The Key to Incremental Sales… New Business Development

                                       

New Business Development is the buzz word across many companies’ sales forces today. New business comes from two basic sources… finding new customers for your product or service or offering new products or solutions to existing customers to expand and add incremental revenue.

Whether seeing a new prospective client or an existing customer with a new opportunity, research suggests only one in 50 deals are struck at a first meeting.  Yet many sales people give up after just one or two call backs. The Key… A NBD sales strategy will give you a major edge on competitors.

Studies reveal that only 2% of sales occur when two parties meet for the first time.  The 2% who buy at a first meeting actually represent the Thin Market for your product or service…. They have already considered your solution, and already know what they're looking for. You were lucky enough to call on the right person at the right time with a solution that meets their immediate needs. But, in truth the other 98% will only buy once a certain level of trust has been established.

There are many reasons why people who could benefit from your product, service or expertise do not buy. Inertia; lack of time; too many other things on their mind; concern about cost; cash flow; budget constraints etc… None of these is a negative. They are just psychological and transactional realities you must become aware of and recognize - which is why follow-ups are SO important.

Thinking like a customer or consumer, isn't it amazing how often we personally have express interest in a product or service but did not hear back from the sales person or company again? It happens all the time. Research shows, amazingly, that only 20% of sales leads are ever followed up. In other words, 80% of potential opportunities are lost without trace simply due to lack of follow-up.

I was fortunate to spend some time with Brian Tracey on his last visit to Toronto and he shared his company’s research in NBD… Many studies carried out at different times, in different places, by different market research companies over a number of years have reached the same conclusion… that 80% of non-routine sales occur only after at least five follow-ups.

Think about that.  It takes at least five continuous follow up efforts after the initial sales contact, before a customer says yes. There are some fascinating statistics on this:

44% of sales people give up after one "no"

22% give up after two "no’s"

14% give up after three "no’s"

12% give up after four "no’s"

That tells you that 92% of sales people give up after four "no's", and only 8% cent of sales people ask for the order a fifth time.

Once you're aware of these statistics you should stack the odds in your favour by introducing a Five  no’s strategy, where you maintain contact with prospects until each one of them has said "no", or "not now", or "not yet" at least five times. Every time you're in contact you have an opportunity to advance and build the relationship. This is the same methodology we use effectively in the appointment setting phase of our sales process.

There's also the fact that 63% of people requesting information on a company today will not purchase for at least three months - and 20% will take more than 12 months to buy.

Contacting your prospective and existing customers frequently builds trust and professionalism and keeps 'top of mind' awareness.  Several questions beg to be asked… What meaningful communication strategies do you have in place right now to maintain top of mind awareness once someone has been in contact with you?  How do you nurture your clients so that they learn to trust you and see you as a professional organization?

This suggests that traditional sales tactics of going into sales situations armed with a list of “sure fire” sales closes expecting to make sales with every prospect… every time…is unrealistic and outdated. Professional marketers get to really understand their clients and their issues; solve their problems; illustrate projected sales potential and the ROI they can expect to achieve. They build relationships and trust by engaging in a long term client sales strategy.

 

Metroland’ s recent investment in the new Pulse Research program will assist in illustrating how our clients can increase sales and gain additional revenue. We will be able to show the potential number of customers and projected revenue for our clients by business segment or product, how customers are actually reached by our marketing initiatives as well as social media over the previous 30 days etc… and how they can target their marketing investment for incremental business as well as defining ROI in terms of just how many customers they need to see a return on their advertising investment with us.  All in an easy to produce one page presentation tailored to each client by segment. 

For more conversation on NBD or to register for our next available New Business Development course or webinar contact Lauren at lnicoletta@metroland.com.