Is Your Small Business Building a Healthy Sales Pipeline?

Friday Funnel Focus by EPOCH Sales Management Solutions

Last week, we discussed focusing your small business on the right priorities. This week let’s look at ways your small business can build a healthy sales pipeline, okay?

Bottom line, “creating new opportunities” is one of the top two sales management challenges for over 80% of small businesses.  Three topics from last week certainly matter here:

• Get the messaging right
• Get the targeting right
• Build the right new business development culture with the right prospecting priorities

This week we want to explore four new opportunity process buckets to guide you as you seek to create more new opportunities.

1. Grow Existing Clients
2. Intentional Networking/Referrals
3. Intentional Marketing
4. Multi-touch, multi-channel targeted sales outreach

Grow Existing Clients

The easiest way to create more new opportunities is to serve your existing clients well and gain more opportunities through cross selling, up-selling or gaining access to new departments.  We recommend the following activities:

• Prioritize your time with existing clients appropriately
• Conduct periodic business reviews to include joint 90 day rocks or goals.

Be sure to create raving fans so that they can help provide new opportunities in the 2nd new opportunity process bucket.

A certain portion of each salesperson’s monthly target list should include existing client contacts that you want to attempt to grow business with at that time.

Intentional Networking/Referrals

This new opportunity process consists of 3 elements:

1. Customer Referrals
2. Strategic Center of Influence Introductions
3. Linked Networking

Customer Referrals

Ask referrals of your raving fans using this process.

• Confirm satisfaction
• Request permission to ask
• Use CAPS questions to help customer identify name(s)
• Characteristic
• Alternative
• Pain
• Symptoms
• Gain agreement on how make referral
• Keep your customer updated and inform them of the progress.
• Demonstrate appreciation, as appropriate

A certain portion of your target list should include existing client contacts that you want to request referrals from at that time.  Be prepared to make referrals for them.

Strategic Centers of Influence

Strategic Centers of Influence represent the best of your networking partners. The ones with the most mutual trust, understanding and influence.

A certain portion of each salesperson’s target list for each month should include the strategic centers of influence contact you want to meet with to discuss introductions on behalf of each other.

Linked Networking

The Linked Networking process involves an outreach to selected 1st connections that demonstrate connection with your Ideal Client Profiles by being connected to your 2nd Connection Ideal Client Profile prospects.

A certain portion of each salesperson’s target list for each month should include selected 1st connection contacts identified in your Linked Networking process. You will want to explore the potential of introductions on behalf of each other.

Intentional Marketing

Intentional Marketing is an inbound/ demand gen campaign or process to increase marketing qualified leads (MQL). The goals of the program are to increase the number of engaged contacts and subsequently increase the number of marketing qualified prospects.

Here are the key elements of a sample Intentional Marketing Campaign

• Determine your goals such as which product or service to promote,  the growth in number of engaged contacts and numbers of marketing qualified leads.
• Build your marketing message. We encourage the use of Marketing Made Simple and the Storybrand Framework.
• Wireframe Landing/ Web pages, as appropriate.
• Build valuable content and valuable lead magnets.
• Promote lead magnets with blogs, podcasts, social media and weekly informational email.
• Build a nurturing email sequence, culminating in a sales email to contacts that opted in.
• Consider additional programs such as free masterclass (webinar) to attract prospects.
• Develop a lead score process to help determine marketing qualified leads.

Multi-touch, Multi-channel targeted sales outreach

A multi-touch, multi-channel targeted sales outreach touches each “prospect” multiple times using a variety of outreach channels, such as:

• View LinkedIn Profile
• Walk-in, if appropriate and feasible
• Phone call w/ voice mail
• Email
• Phone call with text message
• Email
• Post genuine, authentic comment on prospect LinkedIn post
• Email with video email
• Like prospect LinkedIn post
• Snail Mail

We recommend the use of multi-touch, multi-channel targeted sales outreach for all forms of outreach to include, grow existing clients, referrals, strategic centers of influence, intentional networking, inbound marketing/ demand gen leads and cool or cold prospects. 

We also encourage clients to view the phone as the number one proactive outreach tool at their disposal and practice hard to do it well.  It is the most important and most challenging tool to use. One needs to become unconsciously competent on the phone to do well and that takes work. It takes perfect practice.

Develop written processes for each of these new opportunity process buckets so salespeople know what to do. Lead, coach and develop your salespeople to successfully “hunt” for new business opportunities.

Want to explore the process further, schedule a free 30-minute consultation.

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While growing Small Businesses and Building Great Sales Teams is hard, the process to do this is simple. But, simple does not mean easy. 

Struggling to hire the right Salesperson?

Download our free pre-hire checklist now.

Want to explore the process further, schedule a free 30-minute consultation.

In the meantime, get our guide to the 3 Part Formula to a Healthy Sales Pipeline