tech-company, marketing, salesI’m not even sure how to start. As a small business, I’m pretty good at what I do. Unfortunately, I have a hard time trying to get potential leads into my funnel. Now my question now is, is there a particular workflow available on how to obtain leads? Example:
Find interested clients > speak to them over the phone > agree on scope > send them proposal > if they approve, do the job > Get paid > etc...
Is there a name for this process? I’m not even sure what to call it.
Find interested clients > speak to them over the phone > agree on scope > send them proposal > if they approve, do the job > Get paid > etc…
… might not be fantasy in practice, but it’s certainly horrific a process.
FWIW, and at a high level, best practice usually is closer to this:
Find interested leads or get them to find you (that’s marketing’s job).
Qualify each lead in a 10-min phone call. Qualified means:
Politely nurture or dismiss, depending, any lead that doesn’t tick each box. Discuss and agree on scope with those that do in one or more discovery calls. Upon completing the latter phase, schedule an actual proposal call.
Present and defend your proposal during the proposal call (avoid revealing it beforehand unless you can “leak” it to an inside ally to check if it stands a good chance). The point of this call is so you can address any questions, concerns, doubts, and objections on the fly, then and there.
Close the deal in the proposal call if possible. If not, agree to a date where you should follow up - and do so, of course.
Receive the signed contract and what the client agreed to pay in advance.
Now work.
The crucial bit, really, is to qualify your leads. Many companies make do without any formalized discovery calls or proposal calls, but I’ve never seen one succeed without proper qualification criteria in place and enforced. If you’re wasting time with unqualified leads with no intent or ability to buy soon all the time, then you’re, well, wasting time.
The above assumes you’ve a rescue sequence/process at most steps (in case the lead becomes unresponsive) of course.
Getting back to your question, the above is called a sales process.
Based on the title though, you’re looking for a lead generation process. That’s too broad for a question here unfortunately, and it entirely depends on the business your into.
As a tip, though, check out Steve Blank’s blog. It’s genuinely full of good advice on how to figure out the lead gen process that works for you. (Start with the older posts, and skim chronologically.) He also wrote a few business books (and attracted a following that did too) that capture the key ideas in his blog.
I think you need to understand and define mission statement properly for your business, try to evaluate how you will judge your own success. This will give you a better idea at what kind of clients you are indeed looking for.
This will also help you understand behaviour of these potential leads. There is a good chance that most of them don’t belong in the segment that is of value to you. If they were then you need to reconsider your sales and negotiation strategies.
I think you are referencing the sales funnel. Every sale your business will make follows a predictable progression of phases that, if completed, will lead to a sale. The sales funnel consists of seven steps:
Check out the page I linked to above for more information regarding how to perfect your sales funnel. Good luck!
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