Episode 2: The Sales Process: Lead Generation

Hi everyone, I'm Ben Wright, successful entrepreneur, corporate leader and expert sales coach to some of the most talented people our amazing planet has to offer. You're listening to the Stronger Sales Team podcast where we bring together and simplify the complex world of B2B sales management. And to help the millions of sales managers worldwide build, motivate and keep together highly effective sales teams. Teams who grow revenue and make their businesses actual profits along the journey. We also provide great insights and actionable steps to managing your personal health. A happy and productive year is not only better for your teams, but everyone around you. So if you're an ambitious sales leader who wants to build the highest performing and engaged teams, stronger sales teams is right where you need to be. Welcome back to Stronger Sales Teams. What a perfect day it is to be talking about lead generation. Beautiful blue sky, sun is shining. Or at least where I am today anyway. And I know there are thousands of salespeople out there doing their finest work with customers. For those wanting to catch up, the last episode was all about how to define a memorable, simple sales process that we know that our sales teams will not only sign up to, but they'll repeatably implement. We had five steps, we kept it really simple and we used a baseball analogy just to help everyone memorize exactly what we're talking about. So we've stepped up to home plate. Part one of our sales process, Getting to first base is lead generation. Part two, the meet and greet and needs analysis. Building a great first impression is critical, but as is finding the value that we can offer to our customers or the pain or problem that we need to solve. Out to third pace, the quote or the presentation. Often where we'll engage help from the rest of our team. But the point where we actually get to start to confirm with our customers in great detail what we're going to be offering them. Home base, closing the deal, the thrill of the win and then into the post game or post sale. Key account management, the fifth and final step of the sale process. For those of you who haven't had time to listen to episode one, jump back. It's earlier in the year and probably the most important one for you to listen to because these next four episodes really build from it. It'll be worth your time, I promise. Okay, so today we're going to talk about the first stage of the sales process, lead generation. We're going to keep using the baseball analogy. It's nice and simple and I hope will really help you to be able to talk to your teams in a fashion that some people will resonate with better. So we've stepped up the home plate, we're kitted out now in our uniform. It's probably clean and we're ready to go. We're ready to hit a home run on lead generation. Now, the types of lead generation I'm talking about are not the marketing team driven, warm leads that salespeople love to receive. Hey, they're fantastic. But we can't always be relying on our sales or our marketing teams, I should say, to actually deliver these leads. The most successful salespeople that I've worked in my career and those salespeople that I've seen build consistently high performing results or territories are those who know how to hunt themselves as sales leaders. That isn't always easy to manage because salespeople inherently will take the path of least resistance. And that doesn't always mean they're following, building their own lead generation program. That said, today it's all about sharing some ideas about how we can manage the mindset of our team to do this effectively. Okay, so I'm going to introduce a model today. It's a very simple, tried and tested, retested, pressure tested, Covid tested if you like, metric that's worked true for every business operation. Worked with over my 20. What are we up to? 22 year sale career. It's really intelligently named the three box model. Yep. I haven't been able to think of anything better yet. Hey, please DM me if you think you've got a better name for this model. I'd love to hear it. And more than happy to give someone an hour's coaching in return if they can think of something. But right now, unless you're driving or running on a treadmill really fast, I want you to sit back and close your eyes and picture three boxes in your mind. On the left we have our first red colored box in big writing. In the middle of that box we have the words customer visits. So essentially the number of people that our teams are meeting with who want to talk about what we have to offer, they're qualified customer visits for people that actually want to hear about what we have to do. Box two in the middle, it's yellow and it has the word quotes written in it. That can be value quotes or unit quotes, but is the size of our active pipeline. So box one, red box on the left, number of people we're meeting with. Generally most businesses that I work with will do this monthly. Box 2 in yellow quotes. And that's the active pipeline in units or Value. And box three in green has closed business. So that's the value of the business we've won. Again, most businesses will work off that monthly. So on the left again we have red number of people who are actively interested in our product or our services that our teams have met, generally per person per month. Box in the middle in yellow says number of quotes in units or value. That's our total active pipeline. And box three on the right is business one, generally in dollars, and that's generally going to be for a month. This is a model that I have used with my teams as a basic metric for 20 years. I love the simplicity of it, but more importantly, I love how using those three metrics we can dive really deeply into so much about the process that our teams are following and how they're performing. There'll be more of this in the how to Build a Sales Process freebie that I've got coming out shortly. I think I've mentioned before, but again, please DM me the words sales process and I'll make sure you're on that list for when it comes out. But I'm also going to talk a little bit more about the three box model in episode 10, which is coming up very shortly. So why have I introduced that model now? Well, today I want to talk about lead generation, which is essentially that red box, the base one of our baseball analogy from our sales process that is generating leads for us to be able to build relationships with, create some value, solve some problems and in the end bring in business for our company. So the red box customer visits how many customer, how many people, how many times are we getting in front of the right audiences each month to make sure that we can then add some value. I haven't met many sales managers who don't subscribe to the mentality that the more people you see or the more rubber you can wear off your shoes or these days, the more data bandwidth you can consume in video calls, the more deals you'll close. So how do we get a sales team to focus on the red box on the customer visits? Okay, it's very easy to get them to focus on marketing generated leads or repeat business that's inbound to them. How do we get them to focus on generating their own leads, on learning how to hunt? Today we're going to go through eight options that you can use to try and help get your team aligned as leaders of your sales team or your business to be able to roll your teams into lead generation. Okay, the first one, nice and simple. We have to set and agree our target markets and our target lead generation for the sales team. So I'd be open, we're going to generate 100 leads per BDM for this month. 50 of those leads are gonna be marketing generated and 50 of those leads are gonna be sales team generated. Right. The important part is that we have the sales team buy into that target. If we've got a team saying, hey, we're not gonna be able to hit that number, then we probably need to revisit and look at different ways that we can generate leads. For me, the most part is that number. Generally across a team, you generally tend to reach a consensus without too much angst because a high performing team recognises that a good blend of lead generation is critical for their performance. So step one, build and agree on target markets and targets. Step two, build a culture where networking is the norm. So that's all about training sessions where the team are perfecting their pitch. Right. Where sales leaders are spending time with their teams, working on that elevator pitch, or working on how they're going to be meeting people, when they're going to be meeting people, or the amount of time that they allocate to lead generation. The more we are embedding through our system symbols and norms that our culture is one of networking and building sales leads, the more the team will follow. So first two steps, really simple and well within a sales leaders control. Third step, regular brainstorming sessions where the teams plan their networking activities. So this is both brainstorming sessions and also time that they're going to allocate in their calendar. So how are they going to generate those leads? Emails, Blah. For me, so difficult to cut through on an email given the sheer volume that people receive these days. Certainly can be used in combination with other methods. But for me, the teams that are really succeeding are using social media. Little bit warmer. LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, all of those really readily available social media platforms. They're leveraging their network, including referrals, including past customers. They're leveraging the network such as family, their friends, colleagues, people they meet when they're out during the day, at their child's swimming lessons, at sporting events, when they're out for any of their own social activities, they are always looking at how they can leverage their network. Now, I mentioned social media earlier, but LinkedIn is a super powerful tool, particularly when you look to get some of the LinkedIn premium options like Navigator, as a business or as a team, I'd really encourage you to look in how you can use some of the tools that LinkedIn have to offer because they can be super powerful. Geo mapping, this is one of my favourites. Depending on what industry or area you're in, actually using someone such as a virtual resource to look at geographic areas that might have customers. So if you're in an industry where you want to see roof spacing or land size, geo mapping is perfect. Industry or segment mapping. So using a resource, often a virtual resource, to be out there mapping all of your targets that might be in the medical industry or in the legal industry. Certainly you can buy lists and that's easy to do, but my experience says having someone specifically focused on mapping geographies, industries or segments through Google, through online tools, through any directories that you can get your hands on, far more powerful because you tend to find a lot more up to date information than lists will provide. Industry bodies Industry bodies are terrific for lead generation. If you're wanting to get into the produce industry, look up the Lettuce Growers Association. If you're wanting to get into the accounting profession, look up the qualifications for the area that you live in and see if you can get access to any of those databases. Look at sponsoring industry bodies, looking at having partnerships with them, even lead referral programs. In my experience, once a salesperson can get involved with an industry body, it can be a really rich source of lead generation for trade shows. Been around for years, but still very effective in some areas. School and spawning events. I mentioned it a little bit before, but for me, those salespeople that are able to leverage their local and professional networks have certainly far greater success in generating leads because it can be omnipresent in everything that they do. Targeted versus specific lead generation. You can look at focusing on, for example, the accounting segment. You can look at blasting programs out through a complete account. Accounting profession certainly if we're talking about a salesperson generating their own individual leads, they might be signing up to the relevant accounting or the accounting profession or certification body in their area. Perhaps also though, they can look at really targeted lead generation and that can be anything from door knocking to very targeted calling, to working with people that they already know in the accounting industry. Their accountant, the business's accountant, their friend's accountant, their colleague's accountant, and asking if they can introduce them to other accountants that they know. For me though, the underlying tone to all of this is that salespeople who have a nailed or perfect indirect pitch are those that know how to generate leads the most effectively. So what do I mean by an indirect pitch? This is a pitch when you're out at a family barbecue or when you're at the supermarket, any type of event where it's likely to come up what you do. Yeah, okay. I haven't seen too many people at a supermarket ask you what you do. But certainly when you're at a supermarket and you bump into people, you know, being able to nail your pitch in a sentence is infinitely valuable. So for me, I'm out at a supermarket and I bump into someone that I know. Hey Ben, what are you up to these days? I'll have a one liner that goes something like, I work with high performing sales leaders to build superpowers in their sales teams. That's it. So the result of that pitch is a little bit of curiosity. Very clear on what I do. I work with sales leaders to, to help build their sales teams, but it opens up a conversation without the person on the other side feeling like you're perhaps pitching. Of course that's not gonna work all the time. But those salespeople who understand that lead generation is omnipresent in everything they do, for me are by far the most effective. Okay, so number one was setting and agreeing target markets. Number two, we spoke about building a culture where networking is the norm. Number three was brainstorming types of networking activities we can do. I went through a list of about 10 there that can help you. Number four is data collection. So once you've generated that lead or once you've decided where you're going to be targeting who and how is collecting that data, Is it done by a virtual team? Is it done by an in house team? Is it done through automation? All of these members often being parts of your sales team or is it solely on the salesperson's shoulder? And what I mean here is that effective salesperson lead generation can actually involve more than just a salesperson. The businesses that I've seen do this really well will have a virtual resource where they will provide support to all of the salespeople based on a targeted area. So your salesperson one might pick the timber industry as one they'd like to be targeting and specific types of businesses. The virtual resource will then go and generate a database for them for the sales team to then send communications, try and find direct networks or leads into senior manager of those teams. Right. So it doesn't have to all be on the salesperson's shoulders themselves. They can certainly get a little bit of help, but it's up to them to be driving and managing that lead generation. Number five, qualification. This is really worth the time so for salespeople, they've generated leads, it's all about qualifying and learning about who that potential customer is. So part one, qualifying, are they a customer that's going to be worthwhile for you? If they're a timber producer, are they a timber producer that is actually going to benefit from the type of services that you produce? I love the saying, people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. Because that's really the second part of qualification and that's learning a little bit about a business before you're calling them. It goes a hell of a long way just to know something small about that timber yard. Just to know that sustainability is a key part of what they do. Just to know there's a particular type of wood that they farm or that they produce. Super important and can go a long way. Number six, internal allocation. So that's setting up a program to ensure that the lead generation that the time salespeople receive from internal support, that the number of programs that they're allocated to work with. So if the business is setting up lead generation through industry bodies, how it's allocated, whether it be by merit or random, this is really important because it motivates salespeople based on either fairness or on merit, a performance methodology to get out there and generate leads. But more importantly, it stops infighting amongst a team, which for me is the killer of all proactive lead generation. Number seven, KPIs on contact. So once salespeople are generating leads as a team, we need to be really, really clear on how long and how we're going to be contacting our customers. There is nothing worse than doing the hard work to generate a lead and not following it up. And as leaders, our job is to make sure that our salespeople don't lose track of the program once they've generated that lead. Last but not least, I've mentioned it a few times. How can you make self lead generation omnipresent in everything a team does? So for me, this is where an elite sales manager shines. Salesperson lead generation is baked into one to ones training programs, system symbols and norms across the business, and even the rules of engagement that your team might build together. Spoiler alert. Moving forward, I'll definitely be doing some work around system symbols and norms and rules of engagement. And I'll make sure the podcasts are titled exactly around that. Okay, so there's eight things that we can help as leaders for our teams to be able to really focus on generating their own leads, setting and agreeing target markets and targets so that we hold ourselves accountable. Building a culture where networking is the norm, including perfecting that elevator pitch, setting up brainstorming sessions and time across the week where we are planning on how we're going to network. And I went through about 10 of those. Data collection. Who's collecting the data and how are they collecting it? Are we giving the sales team any support to be able to generate their own database qualification? Really worth the time and a little bit of research on a business. People don't care how much you know until they really know how much you care. Internal allocation. So that's setting up a program that makes sure we're clear about our programs that really rely on salespeople generating leads. So industry bodies, networking events, those types of things are allocated fairly. Number seven, salesperson contact. So these are KPIs that help remind salespeople they've got more work to do once the lead's generated. And lastly, finding ways to ensure that lead generation is omnipresent in everything the team does. Okay, so there you have it, folks. We have stepped up to home plate. We've connected with a fastball and are on our way to first base, which is lead generation. For those who want to dive a little bit deeper, I'll have a free how to guide for not only creating a sales process that sales teams will actually follow, but also more details on each of the steps involved shortly. So again, DM me sales process and I'll put you on the mailing list when that comes out. Next up, we're going to be talking about getting from first to second base. The meet and greet and needs analysis. Super important part of the sales process because it's where we make not only our first impressions, but we actually determine what value we can add or pain or problem we can solve. We'll then continue to go through the remaining steps of the sales process over the coming weeks. But before we go, a little health and fitness tip. So this week, Yes, I am 40 and I learned it firsthand when I popped a couple of ribs out at the gym mid bicep curl and I felt the pop times two and then unfortunately ended up on the deck pretty quickly. I was talking to my osteopath. He's a weapon of an osteopath and I'm hopeful that we'll be able to get him onto the show sometime in the future. I was talking to him about, hey, how do I avoid this happening? And in this month's theme around finding ways that we can burn A little more calories during the day. It actually fitted in perfectly, he said to me, and he was very clear. The mother of all evil for so many of us is sitting down. We need to find ways to sit down as little as possible. Unfortunately, it's inevitable, particularly being in front of a computer and customer meetings. But if we can manage that load to be sitting down less during the day, the result is we will have a far healthier body. So some of the tips he gave to me, Paul was his name. Some of the tips Paul gave to me are standing desks. We all know they're around. Some of us like them. Some of us haven't ventured down that path yet. I'm certainly one that hasn't, but I'll be looking at that in the future. What it does is it allows us to create a little bit of instability in our core by standing up, which ensures that it's switching on standing meetings again. We've all heard of those. Not sure how many of us practice them out there, but whenever we can roll a standing meeting or a walking meeting in super beneficial to our physical health. Phone calls. I love Getting on my AirPods and pacing part of today's podcast. I have been standing up and making sure I'm moving side to side just to help me avoid having to sit down for the entire podcast. Things like Swiss balls, things like chairs that we can sit on that don't necessarily have a back, so they help with our posture. Some of the chiropractors out there may not love me for saying that, but for me it's all about how do you burn more calories during the day and reduce your time sitting down, so anything you can do to reduce it here will have exponential benefits. I'm all about making sure you are your best self so that you can lead your teams as effectively as possible. But get creative and and for me, repetition is the mother of all success here. So start on it today. Okay, thanks for listening. Be really grateful if you can share the podcast with anyone you know who might like it. And I'd be super, super grateful if you left me a review or rated my podcast. I read everything that comes in and I'm working really hard to get some great content out for you, so a little bit of positive motivation definitely helps me along too. Until next time, keep living in a world of possibility and you'll be amazed by what you can. Achie want to be kept up to date with any of our free materials to help you build the best sales teams possible? Well, the easiest way you can do so is to follow us on your favorite social media channel. We're ongerngersalesteams on most of them, and if you DM us stronger, we'll send you right back some great resources to help you build your super powered sales team. If you'd like a little more help, please get in touch directly and book a free discount discovery call with me. I run a limited number of these sessions and they're free for my podcast listeners. I'd love to help you out. Until then, see you next week for another podcast of stronger sales team.