Are you one of the 63% of businesses that have problems getting traffic and leads? Or are your salespeople part of the 44% that give up after one rejection?
It happens to everyone in sales. You connect with a prospect, conduct a needs analysis, maybe even give a stellar presentation, but something happens along the way, and the prospect stalls. Do you know it takes six to eight follow-ups for sales leads to convert to paying customers?
Before moving forward after a stalled account, evaluate where you went wrong. How do you re-engage stalled accounts? Well, it all depends on where you’re at in the sales process.
To Re-Engage a Lead, Evaluate the Sales Process
Whether you’re turning stale leads into new business or re-engaging old customers, let’s explore questions to ask during each step of the sales process.
If you've made an initial connection with a prospect, but nothing transpired further, consider these things:
- Were you empathetic to the prospect’s situation?
- Did you share a valuable insight that proved your expertise?
- Were you able to show your problem-solving capabilities, maybe by sharing a success story?
A strong connection happens when you prove your Empathy, Expertise and, Problem-Solving capability.
If you've completed a needs analysis with a prospect, but nothing transpired further, consider these things:
- Did you probe for several needs and decide with the prospect of their desired business result?
- Did you have a meaningful conversation about metrics?
- Did you ask how decisions are made in the organization to determine if you have the right people present?
Use the 4As Need Analysis Model as your guide to help you land on a desired business result and the metrics along the way to determine the performance of the campaign.
If you've made it to the presentation stage, but nothing transpired further, consider these things:
- Did your presentation speak more to your products and not to the prospect’s desired business result?
- Did you leave out the discussion about metrics?
- Did you have the right people present?
Use the Results Checklist to make sure you were ready to present a solution.
Additional Tips for Re-Engaging a Lead
- When you do re-engage prospects make sure you aren't casual about it.
- Own up to where you might have missed the mark along the way.
- If they have a complaint, work through that before going forward.
Re-engaging all old leads is near impossible, but it’s also low hanging fruit if you re-engage the right way.
Let us know in the comments below how you’re re-engaging old leads, and if these tips help you with stalled accounts.