Not meeting your sales quotas? The top-of-funnel meetings are critical to filling your pipeline with fresh leads that will help hit sales goals. Getting the initial meetings is not easy considering it can take up to 20 touches just to book that first call.
Looking for more ways to get a sales meeting? Build a better strategy to book more meetings and keep your team busy working through a full pipeline of fresh leads to close more deals and surpass current performance levels with these five strategies.
#1 – Outsource appointment setting
Managing the bulk of initial cold calls and outreach to set appointments is a drag. It’s also where the pipeline falls short for many sales teams because call hesitancy and time availability limit outreach for appointment setting.
Outsourcing appointment setting through a dedicated BDR frees up your team to focus on nurturing existing customer relationships and closing more deals. It ensures a steady stream of leads are entering the system, eliminating the ups and downs that often plague sales processes.
At Peer, we develop sales leads for our partners with dedicated business development representatives. Delivering warm leads to the expert sales folks is increasing sales and keeping our partners busy with new clients. It’s a win-win in terms of productivity and cost-effectiveness for many organizations.
#2 – Align sales and marketing departments
Sales and marketing departments shouldn’t operate in silos. The marketing teams can build top-of-funnel assets like sales slicks and content that encourages new prospects to schedule meetings.
Assets that can empower sales teams include:
- Sales slicks
- Educational articles and blog posts
- Powerful case studies and testimonials
- Featured eBooks
- Quick reads like how-to guides
Sales representatives are more powerful and convincing when armed with high-quality, relevant content to share. It builds authority across the brand while developing trust and respect from new leads.
Bring your sales and marketing teams together or outsource one (or both) with a partner like Peer. When everyone works together towards a common goal, it lifts the entire company.
#3 – Scripts + playbooks
Is your sales team “winging it” when it comes to calls and follow-ups? There is no replacement for dedicated processes. Implementing proven scripts and playbooks builds consistency and repeatable action across the board.
Stop guessing and invest the time to assess your best-performing lines and strategies. Bring everything together with clear documentation and processes that determine:
- Dialogue through dedicated scripts
- Formulas and responses to handle common objections
- A playbook for calls, emails, follow-ups, and close strategies
- Defined processes for smooth transitions and better customer experiences
Having this information organized will not only empower the existing sales reps but also reduces onboarding time for new reps. If you really want to sell more and scale quickly, scripts and playbooks are integral for success.
#4 – Use your CRM religiously
Mandate that everyone uses the CRM to document and track every touchpoint. CRMs are critical for organizing information and keeping everyone on task. Tracking ensures every rep has a clear view of the prospect and their position in the sales funnel.
The CRM also offers a centralized location to house research and information for each prospect. In longer sales cycles, containing this information and making it accessible will increase close rates. Without a CRM, sales reps will cross wires, double call, send emails out of context, and drop the ball on prospects that should have converted.
It’s estimated that 73% of millennials will be taking part in the B2B sales processes in 2022. Millennials place a high value on personal connections and using a CRM for consistent follow-ups and information flow will help the conversations stay on track. (UserGuiding).
#5 – Implement great management practices
Great sales teams are the product of effective leadership and management practices. Take a look at these 5 Things Every Sales Leader Should Know to up your game and develop more effective teams.
It’s critical to implement sales goals, and more importantly, build a roadmap to achieve them. In 1-1 meetings with your sales team members, tackle these simple but productive key points:
- Review goals with sales teams
- Layout a specific plan of HOW to reach goals
- Track and review recent activity
- Analyze what works and what is failing
The analysis is especially important because it helps you and your team evolve. Stop investing time in the things that don’t work and shift your focus to creative solutions and the things that are working. You can find creative ways to get a sales meeting and be generally more productive this way. It’s simple but making those small changes won’t happen without an open line of communication during review sessions.
Lastly, invest in training and give your team the tools and resources they need for success. When they are empowered with resources, content assets, and tools, their confidence levels rise and they can close more deals.
Need help?
At Peer Sales Agency, we deliver outsourced sales and marketing support. Access and leverage the resources of an entire marketing and sales department to scale and grow your business. It’s a low-risk, high-reward relationship that our partners love. Get in touch with the Peer team today.
