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Have you wondered what the secret is to a rock star sales process? Many staffing leaders struggle to implement a comprehensive structure that addresses all aspects of the sales process – from prospecting all the way to the finish line. While there’s certainly no magic formula, you may be surprised to learn there are many ways to create a repeatable sales process that works.
In our Crushin’ It Staffing Webinar Series, we spoke with Tom Erb, CEO of Tallann Resources and author of Winning the Staffing Sales Game, about how to create a sales process that gets results. With over 20 years of experience in the staffing industry, Tom specializes in sales tactics specifically geared for helping staffing teams overcome common sales challenges. At the end of the day, Tom emphasizes that successful selling comes down to methodology – meaning that it’s critical to have a standardized process all your sales reps can use for effective prospecting.
Here’s a roundup of key pointers Tom offered our listeners – and how you can implement them at your staffing firm:
Categorize your leads into three groups.
At many staffing firms, anyone who’s treated as a cold call is referred to as a “prospect.” However, before conducting any outreach, there is a value in differentiating who is truly a prospect or just a suspect. As Tom explains in the episode, “suspects have characteristics of a somebody we can do business with, but we have not qualified them yet. So, we suspect that they can be a prospect or a client of ours, but we don’t know it yet.” Prospects, on the other hand, are those who have been qualified as a solid lead but may not be ready or have a need for your services. The third category in this group consists of “targets,” who have been closely vetted as having a strong potential to work with you and need to be actively engaged throughout your sales process. Tom explains that often sales reps don’t allocate their leads into these groups correctly and end up having way too many individuals whom they’re focusing time and attention on. Failing to narrow down your leads and cast a narrower net will result in little to no traction with the right people. To find the right balance among these groups, Tom says some good ballpark figures to aim for in a pre-pipeline and sales pipeline are about 300 suspects, 100 prospects and 30 targets.
Prospect in the right places.
Once you’ve established your pre-pipeline, you must be smart about where you find your leads. In terms of online prospecting, often LinkedIn is the best place to start, as you can search for individuals by company, job title, geographic location and much more. Job board aggregators, such as Google Jobs and Indeed, are also great sources for identifying prospects. Running searches and setting up email alerts through these sites will allow you to constantly be exposed to companies that would be a fit for your services. Once you’ve identified ones that fit the bill, you can then do your own back-end research on LinkedIn to find the companies’ respective senior executives, HR managers, and talent acquisition specialists, among others.
Diversify communication methods.
Because there are so many modes of communication, your sales reps need to be prepared to expand their reach beyond traditional methods (such as by phone or email) by adding other means to the mix, such as texting and social media messaging. This is because a huge segment of the population will not bother responding to phone calls and emails, preferring to be reached through channels that are more accessible to them. While this can present a challenge for some sales reps at first, you’ll find that expanding reach through varying communications methods can significantly add to the volume of leads generated each day.
Even the slightest refining of your sales strategy can make a huge difference when it comes to securing more leads and ultimately landing more clients. By leveraging the practices above, you can begin to create a seamless process all your sales reps can follow to meet their quotas – while giving them more confidence and motivation at the same time!
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