Sales prospecting skills

How to improve your team’s sales prospecting skills

/en , /por

Even the most seasoned sales teams can benefit from brushing up on their sales prospecting skills. These top tips can help you get started!

sales prospecting skills

Without the right skills in place, sales prospecting in the relationship economy can take a lot of time, money and effort.

Two of the most important areas for improving your team’s sales prospecting skills are making sure they know how to prioritize their prospects and how to connect with prospects in the digital world.

Prioritizing Prospects

Knowing how to prioritize prospects can help ensure your team is spending their time where they’re most likely to see a return on their efforts.

Here are three ways for your sales team to prioritize their prospect list:

1. Prioritize reconnecting with existing or previous customers

If a customer is, or already has, engaged with your company, it’s far simpler to upsell or cross-sell them on a new offer than a cold prospect. They already know, like and trust you – so it’s easier for them to commit to working with you again.

With a customer relationship data platform, you can send a personalized message to the prospect that offers a next step and how you can help.

2. Prioritize businesses that meet the ideal client profile

Make sure your team takes into account characteristics like industry, job title, location and other factors to ensure they’re spending time on prospects that are likely to convert.

They can further prioritize based on prospects who match the characteristics of customers who tend to bring ongoing or repeat business.

3. Prioritize industries and businesses that are on the rise

A company that has received investment funding or is growing each quarter is more likely to work with you than the one taking losses or still in its early stages.

Invest in tools or software so your sales team can do their due diligence and prioritize prospects based on their growth. They can also compare past annual reports to see changes in revenue and general trends.

In addition to these three areas to focus on, sales reps should factor in global trends and events. Your sales reps should be sure to keep up with business news and trends to make sure they’re focusing on industries that are on the rise.

 

Up next: Give your sales team a winning advantage by boosting their relationship-building skills in the Relationship Economy.

Financiamientos recientes – Enero 2022

Financiamientos recientes – Enero de 2022

/en /por

Financiamientos recientes – Enero 2022

grow your goods-based business

3 questions to grow your goods-based business

/en , /por

If you’re looking to grow your goods-based business (or help your client grow theirs), start by asking these three questions.

grow your goods-based business

Image via Unsplash

Your product inventory levels can often be a good indicator of how well your business is doing, at least in some ways. For instance, if you’re having trouble moving your inventory, it typically shows that you need to adjust your operations. You may need to reduce the items you offer or organize your inventory more efficiently. 

Then again, if you don’t keep enough of the right inventory, you could be missing out on sales and market share. And even if you have the right products and enough inventory, if it isn’t tracked and organized, orders may be lost or delayed, which can affect your bottom line.

To grow your goods-based business — and keep it growing — nothing is more important than managing your inventory. To do that, start by asking yourself these three questions:

1. Are more workers needed?

When you’re having trouble tracking and organizing your inventory, it could be a sign that your staff is maxed out. Overburdening yourself or your workers rarely turns out to be a good thing. The solution? Start looking for qualified workers to add to your team so that your business can continue to grow. 

Another sign that you (or your client) might need more staff is when your business struggles to fulfill orders — that is, you can’t physically get orders out in a timely manner. Obviously, this isn’t going to be good for business either. In this scenario, you may need more employees right away, which can be difficult to accomplish within a short time frame when you rely on traditional staffing agencies or have limited working capital. If this situation sounds familiar, look to on-demand labour staffing companies to quickly find skilled workers and consider other ways to increase your cash flow.

2. Can new technology help?

Technology can make a big difference in certain areas of your business. For example, using smartphone apps like Inventory Now and Shyp can help you to track inventory more efficiently and provide a better delivery/return experience for your customers. 

Make sure you have enough staff scheduled by using an app like QuickBooks Time. This can take much of the grunt work off your hands so you can look forward to more accurate record-keeping, fully staffed operations and more productivity all around.

If you’ve decided to work with a marketing company to boost brand awareness, most likely they’ll point you toward social media. This is one of the best ways to increase interest and engage with your customers. It also gives you a way to offer a heads up when a favourite item is out of stock and when it will be back. When working with a marketing professional, you’ll want to share lots of information, such as photos, infographics, etc. To make short work of this, simply use a PDF file merger to ensure files are easier to share and send.

3. Do I have accurate stock levels?

Keeping the right amount of inventory is one of the greatest challenges of running a goods-based business. The first step is to stay on top of the supply-and-demand trends in your industry. Always look at which items are selling to give you an idea of where the market stands. Anytime you order new or additional items, make sure the reward outweighs the risk. 

Many companies find it beneficial to calculate how much inventory they should carry by using the inventory turnover ratio. In short, this formula can show you the rate at which you’re selling out of stock and reveal the strength of your sales. Moreover, whether the ratio is low or high can tell you whether you have too much or too little inventory.

Funding your inventory management strategy

Managing your inventory is critical when it comes to growing your goods-based business — and you may require more working capital than you currently have available. Once you’ve identified the areas of your inventory management strategy that need updating, you’ll need to determine how to fund the necessary changes. 

That’s where Liquid Capital can help! With our alternative funding solutions, such as invoice factoring or purchase order financing, we help business owners unlock working capital to support their business growth plans.

To learn more about our alternative funding solutions that help power business growth, contact your Liquid Capital Principal.

sales prospecting process

Increase your cash flow with an updated sales prospecting process

/en , /por

If you’re trying to increase your business’s cash flow, start by reviewing your sales prospecting process.

sales prospecting process

Prospecting, relationships, business growth and cash flow are all closely connected in the relationship economy. 

It’s common knowledge that having meaningful customer relationships can support business growth by generating consistent sales and cultivating loyal customers. In turn, this can create positive cash flow for your business.

Prospecting can also impact your cash flow. If your team has a system to consistently bring qualified prospects into your sales pipeline, you can expect to reliably bring in new customers, which will increase your cash flow. However, if your prospecting process is outdated, you may see your cash flow suffer.

Redefine your ideal prospect for the relationship economy

The first step for finding qualified prospects is defining who they are. This ensures that you and your sales representatives know what you’re looking for in a potential client. By developing a clear set of criteria, you can help your sales reps streamline their efforts and focus their time on prospects who are likely to convert.

Generally speaking, an ideal prospect is someone who sees value in your offer, has the budget to pay, and stands to benefit from the results your business can confidently deliver. 

If you haven’t reviewed your ideal prospect criteria since the pandemic, now is the time to do so. As the relationship economy becomes more prevalent than ever, you may find that who your ideal prospect is and how they want to be sold to has changed.

Begin by examining your historical customer data and consider these questions:

  • Which business or industry has the highest conversion rate? 
  • Which customers have the shortest sales cycles?
  • What are some common attributes ideal customers share? (This may include things like their industry, job title, location, etc.)
  • Which customers have the highest lifetime order value?

By analyzing this data, you’ll gain a clear profile of your ideal prospect’s priorities, buying habits and patterns. You’ll also learn how (or if) the pandemic has changed them.

update your sales process

Update your sales pitch and marketing materials

The next step is to review and update your sales pitch and marketing materials. In today’s relationship economy, buyers are savvier than ever before — and they are demanding a more personal and relationship-driven sales approach.

The pandemic has also increased the demand for virtual meetings, sales videos and easily accessible digital marketing materials.

Every business needs to consider how they can cultivate meaningful relationships with their customers. Customers who enjoy their experience and feel valued will become repeat patrons and help create steady cash flow for your company by telling others about their great experience.

Prospecting and selling need to go beyond a transactional focus. It is now about creating a true feeling of connection in the sales cycle, being responsive and following through when it matters. Though this shift can create a longer sales cycle, by focusing on these pillars you can strengthen bonds and, ultimately, improve your prospecting results.

Don’t let your working capital hold you back

It’s critical that your working capital can support how your prospects want to be sold to, and what your customers expect of ongoing service levels. For example, in today’s economy, offering flexible payment terms can go a long way in establishing a more personalized experience for each customer, or you may need to fund a new digital sales strategy to help support your updated sales prospecting process.

In the case of Ray Bowman, owner of tree clearing company Rayzor Edge Tree Service and a client of Liquid Capital, he discovered that he needed to balance his corporate client’s needs for longer invoice payment terms with his need to consistently pay his contractors. This led him to seek funding beyond traditional bank loans.

By working with Liquid Capital, Bowman leveraged invoice factoring to help strengthen his relationships with his subcontractors, meet his corporate clients’ needs and have the cash flow to support his working capital needs.

Create repeat business

In the relationship economy, every business needs to consider how they can cultivate meaningful relationships with their customers.

Customers who enjoy their experience and feel valued will become repeat patrons and help create steady cash flow. And it all begins with making sure your sales team is doubling down on creating long-term relationships with customers from the moment they become a prospect.

Up next: How to improve your team’s sales prospecting skills