen machine, "throw spaghetti against the wall and hope something sticks" method almost everyone has adopted and something that looks, sounds, smells and is treated differently by the prospect.

Why Is Bad LeadGen So Rampant?

Why do you think it is the automated spamming outreach method is used so often? Is it because "that's what everyone else is doing" and so that must be the way you do it? Is it because people are afraid to be human beings, and want to hide behind that automation? Then you have something to blame, right? Must be the email deliverability. Must be that headline. Must be the message content—too long, or too short. Must be anything but YOU, the person ultimately responsible for your performance.

What if, instead of (Option 1) spamming 1000 attempted connections with automated tools over an afternoon...

...using the same bland and personality-less outreach message aimed at all those undifferentiated people you probably know next to nothing about other than "They are in X industry"...

...you (Option 2) focused on 30 leads you personally pre-qualified, who are likely to be receptive to your message because of where they're at and what situation they find themselves in...

...and your intention was to start a genuine dialogue with them as individuals, not immediately whip your offer out and shove it in their face?

I can tell you from personal experience that the second option, applied consistently and not as a one hit wonder, gets you much better results over time. Just like the results I experienced, closing six high ticket offers in a single afternoon.

It is not because I am such a great salesperson. Or that I always know exactly what to say. It is because I chose my prospects and hence where to put my effort carefully.

You Can Have An Effective Outbound Lead Generation Method In Place Today

Get started on that playlist! Apply what you learn, apply it consistently, and watch what happens.

What if your employer uses the automated mass outreach approach to generate leads for you?

No problem! Use the same methods on the leads that you're given. Filter them quickly. Qualify for those indicators I teach you in the videos to look for that show you this is likely to be a good lead. Follow up using the process I demonstrate.

Just about everyone in the online marketing world whines that "If only I had more leads" they would be so much better off.

This is a lie. A falsehood. Generating increasing quantities of poor quality prospects that lead to no engagement will only waste the time and energy of the front line salesperson.

You don't need more leads.

You need good prosecting in place to bring you a manageable number of better leads you can personally engage with.

This isn't something I've made up. I've been talking about it and building my process for many years.

>> If you're ready for the full version of what is explained here, including Challenger Sale instruction, how you should think as a founder beginning to operate your business, what to give your new hires to train them up quickly on effective selling, then get Sales On Fire <<

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Salesperson Success: A Clear Picture of What It Looks Like

Posted on by Jason Kanigan

Salesperson success provided as a clear picture to sales staff is what’s missing in most organizations. What the poor salesperson normally gets is this:

  • No targets
  • No coaching
  • No managerial involvement
  • No feedback loop
  • Just a “Here’s your desk, your phone, your computer, the product manuals and the price list… off you go!”

I’ve seen it for over 20 years.

A salesperson is not like a cactus—you can’t simply put them in a corner, feed them leads like water from time to time, and expect them to succeed.

However, as a salesperson it will be most helpful for you to understand you’re running a mini business-within-a-business. You have the same issues as any founder, and you need the same systems working for you.

cactus without leads picture of salesperson success

Photo by Taryn Elliott from Pexels

The Systems of Salesperson Success

The place for you to begin is developing a revenue target.

Whether you know it or not, even if you’re on straight salary, you have a money target. This target must be met every month and it well exceeds what you are paid. Even if your employer hasn’t really thought about it...which is dangerous. And if you have a commission portion of your income, this is even more important.

Thus, to have a chance to achieve and exceed this target, you need to know your numbers.

You also need to be supported by the same four systems every business needs.

The first system is lead generation.

The second system is qualification.

The third system is conversion.

And the fourth system is fulfillment.

As a salesperson, just like a founder because you’re running your own mini business-within-a-business, you need to pay attention to these four systems.

The Four Systems Salespeople Need To Handle

Consider: how many leads need to come into your view so that you have a chance of success... which means hitting your revenue target?

Do you know?

Does the company provide you with that number of leads?

Or is it insufficient flow, and you need to figure out a way to drive leads on your own? (This is not such a bad situation as it may seem, since at least one other key system is taken care of for you: fulfillment. As long as the capacity is available and your employer is competent, you do not have to worry about delivery of the result your offer promises. This is a great relief and one reason to not start your own business.)

Is it clear how to separate those people the organization would prefer as customers from those who they would rather not get into a relationship with?

Is the process of turning some qualified prospects into buyers written down and understood? Is it put into practice the way it is documented?

And can you trust that the orders you take will be delivered upon in a high quality and timely manner? (As an example, I once took an order in the construction industry based on a specific delivery date requirement. I had gone to the production manager and asked to ensure this date was possible. Weeks later when the date came and went, I was the one who received the angry blast from the disappointed customer who was now badly delayed by our failure. The production manager shrugged when confronted. I quit soon afterwards as I could no longer trust their fulfillment system.)

Clarity On The Picture Is Key for Winning As a Salesperson

Getting clarity on and belief in these four systems is critical to your picture of salesperson success. You will hold this picture up as the standard by which to guide your actions.

Don’t have enough leads coming in from the company to hit your revenue target? Now you know you need to do something to get them.

Unsure how to qualify good prospects from bad? Now you know you need to do some information interviews inside your company to find out.

Struggling with converting qualified prospects into customers? Now you know you need some sales training and coaching.

Taking orders without being certain your employer can fulfill them in a timely and high quality fashion? Better get that taken care of.

Imagine the sense of personal power you’ll have when you absolutely know these four systems are handled. Every month, right on schedule, the right number of leads enters your funnel. You or your automated system (hint) filters them so the majority of your effort—remember the 80/20 Rule—goes into speaking with qualified prospects and converting some into buyers. You do this in full confidence and harmony with the fulfillment departments of your employer, who you trust to deliver a great experience and outcome for the buyer.

This is the picture of what salesperson success looks like, and the four systems that combined are the engine to support it.

>> Click here to book a consultation with Jason Kanigan <<

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What Is a Funnel?

Posted on by Jason Kanigan

what is a funnelWhat is a funnel?

In sales and marketing terminology, a funnel is a series of steps to filter and bring your many prospects to becoming a few qualified buyers. That's it, at the funnel's most basic level.

We can add upsells, downsells, cross sells and other elements to our funnel, but let's start with the basics.

I explain the three components of a sales and marketing funnel in this video:

Jason Kanigan Explains: What Is a Funnel?

 

So we see that a funnel contains three basic pieces. And if any one is missing, that funnel is 'broken.'

The Three Parts of a Funnel

Each of the three components of an effective funnel do a specific job.

First you need a Lead Generation System for bringing in traffic. Hopefully this traffic is at least somewhat pre-qualified; the more qualified, the better. But also, the more pre-qualified, the more expensive that traffic will be.

We are looking for larger numbers here. Prospects entering the funnel here will have to be filtered down to smaller numbers.

Second, a Qualification System is necessary. This component will filter leads from being unqualified prospects to those who are a fit for the offer.

Note that you are losing people as they progress through the funnel. This is normal and desirable! It is perfectly acceptable to have people who are not a fit for your offer to be gently and politely shunted aside by your funnel.

Third is a Closing System.

Written or VSL copy, graphics, layout and design...all these combine to comprise the Closing system.

Can you see how if all you're relying on is this piece of the puzzle, you are making life difficult for yourself?

Copy on a sales or landing page will qualify somewhat. But if you are getting a ton of traffic but only a handful of conversions, odds are your funnel is broken and you are doing a poor job of qualifying.

Can you see how by asking "What is a funnel?" and breaking the process up into each of these components, we can isolate them and see which one is working or needs improvement?

I frequently say, "Your traffic source is as or even more important than the sales copy."

Can you guess why, now?

That is part of the Lead Generation component. And if that part has been ignored, the quality of leads is likely to be low. Earning conversions off low quality traffic is tough work.

Final Thought On What Is a Funnel

Instead of throwing traffic from blind ad swaps or solo ads at your sales page and depending entirely on the Closing System to do all the work, build backwards from the revenue you want to generate.

You need so many sales to make the money you want to make over a period of time.

So, estimating at first but gradually building confidence in your estimates from real performance data, how many prospects do you think have to make it through the Qualification System?

And going back up the funnel, generating that larger number of qualified prospects waiting to be closed, how many leads do you think you need to enter the funnel's Lead Generation System at the top?

Leads >>> Prospects >>> Buyers.

We could estimate, for example--and this is an example, and likely not representative of what you will experience--you want 10 buyers this month at $297.

So that's the bottom of your funnel: 10 Buyers.

Moving up from there, we estimate a 2% conversion is what can be expected at this early stage in the funnel optimization process. We don't know how good our copy is yet. So 10/2% = 500 qualified Prospects.

Remember this is the path from qualified Prospect to proven Buyer we're talking about here, not the entire funnel. We could throw traffic at a Closing System and be very pleased with 1-2% conversion. But that's not talking apples to apples here.

Now we can go up to the top of the funnel. Those 500 Prospects...to get them, we initially estimate 1 in 10 entering the funnel will qualify for the offer.

So what have we learned?

We need 5000 Leads to enter the funnel.

If during the month we don't get 5000 leads to enter the funnel, and have sufficient time for them to pass through the process, we know we won't reach our revenue target. This tells us how much traffic to buy or direct.

By splitting traffic and qualification into two components, we can see a) how good our traffic source is, and b) whether our Qualification System works the way we think it should.

If you get through the month and you put 5000 Leads into the funnel, but only 300 Prospects made it to the qualified middle...you know that's where the problem is.

Keep in mind that these ratios are for THIS traffic source and THIS offer. Change variables and you'll change the expectations.

If you have any questions of your own about "What is a funnel?" please ask them below.

>> To get Jason's help with your funnel creation or optimization, click here. <<