Optimize your Sales Lead Process for Higher Education

How to create outlook signature

Let me ask you a question. Do you ever look at your calendar and think to yourself, "Man, I wish I had more high quality appointments on my calendar." This is the single most common issue that we see with salespeople in all industries. The reality is that most salespeople simply don't have enough appointments on their calendar in order to hit their sales goals. So in this video, I'm going to show you nine keys to abundant sales lead generation. Check it out. (upbeat music) Number One- Know your IPP. And your IPP stands for ideal prospect profile. Understanding who you want to be meeting with is half the battle. Because so many salespeople look at their calendar, and half the people they get on the phone with aren't even marginally a fit for what they do. So what you want to be first doing is making sure that you are only going after people that are in your ideal prospect profile. Ideal prospect profile means this is someone that if you could be in front of them, you would be psyched to connect with them. Not let's see how it goes. You would be psyched to at least have a conversation to see whether there's a fit. And so knowing who your ideal prospect is means understanding what kinds of industries are you going after? What title or what level of buyer are you going after? What are some of the key challenges that they would likely be facing? What kinds of organizations do they work at? All of those things. So that way, you know exactly who you want to target. And one little bonus here is that the top performing salespeople tend to have a much tighter and more specific IPP than average salespeople, because they know exactly who they want to talk to and who they don't want to talk to. Number Two- Systematize data research. You're probably watching this, and you're going to think, "Wow, this is really boring. This is in the weeds." But if you don't have a systematized process for data research, then your information is going to be all over the place. You can't just rely on whatever you kind of just come across in a random way. You need to have a systematized approach for getting that research. So where are you going to find your leads? Are you going to be using a database? Are you going to be using LinkedIn Navigator? Are you going to be using some other industry specific portal? And then what you have to do is make sure that you have an approach for getting that information into your CRM or your cold outreach campaign software or whatever system you're using to making sure that you have that all set up. And ideally, you could have some type of an assistant who can help you systematize that, because let's face it, most salespeople don't like doing that work. I know. For me, it makes my eyes bleed to do data research. But there are other people who love to do it, and you can get them to help and make sure that you have that process in place. Number Three- Personalize all outreach. This is a huge, huge distinction in today's world of selling. Because imagine you're a high level buyer, and you receive an email from a sales person, what's the first thing you're thinking about when you receive that email? Is this automated? Is this some random bot who's just sending me spam? Or is this a real human being who has shown that they knew who I am and has actually done their homework on me? If you can be in the latter category, you're going to get a lot more responses, whether it's by email, by phone or whatever channel you're using. So personalize your outreach. Make sure that you show in your outreach that you know who they are, what company, obviously, what their name is. But more specifically, maybe who some of their competitors are or something that would be specific to them. The more you personalize, the higher your reply rate and the higher your likelihood of actually scheduling that meeting. Number Four- Use all of your channels. This means don't just rely on only cold email or only on LinkedIn or only on making cold calls. Instead, use all of your channels, use all of the mediums that you can to connect with a prospect and combine it into one process. So that way, maybe you're sending an email, then you send a letter, then you do a LinkedIn connection outreach, then you make a call, and then you send another email. And so you can mix these all together, so that way, if someone's more likely to respond on the phone, you've got them on the phone. If they're more likely to respond by email, you've got them by email or LinkedIn or whatever it is. Use all of the tools in your arsenal. Number Five- At least 20 touches per prospect. Now you're probably thinking, "Wow, that is borderline stalkerish." But the reality is that if you are only giving a couple of touches to your prospect, if you're making three calls, and then you give up, you're giving up way too soon. You should be reaching out to your prospects in many different ways, leveraging all the channels that you have. So maybe it's 5 or 6 emails over the course of a month. But within that, maybe you're making 5, 6, 10 calls throughout that month as well. And maybe you're doing some kind of LinkedIn connection request. Or you're liking or just following something that they do on LinkedIn. And so you're touching them in all these different ways. So that way, by time you actually get them on the phone, they're like, "Okay, I know who this person is. This is a real human being." That's the key. Number Six- Offer them something of actual value. This is so important. Because if you get someone on the phone, or you get someone to read your email, and at the end of that email, it says something like, "Hey, I'd love to hop on a call with you to learn more about your business." They're going to say no. Right? They don't want to hop on a phone to teach some sales person about their business. They want something of value. So have a call to action, whether it's by email, phone, LinkedIn, whatever it is, that is something of value that would be actually interesting or useful to them. That is your carrot to get them on the phone. Number Seven- Stop only when they say no. Now this is important. Because when a prospect actually says no or go away, then we should respect that, particularly if it's by written word, right? So if it's in an email and they say, unsubscribe, remove me from your list, go away, whatever it is, it's really over at that point. On the phone, there are some contingencies. But even at that point, once you've got a couple of contingencies deep, and at the end, it's not a fit, move on. But if you don't hear back from them, if you don't connect with them, if you don't get a call back, keep going. Most salespeople, the data shows, give up way too early on prospects. So only stop when they say no. Number Eight- Track all of your outreach. And by this I mean, when you send an email, are you tracking the open rate, the reply rate of your outreach? When you make a call, are you tracking exactly when someone answers? Are you tracking all of that information? What's amazing is that most modern day systems can track all this stuff without any effort on your part. Be sure to track all of your outreach, so that way, you know what's working and what's not working. So when you start to go back and reassess what you're doing, you know exactly what is working for you. Number Nine- Map out your entire process. Now this idea pulls everything together. I've thrown a bunch of ideas at you on this video, but we now have to map out the entire process. Most salespeople are very haphazard about how they're prospecting. So even if they're using multiple channels to reach out to someone, it's just like, "Okay, today, maybe I'll send them a LinkedIn connection request." Or, "Tomorrow, maybe I'll send them an email." Instead, map out the whole process into what we call is your prospecting blueprint. And so that way, you know exactly on what day you were doing what. The more organized you are about your process, the more likely you are to become systematic about that outreach and ultimately, generate far, far more leads. So there are nine keys to abundance sales lead generation. And if you enjoyed this video, then I have an awesome free training on the data-driven approach to closing more sales in today's marketplace. Just click right here to get registered instantly. Seriously, just click right here. This is an in-depth training that will help you close more sales at higher prices all while generating more meetings. Also, if you've got some value, please like this video below on YouTube and be sure to subscribe to my channel by clicking my face that should be right about here to get access to a new video just like this one each week.