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Recruitment sales strategies for the new norm is the topic for podcast 236. Today we have a podcast for based on a recent video Sharon shared in our Facebook Recruitment Marketing Mastery Group; click here is you want to join.
This is a direct transcription from the podcast so please excuse and typing errors.
Today I want to talk about three critical sales strategies to align with your Marketing bounce back campaigns. In the early days of COVID-19, we were focusing our activity on existing clients and existing business we wanted to protect as much as we could ensure that cash flow kept coming into our bank account.
Logical I know.
Now, as you are building your pipelines ready for that bounce back, there are some specific sales strategies that we can consider.
I want to talk about lapsed clients and those prospects that we didn’t bring over the line. It doesn’t really matter what the timescale was just we didn’t convert them, and then connected to both those two strategies; is so critical and that is follow up.
Lapsed Clients
Now, let us start then by thinking about lapsed clients. Here is an activity to implement today if you haven’t already that would be to go back and look at Q1 in 2019.
Compare the clients that you were working with in that quarter with who you are working with in the first quarter of this year. You will notice that there is a gap there are some companies and clients that you were not working with at the start of 2020. Here is what I recommend that you do, and that is to pick up the phone and have a conversation. First thing, find out how are they, how are their families, how have they been coping over the last eight, nine weeks, and how have things been for them?
Now, the purpose of this call then, this is not a sales call. It is not a pitch. Now, the thing to do, though, and the purpose of this call is to ask.
“I noticed that we have not been working together over this last year, and I really want to understand what it is that’s happened, that’s meant we haven’t been working together?”
Then the job is to listen.
Thank them for that feedback. Take that feedback away.
Now, if in the conversation, as the conversation evolves, if there’s an opportunity, in terms of the client is giving you strong signals about wanting to re-engage, maybe actually, you could start helping them now. Well, then take the opportunity and use that conversation to open up a further sales conversation that you can have, but the purpose isn’t at this point to pitch, is to seek to understand.
Then use that information in whatever way you can to either at a point further down the line, bring that client back on board and re-engage with you, or use that feedback, with your teams in the sales conversations they are having moving forward.
People That Didn’t Say Yes Straight Away
The second one is, look at the people perhaps over the last 12 months who your team have not managed to convert. What will be great here is to have an opportunity to find out what stopped that particular prospect and business from doing business with you.
Again, it’s about calling them and saying, “Look, it’s been a while since we spoke, and after, of course, you’ve checked how they are, let’s make that the first priority.
The second thing is the main purpose of this call is again to find out what stopped them from working with your business to date.
Again, it’s about listening. Thanking them for that feedback, taking that away, and then look at what do you do with that information, and how can you use that information to make sure that you and your teams are converting people as the opportunities present themselves in the coming days and weeks.
It Is All in The Follow Up
The third strategy is to follow up. I want to share with you some info, some data that I think you are going to be probably as shocked about as I was when I first came across these two pieces of information.
The first is, can you believe this, 65% of businesses do not follow up leads that they paid for. Now, I realise that there might be a few people that I have let slip through the net before but 65% of businesses.
That is staggering. Now how about this, 79% of sales leads never convert, never. That is eight out of 10 leads never convert, why? Well, it is because salespeople do not nurture them, and they’re not followed up.
If you think about your teams, building pipelines, and converting business, it is obviously going to be incredibly competitive when the markets open back up and if you want to put your business head and shoulders above the competition, it is about how you start working with your teams now on putting in some fantastic follow-up processes because I think that is one of the reasons why we don’t convert these leads because there isn’t a specific process in place. There are other reasons, of course, and this is certainly one of them.
What can you do now with your teams to put some fabulous follow-up processes in place so that you are following up every single lead because if you did that, and you think about the data that I’ve just shared with you, there is going to be an awful lot of your competitors that are not doing that? That alone will put you in a stronger position to be converting more business. Some activities for you then, lapse clients find out how come you have not been working together over the last year.
People that you didn’t pull over the line, what stopped them from wanting to do business with you and your team and then finally, that follow up process, refresh it, review it, go and have a look at it. What’s been working, what hasn’t been working and really focus on getting your team’s refreshed, getting their skills up to date so they can follow up every single lead that you are bringing in because you’re working hard to bring that lead in and then we’re not making of the most opportunity.
Have a great day, have an even better week. See you soon.
Thanks
Sharon
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