Have you had the experience of meeting with a prospect and gradually discovering that the “ideal” prospect is not ideal at all?  Afterwards, you may feel like you’ve wasted your time and energy.

If you’re leading a sales team who has been experiencing this, not only is it frustrating, but it can also turn out to be quite costly. Time spent meeting with the wrong people could have been spent in a more focused and profitable way. And if this happens often enough it can bring down team morale.

There are steps you can take to ensure that this never happens.  But it involves something that may be the hardest part of sales – picking up the phone to qualify leads and confirm that they are true prospects.  Salespeople often tell me that this is something that they avoid. It is much easier to have a conversation with a warm lead than to do a cold call.

A Strong Pre-Sales Process

At One of a Kind Sales, we know that cold calling is a key component of pre-sales.  It’s the prospecting “legwork” that must be done to get a list of qualified leads. All things being equal, when a sales team is working with a list of qualified leads, they’ll have better success because they are meeting with the right people.

A strong pre-sales process uses multiple methods to build a list for the sales team to target. The process includes activities such as prospecting via social media and email, and cold calling.

Our experience is that cold calling is a critical component in the pre-sales process. Ultimately a well-executed cold calling campaign ensures that the sales team’s appointments are with the right people.

Our Recommendations

  • Implement a strong pre-sales process within your organization to build a qualified list of prospects that your sales team can pursue.
  • Alternatively, consider outsourcing the lead qualification process.

Remember, a sales team working with a list of truly qualified leads will result in shorter sales process and faster revenue growth.

At One of a Kind Sales, we love cold calling!  If your sales team needs help implementing a pre-sales process or you would like to outsource cold calling for your sales team, reach out to us at 908-879-2911.