Building Highly Qualified Sales Funnels | Understanding Your Buyer’s Journey

Building Highly Qualified Sales Funnels…

Where is your contact in their buying cycle now?

Top of the sales funnel? Your contact, might not even be a prospect yet, is just looking, not sure if they need you or your solution, may be early on in their search in scoping the market. No idea of the scale, origin or scope of their problem.

Middle of the sales funnel? Knows a little bit more about what they are looking for, perhaps has an idea of what they don’t want more than what they do. Definitely at the stage of getting pitches and pricing organised. Likely more open to learning and discussions than they were in the stage above. In the process of deciding who is in and who is out in terms of the short list.

Bottom of the sales funnel? Fine tuning the detail, nailing on the price, sorting out terms. Also checking out references, wanting to make the agreement water-tight before signing.

Knowing where your contact is in the funnel will save you a massive amount of time and effort as well as helping you serve up the right information, at the right time in the right way – which means a higher conversion rate and another happy, frictionless sell.

Get it Wrong?

And close when the contact is at the top of the funnel? Well you won’t crash and burn every time…but let’s look at it this way.

Would you ever turn up to a first date dressed like a bride (or groom)?

Pitching too soon, can kill a deal as quickly and you won’t even know it.

After all, no-one wants to see the cheeseboard before the main meal. It causes confusion, extends discussions and creates a slightly icky feeling. Note: confused buyers don’t buy…

Beware – the cost of getting it wrong by ignoring where the contact is in their journey can see you burn through leads and kill potentially great deals before they’re out of the blocks.

So, does that mean you shouldn’t sell in at the top of the funnel?

No.

You’re selling at every single stage of the funnel.

It’s how you sell at the different stages that will make the difference…

AND how you sell, won’t be seen as selling by the contact.

And, that’s where you make your first win the contact.

Your all important win – because if you can’t win here then all else is lost!

This is Important – Why?

By the time your contact gets to speak with you (from an inbound perspective) they many be 54-73% through the process already.

So they know what they need from you.

Your job is to find out what that is.

Discover that and you’re well on your way to building your highly qualified sales funnels.

You Should Also Consider…

The seniority of the contact – at whatever level they come in. So a senior sales decision maker at the top of the funnel vs an admin exec at the top of the funnel – two wildly different pitching scenarios.

Their timeline – just because they are still at the top of the funnel, doesn’t mean that they don’t want to move fast. Again, knowing this means you can decide to pitch or signpost.

The level of understanding around their need to make a purchase – some buyers will know their WHY for buying. Others have an idea, and some are there because they’ve been told to get details. Find out where their understanding is.

Building highly qualified sales funnels relies on you taking each lead high curiosity, brilliant listening skills and the skills to map out what your prospect needs from you before you pitch.

Move the contact through the stages in the sales funnel – don’t kill them with a blunt sales pitch on first contact!

Outbound | Building Highly Qualified Sales Funnels

Slightly easier…but read on.

Outbound selling is a disruption activity.

Unless you’ve done your research – and you should have – check this out if in doubt – finding your ideal client – then you are never sure where your sales prospect is likely to be in their buying process, so mapping them on to your sales process prematurely would be a waste.

But all is not lost.

If you’re in the field of disruption, then in terms of dealing with the modern buyer you need to also be a master of Engagement and Education.

Engagement and Education | Filling the Outbound Sales Funnel

Engagement – mastering the art of interruption and discovery when there is seemingly little common ground

Education – presenting new, relevant and meaningful information in a way that enhanced engagement and positions you as an expect provider, and has your contact leaning into the conversation to learn more.

Now – there are hundreds of sales consultants and training advisers out there who are too scared to take on outbound sales – not tough enough to cut it – because they know that they can’t make something out of nothing.

But for those of us that are up for the challenge, happy to take the odds and make the magic happen, then we know that working the odds in our favour is what we do.

Critical Factors in Outbound for Building Highly Qualified Sales Funnels

Building highly qualified sales funnels is the single most important task in building any growth model, scaling a sales team, and therefore, building a business….especially if you want all of that at low risk.

And there are 5 factors to nail down before you start:

• The profile of the person who is likely to be on the burning platform – whether they know it or now.
• Information that will shock, surprise, educate and engage them in a conversation.
• The skills to open a conversation as a trusted adviser and not a sales rep.
• A proof of concept model that you have delivered with results for other organisations suffering a similar challenge
• Know your WHY – why should this person listen to you, talk to you, take what you say seriously?

Without these things in place, the risks are too high, failure guaranteed and it’s a costly waste of time. Not great for the sales team’s mental health either.

Fine tune these critical factors and success is just a matter of time.

Pitching then become expert discovery – it’s sales Jim, but not as we know it!

Plus

Now – you can see how pitching means different things at different parts of the sales funnel.

• Understanding where your prospect is in the sales funnel streamlines your sales process.
• It escalates your understanding of the prospect needs. You are seen as an Expert Adviser.
• It gives you all the information you need to ensure you’re still standing when others have fallen.
• And, you can build a specific and tailored solution to their very specific challenge

Isn’t that what sales is all about?

”Pitching is Pitching – Let’s Get As Many Leads In the Funnel and Start Selling…”

This is something I typically hear from people, sales leaders, business owners who think selling is all about talking to more people, increasing dials, talk time and discounts.

All of these factors are critical – after all – the best sales pitch in the world is no good to you if you’re only speaking with 5 people per day!

These comments typically come from leaders who have never experienced the certainty of having a smooth-running sales funnel.

Never benefited from a high quality sales funnel.

Who don’t have the understanding of how to start building a highly qualified sales funnel, one capable of  producing, managing and closing highly qualified sales leads, as often as they need, with the margin they need, at the frequency they need.

And that’s ok.

Trust me when I tell you I’ve seen all sorts of sales funnels. In all sorts of disrepair, full of poor quality, low level ‘leads’ which has been poorly maintained, ravaged and overloaded.

But all is not lost.

The Key to Building a Highly Qualified Sales Funnel

The great news is once you’ve got a working sales funnel…it’s like having your own ATM machine where you hit and it pumps out cash.

There’s a degree of certainty about the results it produces, not just today or tomorrow but over the next 12 months. Sales forecasting becomes a breeze, are accurate and predictable.

How long does this take to set up? About three months – we do it here in Fix and Flow – 90 Day Done For You / Done With You Sales Improvement Sprints.

Get your sales funnel and sales team skills aligned and making sales becomes easier,

And, sales and marketing spend and ROI more quantifiable.

As long as you don’t get lazy, complacent and comfortable…you’ll only have to set your sales funnel up once then refine as needed, so you’ve got a highly qualified sales funnel you and your business need can enjoy for many years

What Building Highly Qualified Sales Funnels Means for Your Business

Peace of mind that you know where your sales are coming from

• Cash flow certainty
• Enough notice to avert sales dips before they arrive
• Low risk growth
• Scale-ability
• Motivated sales reps
• Better connections between sales and marketing
• Less discounting
• Clearer ROI’s on any spend

The list goes on – but by far the biggest benefit from building a highly qualified sales funnel is the fact that your competitors get locked out in the cold whilst your team consistently thrive!

Plus you avoid all the common pitfalls associated with poor sales funnel management. Pitfalls like:

• Over filling the sales funnel
• Not being quick enough to cut away from low grade deals
• Having to spend time re-qualifying prospects that have stalled
• Using discounting to attempt to flush solid sales prospects through the sales funnel at a faster rate
• Burning through costly leads
• Struggling to find the very best sales management information to help you make better decisions.

Sales Management Information Using Highly Qualified Sales Funnels

This is a critical win.

With the right sales funnel, you’ll identify weeks, months, maybe even years (depending on the sales cycle duration) what your sales figures will be…which means you can make corrective action to boost sales when you still have the time.

You will be able to continuously monitor the quality, profit, value of the business you’re chasing

No deal falls through the net

In fact, a strategic and robust highly qualified sales funnel answers all the management information questions you need to run your sales function like clockwork…of course you need a motivated sales team who honestly report activity and a sales methodology that’s robust enough to train sales teams to ask the tough questions, and this is where having the go/no-go gates really pays dividends.

Types of Sales Funnels

Building high quality sales funnels is not always a one off…in some instances you’ll need a sales funnel for different products and services because the sales process for those products and services is different.

This is where it’s worth considering how you are selling each of your products and services – some sales funnels maybe based on different sales methods – some of your products/services may respond better to disruptive sales methods, some will be solution based, some more strategically focused and often sales funnels need to be tailored to encompass various methodologies at different stages.

Summary: Building Highly Qualified Sales Funnels

It’s easy to stick with what you’ve got. Blame the sales results you’re getting on the economy, accuse competitors of discounting to buy the business and suffer the peaks and troughs of the sales year wondering what’s going to happen next.

You’d be in good company – it’s reported that 54% of sales teams don’t hit their sales targets.

Now, some of that could be down to senior leadership teams and investors demanding more than is possible, and I think this accounts for a good chunk of those that don’t hit the numbers, which is both sad and avoidable.

For the rest? I’ll bet you anything they’ve not realised that there is another way.

To book your call to discuss how building a highly qualified sales pipeline to deliver low risk and stable sales growth can benefit your company – call 0779 002 1885