Lead Management - A Focus Above the Funnel - Part II

One of the sad truths of sales is the activities involved in being successful above the funnel; Lead Generation and Prospecting are more "blue collar" in nature than the rest of the Revenue process Sales, which traditionally has been more "white collar" in nature. Many sales reps fancy themselves white collar professions and therefore do not take to lead generation and prospecting. They fail to acknowledge that there is heavy lifting, plenty of hard work, in this contact sport called Prospecting.

Having implemented a Touch > Contact > Engage, approach to managing your leads, you need to have a replenishment plan. The fact you are recycling leads, ensuring that you benefit from the fact that today's dud is tomorrow's cash cow, understanding that more is not best, just a start, you still need a means of brining new leads in to you base.

As with many things above the funnel, there are few secrets, the real deal is in implementing, and staying consistent; the things you'll read below all will work if you put them in to practice, and do so in a consistent ongoing way.

In no particular order, and with the understanding that many verticals have other unique sources for leads, here are a few everyone could use immediately:

• Referrals

• Dependent Referrals

• Networking

• Directories

• Cold Calling

• Referrals - Everyone talks about them, very few actually do it, or do it right. I find it very interesting, at every workshop I ask how many people have success with referrals, and in a group of 15 or 18 people two people will put up their hand; I then ask how many actually ask for referrals, and the same two people raise their hands. Everyone has worked referrals, but very few actively generate referrals. The one that do seem to restrict it to people they "have a relationship with"; when asked why they don't include prospects, or leads in pursuing referrals, they rarely have anything to offer other than that they "don't yet have a relationship". There have been numerous quality books written on referrals, we recommended one in The Pipeline's Recommended Reading section. The key is you can get referrals from a lot more people you deal with in business, from prospects, clients, vendors, tradesmen, even other leads. It is never too early to ask for referrals, you may not get one right away, but people will know you are ready for them.

• Direct Authority Referrals - One source of referrals need to be segmented from the others, and needs to be more consistently pursued and harvested, we call these Direct Authority Referrals. These are people who have relationships with people who could use your service or product, and are in a position to have to more than strongly influence matters as a result of being an authority figure. Often as a result, they are privy to information that you can benefit from, and where their recommendation or referral will fast track the process of moving a Lead to a Prospect, and hasten the sale in general. These could be lawyers, accountants, business advisors, bankers. Within given markets there could very specific relationships where one party is in a position to help the referral take on real teeth.

For example, there is a natural synergy between what I do and Sales Compensation consultants. They are interacting with people who can use our services, and can often be perceived as "an authority" by these people. Not only can we add value to their relationships by ensuring that the client fully benefits from their service we are able to accelerate the cycle for both our companies and increase the benefit for the client.

Regardless of the nature of the referral, you can take the initiative in ensuring a healthy relationship, send referrals their way, if you can, before you even receive one from them, this is a small investment, but one that pays long dividends.

• Networking - It's on everyone's to-do, not all ways done effectively. There are all kinds of books and articles written on networking, everything from etiquette to finding different networks. Our focus here is to get you thinking about where prospecting fits in to your lead management strategy and program. Not all networks a suitable for every type of sale, but there are always a number that will provide you a steady stream of leads. Since networking is part of the over all strategy make sure you don't over do it, but do it right. When you attend an event remember you are there to network not socialize. Have targets to measure against and adjust them and you networking based on clear objectives and results.